Connecticut western news., 1890-04-02
HOW A CHRONIC IS MADE.
An Interesting Process with Which Very
 Few People Are Familiar.

HOW CHROMO IS MADe. An Interesting Process with Which Very
 Few People Are Familiar.
 We see tens of thousands of chro- mos, which arc given away by every enterprising business man, yet ven ture the assertion that very few know how they are produced. To properly produce chromo the lithographer must be en rapport with the artist. He must analyze the picture, fully realize the combinations of colors and the spirit of the work. Having deter- mined just how many basic colors en- ter into the picture. the artist com mences his work by preparing a htho- graphic stone for each separate color | The artist commences his work by making delicate and elaborate ink tracing of the picture; not only its general outlines, but the minute and intricate touches and shades of color of which it is composed. The tracing paper is chemically prepared, so that the lines upon it can be readily trans l ferred to stone. A press is employed to transfer the impressions on the paper to the stone, considerable pres sure being used. Thousands of i'm pressions can then be taken from the stone by simply running an ink roller over it.
 The tracing thus transformed forms what is known as the keystone. Sup pose there are twenty colors in the chromo. This number of impressions is taken from the key stone and each carefully dusted with red chalk. A dim offset of the entire tracing is then pressed on each one of these stones.
 The drawing then begins, and often occupies many months. Each stone IS to be printed in a separate color, and | therefore must contain not only all that is necessary of that color of the picture, to the minutest detail but all of the compound colors, made by printing one or more over others. A variety of gradations of color from its full strength to the faintest tinting can be produced on the stone, just as in using an ordinary pencil or crayon on drawing paper. These various col ors are, of course, worked up in black by the artist, and 1t is the printer who applies the colors. The lines on each separate stone are etched with the wash of nitric acid and gum arabic. and are ready for the presses.
 The printer must be as skillful as the artist in applying his colors, and must fully realize the blending and eff feet of each color. As fast as each color is printed it is submitted to the artist, who has thus a progressive proof of the work.
 It has been probably noticed that lines cross each other on the margin of the chromo. These are these regis tering marks, and enable the printer to place the sheet in the same relative po- sition every time new stone is used and a new color applied. These lines are drawn ill the original tracing and appear on each stone.
 When the first color Is printed very small holes are punctured in each sheet at the intersection of these lines very fine holes are also drilled in correspond ing positions on each of the subse- quent stones, and the holes in the pa per are to correspond precisely with the holes in the stone, and thus as each additional color is put on a perfect reg ister is secured and each color falls just where it belongs
 The next process IS to make the chromo have rough surface like an oil painting. A stone Is now prepared which has a rough surface, similar to canvas The chromo is then laid l with heavy pressure. When 1t comes forth it is an exact imitation of the painting. It is then vanished, and thus you have the chromo ready for the market.
 The world is yet practically depend ent on one quarry in Bavaria for its Photographic stone Stones have been found in France, England, Canada and the United States, but none pos sess the qualities of the best German stones A bed of lithographic stone has been found in Sequatchie Valley, not far from Chattanooga, and the in- vestigations so far indicate that it will yield stone of very fine quality. If it should prove so, it will be literally gold mine. The finer duality of stone is today worth thirteen cents per pound and is very scarce. Times.
 1 Pleasures of Reading.
 It IS perfectly possible for man, not professed student, and who only gives to reading the leisure hours of a business life, to acquire such a general knowledge of the laws of nature and the facts of history that every great advance made in either department shall be to him both ineligible and interesting, and he may besides have among his familiar friends a departed worthy whose memory is embalmed in the pages of memoir or biography. All this is ours for the asking. All this we shall ask for if only it be our happy fortune to love for it's own sake the beauty and the knowledge to be gathered from books. And if this be our fortune, the world may be kind or unkind, it may seem to us to be has tening on the wings of enlightenment and progress to all imminent millen- nium, or it may weigh us down with the sense of insoluble difficulty and ir- remediable wrong; but whatever else it be, so long as we have good health and good library, it can hardly be dull-A. J. Balfour.