142 Account ^Messrs Perkins and Co's Inventicmfcyr 
rest. It may also be applied to produce highly finished engi’a- 
rings for all standard books ; and as a means of improving the 
taste of the rising generation, school-books may be embellished 
with the best specimens of art, in place of the more humble 
wood cuts that now adorn them. 
Engravings of greater size than can be transferred, are exe- 
cuted upon steel-plates, which, when hardened, will print 200,000 
perfect impressions. 
One of the great advantages of this admirable invention, is the 
means which it affords of preventing the forgery of bank-notes. 
In order to ascertain its utility in this respect, a number of emi- 
nent engineers, artists, and men of science, have, at the request 
of Messrs Perkins, Fairman and Heath, entered into a minute 
investigation of the principles on which their plan is founded ^ 
and have carefully examined the machinery and apparatus by 
which it is carried into effect. The result of this inquiry has been 
the most ample conviction of its pre-eminent utility in counter- 
acting the increasing crime of forgery ; and the reasons upon 
which this opinion is founded are given in a report, to which we 
observe the signatures of Mr Brunei, Mr Maudslay, Mr Don- 
kin, Mr Bramah, Mr G. Bennie, and other eminent individuals. 
The impossibility of forging Bank Notes engraved by the me- 
thod above described, will be readily acknowledged by any per- 
son who examines narrowly the accompanying Plate. 
Description Plate VII *. 
This Plate contains fifteen figures, which we may conceive 
numbered from 1 to 15, as they stand on the Plate. 
Fig. 1. and 2. are the same subject repeated, for the purpose of 
shewing that they are not copies of each other, but fac simi- 
les taken by a reverse impression made upon the copper from 
the same steel cylinder. 
Fig. S. is a very delicate line engraving, we believe, by Heath. 
Fig. 4. and 6. The rectilineal border round Fig. 3. ; and the 
whole of Figs. 4. and 6. are scroll or engine work, done by 
a peculiarly constructed machine. It will be seen from 
Fig. 4. that in the alternate coils, the lines which are black in 
the one are white in the other, an effect similar to copper- 
plate and letter-press printing united. 
* The nu;-nher of this Tlate, from particular causes, is not engraved upon it. 
