Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-12-13
9ur 4lOun9 FOLKS.
Grease Pictures
81 OLIVE THoENE

81 OLIVE THoRNE.
Isn't 1t funny that you can't mix grease
and water? No matter how much you
stir them, or shake them together, every
little speck Of grease Is speck itself, and
as soon a. they are quiet every drop f
grease will rise to the top Of the water.
Ii your hands are greasy sou may wash
them all day with clear water, and 1t
won't come of until you add II little soap.
You don't see what this has to do with
pictures 1t has everything TO do with
them Ii Is Just because grease and water
won't mix that we can have cheap pictures
at all.
Ia making all engravings. the whole en-
craving has to cut into something. Eos
instance, IN a wood cut such as you have
in your readers at school, the picture Is
drawn on piece Of wood and then every
tiny line and dot Is carefully cut into the
wood. That's great deal OF work. and
50 wood cuts cost good deal. The beau
tifui engravings you see IN nice books arc
cut IN the same way, IN plates ST copper
or steel, and, Of course. cost still more.
But, thanks to the Unsocal nature Of
grease, a new way Of making pictures has
been discovered easier, and therefore
cheaper, than all these. There is 4 GER
tain kind of stone ike both grease and
water That is, It viii absorD-or soak
The first to be done in making
the picture. is to have the stone brought
in great blocks from its native quarry, and
sawed into plates the proper size The
plates are polished By laying together,
putting fac sand and water between them.
and rubbing them together. This make,
them very smooth. but not quite perfect
enough for a picture. They are then
washed to get off all the sand, and polished
with tine pumice stone till you eau -ee your
face in them.
The artist now takes one. First be sits
IT up slanting in a frame, and tasea Esl-
croscope 10 see If the surface j. perfect,
With no scratches or tiny holes. Then BE-
bru shes Of the last shadow OF dust wlth p
soft brush Now ne Is ready 10 work, and
be tales his box-not OF penciis-but
sticks OF sort OF chalk, all ready sharp
eued for use With these he draws the
picture on the stone-cvery line nc waut-
printed. he must make with chalk
lie mas 10 tfE tAt "a VT i4DA ~ -+eA a AAI+-
on the stone. for that would have grease
enough to injure it When the drawing
is flushed. II IS carried TO another room
ami washed over with water.
Now the water soaks into the stone
everywhere, except where the chalk lines
are. Those are greasy, and water cant
soak into grease.
The next man VINO takes it, deliberate. y
takes a wet sponge and washes out the
whole picture. so that the stone looks just
as it did before the artist took it. But IL
isn't Just the same. for the hne grease lines
left by the chalk cant be washed out, and
though they don't show at present, they
are there.
The printer now taxes it and pours gum
water over it to stop the pores OF the stone
1t stops them up nicely. except where tbos,
stubborn little grease marks, are. and
there it can't get IN Of course.
Now comes the printers ink, rolled
right over the whole stone, Printers ink
Is greasy. so where the gum-water sticks
the ink can't stay, but wherever there's q
grease mark, however small, the ink Wi
stay. SO there's the picture all complete
10 ink.
OF course nothing IS to &c done then
but lay the paper over it, and print a
many copies as you please.
These grease pictures are called litho-
graphs.
Another kind called chrome autographs
are beautiful copies Of oil paintng--col
/ ors and all.
They are made exactly the same way
only there's a separate stone for each colo
in the picture.
Suppose they wanted to make d pictur,
of red rose. with green leaves and brow
stem They would need three stones. o.
the first would be drawn, 10 chalk, th
stem Of the rose and every leaf stem tina
was to be brown-but nothing else OF
the second stone would be drawn, only th
rose.
After the stone mad been wet and pre-
pared as told you above, the first ston
would be rolled over-nOt with ink, bu
with brown paint. Then when the p4pe
was pressed on to II, it would receive
funny looking bunch Of brown stems. tn
d. second stone would be rolled with gree
| paint, and when the paper of stems wa
pressed on that, 10, a green leaf woui
appear on the end OF every stem. Tl
third stone would get its coat of red pant
and when the paper came from that, rc'
rose crowned the whole.
In most pictur :, you know, there ar
many more than three tlnts. Look IT a
oil painting for yourself, and see If y0
can count the colors and shades Of Colo
for every shade must have its stone. Pei
! haps you will be surprised when | tell tina
: an ordinary picture takes eighteen c
c twenty stones.
: You can see how careful you must be j
] printing. to put the paper exactly RICH
1 IF it wasn't right. the leaves. instead {
/ sitting, each one on his stem, like proper
well behaved leaves, might plant then
selves little on one SIDE, and look as
an earthquake had jerked them all out {
. place.
The good of all this 70 Us Is, that beat
tiful pictures are made 50 cheap, that a
most every one can have them. The chr,
! mo of painting that cost thousand 30
! lars, will cost less than ten, and look 5
exactly like it, that you can't tell, var
= off, which is which
: If you have ten dollars 10 buy pi'
!, ture nowadays, you're most as we'll off, .
though you had thousand.