The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-09-27

ASASfSANAN<ANb " a., ~
much nsxe lasting than wood Or stone. stse,
plate will last 10 take 5000 Impressions, copper
one ~ or 3QOOO. stone shout l,J0O wood probably
about the same ~ copper
II map be set down as certain, that two plates
cannot be engraved exactly alike by hand, but
there are means BY which engraved steel plates
may he made, provided the originals are to be had
The frat may oe produced by the electrotyps
process aud this b prsctised extensively in the
Northern citss, aud affords cheap means Of furn.
ishins illustrations for books. nswspapsrE sdysr-
| tisementa, DC.
These slecirotypes. ~ they are called. may be
seen IN sny printing Office.
Steel plates produced by the following pro.
cess: q quote from Byrne's Practica, Metal Work
| ers Assistant, page 7s)
"A s0f1 steel plate 10 engraved with the rea,lral
subject in the most hnisLed style of art either hy
hand or mechanically. or the tw" combined. aud
| the plate is then hardened. deearbonized steel
cylinder Qhai Is, steel cylinder rsaxsad To ts ori-
gnai state OF soft ronO il Lext rolled over bar.
dened plate by powerful machinery, until tho en-.
graved Impression appears IN relief The hollow lines
OF the original becoming ridges upon The cylinder.
fhe cylinder IL now reconverted 10 the condition
OF ordinary sieel and hardened, after which II
serves :" return the Impression TO any number
81 soil steel plates, every one Of which becomes
absolutely counterpart Of the original, aud every
| plate when hardened will yield tho enormous
number Of l50 600 impressions without any per.
ceptipie difference between the first aud the last
The y.aiss howsvss sss net usually haslsss.,
are sunlciently bard to last take 5O0OO impress
sions; and io case 1t out the roller il left,
by which new plate can be made at Q rifiing
cost Dr. Ure, 10 his dictionary OF arts and sci-
ences. states that the Quee head on the English
postage stamp has never been engraved but once
| although millions upon millions Of the stamps
| have been made.
! hand or mechanically" may need explanation
| Some of the engraving on bank notes, strange az
| It may seem, ia actually done by Il machine. As
specimens of this would refer the reader to the
delicate aud intricate engraving around the gnres
IN bank notes, (prOvided he rind OF the lat
ter: IL not, no must trust to bis memory, or wxt
until tie good times come again.
LithogrAphic engraving applied 10 the fine
arts is misnomer; there is NO engraving about It,
The word lthography means the art Of drawing
| on stonei hence picture printed from ~ drawing
| on stone is called liihograph, and such our
Confederate notes. engraved by Hoyer & Ludwig,
which are so extensively cOunterfeited. Should it
| be ssked how can drawing on stone be printed
from would say that the limits Of u newspaper
article will not permit to plain. This style OF
| engraving il not adapted to works subjects Of
small ss.s requiring high style Of art /; but for
works OF large size It il well adapted ~ may be
seem in ithOgrsphs by the French artists, who pro-
badly excel sl others In this style Of engraving.
soh,s Of their productions are pe1iec, gems Of
! art.
The cheap. CANDY, colored danbs so! common
| such as Gen Jackson At the battle Of New Orleans,
mentsriiy looking for him to fall back awards
death Of Gen w ashiDgton, and host OF Others
sre the production oil Tsn&ee photographers. quot
| artists
These are culor-l with al abundance Of red
blue, and yellow, after they printed. The stones
from which lithogTaphie pictures tax an cannot
be duplicated perfectly, although have seen a
statement in the newspapers, within few mon hs,
thst Msssrs HoyeT & ludwig made use OF a pro-
! eess Oy which they could do it. ILat they may
have profess of transferring an suppression al
ready taken 10 fresh stoas 10 assis! tho srt
ist materially il copy ing with solerat!s accuracy
! sud uniformity, is very iaotable; but that they
cannot make perfect copies. Ihsis Woi ks show for
themselves. In comparing hslf dozen genuine
- luo biiis OF hsiT engraving, marked difference
| may be seen Lave not examined the smaller de-
nominations with the view of detecting variations.
