Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-22
MAXINE RAILROAD MAPS.
A Description or the Methods now
 Use-The Etching.

Use-The Etching.
 From the Philadelphia Call The method of making railroad maps is described as follows: Up to 1870 maps were engraved on stone. copper or steel. The pro- cess wss 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 revolutionsd one
 kind of map making, and they became al
 most as cheap ss newspapers. The map
 maker works in a room the temperature of
 which cannot go below % degs. Few men
 work at 1t longer than four years, though years of apprenticeship are required to make them expert. The heat becomes unendura-
 ble in the end, and they go into some other employment.
 Preparatory to making the original plate
 melted besswsx and some hardening ingredi- ent are poured on a 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 lines All crooked lines are made by hand and require an artists eye. The names of towns, rivers, countries and the like are i'm 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 8 cooler temperature, which hardens 1t. The wax is then covered with black lead, and the steel plate with It's waxen cast Is suspended in an slectrotyping 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 of 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 etching great care is required to keep the wax at the proper temperatsre, as Q degree too low | would make it hard to work, and degree | too high would melt and probably destroy it. l Often many hundred thousand maps are or 1 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 Yeniently used are placed side by side on the l presses, and a sheet of maps is printed at
 each impression. The ordinary advertising map is finished when it leaves the press, but
 She others must go through moro hands be fore they are ready for use. But shis Is the smallest part of the map. The unseen work the preparation of the original draft-rep. I resents the time, labor and money expended
 upon these articles. The method of prepar- ing maps for places of learning and for the
 ase of those engaged in selling property ii
 much more elaborate and costly, and thii fact will be fully realized when it is stated | that map lately finished in this city, meas
 uring sixty five inches square, was nearly si1
 years under way. and, when finished cos
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