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A Seed of Consequence

A Seed of Canseque~lee

Indirect Image Transfer and Chemical

The Role Played by in the Development of Printing Technology

Dennis Bryans Q - 24 October 2000 Synopsis

The is printing processes into photographic images possible dominated by studies of classes based upon depth of for the first time. In the mechanical . In this impression which is, nineteenth century, thesis the role of lithography essentially, a mechanical idea lithography also provided the in modernising printing is grounded in the typographic first means by which presented as an alternative tradition. could be path. The conventional reproduced with printing ink The idea presented here is explanation of how different in - typography follow- that Gutenberg's application printing processes work is ing here rather than of indirect image transfer in generally made by dividing the way. them into relief, and his invention of moveable planographic processes. This type provoked changes of These issues have not been explanation is of questionable greater importance than did clearly recognised by many. value now, in a world where the alternative invention of The widely acknowledged digital pre-press and illustrations directly superiority of typography to printing hold sway. from plates or print economically, sharply, wooden blocks. and at speed, was not It is an outmoded idea to surpassed by lithographers Similarly, direct lithography think that different ways of (who tended to concentrate was transformed by delivering ink under pressure on technical illustration and Senefelder into a vehicle for is at the core of printing. decorative printing) for many indirect image transfer by the Instead, it is more useful to years. It was not until indirect invention of lithographic focus our attention on the image transfer was applied to . This invention role played by direct and the lithographic press that had important ramifications indirect image transfer. The this barrier to progress was for the future of lithography similarities between the uses overcome, and, at last, text and for the preservation of made by Gutenberg and and image were efficiently photographic images. The Senefelder of direct and transferred photographically combination of chemical indirect image transfer has a to the rotary offset press. greater importance than has printing and indirect image the simplified division of transfer made the capture of Chapter Contents

Introduction 1

A New Printing Paradigm: The Physics and Chemistry of Indirect Transfer 26

The Double Invention of Printing 46

Chemical Lithography Combines the Twin Inventions of Printing

The Spread, Improvement and Effects of Direct Lithography on Printing

The Duel Role Played by Lithographic Transfer 135 in the lnvention of

John Osborne and the lnvention of Photolithograhy 166

Direct Transfer and the lnvention of the Collotype 202 Process

Indirect Transfer and the lnvention of Offset Printing 243

Conclusion 264

Bibilography 282

Appendices

i 'The Beginning of Type Founding in Sydney: Alexander Thompson's Type, His Foundry, and His Exports to Inter-Colonial Printers' 298

'Nineteenth-Century Australian Type Foundries' 311

Thomas Arthur Davey, (patent 20.420/29, 1929) 328

PhillipStephan Photo-litho and Typographic Process Co. Ltd., (patent, 1888) 332

F. W. & H. N. Niven, (patent, 8862, 1891) 335 Illustrations

Figure Page

The Hoe 'Web' perfecting c1879

The Web of Development in Printing Technology

Mechanical and Chemical Printing

Mustard Pot, , c1780

Wood cut, , foundry type, and wood poster type

The press room from Diderot's Encyclopedie

William Playfair's 'Imports and Exports to and from England from the Years 1700 to 1782

C. J. Minard, Carte Figurative des partes successives en hommes de I'Armee Fran~aise dans la campaigne Russie 1812- 1813

Useful properties of different materials used in transfer ink

Useful properties of different materials used in transfer paper

Senefelder's pole press

The Engine House at Swindon, lithograph

Great Western Railroad, lithograph

Foot of an Iguanadon, lithograph

Compsognathus, lithograph

The Great Eastern, lithograph

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, lithograph, 1796

Madame de Stael, lithograph, 1834

Charlotte Bronte, lithograph, n. d.

Guiditto Pasta, lithograph, n. d.

Lithographic lettering

'Tuscan Shaded' foundry type

'Thorne Shaded' foundry type

Camera obscura

iii illustrations

Figure Page

25 T. S. Boys, Le Pont Royal et le Quay d'0rsay

26 H. Florence, Immigrant Family, c1833-9

27 J. N. Niepce, Heliotype, 1827, The Holy Family

28 J. N. Niepce, Heliotype, 1826, the first

29 A. Poitevin, Memoirs of a Madman, photolithograph

30 A. Poitevin, Picture of a Woman, photolithograph

31 Map : Colony of Victoria

32 Gridlines of C. W. Ligar's proposed geodetic survey

33 J. W. Osborne, photolithographed map : Parishes of Ravenswood and Mandurang, issued 3 September, 1859

Photolithographic maps issued by Osborne before 14 February 1860 174

J. W. Osborne, Temperature of the air from the month of March 1858 to March 1859 175

A. D. C. Scott, Photozincograph of an engraving, 1863 194

A. D. C. Scott, Photozincograph of an engraving, 1863 194

A. D. C. Scott, Photozincograph, A leaf from the Doomsday , originally issued 14 February 1860 194

A. D. C. Scott, Halftone photozincograph, Trees on Southampton Common, 1863

J. Degotardi, Anastatic Process and Photolithograph 1861 211

Banner, Ballarat Punch, first series 220

F. W. Niven, Ballarat Punch, , design for a cover?

F. W. Niven, Ballarat Punch, loose leaf, verso : design for a lithographic press?

Design for a four colour sheet fed rotary press initialled F. W. N. 227

Bell and Valentine, four colour press, 1908

Drawing of a two colour Hughes & Kimber litho. press (modified) initialled F. W. N.

Drawing of a two colour Hughes & Kimber litho. press, detail 228 illustrations

Figure Page

48 Drawing of a three colour press on F. W. Niven company letterhead issued prior to 1905 228

Furnival lithographic press 228

F. W. Niven, drawing of a direct rotary two colour sheet fed lithographic machine, signed F. W. Niven 228

The CrispPhoto Process Illustrated 236

The offices of F. W. Niven & Co., 40 - 42 Flinders Street Melbourne

E. S. & A. Bank letter to F. W. Niven & Co. 239

F. W. Niven 240

Donald Taylor & Co. collotype post card, Light's Monument, Adelaide c1905-6

Donald Taylor & Co. collotype post card, Light's Monument, Adelaide (verso) photograph by J. Taylor 242

I. W. Rubel, patent offset lithographic machineand F. Sears, Sears-Nuttall patent high-speed direct lithographic rotary machine, 1908-9 253

Rubel and Sears 262

1 Plattel, The War between Engraving and Lithography 266

Daumier lamrpooning photography 266 i Mr Moeller's Excavation, photograph by R. Daintree, lithograph after photograph by R. Shepherd 269

Rush near Navarre, photograph by R. Daintree, after photograph. 269

Please note

The text in this file has been automatically extracted and may contain minor errors. For the original version please consult the paper copy held in the Swinburne Library.

Chapter 1 Introduction

The nineteenth century still belonged to the discoverer and the explorer. One of the most characteristic phenomena of the mid-twentieth century, the mechanical age in which we live, is the combination of research and teamwork. Specialisation has reached such a degree that to explain the mechanical complexities of present- day printing machinery and equipment would confuse rather than clarify the picture in the print-lover's and print-user's minds. - Charles Rosnerl

1 Charles Rosner. So writes Rosner in a 1951 survey Printer's Progress, Printer's Progress The Sylvan Press. London, a hundred years of British printing history that compares the 1951. unpaginated text. numbered art of printing at the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851 with illustrations. Rosner, the state of the printer's art in 1951. It is perhaps unfair to an author and topical reviewer of the graphic out the patronising assumption in Rosner's introductory arts and design in The Penrose Annual, remarks, yet he was not alone in assuming that new printing represented Charles Rosner and Associates technologies were beyond the understanding of the ordinary London.-For more ~y Rosner see also 'Art reader. Rosner still speaks of living in a mechanical age. It is is Invisible' The clear that for him, and for many others who shared this view, Penrose Annual. V. 50. London. 1956. editor there is no useful distinction to be made between the parallel R. B. Fishenden. published by Lund progress of chemistry and physics in the industrialised state. Hurnphries, pp. 41-4; -'Alliance Graphique Internationale' The 1 Penrose Annual. V. 51. By 1951, although it was not yet obvious, we had already London. 1957. editor outstripped the mechanical age in printing. The comfortable R. B. Fishenden, published by Lund textbook division of printing processes into letterpress, gravure . Hurnphries. pp. 13-5; --Graphic '57'. The and offset printing concealed a deep divide between the Penrose Annual. V. 52, London, 1958, editor substance and appearance of printing; that is, between the Allan Delafons. published by Lund methods of the past and the future. An analysis of fundamental Hurnphries. pp. 61-3. differences in printing processes was not an issue that A review of a graphic arts and printing occupied the minds of either technical writers or print exhibition at Lausanne.; historians. In 1951 the specialist did indeed hold sway over -'Report from Poland' The Penrose Annual. the detail of printing technology. Better printing plates, V. 54, London. 1960. editor Allan Delafons. improved makeready, finer dot screens, improved inks and published by Lund paper occupied the minds of the 'scientific' print technologist Hurnphries, pp. 50-3, a review of Polish who unquestionably made improvements to technical graphic design and Polish film posters. processes and to the resultant appearance of printing. But a general understanding of how printing had been transformed from a mechanical process to a chemical one was not considered worthy of close examination. Emphasis on - specialisation and minor scientific improvements resulted in a failure to fully appreciate the general direction in which printing technology was heading.

After the Second World War corporate printing supply businesses expanded vastly. Their advantages: large-scale production, and quality control learned during the war, together with the ability to fund large specialist technical laboratories soon monopolised new technical developments. Individual printing shops, previously keepers of semi-secret arts like plate preparation, or ink making and mixing, became regarded as I amateurish and uncompetitive. Because of this, their proprietory secrets were allowed to wither and die out. The spirit of the nineteenth century tinkerer and inventor at work in his private makeshift laboratory which until now had remained alive in the twentieth century in the plate making department and in the press room was fatally undermined by the corporation. The pioneering spirit with its attendant dreams of finding new ways of doing things was quickly dispatched by the travelling salesman who demonstrated that such notions were messy and unprofitable. I

Many writers think only of typography and printing methods in i terms of Gutenberg's invention of moveable type. This gives I cause for concern. It is a view that no longer has any I immediate relevance to our time where, already, most of the educated population are only familiar with electronic printing and publishing. This is the problem and the challenge that is placed before writers of printing history, of social history and of the history of graphic design.

This gap between the invention of printing and the beginnings 1 of the electronic age was notably exposed in Marshall McLuhan's book The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962). In it, he made it obvious that a gap exists between received knowledge - 'typographic man' as represented by mechanical typography and, present reality - chemical offset printing. In doing so, ~c~uhan-alsoexposed a substantial vacuum in historiography that needs to be reappraised and filled. The ideas presented by this work, aim to show that Senefelder's invention of chemical lithography resides more accurately at the centre of this gap in our historical I understanding; an argument that so far has found no advocate. It is my belief that the invention of lithography is the truly significant event, and that the invention of chemical photography which is frequently pointed out to us as the next major stage of development, originated with lithography, and was one of the fruits of Senefelder's discovery. Also, lithogra- phy unlike typography, was a purely European invention. The materials used were entirely European and the best lithographic stone was found only in and France. Lithography attained the first stage of its maturation in just over a century (1796 - 1905) in preparation for offset printing ' in the 20th century. In some ways the new process obeyed too ' well the rule that printing should be the unobtrusive servant of ideas. Consequently, the little noticed material changes in the appearance of printing were more significant than is generally realised. Lithography also differed from typography in that I Gutenberg's process faced no competing technology capable I

of seriously resisting it. Senefelder's new chemical method of , printing however, represented a challenge to an entrenched and powerful printing industry.

The importance of chemical printing does, nevertheless, hinge much more on the connection between photography and lithography than is generally recognised. This premise demands a reorientation of historical emphasis. It also makes later advances in printing understandable in a new way, through the advances brought about by the invention of photo-, the ribbon, and the earliest attempts at I by the means of lithographic transfer attempted by Otto I Mergenthaler.

At the beginning of the 19th century chemical lithography challenged, and to some extent fractured, what are widely considered to be the salutary influences of typographic taste and convention. Artists, by working directly on lithographic stone, were able to use brush lettering and pen scripts and return to a style of printing that recreated a synthesis of word

2 Fine examples of and image previously achieved only through engra~ing,~ books which display both engraved etching or the much earlier scribal tradition. The flexibility which illustration and engraved text that may lithography brought to printing enabled flat colour and be referred to are The calligraphic letterforms to be combined. Mechanical typography, Musical Entertainer, by George Bickham Junior in order to compete with lithography's new freedom of style ' in England (1737 - 1739) and Gaetano and decoration, was compelled by the customer to demand of Giarrk's Scrittor Fiorentino invento, e the type founder elaborate letterforms and typographic incise questo Nuovo Metodo per bene novelties. Some like Hullmandel in The Art of Drawing in Stone Scrivere, second (1824) noted this development favourably, but others were , 1808. savagely critical. Ruskin in Elements of Drawing wrote 'let no

3 , Elements lithographic work come into the house, nor look at anyI3 on the of Drawing (sixth edition) George Allen. London. grounds that cheap, crudely drawn, lithographic reproductions 1898. p. 347. degraded the quality of artistic expression. A later I 4 Andrew. J. Corrigan. A commentator, A. J. C~rrigan,~also turned on lithography and Printer and His World. Faber and Faber, with some justification blamed the excesses in typographic London 1944. p. 97. ornamentation during the Victorian era on Senefelder's

invention. I

Otherwise, historians have only explored the advantages of direct lithography, the fashion for elaborate chromolithographic illustrations in the middle of the nineteenth century, and the flowering of the lithographic poster in Paris at the century's end. Except for these developments, chemical printing has remained unexplored while mechanical typography has been written about continually and in depth.

This opinion may be thought ill considered. It may be argued, with justification, that lithographic printing was not economically viable for books or printing before 1900. However, so little is known about early lithography that to say it was impossible to print lithographic books or profitably before 1900 is also a risky proposition. 5 Michael Twyman, Early Lithographed Books: A Study of the Design and Michael Twyman in his preface to Early Lithographed Book9 Production of Improper Books in the Age of the establishes that he has catalogued more than 400 items of Hand Press, Farrand. London. 1976. lithographic book production and that with due caution he 'deliberately excluded books in Arabic and other non-latin scripts that were produced by lithography outside Europe' because he did 'not know enough about them to say anything 1. more than that they were probably more common than their European counterparts.'This estimate of more than 800 books still falls short of a total figure. Tvqman's tally excludes 'atlases, music scores, and writing manuals' and he declined to investigate the elaborate chromolithographic books written about by Ruari McLean in his book Victorian Book Design and

Colour Printing.= I 6 Ruari McLean. Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing, (Second Edition). Faber North America too, was a source of lithographic book and & Faber, London. 1963. newspaper production before 1900. Peter Marzio, in The Democratic Art, writes that Louis Kurz (1835-1921) a founding ' partner in the Chicago Lithographic Company, began Chicago Illustrated, with a subscription price of $1.50, in January 1866 and it continued to be issued for thirteen months, but, as I

7 Peter C. Marzio, The Marzio points out, it is unlikely to have recovered its costs.' Democratic Art: Chromolithograhy 1840-1900, pictures However the application of in the popular I for a 19th-Century America. London, press was clearly economic when it was employed as an Scolar Press, 1980, pp177-8. incentive to the public or to encourage advertisers. Elaborate chromolithographic prints helped sell magazines and . David Reed in The Popular Magazine in Britain and the United States 1880 - 1960 has shown that advertisers were keen to 8 David Reed. The exploit the eye-catching novelty value of colour in advertising.' Popular Magazine in Britain and United States 1880 - 1960. The British Library, The natural advantages of lithography are rarely discussed by London, 1997. print historians. The role of lithography in the development of half-tone photographic reproduction: , photo- zincography and collotype printing were developments made well in advance of similar developments in . The layout of the lithographic book also anticipated modern book design.

Reed has rediscovered the use of innovative commercial 9 Ibid. Reed, Ch. 2. 'The Great Printing lithographic printing in The Canadian Illustrated News as early Revolution', pp. 27 - 49. as 3 October 1869 and provides other example^.^ It cannot be denied that there were serious limitations which slowed the progress of lithographic printing. Each new advance in lithography was sparked by some external technological innovation. The ability to roll plate led to a limited acceptance zincography in Britain in the 1840s. The printing plate, patented in New York in 1891, led to its gradual introduction into general use by 1900. This new plate technology contributed to the introduction of offset printing in 1903-5, however, for many years after there was considerable disagreement amongst offset printers as to which was superior, zinc or aluminium, and each method had its dedicated followers. Around 1915 the term metalography was made fashionable by Joseph Goodman in Practical modern metal~graphy.'~The next leap forward being the development 10 Joseph Goodman, Practical modern metal- of anodised, bi-metal and tri-metal plates in the 1950s ography. Being a complete, practical and and 60s. technical handbook for lithographic printers, artists, designers, photo- process workers and The neglect of chemical printing by historians in the 20th technical students, of the century is even more marked than it was during the 19th. The latest and best European and American printing introduction of offset 'litho' printing on paper unleashed a methods. Lechworth, Hertfordshire. 1914. revolution. It led to the installation of web fed and made practicable the printing of newspapers and magazines lithographically became a real force for letterpress to deal with. This forced a drive for improvement by the letterpress printer and in .

In contrast, the transition from chemical imaging and printing to electronic methods of imaging and printing is comparatively well documented. The development of which served to bridge the gap between mechanical typesetting and electronic typesetting did not follow traditional letterpress methods. Phototypesetting was born of lithography and as such it contributed, along with photography, to the ascendancy of chemical offset printing. Advances made by photography during the Second World War, most would agree, permitted photo- typesetting to mature and be accepted by the printing industry. It should tje noted at this point that stone lithography is a direct printing method like engraving. But transfer paper, like moveable type and photographic negatives are indirect methods of printing. The discovery of offset printing c1903-4 liberated lithographic printing in two important ways. One was . that offset printing from a cylinder press made lithography directly competitive with rotary letterpress printing speeds. The other was that images printed by the offset method benefited from improved ink distribution to paper and with the technical improvements made by Sears, Frey and others, along with the newly introduced aluminium plates, superior half tone photo- graphic reproductions could be obtained.

By the 1960s phototypesetting and offset lithography had been successfully amalgamated. This brought about a major change in the way text was delivered to the . The transition to phototypesetting was in part realised through the modification of Monotype and Linotype 'hot-metal' machines to deliver optically and photochemically imaged type on a film . The liberation of type from the limitations of i mechanical printing, especially the increasingly fine tolerances I demanded of 'makeready' by letterpress machines, guaranteed \ the supremacy of the offset press. Indeed, the microscopic tolerances demanded of letterpress after World War II are analogous to an attempt by letterpress printers to imitate the advantages obtained from planographic printing. Again, as happened with stone lithography, the increased fluidity of type permitted by phototypesetting had a detrimental effect on typographic practice. The typographer in many cases being replaced by a less skilled, but cheaper, typist to gain a cost advantage over competitors.

Phototypesetting carried the chemical printing era towards the electronic age when computerised keyboards and Video Display I Units were introduced to aid phototypesetting. Soon digital imaging replaced film and optical systems and electronic typesetting became a reality. This transition to electronic type setting has brought us to a new watershed and while it obediently provides an image for transfer onto chemical substrates such as and the photosensitised 11 Bruce E. Tory. printing plate for the offset press, it is a new technology and Photolithography, Associated General its future lies with digital and systems instead. Publications Pty. Ltd. Sydney, 1953, pp. 1-2. In forming this paradigm there has not been found in printing 12 Michael Twyman. literature, apart from Bruce Tory's photolithograph^ and Michael Printing 1770-1970: an illustrated history of Twyman's Printing 1770--1970,12 a hint of the path that its development and uses in England, Eyre lithography followed from its invention to its maturity. In and Spottiswoode, London. 1970. See lithography we have a printing technology that has quietly evolved pp. 24-25 for without an adequate evaluation of its social significance from experimental processes devised by media specialists. When books on printing history, and print Blake. Schmidt, Senefelder, Lizar. culture in general, remain resolutely fixed upon the lore of Schoenberg, Woone. Palmer, the Nidpce traditional letterpress printing they are generating a distorted family. Daguerre. Talbot, Auer, Bradbury picture of history. By ignoring the diversity of printing technologies and Bate. that predate and overlap with the media of film and television, 13 Robert Darnton. The and now the personal computer, the task for writers like McLuhan ' Business of Enlightenment: A and Elizabeth Eisenstein is made needlessly difficult, and the Publishing History of the Encyclopddie impression they foster is misleading. 1775-1800,Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Mass., The reasons for this gap between substance and appearance 1979. pp. 2-3., provides a different (especially in American printing history) arises from the explanation. Darnton writes -'book history emphasis on the unquestionably powerful effect of 19th has been relegated to library schools and century industrialisation on United States printing technology. rare book collections' ... [but in The scale of American 19th century printing technology, and its America you will not consequential export trade, has largely contributed to the find] ...'any ordinary. , meat-and-potatoes prevailing historical view.I3 The United States contributed historian attempting to understand the book mightily to the construction of printing presses. The as a force in history.' The resources of perfected by George Clymer (in use in printing history 'curiously [have] not Philadelphia by April 1814), was exported to the world. attracted much Collaboration between Robert Hoe and the Smiths resulted in the attention among the French' either, and 'the Smith iron press of 1821. Once begun, Hoe & Co went from processes by which books were strength the strength. An iron 'bed and press' based on produced and distributed.. .have been the model of Adams bed and platen press was manufactured by studied best in Britain, where Hoe in 1839-40. An automatic sheet feed patented in 1847 by researchers have Hoe & Co was followed by a web-fed rotary press in 1873. pursued their quarry into the account Independently the success of jobbing platen presses in the mid- books of publishers and the ledgers of dle of the century was highlighted by clam style machines such booksellers, not merely into state and notorial as the or don press (1851) the Golding, the Chandler and Price archives, as in France.' platen presses and their imitators. In addition to printing machinery, type founding in America dates from the colonial period. First practiced in 1769 by Abel Buell, type founding was carried on successively by Christopher I Sower at Germantown, Pennsylvania from 1772 onwards, and then by Justus Fox his former apprentice, and later, a punchcutter, who acquired Sower's foundry in 1784. There were at least eight type foundries in the United States before 1800, among them the foundry established by Benjamin Franklin and his grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache in Philadelphia about 1775, and, also in Philadelphia, the of John Baine and Grandson begun in 1787. Famous among the early firms were Binney and Rowlandson who started in business together in Philadelphia in 1796 and soon acquired the foundries and equipment of both B. F. Bache and of John Baine. During the nineteenth century, American type ! founding expanded greatly. Firms such as Bruce's New York fig. 1. Below, The Hoe "Web" perfecting machine, Type Foundry; Johnson & Co.; The Connor Type Foundry; The illustration from Frederick J. Wilson, Central Type Foundry; MacKellar, Smiths and Jordan; Farmer, TYPOGRAPHICAL PRIMING Little and Company, and Barnhart Brothers and Spindler, are MACHINES AND MACHINE j PRINTING, Wyman and just a few of the prominent names among the approximately i Sons. London. 1879, pl. 71.. facing p. 139. seventy five foundries that cast type in the United States. American typographic ingenuity is found in many mechanical ' inventions such as the type machine invented by David Bruce, the typewriter patented by Christopher Latham Sholes of I Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1868 and the successful Remington typewriter. The demand for type also led to the invention of many type setting machines before success was achieved by Megenthaler and Landston.

