The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1879-05-08
MODERN PHOTO LITiiOGRAPH-
lNG.'
The Marvellous Rapidity OF Process
Which has been Attained in Ten

The Marvellous Rapidity OF Process
Which has been Attained i'm Ten
| Years.
From the New York World
| You couldn't have found one man in a
thousand, ten years ago. said an elderly
| gentleman yesterday at one of the Park
Row news-stauds, against the eide OF which
half dozen or more illustrated papers were
tackled up, "who would have believed that
such papers as those could ever have been
issued with anything like the SPEED and
| accuracy with which these very papers have
been issued. l was in the photo-litho-
| graphing business myself then, but now,
although the materials used are the same as
| they We're then, the methods OF applying
them have changed TO such an extent that
| should really feel like an apprentice il |
resumed the business, and As if the work of
lifetime had been thrown away. BY its
populsriz alton of art so fsr only az it has
brought copies OF the best eugravings ard
other drawings within any ones reach,
photo-lilhography has made itself within
ten years a necessity of civilization"
"The processes were as accurate ten
years ago as now, were they not" was
asked.
"Ob, yes, but not as rapid, and rapidity
is quite as important az accuracy nowadays.
If We turned out piece of work in twenty
four hours we used to think we were doing
remarkably we'll; usually We required two
or three days. They say that now photo
photographers will guarantee to reproduce
map by afternoon if you take it TO them
in the morning, and that the processes that
once took so long now take anywhere from
half Al hour to three hours"
"How is it done?'
THAT is more than can understand ex-
cept upon the principl. that a man can do
anything that he puts himself to, and
great many men have been working for
long time at it. As / said the chemicals |
used are the same as those which Osborne |
used when he invented the process in 1859, |
but each photographer has his own methods |
Of application, which are the secrets of his |
trade. The general process is an adapta-
ton Of the 'bichromated gelatine' process |
of ordinary photography. That is, a mega
tive lis produced by exposing a sheet of
paper upon which a coating of albumsn,
gelatine. and bichromate of potash has teen
dri d over the Photographic negatives.
Then the sheet is linked over and
worked face downward through
common hsnd-press in contact with
the lithographIc stone previously coated
with transfer ink. When the sheet il re.
moved it is of course covered with ink, 40
much so that the outlines of the picture
are barely discernible. Then it is hoated
on hot water with the ink side upward,
which hiss the eject Of cosgulating the al
bumen Of the original film and OF swelling
the gelatine. The superfluous ink il re-
ia, all that has been dried on
by exposure to the Lightly wa.hIpg in
warm waiter, and the sheet is again run
through the press in the common way. BY
this process the ink on the sheet Is tIans-
ierred to the stone, which is then etched
and made ready for the printer. The ex- 4,
PLANTATION of the process is more complica-
ed than the process itself, but the fact that i
he cost of lithcgraphing is but little more {,
han that of ordinary printing is assurance
,nough of the value of the advantages of I
,hoto- lithography. All of the maps in the
Patent office and most of the c
rawlings and engravings of the other bu-
eau, are executed by it much much more t
hesply than they could be in any other e
Eay and much more promptly. As said d
'efore, it has become one of the necessities
4 civilization" o