The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-12-21
Wm FIFTEEN years ago there was con-

EM FIFTEEN years ago there was con-
~ sternation among the big pub
fishers. The wood-engraver,
needed lockwood for his wonderful work
and what was to be done when the
worlds supply of lockwood was exhaust
ed. DID not lockwood famine mean a
dearth Of illustrations? So graver and
publisher experimental with various
kinds of woods none of which gave the
results secured from lockwood, and
watched the decreasing supply of box
wood with grave apprehension. Today
when the half-tone the more mechanical
child of the strenuous rushing life of
the twentieth century, satisfies most
readers and makers of books and maya
zines, & lockwood famine seems re-
mote and slight evil. For wood engravings
have come to be the delight of the elect
few, while the half-tone is the daily
bread of the mass Of readers
Engraved wood blocks and what are
called half. tone plates, unlike other re-
productions of pictures, can be printed on
the same page and at the same time with
type or reading matter. This is because
the picture appears on the block or
plate in lines raised above the general
surface, the same as do type letters, so
that when those raised lines are linked
and the paper pressed in contact with
them by the cylinder of the printing press
! the INK is picked up by the paper and
the image transferred to it.
For both these processes the artist
makes his drawing of the subject re-
quired, of any size he finds convenient
on paper or canvas. For engraving on
wood this drawing is photographer down
to the size of the magazine or book page
and the resulting negative printed or
the prepared surface OF piece OF box
wood. The engraver then places the ar
lists drawing or painting within view
for reference and proceeds to cut white
lines of different widths into the surface
of the wood in various directions accord
ing to the forms preserved for him by
the Photographic print. 1t Is apparent thai
two incisions of the engraver are requir-
ed to make one black line in relief, that
Is one on each side, the final result being
the same as If black lines had beer
drawn upon white sheet of paper. These
black lines are generally so even ano
close together as to give the appearance
the tint Is lighter, and omitted entirely
where a pure black shadow or pure
white is required. In the latter case the
surface of the wood is cut away entire
ly so that the paper can receive no linked
impression from that portion. Not deft-
ness and skill of hand alone will accom-
plish such delicate results and success
| fully reproduce the atmosphere of th'
original. There must be too the artists
| eye and instinct.
| In the half-tone process the drawing
| is also reproduced by photography to thu
size of the required page, but the ray:
| of light are conducted to the negative
through a glass screen placed in thu
! camera Immediately in front of the mega
| tive. The screen is composed In inciset
straight lines ruled at right angles ant
| filled in with lamp black. So sclose are
they together that for fine work the,
number as many as two hundred to thu
linear inch and four hundred to th'
square inch, thus giving forty thousand
spaces between the lines, or one million
six hundred thousand spaces on pic
| ture of five by eight inches. For news
paper printing the screen Is sixty-hv'
| lines to the inch.
Degrees of light and dark are repro