In the field of photomechanical image reproduction lves halftone screen was patented in 1881. The mature development of photoengraving resulted from the various photo-screen experiments carried out by Ives, Horgan and Max Levy in America. The inventions of the Linotype and the Monotype machines heightened the demand for matrices. The time honoured craft of cutting punches by hand was out of step with the push towards mechanisation in American printing. The demanded sets of punches for new type designs in quantities that could not be satisfied by traditional methods.

A solution, however, was at hand. In 1884, the same year in which Mergenthaler perfected his first Linotype machine, Linn Boyd Benton of Milwaukee invented a punch cutting machine, and this machine was acquired by Mergenthaler's company in 1889. Typographic design now came to the fore as the ! linotype machine began to compete directly with the type foundries for the same market.

Consequently, the products of the American are also reflected in 19th and 20th century American printing literature as well. Isaiah Thomas's book The History of Printing in America, published in 1810, was the first to chronicle the American letterpress printing tradition. A literary tradition often amended, and extended, in later years by the likes of Thomas McKellar, author of The American Printer, a book that was in its eleventh edition in 1878. McKellar, a family member of the type founding business of McKellar Smiths and Jordan, found a wide readership for his book both within the United States and overseas. This popular and influential work was succeeded in the 1890s by Theodore Lowe i

de Vinne's popular printing manuals. De Vinne loomed large at j the end of the 19th century as an expert commentator on the art of printing. As significant in America as William Morris was in England, he cast his influence on the historical perspective formed by North American print historians like Henry L. Bullen, who wrote for The Inland Printer and Daniel B. Updike who 14 This is not a uniquely published Printing Types: Their History, Forms and Use, A Study American problem. The same tendency. in Survivals, in 1922. Henry Bullen's one-time assistant although less pronounced, may be Beatrice Warde, carried this interest with her to Britain where found in England. English type founders she contributed articles to The Monotype Recorder and came like Caslon, Stephenson Blake, into contact with English typophiles such as Stanley Morison, Stephens Shanks and, Oliver Simon and Sir Francis Meynell. in the field of printing machinery, Harrild, Hopkinson Cope and Dawson Payne and Elliot, Printing histories are still written in support of this typographic are supported by a typographic literature tradition. Grounded in the industrial revolution, they draw dominated by such writers as Blades. attention to a dominant theme of 'progress' in mechanical Reed and Morison is printing. The formulae for this accepted theory of printing I comparable. In Australia, a little more history ernphasises technical developments such as increased i has been written about lithography than printing speeds, improvements in mechanical presses and, the is generally the case while typographic economic fruits enjoyed as a result of these developments. history is relatively ! neglected. For a This bias in printing history has compounded its effect. Taken tentative exploration of up uncritically by later writers such as Eisenstein and Estelle early type founding in Australia see--Dennis Jussim in the United States and McLuhan in Canada it has Bryans. 'The Beginning I of Type Founding in been fed into their theories unaltered.14 Sydney: Alexander Thompson's Type, His Foundry, and His Exports to Alberto Manguel touched the core of this bias by proposing that Inter-Colonial Printers' reading precedes writing.15 By broadening the meaning of reading Journal of Design History. volume 9.. to include in reading the movements of stars and the number 2.. pp. 75-86. London 1996, direction and numbers of animal spoor; the communications in Oxford University Press, (Appendix I). dreams and to read the 'feel' of ocean currents is to place

15 Alberto Manguel. A written script in a different and somewhat diminished History of Reading, perspective. In his interpretation, additional subtleties derived from London 1997. published by Flamingo, more obscure forms of script (and picture) expand in importance. pp. 6-7. Manguel derives this idea from Phillipe Descola's I book Les Lances du The interpretive value of these symbols becomes vividly cr6puscule. Paris 1994. apparent when George Sarton's idea that printing was a double 16 George Sarton. Six Wings: inventioni6 is harnessed to Manguel's observations. Pictorial Men of the Renaissance, Indiana University Press, print: engraving, etching, lithographing, photographing and Bloomington, 1957, p. 119. scanning are of major, and increasing, importance in modern media technologies.

17 Leslie A. White. The Oral culture, examined by McLuhan, Leslie A. White,17 Walter Science of Culture. .Farrar, New York. Ong, Eisenstein and others, retains a drawing power for the 1949. typographic mind rarely matched among students of the visual; 18 1.. p. See Ch. 14.. n. 22 William lvins Jr., Estelle Jussim, or Edward Tuftela for example, for reference to, and discussion of, the work of in examining or interpreting pictorial images. Sarton's Elizabeth Eisenstein, see also Ch. 3. pp. 47-8. acknowledgment of a second, pictorial, invention of printing For Jussim see pp. 65-6, and for see Tufie has the potential for redefining print culture and explaining pp. 52-5. printing history in a new way. In the electronic age a broader definition of print is necessary and consequently, industrial typographic histories have been diminished and have become outmoded in importance.

The first of these typographic histories to make a lasting impact on American print scholarship was Prints and Visual 19 William M. lvins Jr.. Communication by Ivins.lgThe influence of Ivins's book is fixed Prints and Visual Communication, in mechanical print. His information on photography and print Cambridge. Mass.. 1953. reproduction favours typographic process engraving. Nicephore Nigpce, the discoverer of '' whose lithographic experiments will later be shown to be important, is mentioned only in passing by lvins and given little credit for his contribution to the invention of photography. Collotype printing, Poitevin's and Albert's species of chemical printing, is barely mentioned in his book and photolithography and offset printing are not mentioned at all. The result is that his scholarly assessment, which promises the researcher much on the subject of prints and visual communication, delivers little in the way of enlightenment where the progress of chemical printing is concerned.

More influential still is McLuhan's pronouncement that 'the typographic and mechanical era of the past five hundred years' is succeeded by the 'electronic age'. The broad sweep of his argument is such that other features in the historical landscape of media become insignificant. His concern is not with the history of technology and the transition to chemical lithography but rather with the social and psychological effects that may be attached to technological change. He leaps from technical cause to social effect believing that there is a condition, akin to synaesthesia, that links oral and visual sensations and gives 'new shapes and structures of human interdependence and of expression which are 'oral' in even when the components of the situation may be non-verbal' a point echoed by Manguel.

20 Marshall McLuhan, The His attitude to the consequences of the invention of printing Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographical was enlarged upon in the prologue to The Gutenberg Galaxy.20 Man. Toronto University 'Scientific Progress' he wrote, has little to do with the core of Press. Toronto, 1962. Peter Drucker's journal article on 'The Technological 21 Peter Drucker, 'The Rev~lution'~~'The essential thing, the cause of the 'basic Technological Revolution.' Technology change in attitudes, beliefs, and values released ...[by] ... the and Culture, v. II. no. 4. 1961, great Scientific Revolution', was to be found a century before p. 348. in the invention of printing. By identifying the importance of the printing press 'The Gutenberg Galaxy at least attempts to supply 'one thing we do not know,' but even so, [in McLuhan's words] there may well prove to be some other things!' McLuhan's hesitation here may be a hint directed towards economics, or some other force, but notably, it also fits Senefelder's unexamined discovery of chemical lithography. Manipulations made possible by autographic ink and lithographic transfer are among those 'other things,' and lithography's invention can be shown to be the bridge between mechanical print and electronic communications.

There was a prescience in F.4cLuhan's writing. He projected his vision forward from Blake's images and ideas, to imagine a glimpse of the electronic future in the theories of Faraday and Einstein. The discovery of chemical printing by Senefelder is but one person removed from the discoveries of Michael Faraday in physics in the person of Charles Hullmandel. Hullmandel visited Senefelder in 1817 and also shared his ideas with Faraday and sought endorsement for his invention of lithotint from Faraday in 1827. 22 Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. Hullmandel's European visits raise another point, that printing The Printing Revolution in Early Modern is primarily a commercial venture. Even from its beginnings Europe, Cambridge. Michigan 1993. p. 25 printing, printers, type, presses and printed products all cites the example of transcended national boundaries in trade. This international Aldus Manutius's 'household' at Venice, trade, while acknowledged, is little discussed. The example of 'which contained some thirty members' and the introduction of printing into England by Caxton is but the quotes from Martin Lowry's The World of beginning of a continuous and growing interchange with Aldus Manutius: Business and Europe. This trade in the requisites of typographic printing also Scholarship in holds true for the needs of lithographers. Even at the zenith of Renaissance Venice who wrote that Aldus Napoleon's power Rudolf Ackermann, a British subject, was in presided over 'an 'almost incredible clandestine contact with his relatives and friends in Leipzig. mixture of the sweat shop, the boarding Hullmandel, with different motives, visited Germany to buy house, and the research institute." lithographic stones. He also sold lithographic presses in Eisenstein pursues America and supplied paper and lithographic stones to the this point further. pp. 100-1, with Surveyor General in Tasmania. These patterns of social contact reference to the 'miniature and trade, together, have received little coherent attention. The 'international houses"' established by Aldus, international nature of the printing trade and the cooperation Plantin and others in early modern Europe. among printers in local communities was, and still is, a feature See also-Colin Clair, of the culture of the printing office. The commercial perception Christopher Plantin, Cassell & Company, of the printing office as a diversified mixed business in the London, 1960, for a full account of 'Plantin 19th century is an aspect of the sociology of the print shop as businessman' selling 'maps. globes, that can be followed backwards through the seventeenth astrolabes, quadrants I and astronomical century to its beginnings in the fifteenth century, and equally, instruments.' Clair with surprising similarities in its structure, forwards to also shows that I Plantin's ledger books the present.22 reveal hundreds of I customers spread throughout Europe and North Africa. In a Eisenstein writes from a much safer position than either lvins or similar vein, Darnton's study of ledgers and McLuhan. Her books are anchored firmly in the period before correspondence files lithography was invented. Yet there are aspects of her work that of the Societe typogaphique de point to a poor understanding of printing practices and Neuchdtel op. cit. reveals the diversity of technology. It is in the area of illustration that we begin to see the Swiss societies' commercial contracts evidence of this. EisensteinZ3takes the curator of pictures, and private correspondence with Ivins, to task for 'special emphasis on "the exact repeatability customers, as well as of pictorial statement"' perhaps unaware that what lvins had commercial intelligence gathering observed is correct. An image on a copier plate is, relatively in France and the hire of journeymen for their speaking, fixed while hand set type is open to the possibility of printing shop at Neuchdtel from as far rearrangement and ~hange.~Werfurther complaint, that 'his away as Paris. analysis elsewhere tends to detach the fate of printed pictures 23 Eisenstein. op. cit.. from that of printed books' is also something of a quibble. The pp. 23-24. repeatability of type was frequently subject to change from 24 Engraving by skilled craftsmen was slow and proofing to editioning. The repeatability of a graph, table, difficult. It was common drawing, or map, in mechanical printing was more fixed for each for small plates to be turned as the work was edition, and if faulty beyond minor repairs, it needed to be engraved. Large plates such as those required for discarded and a new one made. Further, direct intaglio plates maps would be more difficult to turn without the were of necessity printed from the separately and indirectly risk of the graver slipping. Working on the middle of a transferred relief printed type, a point taken up by Estelle large plate would also be Jussim. Uneasy about this difficulty, Eisenstein notes the idea difficult unless it was mounted on a near proposed by George Sarton2=that printing was a 'double vertical plane. invention; typography for the text, for the images' Charles W. Hackleman, in Commercial Engraving and Printing, Commercial Engraving Publishing The term as it is understood by artists should be Company, Indianapolis considered as distinct from 'picture printing' or 'pictorial print' 1924. p. 525, wrote: printing from copper plates or 'picture transfer'. These are aspects of industrial printed 'is so slow and expensive that it is impractical to editioning. While 'printmaking' may be employed as an use them for long runs'. Regarding corrections on industrial process, artists usually have little use for mass copper plates, Hackleman is instructive: 'It is usually printing technologies with the limitations to creativity that they an easy matter to change impose. Because of these differences I wish to distinguish a letter or a word where the new word has the between image transfer (including both text and pictures) and a same number of letters as the old, but it is more picture or a text transferred alone. difficult and sometimes impossible to make additions to an engraved plate. The addition of a Eisenstein's historical perspective, suppresses any mention of word or a letter may mean economics, or of trade. Upon investigation it became clear that the taking out of nearly an entire line, in order that the absence of an economic argument in her thesis was the wording may be properly spaced after the founded on other reservations. Namely, her objections to views new word or letter is put in.' (pp. 528-9). propounded by historians who supported Karl Marx's

The main reason why materialistic theory of history as one of economic struggle and maps continued to be control. This is a serious flaw. Printing, from the beginning, engraved and then transferred to the stone stretched out in trade across national boundaries; exhibiting an was because copper plates were less bulky international character from the first. than 4 inch thick lithographic stones. Long texts would be uneconomic to engrave in From the foregoing remarks, the reader should now be aware comparison with that the theme of printing as an agent of change in western lithographic work. Lithography made the society is multi-faceted and has many interpreters-not all of printing of whole books. including illustration and them with an interest in printing in mind. Alvin Toffler whose text, possible. proposition in The Third Wave, is that there have been'three 25 Sarton, OD sit., pp. 23-24. successive 'waves' of civilisation up to the present. An insight 26 Jacques Barzun and perhaps owed to Barzun and GrafP6 (1992) shows that such Henry F. Graff, The Modern Researcher generalised patterns of interpretation categorise a class of Fifth Edition), Harcourt Brace, Florida, 1992, historiography that may be called the Philosophical Model of PP. 181 - 198. history. The Philosophical Model being composed either of a linear or a cyclical interpretation, is in Toffler's 'grand metaphor [of the] colliding waves of change,' a bet each way; a neat amalgamation of Barzun's and Graff's two models: the linear and cyclical models combined!

27 Alvin Toffler, The Third In the introduction to The Third Wave, Toffler judiciously Wave, New York 1981, Bantam Books. p. 4. cautions his readers to be wary of accepting his assertions literally as facts, that such and such 'will happen' or that previously 'civilisations did' this or that. Toffler asks his

readers to accept the vast scope of his theory of successive I 'waves' of Civilisation on the grounds that the freedom generalisations give to thought, and the 'large-scale synthesis' of ideas made possible by this methodology is insightful and creative. Broad generalisations, Toffler maintains, are essential to the creative interpretation of history, history's lessons for

modern society, and in expanding our understanding of the I culture we live in. Big generalisations sharpen our perception of historical patterns and help a reader to avoid confusion in 'a I 28 ibid. clutter of subdivision^'.^^

In proposing a new perspective of printing history one can also include the history of graphic design and the history of photography because of their close relationship with print. The various perspectives presented in historiography at present do not provide the balanced view of printing technology nor do

they review the role of image transfer in modern print media. , Consequently they are not acceptable to visual communicators ! or printing professionals. The large body of typographic literature called upon by historians in support of arguments that elevate the importance of printing in social and historical terms is outmoded. For example, Eisenstein's passing comment that letterpress printing technology is coming to an end (in the 1993 edition of her book) demonstrates this point clearly. My proposition is that printing should more properly be organised into three classes. These are composed of (a) mechanical printing, which includes letterpress printing by all relief and intaglio methods; (b) chemical printing which includes lithography, photography, photolithography, collotype process, transfer printing and offset printing, and; (c) Digital (or electronic) printing which includes laser and electrostatic printing.

Photography, collotype, photolithography, offset printing and phototypesetting, laid out in the pages that follow in support of this argument, are all chemical printing processes. Conversely the Linotype, Monotype and Ludlow machines are examples that may be cited as being among the significant developments in mechanical printing. In the chapters that follow, most successful printing processes after 1796 are shown to have relied on indirect image transfer rather than direct image transfer (see fig. 2., p. 29). Indeed, failure frequently accompanied direct transfer as can be demonstrated by the failure of mechanical typesetting I machines based on the idea of composing and distributing foundry type in the machine.

Compared with typography the literature in support of chemical t printing is illdefined and narrow in scope. Until now Senefelder's

1 invention has received piecemeal and compartmentalised attention from scholars of printing literature, art, and graphic design. There are, however, some hopeful signs that this may change. Michael Twyman has recently written several books on lithography which delve into the progress of chemical printing in the 19th century. Early Lithographed Books, A Study of the Design and Production ofImproper Books in the Age of the Hand Press (1990) deals with lithographic incunabula and Early Lithographed Music, A Study Based on the H. Baron Collection (1996) are two notable examples. His books are perhaps the only specialist historical surveys of 19th century lithographic printing not limited to either a purely technical readership, or aimed at cor,noisseurs of and print collecting. 29 Harry Whetton and R. Another technical work, Practical Printing and Binding,= B. Fishenden (editors). Practical Printing and pays some attention to lithographic transfer in 'Transferring Binding. Oldhams Press Limited, London. Methods' by authors Whetton and Fishendon who extol the 1948. pp. 205-212. importance of transfer paper; but they do not pursue the Practical Printing and Binding also has matter much further than to give simple practical advice to useful chapters on 'Platemaking by Offset lithographic printers on preparing transfers and retransfers for Duplication' and on 'Photolithography.' commercial applications such as label printing.

Writers who have paid specific attention to lithographic transfer paper are few. The value of the invention of transfer paper in the lithographic printing process is acknowledged by its inventor Senefelder. He gave a detailed account of his invention and an assessment of its value in A Complete Course of Lithography. Books on artistic lithography usually describe the preparation of transfer paper while general or specialist works in related fields such as photography or the graphic arts sometimes mention it in passing. In these cases its significance is usually not questioned or remarked on. There are exceptions! Burch, in 1910, struck a balance between the technologies when he wrote Colour Printing and

30 R. M. Burch's Colour Colour printer^.^^ Printing and Colour Printers, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, I 1910, (new edition The same limited exposition of lithographic printing is found in published by Paul books on print making and lithographic art. Here, purists Harris. . 1983). limit discussion to stone lithography and their rigid boundaries of investigation are the cause of offset printing being ignored. The possibilities for artists to utilise offset printing are consequently mostly unknown and unexplored. Weber's History of Lithography (1964) in the short chapter headed 'Planography as a Graphic Technique' goes a little further than most in dealing with lithographic transfer. Renee Loche's Lithography has a short section on offset printing and also provides some useful historical notes.

New ideas require new ways of expressing them. The invention and development of chemical printing has many examples of new words that confuse and obscure what. actually occurred. The term 'transfer paper' itself was used interchangeably by Senefelder to describe the application of traced images to lithographic stone and also to describe the application of indirect transfers using a chemically prepared transfer paper. Senefelder's use of the words transfer and transfer paper appears to have acquired a new meaning for Joseph Nicephore Niepce when he developed his heliographic process. Niepce's coining of 'I'heliographie' is also a good example of a new name invented to describe a new process.

Lithography and, in its early years, its English name of 'polyautography' in England, demonstrates the variety of alternatives that new inventions also generate. Henry Fox Talbot's photogenic (photograms) leading to the term photography also produced a variety of unsuccessful alternatives. Hercule Florence's 'poligraphie' invented in Brazil is one of these. The suffix (o)type as applied to Louis Jaques Mande Daguerre's process the , borrowed 'type' from the older form of mechanical printing, as did the Talbotype, Albertype and Calotype; the Woodburytype and the Collotype processes - with misleading effect as all of these are methods of chemical printing and do not involve mechanical type at all. These processes also grouped under similar names differ widely from one another.

The problems presented by the shifting meanings of words and the confusion generated by creations of similar sounding names for different kinds of processes stretches the limits of preexisting language to describe new circumstances. Sometimes a preexist- ing term acquires a new meaning to cover a new set of circum- stances. Fishenden and Whetton (1948) in their chapter on 'Offset 31 Whetton and Fishenden, op. cit., Machines and Offset Printir~g',~ldescribethe confusion caused by pp. 230-231. Robert Barclay's 1875 modification of a flatbed lithographic press for tinplate printing which marked the first application of the 'off- set' printing principle. Barclay's innovation was clearly an indirect transfer process, yet it became commonly known among printers as 'direct' printing, perhaps to distinguish between it and the indirect use of lithographic transfer paper to copy and duplicate images on stones and plates. Such problems abound. In the pages that follow I want to emphasise the point that lithographic transfer paper proved to be a vital ingredient in the development of chemical printing-especially in the development of photo-lithography. In this context it is worth remarking that Senefelder maintained, before photolithography was thought of, that transfer paper was his most useful

32 , A invention.32 Complete Course of Lithography, De Cappo Press, New York. The power of mechanical print culture has remained strong in 1977 (facsimile edition of the first English America. Letterpress printing, appears to have made a more edition published by Ackermann in 1819). lasting impression on American historians because of the p. 256. powerful forces unleashed by American industrial commerce. Perhaps this is the reason why the history of chemical printing seems to have found comparatively little support. The seed of European interest in lithography has fallen on more fertile ground. Several notable printing technologies, Gutenberg's mechanical printing and Senefelder's chemical lithography, were invented in Germany. Later still, collotype printing, based 1 on Joseph Albert's process, flourished in Germany much earlier than it did in England or America. The reasons for this are I often given as climatic. But this does not adequately explain why photolithography was invented in Australia, Europe and I England before it was adopted in America. It is not until the commercial application of tin printing that parallel developments can be found on both sides of the Atlantic. This equalling up in chemical printing advances was carried further by the discovery of lithographic offset printing by Ira Rubel in Chicago at about the same time an offset press was developed by the firm of George Mann in London (1903).

