210 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
a type-metal cast is made — a stereotype in fact, which may be 
employed in producing impressions in the usual manner. 
The extreme delicacy and precision of the new process are 
among its highest merits. The faintest lines are brought out 
with wonderful distinctness. “The impression of the thumb, 
wetted with the graphotype ink, can be made to give beautiful 
impressions in the ordinary printing press, whilst the finest 
hair-line that the artist can make will stand equally well with 
the bolder work. - ” Accuracy and rapidity of production are 
the two great qualities of the graphotype, and by them it 
appeals in the strongest manner to the artist and the savant. 
The sketch which is made in the morning may be multiplied 
by thousands before evening, for the type-metal cast may be 
obtained within three hours after the completion of the drawing. 
For the illustration of the weekly newspapers, the graphotype 
will be especially valuable, since it combines speed with cer- 
tainty. Take a supposititious case : — An illustrated paper goes 
to “ press 39 on Thursday, and the telegrams on Wednesday 
night announce a terrific explosion, let us say at “ Nine Elms.” 
Under the present system of engraving, no representation of 
“ the scene of the disaster ” could be produced till the follow- 
ing week. By means of the graphotype, the sensation-loving 
public may be gratified on the succeeding Saturday. A special 
artist, provided with graphotypie plates, is sent down to the 
spot, he makes a sketch in a couple of hours, in three more it 
is converted into a block for printing, and by the time the 
paper goes to press, everything is ready for the production of 
thousands of copies of the original drawing. 
There is no a 'priori argument so powerful as a demonstra- 
tion, and we therefore beg to refer our readers to the plate 
illustrating the article on Raised Beaches, which has been 
executed by the graphotype, and which we think speaks 
volumes for the accuracy and artistic elegance of the new 
process. The sketches have been made bv Mr. Archibald 
Geikie, F.R.S., and Mr. Hull, the author of the paper, and 
have been drawn upon the prepared chalk by Mr. S. J. Mackie, 
a gentleman whose excellence as an artist is only surpassed by 
his eminence as a geologist.* As we have said already, we 
think the graphotype is a most valuable invention, and one 
which seems not unlikely to supersede wood-engraving to a 
considerable extent ; it is cheap, accurate, and rapidly worked, 
and while easier of production than the ordinary block, it 
possesses all its advantages. 
* Mr. Mackie laboured under the difficulty of being obliged to employ 
a pencil of sable-hair, but the result he has produced only shows the ease 
with which even those artists unused to the process may prepare their own 
‘‘ blocks.” 
