Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-12-06
MAKING RAILROAD MAPS.
A Description of the Method Now in Use
 The Etchings.

A Description of the Method Now in Use.
 The Etchings.
 The method of making railroad maps is de- scribed as follows: Up to 1870 maps were engraved on stone, copper or steel The pro cess was slow, tedious and expensive. The plates soon wore out and maps were costly. About this time the process of making maps on wax was invented. It revolutioned one kind of map making, and they became al- most as cheap as newspapers. The map maker works in room the temperature of which cannot go below 90 degs. Few men work at it longer than four years, though years of apprenticeship are required to make them expert. The heat becomes unendur. able in the end, and they go into some other employment. ....
 Preparatory to making the original plate melted beeswax and some hardening ingredi. ent are poured on highly polished metal table. For fine work the wax is as thin as a piece of paper, but for the coarser kind the waxen sheet is an eighth of an inch thicker. Rough pen and ink drawings of the work to be done are given the operators. They draw the hair lines with sharp pointed instruments by the aid of straight edges. The dotted lines indicating county or township bound aries are made with little wheels on whose narrow edge are cut the peculiarly designed
 
 and require an artists eye. The names of towns, rivers, countries and the like are inn pressed in the wax in type, letter by letter. Every impression must cut through the wax to the polished steel plate beneath, for the map is made face down. When all the lines and letters are in the wax is placed under a cooler temperature, which hardens it. The wax is then covered with black lead, and the steel plate with its waxen cast is suspended in an electrotyping solution. The copper in the solution covers the black lead and forms a hard plate, which is called the original The wax Is then pulled off and the printing surface is then presented The thin copper plate is backed up with type metal and the plate Is ready for use. It is usually pre- served, however, for the making of stereo- type plates, from which the actual printing is done.
 In the preparation of the etchings great care is required to keep the wax at the proper temperature, as a degree too low would make it hard to work, and a degree too high would melt and probably destroy 1t. Often many hundred thousand maps are or. dered, and from twenty to forty plates are made from the original If the maps are small, so many of these plates as can be con veniently used are placed side by side on the presses, and sheet of maps is printed at each impression. The ordinary advertising map is finished when 1t leaves the press, but the others must go through more hands be- fore they are ready for use But this Is the smallest part of the map. The unseen work ==the preparation of the original draft-rep- resents the time, labor and money expended upon these articles, The method of prepar- ing maps for places of learning and for the use of those engaged in selling property is much more elaborate and costly, and this fact will be fully realized when it is stated that map lately finished in this city, meas uring sixty-fiye inches square, was nearly six years under way, and, when finished, cost 20,Oc6.-Pbiladelphia Call