| tui presume similar variations may be found In
| hem
| Now. The question naturally arises, Why did the
| aoyernnent resort to such Uncertain and daager-
| 0as me ans of supplying The wanis "t Circulating
! medium snsweT, probably it wss tae best they
| could do at tue time. Formerly, nearly Sill bank
note engraving. and, III TACT, engravings Of every
| kind, was mostly dous al the North and If ther-
| were any good ensrs5eTs IA tle Gonfederaey al
| all, there probably not enous ID to supply the
wants OF the asion The secretary of the Tres
suTy III Ills recent report. states that the services
u over serenity clerks Required IN sig SniRS the
| b,ll.
Now SHY one See Il that impression
from q iithogIap CT Steel plate cannot be taken
| quick clerk sga one /. eonseq queutly
numerous plates must be had re s4uiTDg, Of course.
numerous engTavars- more probably, than could
be obtained
1t is net probsbis that there " as = person lii ie
| confedeIaey who lisa practical knowledge Of The
| method Of reproducing steel plates as before dc
| scri6ed: consequently, they had to Resort 10 the
| uncertain process Of lithoSrsphy. remarked be
fors thal lithogrsphic plate only admitted OF
shout 500 impressions being taken
+, Now, when consider thai 500 one hundred
dolia. biiis only amounts $3.50 OO0 and til at mil
lions required instead of thousands it will be
very readily seen that new plates must constantly
te made, and as they cannot be made sIaetfy ike
| tncse usei before this will explain why genuine
bilis OF the same denomination differ from each
other.
Iwoui here CANTON persons who happeu to
| have two OF more bills OF tha same denomination
differing fFOm each ether not 10 get alarmed, Al
that OF itself is no evidence of any Of them being
spurious. ! have myself, within day or two,
seen in the possession OF person i've Quo Lun
dred dollar Confederate notes. having all The marks
OF the genuine, yet but two oni al The i've were
| alike, and the difference WAS IN the engraving.
| l very much question whether any person, how
| ever good u Judge of bank notes generally ho may
| be- eau pronounce with certainty upoa The ge1u.
insnass the SlO0 Confederate notes unless he Is
furnished with genuine notes of sli the different
| issues; Of course except those that arc known to
| be counterfeit person with hail an eye can de-
teet them At once, after being made acauainte ed
| with their peeu!iarites
1t is comparatively easy matter for bank OIL
GERS to detect e0unt nterieits their own banks, or
| those OF the Same town or CITY, or tnOse of Tue
neighb0ring cities, because they have hut one plate
| for each denomination, and any variation from
| these Ii easily detected
| The old Issues OF some Of the Charleston and
| Savannah banks quite coarsely engraved,
| much OF the wood engraving of the present day
beirg vastly sup, iior to il. Ihsve known frequent
| instances ia which these pronounced conn
| terfeit by those that considered good judges
| OF money but when they were presented Al tho
bank were declared genuine.
| 1t IS an old aaage that the cheapest things are
the dearest in the long run, and think the people
at large will find it in this instance, il the Gov
| ernmeni does not.
| 1t is to be regretted that the Secretary of the
| Treasury, or whoever had the matter in charge,
| did not in the first instance procure from Europe
good engravsrs If We did not have snffeiency at
| home. and more especially person wno under
stood the Of reproducing engrsv cd steel plates
| We would then have had uniformity at least in
our currency, which Is great desideratum, AZ it
| would tend greatly to prevent cOuntcrfetns and
make detection much more easy. Had this been
| done it would have saved much trouble and indi
vdual loss Ii is to be hoped that tho powers that
he Mil makethe latter good.
remarked before that the Government prOba
bly, did the best II could The time. II should have
made haste more slowly" Il. w. N.
8aJdsfaaa, Ga, September Z. 1862.