Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-16
WHY BOOKS ARE CHEAP.
The Photo-Engraving Process and How
It Has Affected Book Making.

From the Indianapolis News.
The cheapness of books is a source of con-
tinued comment. One cannot get used to see
ing volumes which once cost from o dollar and
half to five dollars now selling at from a
quarter to q dollar. Books once looked at
vsiniy with longing eyes are coming within the
range of those Of limited means, and there are
constant additions to the list of cheap books
One wonders how they can be sold at profit.
OF course the lack of copyright is understood
With no author to pay the publisher is rid of
great expense, but even that cannot entirely
account for it. bookseller says that the re-
taller makes only about two cents on twenty
cent editions, and five cents on those selling
at thirty-fve cents. The books are poorly
bound, and printed on adulterated paper. and
are far from models of mechanical neatness.
while some are full of vicious typographical
errors
But, recently method of reprinting books
has been adopted by which an exact fac simile
OF the finest editions can be made without the
work of type-setting. 1t is the well known, but
not well understood, photo-engraving process
By the addition of bichromate of potash to gel
atine. the gelatine, ordinarily soluble in water,
cal action of sunlight. The negative of pho
tograph, as is we'll known, is the exact opposite
of the photograph itself, and allows the passage
of light through the lines which are reproduced
in the photograph while the other parts are
opaque. photograph of a printed page is
| taken, the gelatine is spread upon a smooth sur
face, as glass, and carefully covered by the neg
| ative and exposed to the sunlight. Thus only
those lines of the gelatine corresponding to the
letters on the page are made insoluble. The
| surface of the gelatine plate is washed with
water and is all dissolved except the letters
| which stand out in sharp lines. The plate
can be printed from directly OF, as is generally
the case, an electrotype plate is made from it.
The work can be done at about one-fourth the
cost of type setting. Several pages can be set
at once, according to the capacity of the cam
era. The Encyclopedia Britannica, which, from
| its extent and completely, has defied the type
setting book-stealers, has been reprinted in this
! way. The process is very interesting and the
| general public is heavily the gamer, but when
! one reflects that books which it takes lifetime
study to produce and small fortunes to publish
can at a little expense be reprinted by piratical
| publishers the method seems little short of
counterfeiting. One thing, however, interferes
| A full-siZed copy of a book cannot be repro
duced without imperfections resembling those
| of worn type. Reduced copies only are perfect.
The finest engravlngs can, OF course, be repro
duced by the same process, and by additional
| processes paintings or scenes from nature can
be placed on plates better than those of the
| most expert engraver.
bookseller Of long experience in the city
says that the demand for good editions rather
| than the cheap Kind is increasing. Although
there is little profit in selling cheap books it is
really helpful in cultivating taste for reading.
| The copyright editions Of the best American
auth ors sell very we'll in this city. When asked
concerning the taste for reading in Indiana
polls, as shown by the demand for books. he
said it can not be judged altogether by this.
There are few rich people in the city who
can buy large libraries, but the public gener-
ally are good readers, who get their intel
lectual food from the public library.