More parochially perhaps, lithography was introduced into Australia in 1821by Sir Thomas Brisbane soon after it was introduced into the United States by Bass Otis in 1819. Developments in chemical printing in Australia were boosted by the urgent need in the 1850s for large quantities of maps during the Victorian gold rushes. The accelerated use of lithography for map making led to John Osborne inventing photolithography in Melbourne in 1859. Another notable early achievement in chemical printing in Australia was the introduction of a version of Albert's collotype process to

Sydney by Josefin Degotardi in March 1873, a process that I gained an award for John Degotardi at the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition of 1875. Large Australian printing houses, thereafter, commonly had both lithographic and letterpress departments under the same roof in addition to book binding, electrotyping and stereotyping departments.

To return to the subject of books about lithography, it is useful to point out that those mentioned already are of English or European origin. It is necessary to cast a wider net by referring to books on this subject published elsewhere. In Australia, Bruce Tory's Photolithography, 1953, was

commissioned by Associated General Publications in Sydney I and the Graphic Arts Monthly of Chicago. It provides a useful condensed history of lithography and photolithography into two brief pages. This book is otherwise intended purely for the , lithographic printer, and takes on thereafter the form of a I technical manual. There are three American books that must 1 also be mentioned. The first of these is The Lithographer's

33 Charles Shapiro Manual,33(1977). This contains a good general survey of the (Editor). The i Lithographer's Manual technical developments of lithography from the days of (fifth edition), The Senefelder's and Hullmandel's two manuals until the twentieth Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, Inc.. century compiled by W. E. Soderstrom in the introductory Pittsburgh. 1974, Pp. 1-14. chapter 'The history of Lithography'. The Lithographer's Manual deals in three short paragraphs with lithographic transfer processes, and at somewhat greater length with the various advances in lithographic presses including the development of the offset press. Sections on Heliography and Daguerreotypy are followed by others dealing with photolithographic transfer and halftone processes. In its general structure and direction Soderstrom's chapter parallels the direction of my argument that the invention of lithographic transfer was a catalyst to further photographic and printing inventions. Like Bruce Tory's book, The Lithographer's Manual is a technical manual intendedfor the use of the offset printer:. A useful general work is Woodward's Five Centuries of Map

34 Arthur Robinson Printing34 which gives a brief description of the invention of 'Map Making and Map Printing : The Evolution of transfer paper, and its liberating effect on the preparation of a Working Relationship' in artwork for map printing in America. Robinson also provides David Woodward. (Editor). Arthur Robinson. Elizabeth some useful details about John Walter Osborne's American M. Harris etc.. Five Centuries of Map Printing, career. This addition to the history of lithographic printing in University of Chicago Press. Chicago. 1975. America is a somewhat isolated example. Robinson's 1-25. pp. observations are seemingly neglected by other American print historians. In England, Ruari McLean commented on this shortcoming in 1963 in Victorian Book Design and Colour

35 Ruari McLean, Victorian Printing,35writing that 'The progress of chromolithography in Book Design and Colour Printing (second edition). America awaits its own historian.' McLean briefly lists some Faber and Faber, London. 1963. pp. 137-8. prominent chromolithographers and the high technical standard of their work. Among those McLean considered worthy of comment were Peter Duval, Max Rosenthal (L. N. Rosenthal), and Thomas Sinclair, all in Philadelphia, and Louis Prang in Boston. McLean makes no mention of the well known firm of Currier and lves which he presumably omitted on the grounds

that their unsophisticated designs and the stiff drawing were I

out of keeping with his topic. I

Mclean's observations have since been partially addressed by Peter Marzio. Marzio's 1979 study of American chromo- lithography in The Democratic ArP6 is focused on America's 36 Peter C. Marzio. Chromolithography eastern seaboard. Marzio's book provides useful insights into 1840-1900: The I Democratic Art: the growth of lithographic shops from small firms where artist Pictures of a 19th- Century America, David and manager were collaborators in the 1840s, to large R. Godine. Boston, 1979. impersonal establishments of the period 1870-90, where problems of labour organisation and price competition dominated the industry. The international links between America and Europe are also a subject that is well delineated here. Details of American artists travelling to Dusseldorf, and Paris, to learn their craft is well presented and contains a wealth of additional information about the importation of lithographic stone and lithographic presses into the United States from Europe. An insight into the rapidity of technolo& transfer from England to America can also be gleaned by an observant reader. For example, Marzio cites 37 ibid. ch. 5. n. 25.. Nicholas Wainwright3' on the introduction of zinc plates in p. 240. lithographic printing in America in 1849. In England, Twyman too has pointed out that improvements in the manufacture of zinc plates precipitated the use of zinc in lithography in the 1840s ahead of similar developments in Europe where stone was more easily obtainable.

Marzio's work inevitably raises more questions than it answers. Only a fraction of the chromolithographic work done in America in this period is examined in The Democratic Art, a problem Marzio acknowledges. He wrote 'I am... acutely aware that, owing to lack of information, this work seems to overlook such important lithographic centres as St. Louis, Milwaukee, and New Orleans, as well 2s most of the West' and he expressed the hope that he might rectify this imbalance at some later time. A much bigger problem is assessing the effect of the mass market for chromolithographs in American middle and working class households. This may seem unimportant to the general reader until it is realised that the chromolithograph which found its way into newspapers and books circa 1840-80, became the preferred medium for the modern outdoor advertising poster from the 1890s until the 1960s.

The present academic boundaries of studies into print history fence off from one another the different printing processes and also make it difficult to form a broad picture of the progress of visual communication in a single country, let alone a global one. It is interesting, for example, to speculate on what an English study of popular chromolithography might reveal that might strike a balance against Patricia Anderson's study of the visual content of English mass-marketed magazines38between 38 Patricia Anderson, The Printed Image 1832 and 1860? (Anderson cites economic opportunities arid the ~ransfo~mationof Popular Culture: arising from faster typographic printing presses and cheap 1790-1860. Oxford stereotype plates as reasons for the spread of mass education University Press. Oxford, 1991. and culture). Might we not draw somewhat different conclusions from those put forward by Anderson if these advances in letterpress printing also required careful consideration of the influence of lithography? It is clear that world-wide the struggle to solve the problems of typography, the difficulty of printing music, or non Latin scripts, and the additional challenges the typographer faced with difficult tabular settings in scientific works and textbooks, served for generations to keep the focus of attention on

39 Note the many typographic letterpress printing.39At the same time the design of manuals dealing with letterspacing, imposition to improve legibility and readability remained a priority among and 'difficult matter'. For example see--Ralph W. book designers. Such designs, before lithography, were largely Polk. The Practice of determined by the limitations of letterpress printing. Printing. The Manual Arts Press. Peoria. Illinois. Photographs, a product of chemical printing, were enslaved 1937, pp. 132-43 for the 'Composition of Tabular in a straight-jacket of engraved copying or mechanical screens Forms' and John Southward. Modern and dots. (For most of this century gravure printing reigned Printing: Section 11. A Handbook of the Principles supreme). These very worthy objectives of charting the and Practices of difficulties of typographic print are nevertheless causes Typography and the Auxiliary Arts, Raithby. Lawrence & contributing to serious neglect of the proper study of Company, London.1899. pp. 24-66. for the lithographic printing. typesetting of 'Greek, German,Hebrew, Algebra, Table Work and Music.' The ease with which lithography might have solved these problems, and why it did not, has not been explored. The hard ' won advantages gained by letterpress printers led to attacks on i the weaknesses of lithographic printing that reinforced the ascendancy of mechanical print. Attacks on the poor quality of lithographic inks, the greyness of impression, and the

disparagement of freedom in lithographic composition; equated . with a sloppy lack of discipline in the mind of the dedicated typographer whose opinions were believed, and accepted by the general public.

This thesis on the progress of chemical printing is about a seachange in printing history; one that began, relatively unnoticed in 1796 with the invention of lithography. It was an important new direction that gained added momentum in the I first decade of this century with the introduction of offset printing and which became a mature technology in the 1960s. Its effects during its two hundred years have had a great part to play in the way we interpret literacy and knowledge. The 1 transmission of ideas whether textural br pictorial, and the driving forces behind modern mass culture owe much to it. Lithography has played a significant part in forming the circumstances that have carried us with great rapidity into the electronic age. Its effects, when examined closely, may recast many of our historical assumptions in the 1990s. The once useful paradigm that proclaimed typographic print alone to be a supreme mechanical invention is now embarrassingly difficult and even absurd to maintain. Chapter 2. A New Printing Paradigm

The strange thing is that so few people understand the difference between lithography and what is known as 'printing'. Everybody seems to know that printing is done I from type-a raised surface-yet they seem to know nothing about the planographic process of lithography. 1 Thomas E. Griffits. - Thomas E. Griffits.l The Rudiments of Lithography. Faber & Faber, London. 1954. p. 15. Thomas Griffits's words strike at the gap between the substance of printing technology and the appearance of the printed product. In The Rudiments of Lithography, we are made aware that in 1954 the general public was largely ignorant of the methods of lithographic printing. The prevailing paradigm suited most print historians, who found little that was worthy of

comment beyond the progress of letterpress printing. This gave , comfortable certainty to the established order; a view of printing history and printing technology that served to conceal a significant change. Letterpress printing was due for extinction and offset printing now represented a major challenge to it. A challenge that was set in motion by a small, and barely I understood mechanism in printing called indirect image I transfer; a mechanism of greater utility to the development of new printing inventions than its counterpart - direct image transfer. i

4 Indirect image transfer, has, from the beginning been a principal aid to the furtherance of printing inventions. Consequently indirect chemical printing, and not photography, should for historical reasons occupy the middle ground between typography and electronic printing. This proposition challenges assumptions that are at present generally accepted. 1 2 David Bruce, David Bruce, author of Sunpict~res,~for example, wrote of Sunpictures: The Hill Adamson Niepce's invention of the photograph as being a "system [that] 1 Calotypes, Studio owed more to lithography than to photography as we know it", Vista. London, 1973. I p. 12. but, Bruce concluded that "it proved something of a dead end in terms of any further sophistication."'This distant view of Niepce's contribution from the perspective of modern photography ignores Niepce's intention from the beginning; the intention to make mass produced permanent printed images. Further study will show that this purpose also became the goal of Talbot and others. Therefore, Niepce's invention should not be viewed as a dead end. Printed reproductions of photographs still depend largely on the advances in printing that chemical lithography initiated and pioneered.

A re-orientation of printing history requires us to seek out a path less trodden. It requires a re-assessment of conventional research into changes in printing technologies and practices as

Western society progressed through photomechanical and ! chemical methods to electronic printing innovations. Many of these changes have come into being within the last twenty years. Their effects are easily demonstrated. One example of the social changes it has brought about is the altered

I composition of the relevant trades employed. The Queensland Government Printer for example, employed 34 different printing trades in 1982, but had only two trade groups a decade later: press and pre-press. Similar patterns can be applied to the printing industry generally. Another example is the blossoming of full colour in text and image in the pages of our daily I newspapers. Such dramatic changes in work organisation and in the nature of the printed product requires a fresh appraisal of print technologies, and the consequences these changes have for printing history and related studies, if such , publications are to remain relevant.

My aim in re-examining the classification of printing technologies is to find a more relevant model for today. The accepted historical division of printing methods into relief, intaglio and planographic printing is in many ways outmoded. The new schema, advocated here, is of dividing traditional I printing into mechanical and chemical printing. This rather conservative suggestion admits the idea of thinking of modern printing as being more accurately composed of three basic classes of reproduction. These are Mechanical, Chemical and 'Digital' or electronic, printing. A second thread of ideas is centred upon the concept of direct and indirect image transfer. All methods of graphic reproduction contain combinations of direct and indirect image transfer (see fig. 2.-'The web of developments in printing technology', p. 29). My emphasis differs somewhat from the analysis of the printing industry made by Victor Strauss. Strauss's 3 Victor Strauss, The interpretation3 is aimed at specific technical explanations, while Printing Industry: An Introduction to its my aim is to achieve a synthesis that incorporates the broader Many Branches, Processes and issues of technical progress in printing with its consequences Products, The Printing Industries of America for the modern historian. Inc.. New York. 1967. p. 199. The practical applications of macro-inventions and micro-inventions in printing might well find useful support in

I a macro-view and a micro-view of printing history. Competing I claims to the originality of ideas can easily cast more doubt than enlightenment on historical events. While this uncertainty over authorship may have little importance at a micro-invention

level it can raise serious questions when constructing a I broader picture of an industry and its culture as a whole. This I , is especially true when considering the multiple inventions of I photography and the later confused inventions of offset printing.

By tracing the germination of chemical printing until the first significant change occurred, in the form of a new technology - lithography - it can be shown that the subsequent appearance of a second macro-invention in chemical printing - photography - arose from the first. Rather than first appearing in England, as has been ~laimed,~Talbot's invention of 4 Gail Buckland. Fox Talbot and the photography already had a history in France and Brazil. It is not Invention of Photography, University unreasonable to argue for Talbot's originality; this has been of Queensland Press, I St. Lucia, 1980, p. 11. clearly demonstrated, but behind Talbot's discovery there was already a framework which stemmed from lithography. A framework that created the circumstances in which photography first sprang to life and flourished. Again, with the discovery of offset printing, there was a return to indirect image transfer. A return that brought about'a transformation of the 'double invention' of printing observed by Sarton in Fig. 2

The Web of Developments in Printing Technology

Xylography The earliest method of printing in Europe. Book pages printed from wooden blocks TYPO~~~P~Y (blocks cut directly). A new European manufacturing Mechanical printing by direct transfer. technology. Books printed from method : moveable type (punches, matrices; types cast in a mold). Mechanical printing by Engraving Indirect transfer, A method of image reproduction roughly method : relief printing contemporary in development with the invention of moveable type (a metal plate engraved directly). Mechanical printing by Etching dlrect transfer. method : intaglio printing. A method of image reproduction involving chemical means to reduce labour (metal plate etched directly). Chemical preparation, mechanical printing by dlrect transfer, method : intaglio printing.

Stereotypy Book pages printed from plates Method of reproduction reproducing (types, matrices: pages cast in a mold). rich half-tones, (mechanical stipple). Mechanical printing by indirect transfer. Mechanical printing by direct transfer. method : relief printing. method : intaglio printing.

Lithography Lithographic Transfer Paper Chemical preparation of a surface drawn on A method of indirect image transfer. with a greasy chalk or fatty ink and relying on A specially prepared paper capable of the mild etching of the stone or plate, and replicating images charged with then sealing the surface with gum to repel water. lithographic ink. Chemical printing by Chemical printing by direct transfer. indirect transfer, method : relief, intaglio. method : planographic printing. or planographic image transfer for planographic printing. Photography lmages printed as plates or from negatives (light sensitised substrates exposed to light). Chemical printing, dlrect or indirect Gravure transfer, method : chemical printing. lmages printed from plates or cylinders (indirect preparation from negatives). Photolithography Mechanical printing by dlrect transfer. lmages printed from metal plates method : intaglio printing. (mechanical exposure of sensitised plates & negatives). Chemical printing by direct or indirect transfer. Linotype method : planographic printing. The linotype machine began with the idea of employing lithographic transfer to Collotype process mechanically set type for lmages printed from chemically lithographic reproduction. prepared glass or metal plates. The success of this machine Chemical printing by direct transfer. in mechanical letterpress method : planographic printing. printing relied upon indirectly casting type from matrices Offset printing housed in the machine. lmages printed indirectly from plates, ink Mechanical type setting transferred to a rubber or composition 'blanket' by lndirect transfer. Chemical printing by indirect transfer. method : mechanical printing. method : rotary planographic printing.

Lithographic Decalcomania Type and images printed as adhesive transfers. Chemical printing by direct or indirect transfer. method : planographic printing. letterpress printing. In offset lithography a direct image carrier or plate became the intermediate transfer step placed between an indirect photographic negative and an indirect offset 'blanket' or roller. Both advances demand that we should permute the historical record.

All printing involves the transference of ink to paper, but indirect transference is the special characteristic that makes this possible. Without the ink roller or the dabber to apply ink to the receptive printing surface, embossing would be the only effect obtained. I will show that the major developments, or to

5 Joel Mokyr. The use Joel Mokyr's phrase, 'macro invention^'^, in the history of Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity printing are linked to the indirect transfer principle. lndirect and Economic Progress. Oxford transference is at work in both chemical and mechanical University Press. New York. 1990. printing. Considered in this way lithography bears a much p. 13. closer resemblance to letterpress printing. Indirect transfer applied at a number of levels was essential to Gutenberg's invention of moveable type. The positive punch made by the 'drive' of the counterpunch is one example. The finished typographic punch being driven into a or copper plate to make the for each letter is another. Punch and matrix worked together and the resultant type was the product of both. The completed negative matrix (positive image) placed in a type caster to duplicate numerous types is a third. The key processes in typographic printing that use indirect transfer therefore are the pairings of the punch with the counterpunch, the punch with the matrix, and the receptiveness of the matrix when pouring or forcing molten into the type caster. Direct transference from the punch to the matrix by striking, and indirect transference from the matrix or mould through type casting, permitted direct transfer to be renewed again by applying ink deposited indirectly on the surfaces of types by the or roller and then pressed directly onto paper or vellum.

Compared with Gutenberg's manipulations, a parallel may be found in Senefelder's invention of lithographic transfer paper. The application of transfer ink and transfer paper, in place of the negative matrix, indirectly supplies the image carrier of the direct printing surface, in this case a lithographic stone or a zinc plate. By substituting the chemical lithographic surface for the mechanical typographic one, a major innovation or macro-invention was achieved. This highlights a further proposition; that lithographic transfer paper, like matrix and mould, became a major agent of change in the invention of printing.

An 'image carrier' can be either active or passive, with 'image transfer' representing the active mode. The 'direct' transfer of an image such as a thin film of ink from the relief surface of mechanical types onto a substrate like paper, is the less active mode of image transfer. Various direct methods of image transfer have been developed. Intaglio printing from engravings or , or from gravure plates, employs the direct transfer of ink to paper. By this method, the ink is squeezed from a reservoir or channel made in the surface of the plate. This introduces a new distinction: an engraved plate is prepared mechanically and also printed from directly, while an etched plate is bitten chemically and printed from directly. Another variation on plate preparation that employs both direct and indirect transfer is the stereotype plate. A stereotype is made mechanically in a mould, where indirect transfer is applied by pressure. Machine set or foundry type is pressed into a stereotype mould of plaster or papier machg, then cast from to make a printing plate. Then the stereotype copy is printed from directly.

Such variations in the method of achieving a printable image found a new way forward in the discovery of chemical lithography. A lithographic stone, when deeply enough etched, may be printed from by the relief method, and in rare cases, such as in an early application of direct tinaplateprinting, this possibility was exploited commercially. But usually it is the practice that direct stone lithography is etched with so shallow a 'bite' to the surface of the stone that the 'iesult is regarded as surface or planographic printing. The chemically etched surface of the stone is merely rendered superficially porous by a mixture of nitric acid and gum Arabic to retain a film of gum on the unprotected stone; just enough to retain moisture, yet repel ink. The greasy image drawn on the highly polished surface of the stone is also flat, and it relies upon the adhesive qualities of the drawing to be sufficient in attracting printing ink.

Senefelder's invention occupied a new niche in printing evolution. Stone lithography was a new printing process, direct chemical printing, in which ink was transferred directly from the stone to a substrate, usually paper. The invention of transfer paper, another of Senefelder's inventions, permitted active plastic transformations to occur which encouraged experiment and it, in turn, led to a series of new inventions.

When Victor Strauss was commissioned by the Printing lndustries of America Inc. to write The Printing Industry (1967), the problem of encompassing in a holistic way the diversity of printing processes had become a mammoth task. The beginning of this difficulty with the sprawling diversity of print technologies within the United States was attributed to a decision taken at the Ninth Annual Convention of the Printing

6 Bernard Taymans, in lndustries of America in 1895 to develop and market 'books the Preface to The Printing Industry: An needed by the industry but not available on the market.16 This Introduction to its Many Branches, tendency towards publishing technical literature addressed only Processes and Products, The Printing to those with a special interest in one or other branches of the lndustries of America Inc., New York, 1967. industry, had reached a point where a general work written with p. viii. the broader interests of the printing industry in mind was considered to be essential.

The solution to this dilemma was issued in a book of 814 pages addressed 'to the intelligent layman.,' Its content was encyclopaedic in scope. It was designed to give enough

information on each topic for a reader to gain a basic . understanding and, if desired, to pursue each topic in greater detail. Technical information that might be useful to the specialist is in the 'Notes and References' section. This book, combined careful explanations of the terminologies used, as understood by a single author. The chapters were then circulated to specialists in each subject for peer review. When it was published The Printing Industry supplied a much needed comprehensive technical manual for the industry - the fruits of various specialisations compiled, at last into a whole. Of relevance to this chapter is Strauss's use of the terms 'printing-image carriers' and 'direct' and 'indirect transfer'. His arrangement of, and definition of, these terms requires concentrated attention. He lists six kinds of image carrier 7 Victor Strauss, The preparation. These are: manual; mechanical; photomechanical; Printing Industry: p. 200. electrochemical; electronic and electrostatic.' By this broad definition it is apparent that an 'image carrier' is any substrate or platform on which an image may be held in suspension and fixed .

