Graphotype

A mechanical method of converting an artist’s drawing into an engraved block ready for the printer, which is at once simple, speedy, and comparatively inexpensive.

The process was discovered by Mr. De Witt C. Hitchcock, an artist and wood engraver, in New York. Requiring one day to correct a drawing upon boxwood with white, and having none of that pigment ready at hand, he bethought him to make use of the enamel of a common card. On removing this enamel, which he did with a wet brush, he found, to his surprise, that the printed characters on the card remained in relief, the ink used in impressing them resisting the action of the water, and so protecting the enamel lying underneath. The possible practical application of this at once suggested itself to him, and accordingly he began to make experiments. Ultimately he demonstrated that the process of producing relief plates direct from the drawings of the artist is as certain in its results as wood-engraving, with these special advantages; that it occupies at the very most one-tenth of the time, is less costly, and reproduces exactly, line for line, and touch for touch, the artist’s own work.

The process itself may be thus briefly described:—Upon a sheet of metal perfectly flat is distributed an even layer of very finely pulverized chalk, upon which is laid an ordinary steel plate, such as is used by steel engravers: it is then placed in a powerful hydraulic press, where it is submitted to such pressure that on removal the chalk is found to have assumed a solid, compact mass, with a surface equal to an enamel card, and which is rendered still more solid by a strong coating of a peculiar size. When dried the plate is ready to he drawn upon, and this is done with a chemical ink composed principally of lamp black, gluten, and it chemical which gives the fluid the advantage of never drying until it comes in contact with the chalk plate. When the drawing is finished, instead of spending hours, as would have been the case had the drawing been made upon wind, in carefully picking out every particle of white, brushes are used of various degrees of stiffness, which by hand, and in some cases by machine, are caused to revolve on the surface, and in a very short time till the chalk untouched by the artist is removed, leaving the ink lines standing up in clear, sharp relief. All that now remains to be done, is to saturate what is left upon the plate with a solution which renders all as hard as marble, and it is then ready for the stereotyper or the electrotyper, who, by the ordinary methods, produces a metal block from it, of which impressions may be taken to an unlimited extent.

Graphotype has already been applied to book, newspaper, and magazine illustration; to the reproduction of coloured drawings and paintings; to printing for transferring to pottery and japanned surfaces, &c. A company has been formed in London for carrying out this invention. They sell plates of certain sizes, on which the artist can make his drawing; he then returns his work, and the company completes the process, and in a short time produce a block ready for printing.

Several publications are now issued which are illustrated on the Graphotype principle, but they are not at all first-class productions. Indeed, it may be said that every substitute for the wood-engraving has failed so far. The man who could hit upon an invention for making a drawing on wood which could be printed, with ordinary type, without the tedious and expensive process of engraving, would make his fortune in a month. A full description of the Graphotype process will be found in “The Handbook of Graphotype; a Practical Guide for Artists and Amateurs.” London: The Graphotyping Company (Limited), 7, Garrick-street.