Star.
London, England, 1827-12-29 00:00:00

FROM THE ENCYCLOPEDIA MRTROPOLITANA.

S Mme very singular specimens of the art of copying,
not yet made public, were brought from Paris a few
'ears since. A watch•maker in that city, Of the name
of Gonord, had contrived a method by which he could
take fri m the same copperplate, impressioos of diffe-
rent sizes, either larger or smaller than the original de-
sign. Four impressions of an Eagle were examined,
M the presence of the writer of this parer, by a late
artist, equally dis•inguished for his skill and for the
many mechanical connivances with which he enriched
his art. The largest was four times the superficial
size of the smallest, and no lines were detected in
one which had not corresponding lines in the others.
'there appeared to be a difference in the quantity of
itk, but none in the traces of the engraving. The
p•ocesses by which this singular operation was executed
have not been published, but two conjectures were
formed at the time, which merit notice. It was supposed
that the artist was in possession of some method of
transferring the ink from the lines el a copper plate
to the surface of some viscous fluid, and also i f re-

transferring the impression from the fluid to paper. If
this Gould be accomplished, the print would be of exactly
the same size as the copper from which it was derived;
but if the viscous fluid were contained in a vessel having
the form of an inverted cone with a small aperture at
the bottom, the liquid might be lowered or raised in the
vessel by gradual abstraction or addition through the
spoz:of the cone; in this case, the surface to which the
printing ink adhered would diminish or enlarge, and in
this altered state the impression might be re-transferred
to raper. It must be admitted, that this conjectural
explanation is not without considerable difficulties; for
although the conferse operation of taking an impression
from.% liquid sutf.ice has a parallel in the art of mar-
bling paper, the possibility of transferring the ink from
the copper to the fluid requires to be pored.
Another and more plausible explanation is founded
on the elastic nature of the compound by glue anti
treadle, a substance already in use in transferring en-
gravings to earthenware. It is coijectured that an
Impression from the copper-plate is taken oil a large
sheet of this composition ; that this sheet is then stretched
irr both directions, and that-the ink thus expanded is
transferred to paper. If the copy is requited to be
stialler than the original, the elastic substance must first
be stretched, and then receive the impression from the
capper-plate ; on removing the tension it will contract,
atvj tbus reduce the size of the design. It is possible
that, one transfer may not in all cases suffice, as the
extenoltility of the composition of glue and treacle, al-
though considerable, is still limited.
Perhaps sheets of Indian rubber of uniform texture
and may be found to answer better than this
composition. As it would require considerable time to
produce impeessions in this manner, and there might
eriset some difficulty in making them all of precisely the
pawn saae, the process might be rendered more certain
owl eioeditions, by performing that part of the opera-
*. ujsieb depends on the enlargement or diminution
thdr.sltigp,naly once; and instead of printing from
0.4.0064 libitflose, transferring the design from it to
&NW dillinas.atiosidezable portion of the work would
be reduced to most already well known, that of Litho-
-01144%.