Elsewhere, Strauss lists another nine characteristic features (or limitations), of image carriers. These characteristics are

less clearly defined. He qualifies the effects of image carriers I as influencing 'the appearance of the printed image' and stipulates that these image carriers, not being suitable for ! printing on all materials, require alternative printing surfaces and sensitised coatings that employ 'differently constituted I printing inks.' Applicator compounds (differently constituted for transferring ink to various image carriers), require different mechanical methods of transfer; such as inking rollers and doctor blades. Different methods of controlling ink flow on the press too, is a factor '[ing] to more or less radical differences in printing press construction'. Other limitations of image carrier chemistry (and the durability of image carrier I base construction), prevent all of them from being printed from at the same speed. In addition, the length of run on the press before a plate is worn out, the relative costs of making and using various image carriers, and lastly the 'various types of image carriers ... not only differently made [but also] differently assembled for bresswork' are important factors'affecting print production. The distribution of these points throughout Strauss's book, dealing as it does with the minutiae of presswork and preparation, chemistry and physics, photography and handwork, makes a succinct definition of printing difficult. A clearer definition, summarised in 1923 by Stanley Morison, of ink, paper, type, and press, is difficult to bring into clear focus, or to trace the boundaries of, in Strauss's book.

There is a need for a model that combines the detail supplied by Strauss with the clear, distilled vision of Morison. A generalisation is required that closes the wide gap between the technically proficient printer who understands printing processes, and the artist, designer, and historian, all of whom, to some extent, need to understand the workings of printing in , a wider context.

In fig. 3. (below) the distinction between mechanical and chemical printing is mapped out. Processes that rely on

Fig. 3. Mechanical and chemical printing

Mechanical printing Chemical printing

Moveable type (indirect transfer) Lithography (direct transfer) Xylography (direct transfer) Lithographic transfer paper (indirect transfer) Engraving (direct transfer) Pinhole photography (direct transfer) Etching (direct transfer) Photographic negatives (indlrect transfer) t Ceramic transfers (indirect transfer) Photolithography (indirect transfer) Mezzotint (direct transfer) Collotype (direct transfer) Stereotyping (indirect transfer) * Inking rollers (indlrect transfer) t Inking rollers (indlrect transfer) t Tin printing (indirect transfer) Tin printing (semidirect transfer) or Linotype casting (indirect transfer) (indirect transfer) Gravure (direct transfer) Levy screen (indirect transfer)? Levy screen (indirect transfer) t Process engraving (indirect transfer) * Decal transfer (indirect transfer) Decal transfers (indirect transfer) Sears highlight process (indirect transfer) Offset printing (indirect transfer)

(italics) Direct transfer (bold italics) lndirect transfer * Indirect mechanical or chemical transfer processes commonly employed in direct image transfer t Indirect mechanical or chemical transfer processes - commonly employed in direct or indirect image transfer indirect image transfer (in bold italics) are separated from those that rely on direct image transfer (in italics). In it, it will be seen, there is an overlapping of direct and indirect image transfer methods in some cases. It is interesting to note that indirect image transfer methods were used less commonly in mechanical printing inventions after Gutenberg's initial invention. Moveable type, stereotyping, inking rollers, and engraved ceramic transfers being the notable examples that existed before the invention of lithography. It would seem, from this observation, that indirect image transfer had effected greater changes and promoted more technical innovations than direct image transfer has since the invention of lithography.

Before turning to the topic of chemical printing it is worth noting that among various theories about the origins of the Industrial Revolution there are suggestions of an incipient

8 Eisenstein put forward industrial revolution in the invention of print.8 In England the this view in The Printing Revolution in origins of industrial transformation have been variously Early Modern Europe, Cambridge University attributed to mechanical innovations in the rise of the mill Press. Michigan, 1993. Darnton too, in towns, especially the mechanisation of the trade, and The Business of Enlightenment: A the invention of the steam engine. An English industry, Publishing History of the Encyclopbdie however, that significantly contributed to the modernisation of 1775-1800 Harvard University Press. English society in the eighteenth century was the pottery trade. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979, The English inventions of bone china (Josiah Spode II, c1800), provides evidence that supports this idea in and various technical improvements made in printing the sur- early modern Europe in his impressively face decoration, in mass production, specialisation, and by detailed account of the eighteenth century standardising the designs of pottery vessels, points to a reprint editions of Diderot's significant improvements in chemistry and printing and a Encyclopaedia in France and cultural shift in manufacturing. I Switzerland. Darnton is careful, however, to distinguish between the loose working The idea of transfer printing, consequently, was not original to relationship between the bourgeois owner Senefelder. Ceramic transfers in England between 1751 and and journeyman printer in France and 1757 at Battersea (1753), Worcester (1753), Manchester Switzerland and the rigid factory system (1751), Bristol and Liverpool (1752-6) are well documented. devised by the likes of Josiah Best known in England is the commercial arrangement between , Wedgwood in England. See p. 227. Josiah Wedgwood and Sadler and Green of Liverpool during the 9 There are European 1760~.~Transfer printing on clay exemplifies the commercial counter-claims to the

invention of ceramic advantage- of duplication and exactness referred to by transfer printing, but accessible accounts of Eisenstein. The uniformity and fixed repetition in printing in transfers applied to pottery in Belgium and France are mostly of a later date. They are regarded as being English inspired, and information is sketchy in English language publications.

fig. 4 Mustard Pot, London, c1780. 'G R' raised. Other letters believed to have been transfer printed. Alec Davis, 'Alphabets in Good Company ', ALPHABET 1964 : /N~ERNATIONAL ANNUAL OF L~ERFORMS, James Momn, London. 1964, p. 9. earlier centuries noted by her was also a feature of eighteenth century pottery manufacturing in England.

The application of copperplate engravings in England to mechanically transferred coloured decorations on pottery was done by two methods. The older method was to lift the image with an oil lying in the channels of an engraved plate onto a glue membrane and then transferring it to the surface of a pottery vessel where the oily image was dusted with pigment before firing. The second method combined oil and pigment beforehand. It was applied to a design engraved on a 'copper plate with a bat. The plate was heated so that the image could be transferred to under pressure between rollers and then applied to the ceramic surface. By thesecond method the image on the thin paper was rubbed onto the surface before the paper was moistened to loosen it, and then it was lifted off with water. Mechanical transfer of copperplate decorations to pottery was accompanied by increasingly complex chemical mixtures, and a more sophisticated preparation of transferring surfaces, allied with heat. Being more than was needed for ordinary printing with ink on paper, it points to at least one other development in indirect chemical printing that flourished before the invention of lithography. It also gives added relevance to the discoveries of Josiah Wedgwood's hypochondriacal and increasingly opium addicted son, Thomas, who made experiments on paper and white leather during the 1790s with silver nitrate salts. These experiments resulted in silhouettes being reproduced with

10 Morris Bede, Images: ceramic transfers in mind.1° His frequently cited paper in the Illusion and Reality. Australian Academy of Royal Society's Journal entitled 'An Account of a method of Sciences. Adelaide, 1988. p. 28, and also Copying Paintings upon Glass and of Making Profiles by the Helmut Gernsheim, The Origins of Agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver, Invented by T. Wedgwood Photography, Thames and Hudson, London, Esq., with Observations by T. Davy' in 1802, clearly shows the 1982, pp. 24 - 28. nexus between chemical image transfer and photography. The I fugitive nature of images made by the exposure of silver nitrate ,

to sunlight frustrated any further development by Wedgwood I and Davy.

Senefelder's invention of lithographic transfer paper would appear to have been arrived at independently of any knowledge of ceramic transfer methods in Germany. Yet this is by no means certain, and it is, I suspect, a possible aspect of Senefelder's invention that has not been investigated. The usefulness of indirect image transfer as a creative tool, already noted, is evident in both the technical advances in British pottery manufacturing in the middle of the eighteenth century and in the creative possibilities that transfer paper added to the invention of lithography. The latter point was clearly recognised by Senefelder. Copper engravings transferred to clay on prepared papers or glue substrates, and Senefelder's autographic ink drawings transferred on prepared paper to lithographic stone, both pointed the way to a new era in printing technology. Morison's four essential ingredients in printing already referred to, ink, paper, type, and press (impression) also deserve close examination. As a general principle the brayer or ink roller must indirectly charge the type, plate or stone with ink. The part played by the type, plate, or stone, is to hold or retain the ink. The impression made by the press must transfer and release the ink onto the paper, and the role of the paper or any other substrate is to absorb and permanently fix the ink on its surface. Exceptions to this last rule are non-absorbent surfaces or where fugitive inks are required, such as in the telltale erasure of ink patterns designed to frustrate forgery in security printing. The physical mechanisms of charging, holding or retaining, and transferring ink, together with the chemical attributes of absorption and fixing, are variables that may be applied directly and simply, or indirectly and separately with increasingly complex effects.

Direct image transfer offers fewer choices to the printer. Pressure may be increased or reduced by the expedient of I carefully preparing the 'makeready' on letterpress machines I and by the use of underlay, interlay and overlay techniques to adjust the impression. In direct lithography, as with engraving and etching, manipulation of an image is adjusted by the artist on the plate or stone by repeatedly proofing the image until it is satisfactory. Other than by varying the depth of the bite with acid, or scraping or scratching the printing surface with a sharp tool or altering the pressure applied by the press, or by manipulating the colour or flow of ink, there is little room for experiment after initial preparations have been made. In general, the preparation and manipulation of printing surfaces takes place before direct image transfer occurs. The steps involved, and the manipulations made, are relatively few. When inked, the assembled work is ready to print. The relief, intaglio or planographic image remains relatively unchanged when it is transferred on the press. I

In comparison, indirect image transfer automatic~llyinvolves a series of steps. It introduces possibilities for physically and chemically manipulating images with more separate or interactive variables than does direct transfer. Various transformations may be controlled and varied before, or during, the application stage. In the past the use of lithographic transfer paper demanded, but did not always obtain, drawing skills from the printer. Lithographic transfer paper also required a rudimentary knowledge of chemical properties and reactions for its proper use, and, it was also helpful if the printer had a measure of imagination.

In this context, Morison's comments to Daniel Berkeley Updikell suggested a working hypothesis: (A) that the

11 Nicholas Barker. invention of letterpress printing resulted from Gutenberg's Stanley Morison, Macmillan, London, discovery of a practical means of indirectly transferring ink to 1972, p. 138. See also-Stanley paper mechanically and that (B) both lithography and Morison's Four Hundred Years of typography had the same physical requirements of: charging Fine Printing (Second revised octavo edition) and controlling the flow of ink, holding or retaining ink, Ernest Benn, London, 1949, p. 1.. in which transferring ink, and absorbing and fixing an inked image. It he refers to 'Fine printing... as the follows from this idea that Senefelder's essential problem was product of a lively and seasoned intelligence the same as Gutenberg's; how to transfer ink to paper working with carefully chosen type, ink uniformly and consistently without spoiling. Senefelder's and paper.' method resulting in a new and unexpected solution. Further, (C) the technical interaction of positive and negative steps, such as punch and counter punch and patrix and matrix in typography, and the application of lithographic transfer paper to the lithographic stone in lithography, produces the same result,

but more flexibly. In short, indirect transference is a I fundamentally adaptable and creative means of image transference; especially so in chemical printing.

Morison's four ingredients may also be a metaphor for other I ingredients that are from time to time described as defining the needs of the printing process. They may over time change in their characteristics, but these basic function remain identifiable. Viscous ink may be replaced by a thermal printer, or a toner cartridge, paper may be represented by phosphors. on a video display unit, a press can be replaced by a laser printer, a computer, or a videocassette player, and type and illustration may be replaced by digital imaging. In this scenario printing can be considered to have three evolutionary stages: mechanical printing, chemical printing and electronic printing.

There are a number of good reasons why an improved definition is necessary. Lithographic printing, often defined as a planographic process, is a method recognised as being printed from a flat surface. This is widely accepted as a fact, but as some etching is involved in planographic printing, admittedly to

a very shallow depth, there is still a degree of similarity I between lithography and the relief and intaglio processes. Further, in letterpress printing the efforts of printing engineers were increasingly focused, towards the end of the letterpress era, on making printing surfaces that emulated the characteristics of planographic printing. That is, the goal of achieving finer and finer tolerances in the makeready of typographic printing formes and printing machine beds.

Most books on the history of printing mark the significant ! milestones in the history of printing as being Gutenberg's invention of and Senefelder's use of the principle that oil and water do not mix. If, instead, we focus on the I similarities between letter press and lithographic printing rather than the differences, it can be seen that a more fundamental I

principle of indirect image transfer is at work. When considered I ! in this way lithography bears a closer physical resemblance to i the mechanical processes of copperplate printing, xylography,12 12 Printing illustrations and largescale type and stereotyping. (See fig. 5, p. 41). Therefore, the I decorative poster type from wood blocks. orthodox explanations that define the separation of printing into two exclusive fields of typography and lithography make too loose a distinction. A better way of distinguishing between the processes is fourfold: direct and indirect image transfer, and chemical and mechanical printing.

Today the transference of images by indirect means is the major tool in offset-lithography. Its first agent was the key invention of a transfer carrier or transfer paper, which Senefelder justifiably believed to be his most important fig. 5 Clockwise : wood cut ; copper engraving ; innovation. Besides transference, the invention and application foundry type ; stereotype and wood of transfer paper contained another significant, and different poster type. principle in printing; a transfer carrier having the characteristics of a paper, film, plate, or other suitable substrate, with a chemically sensitive or reactive surface. The preparation of I ! plates for the intaglio method of printing-mezzotint, etching, I , and engraving (with the exception of images prepared for ceramic transfer) all required the working of the image in reverse, whether by the use of acid (and hence a step in the i direction of lithography) or by direct intervention with hand tools such as graver or burin. All of these-mezzotint, etching, aquatint, and engraving-were printed from directly onto paper. Lithographic transfer paper however, in common with the type matrix, differs from the above by being printed from indirectly. The type matrixand lithographic transfer paper images are 'right reading', that is, not prepared in reverse to begin with. The offset printing plate like the lithographic transfer is also right reading and the image is reversed when transferred to the blanket cylinder, the intermediate or offset stage of printing, and is reversed again when the inked impression is transferred to paper.

The chemically sensitive or reactive surface referred to introduced a new dimension, namely the chemical treatment and preparation of surfaces such as metal and glass plates, lithographic stone, and paper. , a feature of lithographic transfer paper, does not appear to have been a consideration in the development of ceramic transfers in 13 Robert Hancock in 18th century England.13 Senefelder's prepared papers there- The Dictionary of Worcester Porcelain fore arise as a productive new tool. The influence of etching refers to transfer paper as only 'a thin sheet of and lithography on nascent photography in Niepce's July tissue paper' whereas Robert Copeland, 1822 breakthrough; the successful exposure to sunlight, and Spode's Willow Pattern & Other Design After fixing of a translucent image on a glass plate prepared with the Chinese. Studio Vista. London. 1998, bitumen of Judea, was a clear demonstration of the revolu- describes transfer paper as tissue tion to come. In both lithography and photography, image paper prepared with a I I soft soap. Further transfer requires sensitive or reactive surfaces. Lithography I investigation is needed to discover when and photography in both isolation and combination opened ceramic transfers were first made on up the possibility of freer communication because they were prepared paper, and I whether this may be a essentially chemical advances rather than further source of information that might developments of the limited mechanical methods available to have been gained ! from European letterpress. As a consequence this change had a widespread potteries by Senefelder in his use of soap to effect on the development of traditional typography as it make transfer ink and transfer paper. or if permitted increased freedom of expression. This change instead, the treatment of tissue paper created significant aesthetic as well as technical problems with soft soap may not be an innovation and benefits. derived from lithography later on. Senefelder regarded the invention of transfer paper as his most important idea. And it is also noteworthy that many ! other ideas pointing to the direction of lithography were to be , worked out by Senefelder. Zinc, , copper, and even paper plates, were considered for the process and tried by him. But the full potential of lithography was not developed for many years. The reasons for this are not so easy to identify. Perhaps the slow development of improvements in 14 Michael Twyman, Early rolling uniform sheets of zinc, a technology confined to Lithographed Books: A Study of the Design England before 1840 (Tivyman, 1990),'* slowed the use of and Production of Improper Books in the plates other than pewter or copper in Europe. Zincography, Age of the Hand Press, Farrand Press. and ultimately the discovery of and the technical difficulties London. 1990. This idea is revised in encountered in the manufacture of aluminium, were slow to Twyman's more recent Early Lithographed replace the traditional stone everywhere. The fact that Music: A study based on the H. Barron lithographic stones were easily obtainable, and could be Collection, Farrand Press. London 1996. used many times, was probably also a factor in slowing which suggests that a proper study of the the use of zinc plates in Europe. use of zinc plates in lithographic printing in Europe, as well as in England, in the 1840s Rotary lithographic printing machines were also slow to replace remains to be written. For further references flatbed presses operated by a scraper blade when compared to zincography see- Burch Colour Printing with the energy with which parallel developments in rotary and Colour Printers, Sir Isaac Pitrnan and letterpress printing were pursued. The progress of tin printing Sons. 1910, (new edition published by which involved three separate stages of development, direct tin Paul Harris, Edinburgh. 1983). p. 201. where printing, transfer printing, and offset lithographic printing led he writes: 'plates of [zinc] or some other circuitously to the modern offset process. Lastly, the discovery metal, in place of stone, had been and improvement of rubber compounds transference via rubber suggested by Senefelder... as early blanket, to cylinder, and then to paper, was not fully developed as 1801, in his English patent specification. to make this possible until 200 years after Senefelder's idea of and some thirty years later this old idea lithographic transfer paper was first used. was re-patented, and the process operated by Chapman & Co., of Cornhill, an example of The seemingly miraculous qualities that the invention of whose lithography from zinc will be found in photography introduced into the cultural life of all countries and the first volume of the Railway Magazine all levels of society after 1839 had so powerful an effect that (1835). In 1840, another London firm. the development and understanding of chemical printing as a Davis and Hills, produced by whole was overshadowed by this new and seductive zincography a series of prints of the specialisation. All efforts were facused on this exciting new caricature order, for Tregear, a Cheapside form of illustration that captured images directly from nature. publisher.' The way forward in printing permanent editions of these images was supplied by the combination of lithography and photography. This compatible chemical solution was soon overshadowed by the problems of adapting a natural and logical development to suit an older, but dominant technology of typographic print.

A re-appraisal of printing history's existing paradigm is clearly needed. The evidence points to a second printing revolution occurring in 1796-8 - the revolution of lithography; a technical advance that brought together for the first time the separate

15 In a practical sense inventions of printing noted by Sarton.15 Today the term lithography bridged the gap between the lithography is obsolete beyond its application by artists using separate binding or 'tipping in' of engraved direct stone lithography as a means of expression. The use of and etched plates and typographic texts. It the term planographic printing to describe surface printing is made combining possible, for the first also misleading. , for example, has little in time, of all forms of type, lettering, musical common with offset printing. Offset printing is descended from notation, special char acters, non-Latin direct lithography, photography, photolithography, collotype scripts, and illustration. printing, tinplate printing and decalcomania. Perhaps what Senefelder preferred to call chemical printing is the term that is due for revival. Chemical lithography and mechanical typography - two separate branches of printing in the nineteenthcentury sense - may properly be considered as the ancestors of newer electronic .

Mechanical typography still dominates the reportage of printing , history. The history of moveable type receives far more atten-

tion than pictorial print. Examples of this abound. Recent I observations that early engravings were often more carefully i designed than more recent graphs and charts in modern

16 Edward E. Tufte, newspapers and text books requires examination.16 One The Visual Display of Quantitative possible explanation is that 'typographic man' as McLuhan Information. Graphics Press. Cheshire. describes him or her is less skilful in interpreting pictorial Connecticut. 1983. and Envisioning information than the unlettered. Chemical printing expanded Information. Graphics Press, Cheshire the possibilities for pictorial expression, but the new demands Connecticut, 1990. that an ill considered and gratuitous proliferation of pictures has made on the mind of the reader, writer and illustrator have remained unstudied by historians, or until recently by communications theorists.

These problems began to emerge early in the history of print. Careful pictorial representation was more likely to be policed by authors when the cost of engraving was high and alterations were less easily made. The impact of mass production also can be shown to have had a deleterious effect on illustration.

17 Darnton. op. cit. Robert Darnton shows l7that in the eighteenth century reprint pp. 33- 37. editions of Diderot's Encyclop6die the text was extensively reworked. Careless as these revisions were, they still demanded the publishers' attention. Frequent correspondence between Switzerland and France, and heated discussion of the text, accompanied these reprintings. Yet little is said about the pictorial content in the editions of Diderot's Encyclopedic other than to observe that as the work progressed the plates were reduced in both senses. Reduced from folio to quarto, and from quarto to octavo and at the same time increased the number volumes of text from seventeen, with eleven volumes of plates in folio, to thirty-six volumes of text and three of plates only in the Swiss quarto editions.

By 1796 the methods of pictorial representation had shifted from purely mechanical methods to others that involved more

t chemistry, namely etching and aquatint. William Blake's invention of relief etching to combine image and text is emblematic of this new direction. The invention of lithography united these two streams of communication, visual and verbal, for the first time since the demise of the manuscript book. I

Faster letterpress printing made possible by new cylinder presses and steam power is frequently cited as a significant development in early nineteenth century printing. This development was balanced to some extent by improvements in , topographical illustration, which was reproduced by the means of skilful etchings and by some excellent artists. This is a point that is rarely emphasised. Mass production favoured the commonplace wood engraving as the century progressed and sheer quantity of such work has distracted historians from noting that lithography made a powerful impact; first on typographic print, and then on printing technology as a whole. ,

Please note

The text in this file has been automatically extracted and may contain minor errors. For the original version please consult the paper copy held in the Swinburne Library.

