Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-03-01
THE GELATINE PROCESS.
WHAT is SAID OF THE SULLIVAN OF
PHOTOGRAPHY.

The Dry Plates of the Amateur PhOtOg-
rapher-How Gelatine Knocked Out the
Unfortunate Wood Engraver-Basis of
the process Blocks"
A few years ago there stepped quietly into
the ring the John L. Sullivan of photog-
raphy. Few were prepared for the stir he
was soon going to make. His name was Gel
atine He knocked out the Collodlon Plate
the first round, and then looked around for
something else to do. He is at present en-
gagged in fight with the Wood Engraver,
and no one was more surprised than the old
"Woodpecker" at being suddenly called on
to defend himself. Many of the pictures you
have seen in the magazines-many that are
in recently published books and, alas! all
that you notice in the columns of the news
papers-are due to Mr.. Gelatine Gelatine,
combined with certain salts of sugar, was
put on glass, and the dried plates so made
were good for almost any length of time. In
stead of a cumbersome chemists shop, the
travelling photographer took with him few
boxes of dry plates. Gelatine has much to
answer for. He it was who introduced to us
the amateur photographer, to whom nothing
is sacred. II it were not for Gelatine l
should not be writing this today. Whatever
may be said against the old wet plate pro-
cess, it ought to be remembered that it was
too cumbersome and complex for every Tom,
Dick and Harry to work at
This is how Gelatine punished the unfortu-
nate wood engraver, who was sitting quietly
at his bench, never expecting blow. Celia
tine is tremendous swell. If it is put in water
it swells up at an awful rate. Water affects it
more than it does John L. Sullivan. Now if
gelatine is mixed with certain chemicals and
is exposed to the light it will not swell, while
if kept in the dark it will swell if it be put
in water. Supposing you had a glass plate
covered with the chemicaliZed gelatine. You
keep it in the dark. Now, if you take another
glass plate of the same size and write your
name on it in any opaque ink and then when
it dries place this plate of plain glass on the
gelatiped glass with the writing and the gela-
tine next each other and let the rays of the
sun shine through the plain glass on the
other and place the gelatine glass in tray
of water, this is what will happen: The ink
not having allowed the gelatine under it to
be touched with the rays of light, the gela-
tine under the tracing will swell and in a
short time there is your name in raised letters
ON the Galatino plate, boe reversed, OF course.
WRITING IN FAC-SIMILE.
Now over this you flow some plaster Of
Paris, and when that is set and lifted off you
pour in type metal and there you are. You
have printing block that will give a fac
simile of your writing. It is in this way
that the fac-simile of letter is produced.
only in this case the letter instead of being
written on the glass is photographed on it
and is, therefore, an exact copy of every hair
line
The method I have roughly described is
the basis of all process blocks" as they are
called, and when you see some of them on
the pages of the magazines you would think
they were the work of the most skillful wood
engraver, and the magazine takes care that
you don't think anything else, although the
cost, as compared even with the toughest
woodwork, is a mere trife. The process
have sketched is easily done and have made
printing blocks myself by that method, but
if you want to know how to do it you will
have to get the particulars from some work
like that of DR.. Wilson's. 1t would take
too much space to tell about it here. But
gelatine, not satisfied with knocking the un-
derpinning from the wood engraver, takes
shy at the artist as we'll The artist, how
ever, has not so much to fear as the wood
man. Here is what can be done. A photo
graph is taken of building, for instance.
A careful boy can go over the lines Of the
photograph with India ink. The photograph
is then put in certain chemical, and in a
short time all that was photographed disap-
pears and leaves white paper instead. But the
lines done in India ink remain. 1t is pict-
l. i
ground This is photographed and the mega
tive obtained is placed over the gelatine
plate, as the writing was in the former in
stance, and thus you get an accurate print
ing block without the Intervention of the
artist-Luke Sharp's Book Review in De-
troit Free Press.