A PRACTICAL JOURNAL OF 
HOME ARTS. 
Vol. in. NEW YOEK, NOVEMBER, 1880. No. 11. 
almost unkown. In fact it is only within 
the past twenty years that it has revived 
as an independent study. 
At the present time we find, both in 
Europe and America, the Mching Club 
in place of the Sketching Club. 
To etch, means to bite or eat, from the 
Dutch word etsen; so that those lines 
only that are eaten away or bitten out by 
acid from the plate are etched. 
Many suppose that etching on copper 
is an easy matter, because the picture is 
drawn with a needle instead of being cut 
with a burin ; while truly, as Mr. Ham- 
merton says, it is exceedingly difficult. 
This difficulty arises from two causes ; 
first, the etcher does not see his work pro- 
perly as he proceeds; and second, mis- 
takes or misfortunes in the biting, which 
are of frequent occurrence to the inex- 
perienced, may destroy all the relations 
of tone. Besides, it is an expensive 
pleasure. Plates and press cost more 
than most of the readers of the YouNa 
Scientist would care to invest ; so I wish 
to lay before them a process by which 
they can more easily, and 3vith less ex- 
pense, duplicate their sketches than by 
copper-plate work. It is not etching, pro- 
perly so called, but simply drawing with 
Collodio-Etching. 
BY BENJAMIN HARTLEY. 
E may not be able 
to find anything 
altogether new 
in this age oi{ 
progress, but we 
do see every- 
where the revi- 
val and improve- 
ment of many 
old things. An- 
cient methods 
and materials 
are being redis- 
covered in every branch of science, art 
and mechanics. 
In the midst of these revivals we find 
copper-plate etching taking quite a prom- 
inent place; and more than one maga- 
zine is devoting itself to the advancement 
of this old branch of art. Four hundred 
years ago etching was studied and used 
by the best painters, but during the last 
century and early part of the present one, 
this art, as distinct from engraving, was 