Chapter 3 The Double invention of Printing

The invention of printing, opened up much greater vistas than could immediately be grasped by contemporary minds. The first printed account of this great invention appeared only a generation later. The parallel invention of engraving was equally significant. The fruits of the \ invention of printing were so abundant that it was in itself a revival, a transmutation of values, and therefore it is justifiable to consider its advent as the beginning of a new age, the birth of the renaissance. 1 George Sarton, Six Wings: - George Sartonl Men of the Renaissance. Indiana University Press. Bloomington 1957. Senefelder's invention was constrained by his fixed idea of 11.119. printing texts. His intention was to publish his own plays. The realisation that lithography was capable of much more came later. The gap between Senefelder's expectation (to lithographically print texts) and the realisation that chemical lithography was ideal for pictorial reproduction also presents a similar challenge for print historians. It draws attention to an issue, expanded on here, of the separation of the pictorial image from textual print in typographic practice. I A barrier that lithography was instrumental in efficiently

breaching for the first time. I

I In Michael Twyman's pioneering book on lithographic printing, Early Lithographed Books, the print historian's I difficulty is immediately apparent. In it, Twyman charts the developmental progress of early lithographically printed I books. By embarking on an area of study with no widely recognised traditions, no heroes, and no masterpieces of established merit, he encounters many humble and ephemeral items. Further, some of the early lithographic books to which Twyman refers we discover no longer exist, 2 Michael Twyman, Early if indeed they were ever editioned. Twyman's catalogue of Lithographed Books: A Study of the Design and these ephemeral and elusive items is extensive, and he Production of improper Books in the Age of the points out that neither of the two earliest lithographic books Hand Press. Farrand Press. London. 1990, that Senefelder attempted to print has survived. The first of Twyman relies on these, a copy book for schoolgirls, dates from the period of Senefelder's manual for information about these his earliest efforts in relief printed lithography, and the sec- projected works, both intended for the use of ond, a prayer book, was equally significant because it J. M. Steiner. 'Director of 2 the Royal Establishment caused him to invent transfer lithography . for Schoolbooks.' - pp. 39-40. Twyman worries about the small numbers of early lithographic books that were printed, by his count some 400, and the relative importance of these few examples for the history of printing, clearly shows the uncertainty that attends a dedicated researcher at work in uncharted territory. He argues that 'their impact on book production was negligible' but adds with some spirit that they should now hold a significant interest for us as book production is at present dominated by the process that these incunables of the lithographic hand press pioneered.

His concentration on early lithographic books printed by means of the hand press is understandable. The much larger tangle of disordered information concerning steam, gas and electric powered presses and the succession of poorly documented graphic processes dating from the second half of the nineteenth century provides few recognisable landmarks of lithographic book production that might easily be compared with their typographic contemporaries. Feeling compelled to work within such a framework, one that has always placed book production at the pinnacle of the art of printing, Twyman's delineation of the incunabula of lithographic printing is a sensible solution to a new and difficult problem. In laying the foundations for his study he makes comparisons between the slight nature of some of the early ephemeral typographic books of the Renaissance and their equivalents among the lithographic of the early nineteenth century.

This point alone presents too small an argument in support of the significance that such early works should hold for us as evidence of the importance of lithographic printing, Consequently, he develops his topic further by bringing larger works to our attention. Johann AndrG's c1805 edition of Thematisches Verzeichniss sammtlicher Kompositionen von W. A, Mozart, doubly important; being regarded by Twyman as the oldest surviving lithographic book. It consists of 62 pages and some later books that he' discusses are even more substantial. As Early Lithographed Books develops, themes such as the illustrated lithographic book, and books employing non Roman texts written out on transfer paper are explored. These avenues of enquiry raise a new problem. The history of mechanical printing is largely based on telling and retelling the story of the glories of typographic design. No such comparison can be made with lithography. In early lithography we have lettering. This return to the art of the scribes may more effectively be described as a reversal of values in which, centuries before, a disdainful reaction to typographic printing was applied to inferior printed works by wealthy patrons who, could afford to keep libraries composed of illuminated manuscripts. Many early lithographic books containing little text and being cheaply made were likely to receive little respect and were considered to be ephemeral and therefore unimportant.

Type, when it was used for lithography, was transferred to the stone by taking impressions from hand-set type on transfer paper. There was little opportunity in this process for innovation in design. Lithographed type was copied type. Originality of design in the lithographic book, a field as yet I barely recognised by most scholars, had been handed back to the artist and engraver. The type specimen book which played such a large part in the history of letterpress printing has no recognisable place in the annals of early lithography.

These difficulties are addressed with more certainty in 3 Michael Twyrnan. Early Twyman's later book Early Lithographed Music3 (1996).Here Lithographed Music: A study based on the he breaks free from the intellectual constraints imposed by H. Barron Collection, Farrand Press. typography. This is especially true in his chapters on 'Music London 1996. Writing', 'The Writing of Words' and on 'Display Lettering.' The flexibility of lithography had quickly been found by Senefelder to be suitable for music printing. This discovery led to the development of a market for lithographed music and it is in this, and other areas of printing demanding the satisfactory reproduction of complex symbols,~illustrations and non-Roman scripts that lithography flourished. In this chapter about the dual nature of mechanical print and its implications for the print historian, I wish to draw particular attention to George Sarton's observation that printing was a 'double invention'. Sarton thought of engraving separately from printing with moveable types, a distinction rarely made by other researchers. His main point, which appears to be of lasting significance, is the historical conjunction of these two methods of graphic reproduction, and, more importantly, the different purposes to which they were put.

Consequently, it is in the field of printed illustrations that we begin to find evidence of discord among scholars who rely primarily upon texts rather than on the evidence of pictures I to explain the cultural changes that print has engendered.

4 Elizabeth Eisenstein. The Elizabeth Eisenstein4, in particular, writing of early printed Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. books, takes the curator of pictures, William Ivins, to task Cambridge University Press. Michigan, 1993, for his 'special emphasis on "the exact repeatability of pp. 23-24. pictorial statement",' seemingly unaware that what lvins I

had observed is correct. An image on a copper plate is I relatively fixed, while type is fluid; open to the possibility of rapid rearrangement and change. Her further complaint, I that 'his analysis elsewhere tends to detach the fate of printed pictures from that of printed books' emphasises the

nature of this dilemma for the print historian. At the core of I this argument is the dominance of moveable type. The

5 Small alterations to an repeatability of type being held up as an important engraved plate, however, were sometimes carried innovation capable of alteration from edition to edition. The out by beating out flat an repeatability of a graph, table, drawing, or map however, is area that required reengraving on the reverse dissimilar, being relatively fixed. If a plate is faulty or side of a plate and then by polishing the flattened redundant, it will often be discarded and a new one made5. area on the face of the I plate until all unwanted Further, unlike direct relief printed woodblocks, direct marks were removed. Then the work of reengraving intaglio plates are of necessity printed from separately from the blank area on the the indirectly transferred and relief printed type. The fact plate was carried out. Alternatively, words were that pictures were for so long printed separately and then I sometimes added to a plate with the aid of letter bound into books by various contrived means makes Ivins's punches. See ch. 1, n.24, p. 15 for a fuller separation of ;he roles of texts and prints und6rstandable. explanation. In arguing that Ivins's separation of the 'visual aid as a discrete unit' is evidence that he had lost 'sight of the con- necting links which were especially important for technical literature because they expressed the relationship between words and things' Eisenstein has entangled the subtleties of printing illustrated books with the broader concerns of her thesis. This is apparent from her admonishment of Ivins's position in the remark that '[flor scholars concerned with scientific change, what happened to numbers and equations is surely just as significant as what happened to either images or words.'

Uneasy about this difficulty, because she wished to unite the repeatability of text with the repeatability of illustration in her thesis to demonstrate the importance of the invention of printing for the development of Western science, Eisenstein noted in passing Sarton's idea that printing was a 'double invention.' Sarton's idea 'seems reasonable' and, she adds, 'The fact that letters, numbers, and pictures were all alike subject to repeatability by the 6 Eisenstein, op. cit., The end of the fifteenth century needs more emphasis.=' argument distinguishing between xylography and copperplate engraving is not maintained (chapter 7. Sarton's idea that there were, simultaneously, two printing 'The Book of Nature Transformed.') where the inventions, moveable type to convey by indirect transfer an repeatability of images: author's thoughts, and a second invention of printing diagrams, tables, and maps is discussed more directly from a block or plate in order to reproduce fully (pp. 23-24). illustrations, has not been examined critically as far as I am aware. It may have greater importance than has previously been thought because it draws attention to the puzzle of why typography has held the fixed attention of scholars of printing history for so long. Sarton's construction breaks with tradition and makes it possible to reconsider the place I of lithography and chemical printing in relation to typography. In doing so he opens the way to reevaluating the dilemmas encountered by Twyman.

Historically, and in chronological order, the , engraving, etching, mezzotint, and aquatint, appeared in turn. Each new process represented a step forward in the 7 Manguel. Alberto. evolution of the printed image. The problem for the A history of Reading, p. 191, cites James xylographic artist was the limited amount of text that could W. Thompson's Ancient Libraries (Hamden Conn., reasonably be transferred by dexterity and skill onto a 1940) and the wooden block. For the engraver, this problem was less bibliographical detail gleaned from an ancient severe, but the difficulty remained as to how best a text Egyptian 'House of Books" c2000 B. C.. discovered at might be incorporated with an image. In both Edfu, that it contained among other volumes,a techniques the labour involved in cutting or engraving letters List of All Writings Engraved in Wood. in reverse was time consuming. Etching provided a chemical The Egyptians do not breakthrough in hastening drawing and writing and produced appear to have attempted to print from these prints that looked like engravings. The aquatint provided an "engraved writings". George Sarton in The easier chemical method in place of the mechanical labours History of Science (p. 604) writes that the earliest of the stipple engraver to make tonal prints. surviving printed text is The Diamond Sutra, printed in China in May, It would be wrong, however, to view technical progress in 868. Other ancient Chinese texts printed from graphic reproduction from the advent of xylography to that of wood blocks to which Sarton refers are based lithography in the 1790s as a purely linear development.' on the research of Thomas Francis Carter: The The use of texts cut on wooden blocks to accompany Invention of Printing in China (1925). illustrations did not die out with the introduction of engraving on copper and steel. Examples of block printed broadsides and books containing hand cut texts, although

8 Manguel, op. cit.. p. 172, uncommon, continued to be made.8 shows an illustration of a Russian broadside in which the text has the superficial appearance of Similarly, etching did not entirely replace engraving, and being cut in wood along aquatint did not replace stipple engraving or the mezzotint. with the image from the 17th. century. In more The breadth of application in the various methods of recent times examples of block books may be found illustration expanded to fill specific local geographic needs that are little more than curiosities. or social and artistic requirements. The simplification of In twentieth century Australia, as elsewhere. printing progress into a purely linear perspective should be the invention of lino cutting tempered with the knowledge that all illustrative methods permitted the book artist to combine image and and techniques, once discovered, continue to be used. The text in imitation of the traditional wood block. breadth of skills employed, and their periodic revivals ! Hand cut texts by Christian I Waller The Great Breath. should, therefore, be admitted into our calculations privately published and printed, 1932, and The of progress. Gates of Dawn, What can be said, however, is that all of these methods posthumously published in 1977, provide examples of of graphic reproduction contributed to the evolution of a new artists' books that periodically retreat to the printing technology-lithography. According to Senefelder, earliest forms of book making for practical as lithography garnered its resources from a variety of previous well as aesthetic reasons. illustrative inventions, including stereotyping. Lithography, despite its diverse sources, is paradoxically a technical singularity-one purely Western technology-chemical printing. A point not emphasised in most printing histories.

While Sarton's idea that there were two separate printing inventions does not get the attention it deserves, neither does lithography. This is because the new process had a natural affinity that suited it to reproducing illustrations. It was a medium, moreover, that imitated with ease images in a style superficially little different at first from those made by all previous methods. Today lithography has overtaken typography, and has made it obsolete for most modern requirements. Some exceptions to this rule are those where letterpress printing methods are required for physically difficult specialisations like foil stamping or diecutting in the packaging industry. Other instances of modern letterpress printing result from deliberate choice, such as adhering to typographic limitations for aesthetic or economic

reasons when making handmade books for artists, I

designers and poets. I

Sarton's undeveloped idea is quietly endorsed by other I writers who make no direct reference to it. Perhaps unaware of it, Sarton's point is nevertheless hinted at in James 9 James Leith. 'Ephemera: Leith's remark in Revolution in Printg that McLuhan 'failed Civic Education through Images', in Robert Darntori to emphasise that the printing press also made possible a and Daniel Roche (Editors). Revolution in proliferation of images through engravings on a scale Print: The Press in France 1775 - 1800. University of unprecedented in human history'. California Press. Berkeley, 1989. p. 270 . Elsewhere, Robert Darnton's account of the reprinting of

10 Robert Darnton, Diderot's Encyclop&die10 makes reference to the separate The Business of I Enlightenment: A printing of large numbers plates. He reserves his few Publishing History of the Encyclopddie 175-1800, comments on them to the appearance of those representing Harvard University Press, printers (IMPRIMERIE, plates I, XIV and XV) and makes the Cambridge. Massachusetts, 1979. valid complaint that 'the printers look like wind-up dolls: p. 242. expressionless and identical, they turn cranks and pull bars as if they inhabited an immaculate, mechanical.utopia... [and he emphasises that]... These people had families. They came from somewhere-with passions, problems, hopes, and fears. Although most of them have vanished irretrievably into the past, they did not compose some faceless proletariat while they lived... imprinting the substance of the Encyclop6die with some of their individuality, just as Diderot had breathed his spirit into its text.' (see fig. 6, p. 54). The reasons why the plates of the Encyclop6die are so sanitised while the text contains the breath of Diderot's spirit is not explained. Nor, it seems, are the effects of their widespread broadcast as emblems of general knowledge reaching all levels of French society, educated or unlettered. Their purpose, if not the elusive reasons for their sanitised neutrality, is perhaps best expressed in Diderot's remark that 'We need a man to rise up in the academies and go down to the workshops and gather material about the arts to be set out in a book, which will persuade artisans to read, philosophers to think on useful lines, and the great to make at least some 11 Charles Coulston Gillespie, worthwhile use of their authority and their wealth.'ll A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry: Manufacturing and the Sarton observed that 'the invention of engraving... was Technical Arts in Plates Selected from developed at about the same time as early printing' and L'EncyclopBdie. Dover. I New York,1959 (second makes a more sober point that the invention of engraving printing), from the was 'extremely important for science' because 'a drawing Introduction, p. xxii. t of a bird or a fish, a flower or a root, was often worth a 12 Sarton. Six Wings, p. 117. A further comment of thousand words [and], the use of illustration obliged the interest, but this time pointing to the value of author to be more precise than he could be, or wished to illustration in the acquisition of knowledge be, without them.' Sarton concluded this passage by adding before the advent of that 'this is not yet generally understood even by good printed books, may be found in Manguel's A scholars, many of whom do not realise the need of History of Reading. In a chapter entitled 'Picture illustrations or what is worse, use them Reading" in which the bibliae pauperum is carelessly and ~ncritically.'~~ discussed at length.See pp. 101-104. and an illustration of the In a footnote Sarton drives his point home.13 'A glaring Heidelberg Biblia Pauperum showing with example.. .was given by the late Maxime Laignel-Lavestine graphic symbolism the Annunciation and four [in] Histoire girnirrale de la medicine [and] a more recent prophets who predicted the birth of Christ. one is B. L. van der Waerden['s] Science Awakening, ... a

13 Sarton. op. cit., p. 117. history of mathematics. The text is very critical, but the illustrations are uncritical, unexplained in the text, and insufficiently related to the text.' The value of illustration as a means of explanation and acquiring erudition begins to be recovered by Sarton, and his idea is pursued to greater maturity in the recent work of Edward Tufte, teacher of 'statistics, graphic design, and political economy at Yale University'.

Tufte has written two books on the subject of illustration as a tool of science. The first of these, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1982) begins with the hope that the reader will 'rejoice in the graphical glories' of Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777), William Playfair (1759-1823), Charles Joseph Minard (1781-1870) and

flg. 6. The press room ("IMPRIMERIE." plate others whose work adds to both art and science, and that, XVI). from Diderot's Encyclopddie the discerning reader will 'condemn the lapses and lost opportunities' where 'false graphics', distortion, and disparity between statistical data and illustrative representation are targeted. The engravings referred to, made by Lambert, Playfair and Minard, appeal both to the eye in the clarity and the simplicity of their message, and to the intellect in the accuracy of their quantitative analysis. Tufte illustrates this point with a graphic representation 'periodic variation in soil temperature in relation to the depth under the surface' 15 Edward E. Tufte, The Visual Display of made by Lambert15and several of Playfair's time series Quantitative Information, tables from The Commercial and Political Atlas16 such as Graphics Press. Cheshire, Connecticut. 1983. p. 29. the 'Chart of all the lmports and Exports to and from The source of this illustration is cited by Tufte England from the year 1700 to 1782' published by Playfair as Pyrornetric, Berlin 1779. on 20 August 1785 which, perhaps for the first time, clearly

16 ibid, pp. 32-34 and showed an engraved plate representing, in linear form, a pp. 64-65. balance of trade in favour of England and a dramatic reversal of this trend in 1780-81. (see fig. 7). Tufte, quoting Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas tells us that 'information ... imperfectly acquired, is generally imperfectly retained' and that 'the amount of mercantile 17 ibid, p. 32. transactions in money, and of profit or loss, are capable of being easily represented in drawing' as clearly as 'any part fig. 7. William Playfair's Chart of space' or the map of any country; 'though, till now, it has of the Imports and Exports to and from not been attempted'17. In another of Playfair's publications England From the Year 1700 to 1782. The Statistical Breviary, Tufte shows that Playfair coolly 18 ibid, pp. 44-45. citing: abstracted his data to represent land area, population, and Thomas Playfair's The Statistical Breviary taxes in millions of pounds,l8 and in doing so 'broke free of shewing on a Principle New the Resources of analogies to the real world and drew graphics as designs in every State and themselves.' This device he used to demonstrate the high Kingdom in Europe; illustrated with Stained burden of taxes collected in Britain, Spain and Portugal, and Copper-Plate Charts representing the Physical the comparatively low taxes collected in France, Germany Powers of each Distinct Nation with ease and and a sampling of other countries. perspicuity. London. 1801.

Another dramatic comparison between the two parallel inven- tions (pictorial print and textual print) is Minard's 19 ibid. p. 40, quoting E. J. Marey, La Methode engraving of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow described as Graphique (Paris. 1885) p.73. 'seeming to defy the pen of the historian by its brutal eloquence'18 (see fig. 8, below).

fig. 8. C. J. Minard, Carte Figurative des partes successives en Other examples of the power of visua! communication made homrnes de I'ArrnBe Fran~aisedans la possible by the invention of engraving may be called upon ' campagne de Russie 1812-1813. (see n. 20, p. 57) in support of the practical significance of Sarton's 'two printing inventions' as arj historiographical tool. Copperplate engraving, from quite early in the era of 20 Edward E. Tufte, the printed book began to acquire new attribute^.^^ Envisioning Information. Cheshire, Connecticut, Attributes that, incidentally, also strengthen Eisenstein's 1990, Graphics Press. pp. 19-21. The arguments on cross referencing and multiplication of increasingly sophisticated sources. use of engraving to visualise and demonstrate sequential data in the texts of books is apparent Eisenstein, who is most comfortable arguing her case with in Scheiner's De Maculis Solaribus and Rosa textual evidence, rests on the benefits derived from Ursinasive Sol, is a point well illustrated and cross-referencing, and a corresponding multiplication of described by Tufte. His textual sources, which she believes to be an explanation for presentation of the educative possibilities of the explosion of modern European scholarship from the visual information demonstrates well the Renaissance onwards. In support of this idea she cites effectiveness of engravings and direct Erwin Panofsky who saw in the Renaissance a image transfer for this purpose. An engraving 'decompartrnentalization' of scholarship, and who presents illustrating Edmond a picture of Renaissance scholarship as engaged in Halley's paper 'An Historical Account of the breaking down the barriers to the sharing of knowledge that Trade Winds and Monsoons. Observable in existed in the medieval world. Eisenstein writes of medieval the Seas Between and Near the Tropicks; With an scholarship as a fraternity preserving 'intact, techniques Attempt to Assign the Phisical Cause of Said that had to be entrusted to a select group of initiates who Winds," in 1686 (The were instructed not only in special skills but also in the Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 'mysteries' associated with them. Special symbols, p. 23). rituals ...' and so on.21 21 Eisenstein. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. I p. 140. This observation of the attributes of late medieval and Renaissance life however, closely resembles the circumstances of our own century. The Renaissance 'virtuosi' as Eisenstein calls them, gave way in turn to more compartmentalizations, barriers, opinions, dogmas, and more recently -'specialisations'- and on this point she is not convincing.

Eisenstein maintains with justification that the invention of printing was largely responsible for a broadening of the ! ownership of learning and that the outcome of this innovation directly to the advent of the modern world. On this point she writes:

It should also be noted that the full flowering of bigh Renaissance culture in cinquecento Italy owed much to the early printers - especially those in Venice, where not only Greek and Hebrew publishing but vernacular translations, new compositions in the 'lingua volgare,' the arts of woodcut and engraving, and in the first Grub Street subculture also thrived. In this light, emphasis on the devitalising and negative effects of the new medium needs to be balanced by considering its stimulating effect on inventive and imaginative faculties and its contributions to a heightened 22 ibid. p. 146. sense of individuality and personality - a sense which contin- ues to distinguish Western civilisation from other civilisations even now.22

This proposition in support of the dynamic effects of printing on Western society remains, however, tantalisingly non-specific. In Eisenstein's thesis such generalisations abound -

The regional location of the movement, the specific content of the textual tradition, and above all the 'accident' of timing have to be taken into account. Under the aegis of the 23 ibid, p. 147. early presses, a classical revival in Italy was reoriented. Under the same auspices. German Protestantism was born.23

Eisenstein's emphasis on the power of print in reshaping European society is inclined to tip the balance of argument in favour of 'print' as the one allencompassing cause, and presents at the same time a somewhat simplistic assessment of print's position in Western society. The absence of any reference to economic factors in her interpretation of an industry that maintains itself because it is economically resilient and at times politically vulnerable is, regrettably, a lost opportunity to sharpen the valuable arguments she advances.

