Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1845-06-27
ANASTATIC PRINTING.

A new process Of printing and reproduce
ing every description of Letter Press and
Engraving has been discovered in England,
which appears so nearly miraculous as to
make it an act of credulity almost, TO believe
the account Of it true. But it rests on I'M
doubted authority and we cannot question it.
1t will certainly effect great changes in some
branches of the printing business, the pub.
fishing of books particularly, and will prob.
ably abolish entirely the business of stcrco-
tipping and the art Of Wood Engraving
What will be the moral results cannot be es-
timated. Books can be multiplied indefn-
itely and the most rare and beautiful works,
engravings and drawings are reproduced at
a cost Of but little more than the MATERIAL
The antiquarian treasures of old books will
lose all their value by being made common.
But we will not indulge in reflections on the
subject; we will give our readers few ex-
tracts from English papers lately received.
The London Literary Gazette contains
the following remarks on Anastatic Printing !:
ANAsTATIc PRlNTING.-This very in
genious method of reproducing printed cop
les of leter-press, or e-engravings, wood
cuts, autographs, &c. was oblgingly explain
ed and exhibited to us at Mr.. J. Woods,
Barge. Yard Chambers, Bucklersbury. The
process is remarkably simple, and the pro.
duce perfect. In an exceedingly short time
a facsimile of any printed page, portrait
picture, or drawing, can be procured; and
then impressions taken at the rate possibly
of four or five thousand an hour, and twenty
thousand or more without deterioration-
The operation, and singular one it is, is t(
transfer the impression of type or any prin
to the surface of "a polished plate of zinc s.
and then 10 bring it out in slight relief to re-
ceve the ink, and so to work from it as from
the stone of the photographic press. We saw
an engraving with letter press SO transferred
and reproduced. The original was placed
face down, on blbulous paper, to imbibe an,
excess of moisture, and the back of it spong
ed over with dilute nitric acid. In few
minutes the paper was saturated, and the en-
craving and printing loosened, as it were
from its base, or so freshened that possibly
might be smudge but, at all events, it ma
be an was, under considerable mechanics
pressure. transferred to polished plate @
zinc, every line and touch. Not at first dis
- tinctly visible, but sponged with gum watel
= they Il. e. the engraving and printed matter
y at the foot of it) soon appeared, and in relic
v. sufficient to take the ink, and 10 give off fac
oil smile impressions. Such, then, is the sim
of Pile process of an invention, the effects {
ofl t,ht ,u,U oil haa tha
Sc artists. Anastatic printing will obviate I'll
n. necessity of stereotpying, unless casting typ
an is cheaper method, which we should niue
9 -. doubt, of producing successive editions tina
n, that Of the new mode. II will also enab
ID printers to work with smaller stock of typ
-. TO distribute sooner, keeping proofs for an
''' further Or extra demand. Wood-engra'
!" ings, perhaps, will be most injured by Ana
at tatlc printing: for by it the artists origin
he drawing may be at once, without any carve
ald block, transferred to the pages of "A work.
to The result, however, in all its bearings, seen
an TO tend to cheap production, and to wild
an, extension Of literature and art old works Il
ho may be republished at little cost; and nea
or. ly faded prints be renewed and perpetuate
of Fears are entertained that forgeries and p
m iutiCS WIZ oSSohC HotC easy anu tucIciO
y, that they will increase; but now waite
" marks in paper and copyright are the chi
securities |; and these the new and wonderi
'"- invention termed Anasiatic Printing will n
= Affect" ..
'ep The February number of the London Al
- Union was issued with specimens Of this ne
nh mode of reproducing, which are thus notice.
m "The drawing and prints which accomp
md ny this notice, with the Letter Press for
The together an example of this method of prir
i,s ing. The Letter Press was first set in ty
n a by the ordinary printer of the Art Unto
>, leaving space for the drawn or engraving
~, lustrations, which have been set in their +
-, speclive places on proof of the Lete
,na Press the whole was cast transferred
ke, to a zinc plate, and so printed of; and
ful may be here observed that there is no lin
'ial to the thousands of copies which may
,ri- drawn, nor the slightest dlminution Of exc
on. lence in successive impressions, since NJ