CHAPTER V. THE NEW HOME PRINTING PROCESS.

There is a method of making reproductions from photographs without any photographing process further than that required to supply the print. Any good photograph with a matt surface may be traced over with the ink supplied for the purpose by the inventor of the process, or with the ordinary lithographic autographic ink, which comes in sticks like India-ink, and then the superfluous portions faded away (or not) as directed on a preceding page. From that or from a crayon sketch, music, a written letter, plans, or circulars, in fact, from anything written with the proper ink with a pen or printed, reproductions may be made. The principal appliances needed are the “Universal Copying Machine” and its accessories.

Fig. 23.

Where the results desired need not be of as high a grade as those made by the Col­lo­type pro­ces­ses, or where there is not time to make a zinc etching, this meth­od will serve a good pur­pose and pro­duce sat­is­fac­tory re­sults. The zinc plates used for etch­ing will serve to hold the trans­fers. The meth­ods for clean­ing the plates, already given, will serve here also. The ma­chine should be se­cure­ly fas­tened to a table and the bearings must be kept well oiled.

Write, draw, or trace the original with a steel pen and the ink, on well calendered paper, not too thick. For drawing, a fine pen is the best. Then lay it, written side up, in a shallow dish, cover the paper with the transfer solution, leave it from four to five minutes. If the writing is several days old, leave it longer—about ten minutes. Lay it between blotting paper and dry gently by rubbing with the hand or a cloth. Then lay it, written side down, upon the polished plate, pass it from four to six times under the iron roller, having first placed a pasteboard over it. To prevent slipping, it is well to cover the original with a sheet of blotting paper before putting the pasteboard {179} over it. If you are not sure your press is screwed up evenly, run the plate through two or three times, then turn it end for end and pass it through as many times the other way.

Place upon the small distributing roller as much printer’s ink as will go upon the point of a knife, then holding the handle with the left hand, press it upon the inking roller, and turn the crank, moving the distributing roller from side to side, until the ink is evenly distributed.

See that the rollers are an equal distance apart at each end, so as to print evenly. The original is now carefully removed.

After washing the plate gently with a sponge and water and drying it, also gently, with a clean cloth, rub the whole printed or written side of the plate, by means of a cloth or sponge, with mixture No. 1, not pouring the mixture directly upon the writing, but upon an unprinted place upon the surface and rubbing over the whole plate. Wash off immediately with sponge and water, and dry gently; then pour about twenty drops of No. 2 upon the plate, not directly upon the print, and rub over the whole surface, so that there is a thin coating of it over the whole surface. This prevents the ink from sticking to the part of the plate not covered with writing or print. If there is too much, the paper of the copies will be yellow, and the negative may be injured.

Now lay the plate upon the pasteboard and pass it under the inking roller (the pressure does not need to be strong); it falls before the iron roller; place a sheet of clean paper upon the negative, lay a pasteboard over it, and pass it under the roller. For the first impression it is well to pass it under several times, until the negative comes out clearly and distinctly. From time to time, after every ten or twelve impressions, apply No. 2; if the paper used for printing is very coarse or porous, it may be necessary to apply No. 2 oftener.

As soon as the impressions become faint, apply a little more ink in the manner described. After applying fresh ink, apply No. 2. Only when too much ink is put on or unevenly distributed, or when the plate is not covered with the thin coating of No. 2, or not properly cleaned, can the negative or plate become soiled. If this should happen from any of these causes, remove the spots carefully by means of a cloth wet with preparation No. 2.

If the ink hardens on the rollers remove it with lye or washing soda.

If you wish to interrupt the work, the plate must be washed with a wet sponge, to remove the preparation, and then dried with a cloth. On using again, apply No. 2, as before. If the plate has not been used for several days, apply both No. 1 and No. 2. Do not use woollen cloths.

The mixtures No. 1 and No. 2 are supplied with the press. {180}

Thus it will be seen that photographs may be reproduced by many processes and in quantities to accommodate all sorts of demands. As an averment of what the future holds, our book is brought to a close by the following quotation from a recent issue of a daily newspaper:

“Some time ago the Evening Post gave an account of a new process by which books were being reproduced in this country directly from photographic plates, and it was said that the field for such business would probably grow in proportion to the ease and certainty with which this kind of work could be done. Under this process the most important work issued so far has been seventeen volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica, this production being sold at half the price asked for an American reprint already in the market, and at one-third of the price of the imported book. In order to make this reproduction, the sheets of the English volume are carefully photographed, and the glass negative placed over a thick sheet of specially prepared gelatine and exposed to the sun. Wherever the dark film upon the glass negative prevents the light from reaching the surface of the gelatine, this substance remains insoluble in water. Wherever the light penetrates, the gelatine undergoes a chemical change which makes it soluble. After an exposure to the sun or electric light for some minutes, the gelatine sheet is washed with water and the result is a plate in relief, every black line upon the glass negative being in high relief, and everything else washing away under the sponge.

“Until the last few years, it had been very difficult to get this relief sufficient to print from, but by improvements in the process effected by a number of different inventors, this result has been obtained. The gelatine sheet having been hardened, an electrotype is made from it which is put into the printing press. Owing to chance, the gelatine sheet itself was used one day for printing from directly, and it was found that a larger number of good copies could be made from the gelatine direct than from the hardest electrotype. The only drawback to the use of the gelatine plate itself in the printing press is its liability to crack, for no reason that has as yet been discovered. If some way is found of making the gelatine plate durable, it would be used entirely in place of an electrotype, as it costs almost nothing and can be made quicker than an electrotype.”

The way has been “found” and zinc etching is doing the work.

Finally, the essays of John Burnet, “On the Education of the Eye,” “On Composition,” and “On Light and Shade,” copies of which are hard to get for $100, have recently been reproduced by one of the processes given in this book, full size, and is sold at $4.00. There is a great future ahead for all process work.