Anthony Grafton, more recently, pursues the economic argument. He makes the point that Martin Luther was responding to political and economic pressures building up in the German states. Here, the idea that print was the catalyst in the Erasmus/Luther ecclesiastical debate, is softened and less emphatic in comparison with Eisenstein's stance. Grafton puts it this way:

Protestant tfieologians and polemicists charged that the church had become corrupt in head and members during the Middle Ages. In doctrines and institutions, laws and customs, rituals and prayers, they argued, the authorities had eliminated or dis- torted the heritage of the early church in order to exploit for profit the superstitious mass of the laity. One of the reformers' early sympathisers, Ulrich von Hutten, printed an edition of Valla's Declamation. Luther, though himself less concerned with history than with theology, read the treatise with fascinated incredulity, horrified that the church had replaced the articles of the true Christian faith with lies. Valla's attack on tradition helped to inspire Luther's radical appeal To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation.

In Grafton's view Luther was responding to a political and economic confrontation that had not been, or could not be, resolved. Luther found in print, in Valla's Declamation, ammunition for an attack on the injustices of church and state. The printing of Luther's response provoked the ensuing debate. Print therefore, as Eisenstein correctly states, in the context of Grafton's observations, magnified the ecclesiastical debate and pressed it upon a growing reading public throughout Christian Europe, but print in itself

was not the central cause of the revolt. What does hold up I in Eisenstein's argument is the effect print had on literacy, reading, private reflection, the transmission of ideas and 1 the formation of opinion and debate.

The slow shift from engraving to chemical etching as a means of pictorially representing ideas took place in parallel with the development of the rudimentary chemistry of printing ink. In mechanical printing the use of some chemistry had been present from the beginning. The use of 24 Block printing inks in Japan for example were chemical oil-based inks was always a part of the water-based inks. Simple ingredients such as rice typographical printing process in Europe.24Oil -based inks and paste to bind powdered pigments permitted varnishes, were of necessity, used by G~tenberg,~~and these sophisticated polychrome effects to be achieved continued to be used, with improvements, essentially from as many as eight to unchanged well into the twentieth century. .The first ten wood blocks. letterpress printing inks needed to be viscous and sticky I 25 C. H. Bloy. A History of Printing ink, Balls And enough to adhere evenly to the metal type. These were . Rollers: 14401850. London, 1967, published essentially a European invention. These inks were composed by Evelyn Adams & MacKay Limited. p. 86 mainly of lampblack and linseed oil. Western printing ink, like the printing process itself, is believed to have been first developed by Gutenberg. A printer's inventory of oils and pigments from 1481 belonging to the Ripoli Press in Italy provides some insight into the likely ingredients of the first oil based inks: linseed oil, turpentine, Venice turpentine, 26 ibid. p. 86 hard varnish, liquid varnish, Greek pitch, black pitch, iron pyrites, vermilion et~.~~As a precursor to chemical printing, oil based printing inks may be added to the invention of etch- ing as another step toward accomplishing this goal.

Etching, relying upon direct transfer, advanced the cause of chemical illustration by introducing a mordent to 'bite' the exposed portions of a of a metal printing plate while pro- tecting the unexposed parts with a bituminous coating. Aquatint, a variant on etching, adds the extra step of employing particles of sprinkled onto the metal plate and partially melted over a flame to make a random pattern in a surface coating. Resistant to acid, it creates halftone effects when bitten with acid to various depths. Both processes are, along with engraved transfers, precursors to chemical lithography.

[ By 1500 the use of acid had been incorporated into the typographic process. Nonchemical engraving was 27 Works by Daniel Hopfer supplemented by the use of acid in early examples of and Urs Graf. The first surviving bitten plate that etched illustrations on iron printing plates.27The slow is dated was made in 1513. Albrecht Durer's six development of etching as a popular method of plate bitten iron plates were executed between 1515 preparation has attracted little attention among writers on and 1518. See--E. S. typography. Etching is considered to belong to a separate Lumsden, The Art of Etching, London, 1962, category, print making, and is therefore designated as being (second edition) p. 168. The beginnings of etching an artistic craft or as a precious and collectable form of may predate the invention I of printing. Originally, illustration. The late development of chemical half-tones etching is believed to have z8 been employed along with through the use of aquatint which chemically combined the engraving by arrnourers. use of asphaltum, resin and acid was in evolutionary terms 28 The process of aquatint is one of the foundations of the next leap forward-fully I usually attributed to Le Prince. Early practitioners developed chemical printing in the form of lithography. were Bonnet, Jukes and Goya. In its effect on the transfer of knowledge the etchings made of landscapes are a useful measure of the extent to which the inhabitants of one country were able to gain some idea of the life and conditions in another. In Britain, an intense interest in landscape design developed during the 18th and 19th centuries. In response to a demand for such subjects, a strong landscape tradition of making prints of views and

29 ibid., pp. 192 -193. See architectural landmarks began among artists who also pl. 44 - (Nether-Bow Port. Edinburgh, 1764) made etchings. Alexander and John RuncimanZ8of p. 193. Edinburgh and John Clerk of Eldin who specialised in architectural views are typical of this development. Greater artists like Gainsborough, who developed the technique of

30 Richard T. Godfrey. soft-ground etching, and Turner whose watercolours were Printmaking in Britain: A General History from its etched and engraved by J. Varra130 in Picturesque Views in Beginnings to the Present England and Wales (1827) were both heirs to this tradition. Day. Oxford. 1978. Phaidon. PI. 86. Another aspect that expanded the role of the etching in British art was the development of satirical caricature as a form of social commentary. Notable examples were made by William Hogarth, Thomas Rowlandson, James Gilray and Isaac R. Cruikshank. The etchings made by these artists have often been exhibited as evidence of the healthy tradition of free speech and democratic rights in England that forestalled a repetition of a political explosion of the kind that engulfed France.

Rolf Reichardt, another contributor to Revolution in Print already referred to, in a chapter entitled 'Prints: Images of the Bastile', draws attention to the mistake of ignoring the penetration of every day life by printmaking as a means of communication. Although he does not say so, the power of combining images with texts during the French revolution, was made easier by etching. In Reichardt's chapter most of his illustrations are taken from etchings of the period 1789 - 1792. He comments that Jean-Baptiste Gautier used 'the new, much quicker procedure of etching rather than the usual laborious copperplate engraving. Thus, Gautier's print was being sold on 28 July 1789, just two weeks after the storming of the Bastile.' But this observation aside, the effect of etchings on visual communication is not explored. Writing an accompanying text directly onto illustrative plates increased. The combination of image with text on a single plate anticipated some of the advantages obtained later from the development of lithography, and placed the versatility of etching ahead of the constraints of engraving. Although a new style of copperplate writing had already been developed for use in applying captions and texts to engraved illustrations, etching permitted the artist greater freedom of expression and immediacy in response to topical events.

As chemical etching progressed, the practical and aesthetic limitations of typography caused increasing dissatisfaction among artists. In the opinion of a number of these the synthesis of typographic form began to disintegrate, when mixed with etched and engraved illustrations of increasing virtuosity. In England this discord between illustration and text was clearly rejected by William Blake who, for deeper reasons, objected long before William Morris to the accepted conventions of the typographic book. Blake's interest in medievalism, like William Morris's, was a way of responding to the powerlessness he felt as an individual viewing the social dislocation and misery of English life. It was a social crisis of great magnitude caused by political mismanagement, an unregulated free market, the loss of Britain's American colonies, and harsh penal laws designed to discourage dispossessed rural workers from offending against property. Pressures which culminated in rising fears of Jacobinism among the English ruling classes.

From 1788 to 1796, contemporaneously with Senefelder, Blake experimented with his 'invention' of relief etching in an effort to solve similar problems to those Senefelder experienced. Blake etched copper plates so that both the image and text were raised in relief on the plate and printed from directly. Like Senefelder, Blake sought.to emulate the cost effectiveness that stereotyping provided. But unlike stereotyping, which did not make the combination of image and text any easier, Blake's method of plate preparation capitalised on the fact that etching and engraving did.

The introduction of stereotyping, adds a new dimension of Sarton's idea. Sarton made the perceptive observation that , had ancient origins when compared with typography, and paradoxically, it anticipated the modern stereotype block by hundreds of years. Sarton is partly right in making this observation, and partly wrong. He saw clearly that the woodcut and the stereotype were able to be printed from directly, and, both were suitable for printing pictures and text together, a whole page assembled on a single block. The aspect that escaped his observation, or perhaps one that he did not consider worthy of further comment,

31 Senefelder departed from was the different means by which a wood block and a this usual method by attempting to press an stereotype plate were made. A wood block, usually31,can I image onto a wood block indirectly, and as it turned only be cut by direct means, while a stereotype plate was out, unsuccessfully. cast indirectly in a mould. 32 S. H. Steinberg, Five hundred Years of Printing, Penguin Books. Stereotyping, invented in Leyden by Johann Muller (~1700)~~ third Ed ... 1974, p. 278. The same information and stereotype plaster of Paris moulds developed about Ged's process is to I be found in Rudolph independently by William Ged, Edinburgh (1725)33were also Ackermann's Repository of paralleled in London before 1740 by two more Scots, John the Arts, vol. 1.. number t 1. January 1809. Details Baine and Alexander Wilson who devised another scheme of Foulis and Tilloch's stereotype patent of likely to have been based on stereotyping. In France, the 1784, expired 1798, are also given (p. 7.) A stereotype was re-invented by Firmin Didot (1764 -1836). All detailed treatment of the progress of stereotyping in of these innovations relied upon some form of indirect England is contained in transfer, either in the form of a plaster mould or a George A. Kubler's The Era of Earl Stanhope, papier-mache matrix in place of a metal one. The resulting Stereotyper 1750-1825, I New York. Brooklyn Eagle stereotype plate however, exploited the advantages of direct Press. 1938. transfer like the engraving and the woodcut. A text thus 33 Steinberg, op cit.. p. 278. fixed by stereotyping made it possible to print a page as a single unit. The willingness of printers to adopt stereotyping in order to reduce wear on their hand set type supports the I central role of indirect transference also. The cost savings I to be gained from having pages of type moulijed in this fashion from matrices and mounted on wooden blocks was 34 Harry Carter. 'A Short not ignored by all printers, and came to be preferred by History of the Firm' in The House of Enschede 1703 many to the costly impost of having large quantities of - 1953, Haarlem, Joh. Enschedk en Zonen. standing type. This practice was increasingly employed after 1953, D. 47. 1800. The House of EnschedB at Haarlem, for example, introduced stereotyping from papier-mache moulds 35 Lumsden. op. cit., pp. 111-112, Lumsden refers specifically for use in the security printing of to William Blake's etching technique in the chapter of (circa 1814) by buying the rights, from London, to John his book entitled *Transferring" (pp. Wattses patented stereotype process.34Stereotyping howev- 109-112) in which he er, remained until the latter part of the nineteenth century, groups together the practices of transferring largely a means of transmitting the written word rather than images from one plate to another (James McNeill a way of improving the transmission of pictures Whistler) and the technical innovations of 'Negative" and diagrams. and 'Relief" etching. Although the reasons for this arrangement of ideas In this context Blake occupies an enigmatic and pivotal is not pursued in Lumsden's text, the place in art as he does in the development of printing implied message seems to be that William Blake may technology. Blake's relief etchings parallel the efforts made have used a transfer method to place a white to discover a new way of printing by Senefelder. They also image on a dark bitumous acid resisting ground anticipate, without any photomechanical component, the before scraping away the zincographic plate of the late 19th century.35 white pigmented areas before biting the plate. There is also the possibility that the idea of Like Senefelder, Blake sought a less costly way to print his doing this may have occurred to Blake after own books. The twin concerns of 'low cost' and 'ease of seeing ceramic transfers (as he provided drawings execution' peppers the speech of inventors in the 18th and of pottery vessels for 19th centuries like a mantra. They were the equivalents of Josiah Wedgwood. The latter idea is purely modern advertising slogans such as 'quality guaranteed' speculative and has no basis in tangible evidence. and 'buy one, get one free'. But at the heart of these claims were serious concerns on the part of inventors mindful of the poverty and precarious employment that surrounded them. In Blake's case his 'invention' cannot be said to have been a commercial success, but it did meet the requirements of his own art. Blake's relief etchings in 36 David Bindman. William I Blake: His Art and Times. America a prophecy and Visions of the Daughters of Albion Wisbeck, 1982, Thames and Hudson. pp. 90-93. A (1793), The First book of Urizen (1794-96), The Book of few pages deal with his The1 (1789) and Songs of Innocence (~1789-90)all clearly relief etchings and his graphic works are in display his desire to achieve a synthesis between image I various editions are displayed throughout. and text35;a desire that transcends the unresolved technical constraintsthat his method imposed. It is surprising how similar the problems that beset Senefelder and Blake were. Senefelder's early stone plates, like Blake's, were deeply etched and printed from in relief. But where Blake continued to pursue ideas and accepted the limitations of relief etching when he had found a method that satisfied him, Senefelder continued instead to search for an improved method of printing.

McLuhan, as a thinker had a deep interest in language. In this respect he identified with Blake. McLuhan enlisted the support of Blake's defence of orallity and tactile experience in an oppressively mechanical world to criticise the shortcomings of print in the 1950s and 1960s. This helped him to justify his personal view of the effects of electronic media on modern society.

McLuhan projected his vision of the communications revolution forward from Blake's time, to imagine a glimpse of the electronic future in the theories of Faraday and Einstein, but it seems to have escaped his notice that Blake was already living in the middle of a new phase in the history of printing technology. British artists like Blake, Fuseli and Alexander Cozens, and shortly after, Edward Lear were, increasingly, using chemical plate preparation to print their illustrations. Frequently these artists employed aquatint and etching, but their curiosity was aroused by new modes of expression and they turned with enthusiasm to chemical lithography, because of its liberating effects on design.

In the late 18th century the desire to reproduce images with more and more fidelity or scientific veracity, combined with the artists desire to harmonise the disparate effects encountered in typography and print making created a demand for something - a process, a method, a less costly, more manageable means of image transfer and reproduction, that pointed toward the unthoughtof and unimagined invention of photography. The idea of aquatint, experimented with by Claude Lorrain but the invention of which is attributed to Le Prince in the second half of the 37 Lumsden. op. cit., p. 246. 18th century, was first taken up with real success by Goya.=' By the time of the French Revolution aquatinted prints were popular in England. Coloured aquatints like 38 Richard T. Godfrey, op. cit.. fig. 8. those made by Thomas and William Daniell of 'The Ruins of

39 John Ford, Ackerrnann the Palace, Madura', (1798)38and J. C. Stadler's 'Fleet 1783 - 1983: the Prison' (after Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowland~on),~~ business of art, Arthur Ackerrnann Publishing and The Custom House by R. G. Reeve (after William Limited, London, 1983. p. 36. We~tall)~Oare highly detailed prints that beguile the eye into

40 ibid. p. 93. believing that these are true representations of the places they describe. These examples, and numerous others made in the first half of the 19th century, are prints that in their life-like appearances prefigure photography. The emphasis on photomechanical prints as artifacts continues to be championed. Yet the trend towards chemical printing is clearly evident in etching and aquatinting before the invention of lithography. Why then, do we still persist in viewing these developments as an extension of mechanical printing now lithography is all-pervasive? The answer, it would seem, is a reliance upon an ironclad precedent by print historians, of compartmentalised subject areas, and established specialisations which follow the well trodden path of typography without noticing the alternative route taken by lithography.

The mechanical processes of graphic reproduction were, in the middle of this century, still fascinating if superseded technologies. These mechanical printing processes still occupied the attention of writers as diverse as Ivins, McLuhan, Eisenstein, Sarton and Ong. Their abiding academic interest in traditional technologies overemphasised the importance of mechanical printing - especially in the reproduction of images - and ignored completely the rapid progress made by offset printing as a superior means of graphic reproduction. , One example of this specialised emphasis on mechanical printing and graphic reproduction in America, well intentioned though it is, is Estelle Jussim's Visual Communication and the Graphic Arts. In the glossary to Jussim's book, chemical printing processes are briefly defined. The book gives inadequate explanations of the relationships between the various processes. One glimpse of the lithographic path, provided by Jussim, is her definition 41 Jussim. Estelle. Visual Communication and of collotype printing. It is, she writes-'considered [to be] the Graphic Arts: one of the processes of 'permanent' ph~tography.'~~This Photographic Technologies in the Nineteenth Century. draws brief, if uncritical, attention to a direct interface New York 1983. R. R. Bowker and between conventional print -transfer of ink to paper- and Company. p. 340. the intervention of a purely chemical photographic preparation on glass, printed from directly, and planographically. On the subject of lithography, which she I does not connect with its relative, collotype printing. I She states:

The completely new and revolutionary process of

42 ibid, p. 45. lithography, a planographic chemical process offer[s] numerical I superiority of impress~onsthrough mechanical tran~ference.~'

In her thesis, it is not explained why lithography may be

considered as a 'revolutionary process' and the significance I of the process is not examined closely. Jussim's emphasis is on the effects of photography on graphic reproduction as , applied in the letterpress tradition and she makes no allowances for the changes that were taking place in chemical printing. Jussim draws attention only to the advantage of lithography as a means of taking large numbers of impressions. Still, in spite of this, Jussim does provide us with quite useful assistance in summarising the shortcomings of letterpress printing when it is used to I combine illustrations with text. In this context she wrote:

For a book publisher to utilise a print as an illustration, he could (a) mount it on his book pages; (b) sew the print into I the book, treating it as a foreign body which must be grafted onto the structure of the binding; or, (c) copy the print 43 ibid., p. 46. in a graphic medium which not only could be printed simultaneously with metal type, but which could reproduce adequately on the text paper selected for a specific

I Her observations however, still lead to conclusions that support typographic orthodoxy. Like Ivins, her study focuses on the dominant craft of letterpress printing and on the photomechanical illustration techniques required by the medium in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Her insistence that-

It was by no means an automatic benefit to book publishers that the mezzotint was adept at chiaroscuro, or that the aquatint could be coloured neatly, or that stipple was useful for portraits. What had plagued the book publisher since Gutenberg was the technological need to discover typographically compatible illustration media.

This ignores the fact that all of these problems had already been solved by lithographers. To do her justice, however, the problems of picture printing solved by the likes of Lemercier, Poitevin, Sir Henry James, John Osborne and Albert, are not the primary subject matter of orthodox printing history. Consequently, from this point on Jussim's arguments are necessarily less persuasive. She passes over the effects of photolithography and proceeds to closely engage the more seductive and rewarding medium of \ photography. Her evaluation of the effect on images I transferred to permanent pictorial print is based on the more obvious shortcomings inherent in photo-reproduction such as dot etching and line engraving, lumping collotype in with photogravure, but in the final analysis only discussing the photomechanical processes:

As we shall see, the advent of photography did not automatically or altogether alleviate this problem, 44 ibid.. p. 46. [photoreproduction] and several of the more delicate and aesthetically satisfying of the phototechnologies, like collotype and photogravure, raised as many problems as they solved.44

Jussim's views, therefore, are constrained by limited frames of reference, A historic viewpoint that, while providing . insights into subtleties of different mechanically prepared printing surfaces, and consequential shifts of perception affecting a viewers' and readers' responses when illustrations are prepared by different technical means and media, they do little to explain that, while this is how mechanical prints were made, these methods no longer maintain their tyranny over print. Jussim's concerns, while interesting, do not advance our understanding of the duality of traditional print, the hints at modern graphic reproduction observable in the experiments of Blake nor the resolution of these problems by Senefelder and his followers.

What Senefelder did, and what many print and media historians have failed to appreciate, is that he brought together and blended features from each preceding invention: engraving, etching, xylography, stereotyping and other reprographic printing processes in his experiments and as a result, discovered something new; a technology that has had far reaching effects. Senefelder freely admitted to being aware of previous innovators who had attempted to print images from lithographic stone and was quite modest in his claims of originality. Where he differed from others, hcwever, was in his persistent vision which he maintained until he made his discoveries work.

Lithography, in its maturity, was an entirely new concept and 45 'Plate development was gradual. Aluminium plate had new and complex characteristics based on Senefelder's was introduced in 1900 but it was limited because special chemical inks. His autographic ink for writing and of serious oxidation problems. It remained a lithographic chalks for drawing led to the development of problem until the 1950s lithographic transfer paper for image transfer. His invention when anodising was applied to the surface of of lithographic transfer paper liberated the means of the aluminium ...[tlhis development, coupled with pictorial representation for the printer. It also made it the use of new light I sensitive coatings, led to possible to mimic drawing styles employed by the older the present popularity of lithography.' Ian Faux, methods of reproduction, being able to reproduce the sharp Litho Printing, Blueprint, lines of an engraving or the coarse solid effects of a London. 1987. pp. 1-2. woodcut equally well. I Senefelder recognised zinc, copper and even brass. see p. 92 of thesis. Copper is now a preferred ~ithogra~h;as the word suggests, first successfully surface for printing offset images. obtained printed images from stone, but 'lithographic' prints obtained from zinc, copper or pewter plates were also triedd5By etching the surface of a prepared metal plate in the same manner as a lithographic stone the same results were obtained. Lithography did not have the disadvantages that typography did, of worn out type placing limits on the number of copies that could be made. Rather, lithography presented the printer with new problems - comparatively grey ink and difficulty in keeping the printing surface clean and preventing unwanted marks made by careless workers from appearing on the printed job.

The remarkable advantages of direct lithography in making image and text easier to combine and indirect transfer with lithographic transfer paper had a catalytic effect on the subsequent history of printing. This was especially true where the reproduction of illustrations was concerned. Senefelder's invention opened the way to photography and photo-reproduction in the form of photolithography. Lithography by its combination of chemistry and ink provided an expanded range of tools by which illustration could be given much greater visual expression. It was a cheap and stable means of reproduction which met an increasing demand for all kinds of diagrams and illustrations from publishers. In satisfying a demand that etching, engraving, mezzotint and aquatint had generated, lithography made it possible to revolutionise Sarton's second invention of printing.

