The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-11 00:00:00

A DISCOVERY IN THE ARTS.

One of the most important recent discoveries is the one
applicable to the reprinting of books or reproduction of
engravings. M. Dupont, a very industrious printer, was
seeking the means of saving the expense of stereotyping.
With the assistance of a particular ink he was al-
ready enabled to avoid the preservation of the cliches,
which require many materials, and much space and money,
by the means of the preservation of a mere printed
sheet which lithography afterwards reproduced when-
ever it was wanted ; but doubting whether the ink used
upon that sheet would retain in the course of time the same
properties, he consulted his brother, a very intelligent
lithographer, and the latter found what neither ventured
to expect. This new process is applicable not only to fresh
printed sheets, but likewise to the oldest engravings, to
the oldest books, and, which is of far more interest, to
Greek, Chinese, and Hebrew books. It consists in two
operations. Over the page or engraving of which you
want a copy you lay a particular composhion. It is
placed upon the lithographic stone and pressed, and the
store reproduces, with scrupulous precision, the original
engraving or book. This impression could not, how-
ever, serve such as it is. It is itself covered with the
"me preparation, and it may then print thousands of
copies by the ordinary processes of every sort of lithography.
Five minutes suffice for both operations. The original
engraving may be restored to the portfolio which has
supplied it, for it has not been in the slightest degree
injured ; the book, thus wholly reprinted, may undergo
another binding, and honourably resume its place in your
library. This new process admits of a reduction of 75 per
cent, upon the expence of printing ; and as for engraving,
that which on copper would have cost 100 francs, will now
cost but 20 francs I What consequences will not this disco-
very yield I It threatens the graphic arts, engraving and
printing, with a complete revolution. A man of the greatest
!alent in the arts lays claim to priority in this discovery, as
is always the case, when success has been obtained claims
come in. The wisdom of the central jury and patent laws
must decide the question. In the mean time MM. Du-
pouts are manufacturing, which is always a great point.
On Monday, the King, Queen, Madame Adelaide, and
Princess Clementine visited again the exposition, and exa-
mined the litho-typographic produce of the brothers. His
Majesty observing an engraved head of Albert Durer, of
1527, which was wanting in his collection of the Palais
Royale, ordered a copy of it, and congratulated MM.
Duponts upon a discovery whereby there would no longer
be any scarce engravings or books.—Paris Periodical.

POST-OFFICE ARRANGEMENTS (DUBLIN),

New arrangements for the transmission of the mails between
London and Dublin, commenced on Friday last; and by
that strange perversity which appears, in many instances,
to have directed the management of the post-office esta-
blishment, the Irish reading public, for whose accommo-
dation the alteration was professedly made, are studiously
excluded from all advantages derivable from the accelerated
rate of speed; while the proprietors of the Dublin Evening
and Weekly Newspapers are injured to an extent, and
damaged to an amount that we trust they will not tamely
endure. For the present we shall content ourselves with
a simple statement of facts to prove the total disregard
evinced for the public, and the absolute injustice inflicted on
the Press. When the inland mails were despatched from
Dublin at seven o'clock in the evening, newspapers were
not required to be put into the Post-office until six, and
were received, upon the payment of a small gratuity, until
half an hour after that time. Upon the same principle,
now that the mails are not dispatched until nine, we should
have an extension of time to eight and half-past eight.
The London Evening papers and letters will generally be
delivered here by seven or half-past seven o'clock ; but in
consequence of the arbitrary and unjustifiable order of the
officials in Sackville-street, the .contents of these journals,
and the proceedings in Parliament down the post hour on
the preceding evening, will be rendered utterly unavailable
to the whole class of newspaper readers in Ireland ; for if
the regulations, acted upon before the alteration in the
transmission and receipt of the Erglish mails, were still
adhered to (and there is no conceivable reason why they
should not, excepting the caprice of some of the clerks),
we should be in sufficient time between seven and eight,
or half-past eight o'clock, to forward Second Editions to
the country with the news of the previous day.—Dublin
Evening Mail.
Last spring a gentleman in Waterford procured
four cf the recently introduced mange! wurzel potatoes.
These four tubers were cut into 36 sets, and planted with
the usual quantity of farm-yard manure upon a headland,
n drills three feet apart, and leaving twelve inches between
each set ; the whole occupying exactly 12 square yards.
On being dug out, the produce weighed 1121 b., being at
the rate of 35 tons, or 280 barrels of 20 stones each per
acre.
A new method of preserving iron-work from rust,
communicated by M. Paymen to the French Institute,
consists in plunging the pieces to be preserved in a mix-
tore of one part concentrated solution of impure soda (soda
of commerce) and three parts water. Pieces of iron left
for three months in this liquid had lost ncithcr weight nor
polish ; whilst similar pieces immersed for five days in
simple water were covered with rust.