The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-02-03
PRINTING AND PIRAcY-NEw DISCOVERY
FROM THE LONDON ArHENKuM.

fhoM THE LoSpoN ATHENEUM = i
The progress of discovery rapid that scarcely
week passes, in which not called to
some of its woodworking miracles lin this days
Atheneum under the head of Fine Arts, will be
found areport on some admirable works produced by
Mr. Hullmandels new process OF lithotinting; suf-
fcienty extraordinary to have served our grand
fathers for full tweyemonth's gossip and wonder
ment. We, however, must here call attention to a
still more important discovery The facts, far
known to u.s. are briefly these Early in October, we
received from correspondent at Berlin reprint Of
the four pages Of the Atheneum, published in Lon
don only on the 25h of September,) which contained
the review, and its illustrations, of The Porcelain
Tower'-how produced, our correspondent could not
inform us-but obviously not by any known process
The copy was so perfect facsimile, that had it
reached us under other circumstances, we should
have suspected that it had net been issued from
our own ofice-and even with our attention thus spe-
officially directed to the subject the only difference
we could discover was that the impression was light
er, and that there was less body in the ink; from
which infer that the process is essentially litho-
graphic the impression of the original page being, in
the first instance, transferred by means on to
the surface of the stone or zinc plate This how
ever, is but a conjecture and correspondent is
unable to throw light the subject. In reply to
our urgent request for further information, he thus
writes ISL
BERLIN, Nov. 25.
=" have not ceased to exert myself to obtain the
information you desire, but all collect is briefly
this. The process by which these fac-simile reprints
are produced, discovered by gentleman at Err
furt, and is kept profound secret have since seen
| a copy of an Arabic MS of the thirteenth century,
and of leaf of book printed in 1883, both of which
have been produced without the slightest injury to the
original, that your Bibliomanacs may despair of
ever again seeing unique copy The parties in pos
session OF the secret are about to repubsh here the
Athenaum, and are to commence operations with the
| first number OF the coming year. have the
draft of the Prospectus in which they offer to sup
| ply the trade at the rate of thalers (9s.) per
annum. They will be content too, understand with
300 subscribers and from this fact you may form a
conjecture as to the probable cost of the process,
which must be below what the mere paper costs
YOU"
| Now, so far as our pecuniary interests con-
cerned, the question is not worth second thought
The sale ofthe London edition of the Athenaum in
many necessarily limited by the post ofce
charges, to the principal libraries, the literary and
scientific societies, and some few wealthy individuals
resident in the principal cities and after all the pc
cuniary loss, if any, would be more than compen-
stated by the gratifying testimony thus borne to the
character of the Journal and by the honor of being
the only English periodical repubshed the Cont
nent. But to book publishers, more especially to the
publishers Of costly works, illustrated with woodcus,
it is one of vital Importance. Take for example,
the admirable series of works on Natural History,
by Yarrell, Bell, and Others published by Mr.. Van
Worst There can be no question that such works
have had very extensive sale all the civilized
world, for the copyright has been secured to the
publisher by the enormous cost of reproducing the
numberless beautiful illustraonsbut here if pro-
cess by which the foreign pirate produce the
work. illustrations and all at less than the cost of pa
per and presswork and of course vast mauuactor
will be forthwith established, and every market,
in our colonies, inundated with these spurious ed-
tions In proof that these are not merely conjectu-
raj or possible consequences, may state that our
correspondent further mentions, that preparations
|
which is announced forthcoming at sixpence a
number Surely Government, under these circum-
stances, will now bestir itself and take active mea-
sures for the establishment of some international
law for the protection of the honest of all
tlons-and all nations are equally concerned This,
however, is subject too vast to be entered on in
paragraph-and indeed the less necessary as have
so often expressed our opinion.