In the context of this study the important conclusion that may be drawn from Sarton's 'significant' 'parallel invention of engraving' is that the separate natures of a text and its accompanying illustrations as printed by mechanical means were soon integrated into a single conduit of information in Senefelder's invention. Sarton's point, that was grasped and elaborated on by Eisenstein was that in an earlier age this double invention of printing had a significant impact on Western science. Her idea may have important implications for the future study of lithography. If added to Twyman's exploratory research much may be discovered concerning the use of lithography to illustrate scientific papers. At present most of the published evidence points towards lithography being used to print technical manuals, or more commonly, works devoted to entertainment, such as music printing, or flowery decorative works such as books of verse or picturesque books on travel, Recent journal articles suggest that much more of a scientific nature lies hidden in the official records of government departments and learned societies. There can be little doubt that newer printing technologies such as lithography and anastatic printing were

45 Claus Nissen. Die embraced for scientific illustration. This is particularly zoologische Buchillustration, ihre evident in the vast number of examples cited in Claus Geschichte und Nissen's Die zoologische Buchillustration (1951)45.Cf Bibiographie, Stuttgart. Heirsemann, 1951. Sitwell, Handersyde & Fisher, Fine Bird Books 1700-1900,

46 Sacheverel Sitwell. (1953).46 The Palaeontologist, Richard Owen, in particular Buchanan Handersyde & James Fisher, made very good use of lithography in his illustrated works. Fine Bird Books 1700-11900, Collins, This trend is further emphasised by the example of the London. 1953. rapid adoption of photolithography once it was invented. \ Thousands of photolithographed survey maps were printed in Victoria in the decades following the success of this invention. (See chapter 7) Additional untapped evidence is to be found in many places. Stanley Morison, for example, / 47 Stanley Morison, Talbot in Talbot Baines Reed: Author, Bibliographer, Typefo~nder,~' Baines Reed, Author, Bibliographer. wrote 'In the late 1870s Elliott Stock took to the Typefounder, Cambridge, 1960, lithographic press, it was said he was encouraged to do this pp. 47-8. by William Blades, to print first editions of "Thomas A' Kempis, Bunyan, Caxton, Walton, Herbert and Defoe." This interest led to the publication of a series of bibliographical periodicals from 1880 onwards.. .'

Now however, it is appropriate to turn to Senefelder's ! invention of chemical printing and examine the steps by which he progressed from his first tentative experiments with engraved plates, embossed blocks, a-nd substitute mixtures for his own version of stereotyping, before he finally discovered his new printing process. Chapter 4 Senefelder and the Invention of Chemical Printing

1 B. Wedgwood and This is the first experiment of its kind, and I believe a seed Hensleigh Wedgwood. The Wedgwood Circle. of consequence Studio Vista, London, -Josiah Wedgwood to Thomas Bentley, 2 March 1775.l 1980. p. 65.

2 Robert Darnton, The Business of Enlightenment: A Publishing History of the Encyclop6die1775 -1800, Harvard University Press. Cambridge. Mass.. 1979, writes of the network of booksellers, travellers, The vast increase in the volume of pictorial print in the and publishers, who promoted, assessed seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was accompanied by markets and sold books, across the breadth of an expansion in the book trade throughout E~rope.~ Europe during the 18th ' century. See-chapter V. , engraving, mezzotint, stipple engraving, etching 'Diffusion', pp. 246-323. and acquatint, were all increasingly used to illustrate 3 Alois Senefelder, (trans. Rudolf Ackermann) philosophical, scientific, mathematical works, books on the A Complete Course of Lithography: Containing manual arts and other difficult or non-Latin image setting Clear and i3plicit Instructions in all the such as music printing. Different Branches and Manners of that Art: Accompanied by lllustrative Alois Senefelder (1771-1834) was disposed during the Specimens of Drawings, to which is prefixed a History 1790s to search for a cheap alternative method of printing of Lithography from its Origin to the Present Time, and publishing plays and music. His various attempts Ackermann. London, 1819. Senefelder's to find an alternative method were at first influenced by manual is of three parts. A biographical-historical familiar methods of printing such as stereotyping section is followed by one dealing with preparing inks and engraving. and stones, the suitability of presses, transferring. etc. before a section on the methods by which As a result of his efforts, between 1796 and 1800 the lithography may be used and the applications that history of printing was irrevocably changed. During those each technique is suited. This has led to various years Senefelder developed an idea that transformed his interpretations of Senefelder's text such as experimental printing on stone into a practical commercial William Gamble in Music Engraving and Printing, process; direct chemical lithography. This new method of (p. 64), who interprets Senefelder's 'I remember printing solved the difficulty of printing picture and text as a child of five or six I had seen a music printery separately and at the same time opened up a pandora's in Frankfurt or Maintz, where the notes were of design problems that bedevilled the printing trades etched in black slate stone' to mean that 'music throughout the ninetieth century, and markedly influenced printing gave rise to lithography'. printing design in the twentieth.

4 Michael Twyman, Lithography 1800 - 1850: Various dates are given for Senefelder's discovery. A The techniques of drawing on stone in England and confusion perhaps arising from the conversational style France and their application in the works of adopted in Senefelder's man~al.~Senefelder specified topography, Oxford University Press. London. 1798 as the date of his invention, and Michael Twyman 1970, p. .... confirms this in Lithography 1800-1850.4Twyman however, pointed to 1896 as the date on an illustration in the first

5 Alois Senefelder, German edition of Senefelder's manual,5 the year in which Vollst3ndiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerey. Munich Gleissner's twelve songs for piano were published and Vienna. 1818. (facsimile edition) Heinz lithographically. Twyman demonstrates that Gleissner's Moos Verlag. 1970. songs are not examples of true chemical, or planographic, printing. They were so deeply etched that the image was

6 Michael Twyrnan, Early raised on the stone in the manner of letterpress printing6 Lithographed Music: A Study Based on the and Twyman provides the second date of 1898 as the date H. Baron Collection, Farrand Press. London, at which the invention of true planographic lithography 1996. p. 21. and fig. 3.. p.22. occ~rred.~

7 Twyrnan, as the most recent researcher is given precedence here. Wilhelrn Senefelder's account of his struggles to print in A Complete Weber History of Lithography Tharnes and Course of Lithography raise many questions. Precise dates Hudson, London. 1964 (p. 17), cites the date and the sequence of events, together with details of given by Kann and Wagner as 1797. Other writers. processes and the invention of a variety of new printing Frank Matthias and John Gartner. Historical Events presses, are merely sketched in. Senefelder relates that he in the Graphic Arts, (p. 13.) say 1796 and, in 'spent more than one day' in a printing office in order to an essay, Hans Platte suggested a date given by learn 'all the particulars of the printing office.' Yet his Senefelder (source unspecified) of 1799. repeated experiments clearly demonstrate a knowledge of Weber, undecided. concluded that the date of printing that far exceeds that of a merely casual observer. the invention was probably 1798/99. This uncertainty is surprising. Senefelder Senefelder's manual, which was encouraged by Frederick wrote that 'Mr Schmidt... was perfectly ignorant of von Schlichtegroll, places him firmly before us as the sole the chemical printing. which I discovered in inventor of lithography. Yet despite the shortcomings of 1798.' A Complete Course of Lithography, p. 22. Senefelder's account, it is at least from the source and, as von Schlichtegroll pointed out in the preface to the first edition, it was regrettable that Johann Gutenberg left no similar account of his invention of letterpress printing.

The resistance to mechanical printing by the scribes of Paris three and a half centuries earlier proved to be no match for Gutenberg's new invention. In 19th century Europe however, , ! the interests of letterpress printers were not to be so easily overthrown. Typographic printers, unlike late-medieval scribes, actively resisted the appearanceaof lithography and I were able sustain the primacy of their craft for another century and a half. Lithography was, however, a robust invention. A superb

8 Estelle Jussim. The Eternal example of 'the chemical magic of the late eighteenth Moment. Aperture Foundation Inc.. New York. century.I8 From the first, the new process offered a cheap 1984. p. 15. alternative to copperplate engraving and like engraving, lithography encouraged the printing of text and image together. Because of this advantage engraving had already found a niche in printing sheet music, maps and other annotated diagrams and illustrations for books. The natural advantages of lithography fell into the same category. Sheet music became the first market for the new process. More versatile than engraving, lithography was, to quote Josiah Wedgwood's words, 'a seed of consequence.'

Lithographic texts did not have to be assembled letter by letter and locked up in a . Autographic drawing ink used in lithography made it possible for the artist-printer to write directly (in reverse) on the stone. Artist's texts and pictures once fixed, could be printed from in great numbers, because there was no appreciable damage to the surface of , the stone when it was properly worked, as there was with metal type, if the stone was kept damp and the work was kept clean. Then, with the invention of transfer and re-transfer papers, type and images from all manner of typographic and hand drawn sources could be reproduced and duplicated.

The new process spread quickly and was taken up as a useful means of duplication by administrators, military strategists, printers and artists alike; all of whom saw advantages in its use. Speed in communication, the multiplying of copies without a corresponding degradation of I images, lower printing costs, and an increased freedom of I artistic expression.

For over a century lithography did battle with mechanical printing for supremacy and continually contributed to changes in-visual communication that were matched by, and improved upon, by typography. As the century progressed, there were three distinct phases in the development of lithography, in which the newer process gained ascendancy over iis rival. The first rush of enthusiasm being derived from its invention and first flowering when it succeeded on the basis of its novelty, low cost, and length of 'run'. Then during the 1840s developments in chromolithography led to a taste for elaborately illustrated books and, finally, a third revival occurred when the art of the large-scale lithographic poster was exploited by French artists at end of century.

To this simple ordering of events may be added the tensions caused by the French Revolution, the ensuing war with France and the rise of modern national states in Europe. Also, the not inconsiderable commercial advantages accrued to 19th century publishers and print sellers who found in the ensuing passion for the Grand Tour and the appetite for travel books and prints associated with it, should not be overlooked.

9 Senefelder, lacking sufficient money, and unable to master the skill Senefelder's discovery that a printed image could be lifted of steel engraving, abandoned his first idea directly from a flat prepared surface of Kelheim limestone i which was 'to engrave letters of steel, stamp was an unexpected one. It was a natural expectation in an these matrices in forms of hard wood, and thus form age that knew only of letterpress printing that an image a of stereo-type composition, from which would need to be either raised in the manner of typography, ! impressions could have been taken in the same xylography or ~tereotyping,~or alternatively, lowered into the manner as from a wooden block' but he was surface of the plate by deep etching the surface of the compelled to give up this idea. He then thought up a stone in the manner of etching or engraving. new plan of forming pages of type matter by pressing metal types into a paste The key to unlocking the secret of lithography was arrived at composed of 'clay, fine sand, flour, and pulverised circuitously. Senefelder began with a radical shift in the charcoal,' this formed a kind of stereotype mould composition of printing ink in an attempt to make a covering in which he cast typographic tablets made varnish composed of turpentine and wax to intaglio etch from sealing wax mixed with small quantities of copper plates. Senefelder was, by his owp admission, at the plaster, a method that he abandoned because he time ignorant of the engraver's use of bitumen although at a could not afford to buy sufficient type-see later date he devised a lithographic ink recipe containing Senefelder. A Complete Course of Lithography. bitumen with the same covering properties'which he called p. 3. hard etching ground. 10 Senefelder. A Complete Poverty drove him to experiment with inks made from tal- Course of Lithography. p. 111. See also-Bloy, low, fat, wax, vegetable oil and butter as basic ingredients1O A History of Printing Ink, Balls and Rollers, 1440- until he established a mixture of wax and soap that made a 1850, who mentions rape-seed oil in this workable substitute for covering varnish. Senefelder then context. thinned this new ink down and continued to vary its composition in order to get a consistency suitable for writ- ing on zinc and copper plates. This time the objective was to raise the letters in the manner of relief etching. (An idea strikingly like that arrived at independently in England by William Blake). Senefelder's 'autographic ink', first applied to zinc and copper plates was then applied to a polished slab of Kellheim limestone that he had bought to mix his colours on. It was a surface that he also found suitable for practicing his copperplate writing in reverse. This seemingly non-serious substitute ink, which by itself was unlikely to yield useful results easily, but when used with Kellheim stone, led to the development of a variety of tools that answered the circumstances of lithographic printing admirably.

In his manual Senefelder described his chemical ink as being composed of 'unctuous and bituminous substances, 11 C. H. Bloy, A History of I Printing Ink, Balls and and an alkali.' Numerous recipes for chemical ink are Rollers, 1440-1850. Evelyn Adams & MacKay supplied, belonging to two classes; drawing ink and transfer Limited. London 1967, I writes that by 'soap' ink. the basic ingredients of the first of these, drawing ink, Senefelder meant a mixture of tallow and lye. is a mixture of: Lye, commonly potash, an acid residue composed of wood ash was used by White bees wax 8 parts by weight letterpress printers as a Soap l1 2 "

soft cleaning agent to dl 12 remove ink from type. Lamp black 1part " Soap was also made to this recipe of tallow and lye until recent times. The use of lamp black (reduced to just one part in most of 12 Senefelder, A Complete Senefelder's recipes)13was enough to provide colourant for Course of Lithography, p. 112. a writer or artist to ascertain with confidence how the image 13 In ink requiring intense would print. To call it an ink is a little misleading, and it blacks this was increased to four Darts might better be termed an acid resistant coating, a paint, or a stopping-out solution, were it not for the fact that it was applied by .drawing in it with a pen. Other pigments might equally be used as colourants for this purpose, but like lamp black they must not neutralise the effect of the soap. For this reason lampblack required roasting until all the impurities in it had been burned off. Senefelder recommended as a superior pigment a 'composition of ox tallow and gum penzoe' which if burned in a lamp and the carbon thus burned off was collected, a pigment with a staining power three times that of lamp black could be obtained.

There were disadvantages of keeping his 'ink' in a liquid state because it deteriorated. Consequently Senefelder found it expedient to keep it solidified and break off a quantity of it as required in the manner of Chinese writing inks and then adding a little water to make it workable.

Absorbed by the conventional idea that a printed image could only be obtained from either a raised image or a lowered one it went unnoticed at first that the diluted autographic ink interacting with the stone might have useful I attributes. Rather his mind was occupied with problems of erasure of his ink from the stone after use, and wiping the stone clean as he practiced his writing while retaining the writing on its surface undamaged.

The momentous discovery that an image drawn directly on stone could be printed from, if the stone was wiped with diluted acid, has been told many times. Senefelder's sudden recognition of the possibility inspired him to wash the surface of the stone with weak acid, then charge the greasy writing with his ink roller, and take his first

lithographic proof. What precisely led him to do this he does I not say but it will be remembered that at this time his preparations were directed towards relief etching on copper plates. The moment is, of course, what history remembers. I That is, Senefelder taking that first printed impression on paper from-his mother's washing list. I resolved to write the list with my ink prepared with wax, soap, and lampblack. on the stone which I had just polished... Some time after this [when about] to wipe this writing from the stone.. . the idea all at once struck me, to try what would be the effect of such a writing with my prepared ink, if I were to bite in the stone with aqua-fortis; and whether, perhaps, it < might be possible to apply printing ink to it, in the same way as 14 Senefelder, A Complete to wood engravings, and so take an impression from it.14 Course of Lithogmphy. pp. 9-10. Aquafortis - This experiment resulted in Senefelder recognising that he This is the same as diluted nitric acid. had discovered an entirely new method of printing. This discovery was not immediately put to commercial use however, as Senefelder next endured the humiliation of being rejected by the Bavarian army as a recruit, and then considered the possibility of becoming a printer, before hitting upon the idea of printing music upon seeing 'a page of wretchedly printed music ...[in] ... a shop at Ingolstadt.'

Chemical accident was assisted by local knowledge. As I Senefelder explained in his manual the stone quarried at Kellheim had been used long before 'by engravers for etching, as a substitute for copper [but] the attempt did 15 ibid., p. 6. not succeed.'15 I

As to the originality of his invention, he remained modest in his claims. he freely acknowledged that there were previous attempts to print from stone surfaces, notably by ? Simon Schmid, and he knew that Solnhofen stone had

I 16 Wilhelm Weber. A History previously been used to etch votive tablets and for other of Lithography, Thames 1 and Hudson. London. purposes.16 'I was not the inventor of the art of etching or 1964, p. 9. n. 2. Weber cites K. G. Nagler's Alois engraving on stone, or of taking impressions from stone; I Senefelder und der geistliche Rath Simon even knew that etching on stone had been practiced several Schmid. Munich. 1862. p. 5.. and Schmid's centuries before me.', Senefelder, however, is precise about source of information Curieuse Kunst- und what he did invent. He wrote: 'from the moment I Werkschule by J. K., Nuremberg, 1705. abandoned the principle of engraving and directly applied my 1 I 17 Senefelder, A Complete new invented ink to the stone... l could consider myself the I Course of Lithography, p. 8. inventor of a new art.'17

From his autographic writing ink, the subsequent transfer inks and chalks for drawing that Senefelder used directly on lithographic stone arose from variations on his basic recipe. It will be recognised that the composition of Senefelder's 'inks' differs from the linseed oil based inks common to letterpress printing. Also, printing lithographic images on paper depended on the use of typographic ink being applied to a stone on which images had been transferred or directly drawn on using Senefelder's specially invented fatty inks. It is this combination of action and reaction and direct and indirect transfer that justifies Senefelder's claim that in lithography he had invented what he preferred to call chemical printing.

The properties of Senefelder's drawing or preparation inks are of interest. The success of his ink experiments can be measured by the fact that his recipes continued to be worked, little changed, for the whole period in which direct stone lithography was in common commercial use. His recipes fell into three distinct groups, the first were lithographic stone inks of various kinds: autographic ink which by its composition could be readily diluted with water and worked with directly on stone; a covering ink which could be scratched through with an etching needle and washed off and; transfer inks, not dissimilar in composition

18 As mentioned earlier to the writing ink, but with a quite different use. Senefelder (page 18) ceramic transfers involved the use chose to make his writing ink with soap as an emulsifyer of copperplate engraving, special inks and transfer because it was cheap and readily available. The origin of his paper. Ceramic transfer papers are often prepared ideas for image transfer, the development of transfer inks, with soft soap. I have not been able to discover and also transfer paper, may have some origin beyond the whether this practice predated the invention of realm of conventional printing but there is little, if any lithography, or for that matter, whether the evidence to support this speculative idea.18 transfer techniques in use in England in the middle of the 18th century The difficult task of writing a prayer-book in autographic ink, were in use in potteries in Germany during in reverse, directly onto lithographic stone was soon the 1790s. encountered. To solve this new problem Senefelder resorted 19 The importance of the eighteenth-century to writing out the words with pencil on paper, a method he invention of the lead pencil should not be had already developed to transfer sheet music. By damping underestimated in following the progress of the paper and passing it through the press'he was able to Senefelder's invention of transfer paper. Pencil transfer the reversed image of the score onto stone and drawing's influence on artistic expression and trace over it-in his autographic ink. Because Jead pencil the application of lithographic chalks is also smudged easilyLgSenefelder thought that the same noteworthy. procedure might be better accomplished with a modified version of his autographic ink; a mixture of "linseed oil, soap, and lampblack, diluted with water." With this mixture he wrote out the words on paper and found that the ensuing transfer was a perfect copy in reverse a step forward that encouraged him to devise a more efficacious method.

Senefelder also noticed that the ordinary writing ink, due to the acid in it, 'coagulated' when it came in contact with the stone ink. As a result of this observation Senefelder added more acid to the ordinary ink and found that when the paper was dry the sheet could be dipped in the stone ink and the stone mixture would form a bond with the writing ink. Afterwards, when the paper was washed clean with water, the ordinary ink retained a coating of stone ink and the paper remained clean. By passing the paper, thus prepared, through the press an improved image could be transferred to the stone.

By these steps he was able to simplify the method of writing on the stone. By writing on paper, whether it was coated or not, images drawn in lithographic ink could be transferred indirectly to either a cold or a warmed stone, where the image appeared in reverse ready to be printed from. After more experiment Senefelder arrived at an ink recipe that he felt met the requirements of being sufficiently soft to transfer reliably and hard enough to transfer a sharp image, without warming the stone and risking its cracking. The recipe he favoured for this purpose was composed of : 20 Senefelder, A Complete six parts tallow, five parts mastic, four parts soap, three Course of Lithography, p. 121. parts shellac and one part each of wax and lampblack.20 This 'transferring ink' was softer in its composition than the normal lithographic drawing ink but its composition was, like many of his recipes composed of the basic ingredients of tallow, soap, and wax.

Senefelder's transfer inks were applied to his transfer paper method in which the writing did not have to be done in reverse. The transfer of type and engraved plates for music printing 'in all countries, where type-printing is not yet introduced and type foundries are unknown, the transfer-method will obtain the preference; and even in European printing-offices, where a number of books in the oriental languages are printed, in those of the Bible societies for instance, it will be found highly advantageous.' In making this prediction Senefelder has been proved correct.

Liquid ink contained less, and lithographic chalks for drawing contained slightly larger quantities of lamp black than the basic ink recipe. Inks modified for different purposes such as relief and intaglio printing had gum arabic added.

