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GRAPHOTYPE. 
HE graphotype invented by M. De Witt Clintsa 
Hitchcock, one of the most able engravers of New 
York, has produced impressions from drawings by means 
of the typographic press. 
This is the process:—Commence by preparing an arti- 
ficial block of chalk, prepared of the finest chalk, by re- 
_ ducing it to a fine powder, and mixing with water to the 
consistence of cream, separating the parts that precipitate, 
repeating that operation several times, in fact, prepare it as 
washed chalk, passing it through a sieve and afterwards 
through a metallic cloth of 1,600 to 1,700-th part of a 
square centimetre; press it very regularly upon a surface 
of a zinc plate, perfectly smooth and dressed. Upon this 
zinc plate charged with chalk is another plate placed, 
finely polished, and then the whole is submitted to the 
action of an hydraulic press. The press is then withdrawn 
and the plate removed. The chalk is then found firmly 
attached to the zinc, presenting a dense and superior sur- 
face, that requires nothing further than to be undone and 
made ready for the ink which is used for drawing on it 
by the artist, as on wood, that is to say, it is commenced 
by a red pencil the principal outlines, and then by the aid 
of a fine pencil of different sizes, line by line is traced. 
The ink which is used is a mixture of gelatine and lamp- 
black, which dry instantly, in such a manner that the series 
of lines, whatever they may be, may be crossed immedi- 
ately by others. The drawing being finished, the portions 
of chalk interspersed between the lines of the drawing 
are withdrawn or taken up, to the depth of about 3 milli- 
metres, or as near as possible, by means of a brush or 
pencil of hair, and others of velvet or silk, and the chalk 
plank is then softened by plunging it in a solution of a 
silicate alcaline. 
A print is then taken from that block for typoaae 
type in the ordinary manner. ‘This process is so delicate, 
that the artist is able to make the finest lines, and an im- 
pression may be easily taken in three hours after the - 
drawing is made on the. chalk; in a manner this new 
process has an immense advantage over that of wood, not 
only as regards price, but as regards time which runs 
between the termination of the drawing and the repro- 
duction by the press. Besides, this new rapid process and 
economical method give the same advantages to the artist. 
