Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-31

1t was in 1877 that Maurice Joyce commenced to
make cuts for newspapers, in a small room on It'll
street between L and streets northwest. Here
he invented and brought perfection the kaola-
type or chalk-pIate process of engraving. This
was the pioneer method of quick production of
newspaper Illustrations, and Mr.. Joyce began
to receive orders from far-away places. the pro-
cess and the inventor becoming widely known.
For fine diagram work the kaolatype stands I'M
ekceied today but It has become almost obsolete
on account of the development and superior ad
the arts OF Illustration placed in use Mr..
Joyce reached out, and finally. the business hav-
oid way, the present organization was formed in
1904 the Maurice Joyce Engraving Company tax
career has been constantly to the fore until today
Its name Is synonymous with the best that per-
tains to process engraving.
The process of bringing to completion the
simplest Illustration is attended with manifold de-
production that the work has been divided into
many branches, SO that the picture ms 1t appears
by many different hands. Specialists have been
developed snd each operator is responsible for
only a portion of the work
The higher branch of the process known as
hah-tone engraving. consists in the reproduction
by purely mechanical methods of photographs and
brush drawings The process takes its name from
the fact that 1t is possible thereby to produce on
paper from an etched plate picture showing all
copy. The method, while comparatively simple is
naturally attended with the grea by those
who work upou It, as the slightest vara ton at any
stage Of the process from the established REQUIRE
ments Is followed by failure.
Suppose that the copy under consideration is a
portrait The picture is first photographers; but by
Is this done in the usual manner The
operator uses plateholder especially prepared In
which are racks containing what is technically
known the screen" This screen is really the
key TO the process and consists of two plates of
awless plate glass, the surface Of each being cut
with fine lines closely set together that in coarse
work there no less than hundred TO the inch
running from this up to as many two hundred an
inch where 1t is desirable that the finest work be
produced and where the printing that Is to follow
viii be Of superior quality These lines are cut or
ruled; at an angle Of forty five degrees and are
usually distant one from the other space equal
TO their thickness. The cut lines are then
filed with an opaque substance and the two plates
being identical, are folded face to face and ce-
mented together.
This screen being placed in the plateholder as
stated Is arranged in such position that the Dor
trait of which cut is desired is photograph
through the screen onto sensitive plate. The re
sultng negative necessarily shows surface covered
with black dots. shading out TO the various tones
in the portrait those In the white part of the copy
being large and almost knit together while those
In the dark parts of the portrait being very small
and even vanishing altogether The reasons for this
will be clear to any in the least familiar with
photography.
The half tone negative is printed upon plate of
copper the surface of which has been sensit Zed in
manner differing only in formula from that used
to senstlZe the ordinary Photographic printing pa
iron, which dissoves, etches, the parts which
not represented by the dots described The part
etched out by the acid becomes the depressed por
ton of the printing plate while the dots by their
varying thickness proximity take ink and so
print the picture