Soap, tallow, shellac and lampblack represent four basic ingredients, with four distinct properties. Soap, a common emulsifier, spermaceti and oil, like paraffin wax and bees wax (see fig. 9., p. 82), contain fatty acids; tallow has the same properties (with the additional advantage of improving printing quality); shellac was employed for its melting and hardening properties as were asphaltum, mastic and var- ious other gums, and later on pitch, which had the dual quality of adding colour like lampblack, which apart from its use as a colourant, was otherwise neutral. For a clearer idea of how these, and other ingredients came to be used by generations of lithographers fig. 9 provides a descriptive table of transfer ink ingredients drawn from Henry Rhodes's book The Art of Lithography (published in 1914), which makes clear some of the practical chemical relationships that are not so clearly understood when reading Senefelder's manual. Senefelder makes no mention of pitch in his recipes and it must be assumed that he did not make 21 Spermacetti was a byproduct of the Right use of it before 1819 if he made use of it at all. Conversely, Whale and as the mammal was hunted spermaceti, recommended by Senefelder, is not listed as an to the edge of extinction it became ingredient by Rhodes and it may be assumed that it had fall- increasingly difficult to obtain. en out of favour with lithographers by 1914.21 Attributes of the various ingredients used in making transfer inks and the common ingredients used by lithographers to prepare transfer papers were outlined by Henry J. Rhodes in his book The Art of Lithography his tables are set out below.

fig. 9. useful properties of different materials used in transfer ink

Materials Melting and Fatty Acid Printing quality Colouring re-hardening

Soap Suet Beeswax Paraffin Wax Stearic Acid (Stearine) Oleic Acid (Oleine) Lithographic varnish Pitch Shellac Gum Asphaltum Gum Elemi Lampblack

From The Art of Lithography. Chapter VI., 'Transfer Papers and Inks', p. 56.

fig. 10. useful properties of different materials used in transfer paper

Materials Thickening Adhesive Hydroscopic Colouring

Flour Starch Glue Flake White Plaster of Paris Gum Arabic Syrup Glycerine Gum Gamboge

From The Art of Lithography. Chapter VI., 'Tcansfer Papers and Inks', p. 53. In time, the ingredients used in transfer ink evolved to meet the requirements of specific applications. Transfer ink used for transferring from engraved copper plates to the stone had pitch added as an ingredient. Pitch, a hard black resinous derivative of burned woodtar was, like

22 ibid., p. 122. Senefelder asphaltum,22gum arabic and other employed for its suggested the use of four parts asphaltum in his melting and re-hardening proper tie^.^^ In 1914, Rhodes recipe for hard etching ground. supplied this old recipe for copperplate transfer ink

23 Henry J. Rhodes, The Art composed of the following ingredients: of Lithography: A Complete Practical Manual of Planographic Printing, Half Ib. paraffin wax Scott. Greenwood and quarter Ib. soap Son. London. 1914 (p. 56.) lists pitch with quarter Ib. shellac shellac, gum asphaltum. half Ib. pitch paraffin wax and gum elemi as being useful for half Ib. mutton suet this purpose because they half Ib. Venice turpentine do not contain fatty acids like soap, suet or 1 02. lampblack 24 beeswax.

24 ibid.. p. 57. Just how old this 'old recipe' was, Rhodes does not made 25 The same recipe is clear.25It does show however, the parallel use of pitch (use- supplied by W. D. Richmond in The Grammar ful in melting and rehardening) and Venice turpentine as a of lithography, (sixth edition) Wyman. London, solvent employed in copperplate transfer ink. The use of 1886,p. 203. Again no source is given for what asphaltum by Senefelder in his hard ground ink supports already appears to be a traditional recipe. the possibility that a link may exist with NiGpce's use of bitumen of Judea and oil of lavender in his lithographic experiments in the 1820s. 26 Bloy, op. cit., p. 124,gives Lorilleaux's old recipe for lithographic ink (published in 1889)made with a thin varnish suitable for intaglio stone printing and Lithographic press inks or varnishes, as distinct from the containing less black than ink prepared for fatty preparations described above, were in most respects planographic printing. the same as typographic inks. The same dangerous process 27 ibid.. Bloy lists sixty-nine ink recipes used by of heating linseed oil in a kettle and burning off the printers between 1440 and 1850. Of these. combustible fumes to make thin, medium, or thick eleven are inks 0re~ared for lithographic "se: The varnishes by reduction was a traditional method employed recipes Riven are drawn from thefollowing sources: by printers.26These varnishes were often left to stand in Senefelder. Andr6. Mairet, 1818, Charlville, 1821, storage until required for use. Then, as required for Bautz, 1836,Hansard, 1841. Lemercier immediate use, they were mixed with lamp black, and (undated), and Knecht's iecipe. la56,pp. 99-127. sometimes, pther additive^.^' Senefelder, had made similar Bloy also provides a useful glossary of pigments and recommendations on the preparation of lithographic varnish. varnish ingredients. pp. 126-35. Thin varnish should be reduced by one third in volume by boiling and burning off the vapours to the consistency of honey, not stringy; the medium varnish reduced in volume by about half, until it is of the consistency 'of very old honey ... drawing stringy to the length of one foot or more' and; thick varnish, reduced in volume to a little under half its original quantity, highly viscose, and drawing 'stringy to

28 Senefelder. A Complete the length of three feet'.28 Course of Lithography. p. 130. Colin Bloy shows in A History of Printing Ink: Balls and Rollers, 1440-1850,that recipes for lithographic printing varnishes were soon prepared with more refinement. Bread, sometimes added to the kettle to soak up unwanted residues during the boiling down process by typographic printers was a method increasingly favoured by lithographic 29 Bloy, op. cit.. Lernercier's recipe (60), p. 121. printers.29Onions were added also to reduce unwanted odours.

The recipes for lithographic ink contained in A History of Printing Ink, reveals that although ingredients were still quite similar at midcentury, later recipes such as those found in W. D. Richmond's The Grammar of Lithography, employed methods of making lithographic ink that involved 30 W. D. Richmond, The greater refinement and some new ingredient^.^^ Grammar of Lithography (first edition. 1878) gives details of lead, zinc and copper (for darker colours) Aside from special lithographic inks invented by Senefelder powdered metal driers. and also of copal or for (a) autographic writing, (b) ink based chalks for drawing, Canada Balsam drying oils added to lithographic (c) transfer inks for transferring and (d) conventional printing varnishes, especially for chromo-lithographic work. inks (modified) for printing on paper from a stone plate, the pp. 179-80. Working lithographers were also process depended upon careful preparation of the stone. kept informed of develop rnents in inks and varnish es in publications such as The British Lithographer which published many ink recipes. The British Lithographer also Senefelder recommended that a stone needed to be 'from answered technical questions from readers, two to two and a half inches' in thickness to be of proper and in the 1890s still discussed at length the use. He recommended preparing the stones by testing them recipes first developed by Senefelder. for flatness with a straight edge and eliminating hollows and raised areas on the surface of the stone with pumice stone and water., testing the surface of the stone at intervals with the straight edge until satisfied that the surface was flat. After this procedure was completed, one stone prepared in this way was placed on top of another prepared in the same way, with a layer of fine sand, soap, and a little water between them, and then rubbing the two surfaces together 31 Senefelder, op. cit., to polish them and render them perfectly flat,31 pp. 107-10.

Senefelder wrote of the interaction between stone and acid that 'In nitric, muriatic and other acids, it can be almost entirely dissolved, and the carbonic acid escapes in the

32 ibid.. p. 102. form of a gas'32By washing the surface of the stone with diluted acid however a high polish could be obtained when the stone was rubbed with a rag and Senefelder likened it to the polish that could be got from a copper plate, although he conceded that the shine on the surface of stone was less brilliant than that obtained on copper. By trial and error he discovered that if the stone was polished before a drawing was applied to it several thousand impressions could be made.

It is a curious fact that apart from Senefelder who was open I to the possibilities of printing from a variety of surfaces, few early lithographers considered using any material other than

stone as a printing plate. This observation is emphasised ! by T~yman~~who writes that Senefelder 'considered using 33 Twyman, Early Lithographed Music. 1996, metal plates for music printing; in a letter to the publisher I p. 54. n. 5. Pleyel dated 31August 1805 he proposed using plate brass for this purpose' and that 'practically every account of litho- graphy published before about 1825 concentrated on stone 34 ibid., p. 54. Twyman notes to the virtual exclusion of other material^.'^^ that the draftsman H. W. Eberhard published two books on lithography (Maintz 1821 and Darmstadt in 1822 respectively) that made reference to lithographic Before Senefelder's invention of lithography, engraving printing from metal plates. See p. 68 n. 55. illustrations on metal plates complimented the use of moveable type. Copper and zinc engraving .came into use as substitutes for steel where precision, or lower cost, was required. Etching on copper as a supplement to engraving also replaced etching on iron and became a medium of illustration in its own right. These intaglio processes in which the ink was lifted from the grooves in the plate were the opposite of the raised image on woodblocks and moveable type. Illustrations printed from intaglio plates required different treatment in preparation from relief printing. The metal plate required heating, and had to be inked and wiped clean and then polished to remove all traces of ink from the non-printing surface. The means of obtaining an impression required great pressure to draw the ink out of the recesses in the plate. To meet this need the rolling press was invented.

The legacy of copperplate engraving therefore played its part in Senefelder's invention. Printing from a polished stone required incremental pressure to transfer the ink to the paper as the plate passed under a roller in the same I way that intaglio printing did.

, Senefelder soon encountered these problems printing with his new process. The common wooden hand press was \ designed to print from raised surfaces and it employed a i vertical action the applied pressure directly onto the printing surface of the type from above. When the idea of deeply etching the surface of the stone in imitation of raised type j proved unnecessary for purely chemical printing a copper 1 plate rolling press was resorted to instead. Difficulties still bedevilled the new process as Senefelder found that the copper plate rolling press was unable to apply sufficient pressure to obtain a good impression. Besides this shortcoming, there was a tendency for paper to creep forward or being damp to spread as the roller passed over 35 Senefelder, op. cit., the sheet either slurring or distorting the impre~sion,~~ p. 187.

Such difficulties led to experiments with new kinds of presses. One solution to this problem was to resort to a variation on the theme of the common proofing press in I which a flat stone, ramped at the end, placed at each end of the 'stone' which was ground to exactly the same heigtit I so that the cylinder could pass smoothly from one to the other, and over the surface of the stone from which the impression was to be taken, without impediment.

Perhaps the most useful press Senefelder invented was the upright lever, or pole press (fig. 11),which he found ideal for taking impressions from small stones. This contrivance worked by the attachment of a scraper-blade to a vertical pole. The outer frame of this press consisted of a tapered box-construction narrower at the apex and fixed at

36 The construction of lever either end to a tressle-like bed below36and an elastic spring or pole presses was highly 1 individual. See-Twyman. made from a seasoned pine plank some six feet above, and Early Lithographed Music, Chapter 6, 'Lithographic parallel to, the bed. The flexible plank above was attached presses and materials.' for a detailed account of this to a lever connected to a foot operated peddle below. subject and several illustrations of Pressure was applied by depressing the peddle which flexed Senefelder's pole presses of various constructions: the plank and exerted increased pressure as the pole to figures 46. 47. 49. 50. pp. 73-5., and a pole which the scraper blade of planed wood was attached at press illustrated by Marcel de Serres in Annales des a flexible joint was drawn laterally across the face of the Arts et manufactures, , p. 76. Refer also- stone under pressure. The pole press had the advantage Twyman, 'The Lithographic Hand Press 1796-1850'. that the scraper could be adjusted to apply more or less Journal of the Printing Historical Society, no. 3. pressure at the joint and, by the simple expedient of 1967, pp. 1-50. for additional examples changing the leather coated wooden blade, stones of figs. 1-10 and pl. 2. different sizes could be printed from.

i The evolution of lithography favoured both the scraper and

fig. 11. Pole press. Senefelder. From VOLLST~NDIGES LEHRBUCHDER STEINDRUXEREY(Munich and Vienna, 1818). Source of illustration: Twyman, EARLY LITHOGRAPHEDM USIC, p. 73. the cylinder press as both had advantages when applied to

37 Twyrnan, Early different applications. As Twyman points out3' the pole Lithographed Music, p. 76. press was the only purpose built lithographic press until 1805 when Hermann Joseph Mitterer devised the star wheel scraper press. Mitterer's idea combined features of the copper plate rolling press with Senefelder's idea of a scraper. In Mitterer's design the bed of the press with the stone on it moved horizontally under a beam so that a scraper fixed to it would apply pressure to the stone as it passed under it. The drive wheel of the press was turned by either a lever or a star wheel. It was wound forward by the action of a leather or perhaps a webbed belt in the manner of the beds found on iron typographic presses like the Stanhope and the . The bed of Mitterer's press was returned to its starting position by the action of a weight attached to the axle of the drive wheel when the star wheel or lever was reversed.

The development of powered cylinder presses had to await the ingenuity of later inventors however. It is generally agreed that Sigl's Austrian patent for a powered lithographic press in 1851 was the first serious attempt to challenge the supremacy of typographic print in the development of lithographic printing presses. This was a shortcoming

38 ibid., p. 84. acknowledged by Senefelder.38The powered lithographic press was slow to find general acceptance among lithographers and a long time passed before it took precedence over the hand-press.

Senefelder recognised that in a well stocked establishment three kinds of paper were required when printing lithographically. He listed them as , and printing paper. Of these, only printing paper requires further comment. The method of making printing paper when-lithography was invented was uniformly the . same across Europe. The invention of the paper making machine by Nicholas-Louis Robert of Paris (1798) was delayed by the disturbed political state of France and his invention was sold to St. Leger Didot and was thence taken to England where it was developed by H. & S. Foudrinier 39 James Moran, 1973. and commenced in operation in 1803.39While machine Printing Presses: History & Development from the made paper was available when Senefelder wrote his Fifteenth Century to Modern Times, Faber and manual he made no mention of it. Paper recommended for Faber, London, 1973. P. 176. lithography was much the same in its composition as the sheets of paper used for copperplate printing. Senefelder stipulates therefore that the best paper for printing lithographs absorbed water and expressed his preference for papers of Swiss manufacture on the grounds that they contained fewer impurities in composition.

While Senefelder had no particular prejudice against sized papers he did warn his readers against gritty, bleached and non-absorbent papers. Senefelder wrote that 'tolerably good impressions may be obtained upon dry, but un-sized paper' but to achieve this result greater pressure was required with the accompanying danger that the stone might be broken as a result. This problem had clearly been overcome by the late 1830s as Engelmann advocated the use of dry paper for his method of printing chromolithographs.

Senefelder did not regard prepared paper as essential to the act of transferring, as transfer ink could be used 40 Rhodes op. cit.. says that it is best for hand written instead to transfer from wood and other surfaces, However, work by a non-lithographer to done with autographic he did recommend the use of a prepared paper when ink on plain paper. An inexperienced person has drawing transfers with chemical ink.40Senefelder's notion of less opportunity to leave finger marks and other transferring may have originated from the idea of making imperfections on plain paper but is likely to leave drawings on transparent paper and tracing the designs with I unwanted marks on transfer paper and spoil chalk or lead onto stone. Tracing paper needed to be dry I the work. and transparent. But transfer paper 'must be prepared with 41 Tragacanth : a white sap extracted from the plant thin starch, and a small portion of gamboge, and it is then species Astragalus and used as a vehicle in the called prepared transfer paper.' Senefelder later explains I manufacture of drugs as well as in the arts. The how the prepared transfer paper is made, with instructions white residue collected being used to make to put half an ounce of gum-traganth41in water, until a paste. dissolved into a starch-like paste, a process that takes from two to fourteen days. Then to mix it, and sieve it, to remove impurities. A second mixture is then prepared consisting of an 'ounce of ...joiners glue, and half an ounce of gamboge,' dissolved in water. A third mixture is then separately prepared consisting of an ounce of starch, half an ounce of plaster of Paris and four ounces of French chalk mixed together with water and allowed to harden. This mixture is then broken down into a powder and mixed with the liquefied glue and gamboge until the ingredients are reduced to a paste. The paste then has the first mixture of gum-target and water added to it and the whole preparation is sieved a second time. To coat the paper, water is added, until it is of a consistency that can be brushed evenly onto the sheets. The final stage of preparation is now in sight when the paper, now dried, is run through a rolling press under pressure to obtain a smooth coated finish.

The use of lithographic transfer paper as a means of transferring images to stone came to be widely used after

42 See--Weber. op. cit., Senefelder's death." Information clearly charting the p. 17. Also-Twyman, Early Lithographed Music development of transfer paper recipes between 1800 and (p. 50.) adds that Engelmann began 1900 is somewhat scarce.43Hullmandel illustrated the transferring maps from engraved plates as early transfer method in his book with a novelty page composed as 1821. the of signatures Napoleon Bonaparte, Ney, Murat, 43 Felix Man, 150 Years of Artist's Lithographs: 1803 Beauharvios and Massena. Engelmann also recommended - 1953, William Heinemann Limited, the use of transfer paper for this purpose. Hullmandel London. 1953, p. LXV., who states that 'transfer outlined too the use of transfer paper as a satisfactory paper was greatly improved about 1868' means of placing copperplate engravings on the stone and but without any further explanation. illustrated this with an example of security printing for bank

44 Charles. J. Hullmandel. cheques,44bookplates and bill heads. He described the The Art of Drawing on Stone, ~udolfAckermann, process by which such transfers may be duplicated on the London, 1824. pl. 16. stone, thus increasing the rate at which a printer may increase production. In 1832, Charles Tilt, seller of French and English '' and 'Parisian ~ovelties' advertised, 'Lithographic prints, just published, intended for the newly-invented and fashionable art of transferring.' A shift in meaning no doubt, away from the notion of the 45 Thomas Hood, The Comic autographic print, and most likely referring to the use of Annual, Charles Tilt, London. 1832, prints for decoupage or perhaps to an early example of (Advertisement section. p. 10). lithographic decalc~mania.~~

46 W. D. Richmond. The Grammar of Lithography: A practical Guide for the Some information however, is to be found in lithographic Artist and printer in Commercial and Artistic journals like The Printing Times and Lithographer (~1875) Lithography, Zincography, Photo-Lithography, and and in W. D. Richmond's book The Grammar of Lithography Lithographic Printing machines, (sixth edition). 187646as well as in the journal British Lithographer towards Wyman, London. 1886. the end of the nineteenth century. So-called 'French transfer 47 Rhodes, op. cit.. p. 50. See also Griffitts. The paper' coated with gum Arabic was transparent and had a Rudiments of Lithography, who adds that French dry smooth surface. When French transfer paper first came transfer is very thin (p. 54. 58). and 'useful for into use is unclear, but Rhodes (1914) remarks that it was drawing fine line work ...semi -transparent of use in work where registration marks had been omitted [and suitable] ... for drawing fine work on and, by the artist and was especially useful in chromo- being semi-transparent, for tracing a design where lithographic ~rinting.~' perfect transparency is not absolutely essential.' In Early Lithographed Music, Twyman provides some details 48 Twyman. Early Lithographed Music. of the pitfalls in transferring music to stone and plate, pp. 87-88, Shows Hullmandel supplying an stating that, initially at least, only lower quality sheet music order that included transfer paper to Edward by lesser publishers and composers was printed by this Barnard. Agent for the Colony of Van Dieman's method. Although, he adds, there was no need for this to Land to set up a lithographic establishment. have been the case. A possible reason for this he believes, Source: Archives Office of Tasmania.-Refer also to may have resulted from cautiousness among publishers and C. Craig's Old Tasmanian Prints, Launceston, 1964, craftsmen preferring the certainty of handdone work drawn pp. 325-326. Twyman also comments on the directly on the stone. large quantity of paper in this order for the Surveyor General's Office as 'representing the greatest Different methods of transferring involved the use of element in setting up a lithographic establish transfer ink to write or draw on paper and, increasingly, ment'. This may be. partially, a local peculiarity various kinds of transfer paper prepared by larger as the first Australian was not set up lithographic printing firms and printers' suppliers rather than at Sydney until 1818 and seems to have been beset those made by individual lithographers. Twyman shows for by shortages of raw material from the start. example, that Hullmandel sent pre-prepared transfer paper Paper making on a large scale did not take hold in from London to Tasmania in May 1830.u8 Australia until the 1860s. see--Dietrich Borchardt and Colin Clair (editor). Commercial products aside, recipes for transfer paper The Spread of Printing: Eastern Hemisphere. and transfer ink were still included in lithographic manuals Australia. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. until 1914 at least. Rhodes gave recipes for Scottish . 1967. Tom Darragh in Engraving and Lithography transfer paper, semi-moist and everdamp transfer papers, in Melbourne at the Time of the Gold Rush, copperplate transfer paper, letterpress to stone transfer Garavembi, Thumb Creek paper, writing transfer paper, photolitho. transfer paper 1990 (p. 9), shows that lithography was first (W. K. Burton's recipe) and grained transfer paper. introduced into Tasmania 'at Mrs Eulalie Wood's printery in Liverpool Street. Hobart, in April 1830' These transfer papers varied in composition according to predating the delivery of a lithographic press to the the required application, but the properties necessary for Surveyor General's Cffice by a month. each application consisted of three distinct agents: thickening, adhesive, and hygroscopic (an absorbent chemical agent reactive to moisture in air), constituents 47 Colour was added to the mixture to distinguish the to which was added a fourth element; c~lourant.~~ coated side of the paper from the uncoated side. 1Ib. flour made into a paste with 6 pints of water 4 02. starch made into paste 1Ib. plaster of Paris prepared with 6 pints of water 1Ib. flake white ground into paste 1 02. glue, soaked then melted 2 02. gum Arabic dissolved in 8 oz. of water 2 02. gum gamboge (powder) 40 drops carbolic acid

The properties of materials used in transfer paper were

effectively categorised by Rhodes (see fig.10, p. 82). In I Rhodes's table the various ingredients are divided into four I characteristic groups. By comparing Senefelder's recipe with Rhodes's table the effectiveness of Senefelder's ingredients can be seen. Materials such as flour, starch, I 48 Artist's colour made from plaster of Paris and flake whitedswere effective as lead oxide, clay, and linseed oil prized for its thickeners to prime the surface of the paper. Glue, like gum covering power when diluted to the consistency Arabic, gum gamboge, flour and starch, were used for their of a paste. adhesive qualities. Gum gamboge was used as a dry pigment to give the coated side of the transfer paper its dis- tinctive yellowish colour. Gum Arabic and possibly carbolic acid were added for their hydroscopic properties.

By 1956 the need to include such recipes in technical I manuals had passed and T. E. Griffits in The Rudiments of Lithography evidently considered recipes for the various kinds of transfer paper unnecessary. Instead, he confined his remarks to the merits of the various kinds of transfer paper commercially available. Griffitts enumerated those

49 Griffits. op. cit.. p. 37. still commercially available49and commented on the uses to which they were put. Coated with 'starch, plaster of Paris, gum gamboge, etc., according to the type of transfer paper desired' transfer papers were used for making 'key' drawings and for transferring artists sketches, fine lettering, and crayon and brush drawings. The main types Griffitts 50 Joseph Pennell, American listed were Pennell'ssoand other grained transfer papers for lithographic artist, author and illustrator. sketching, 'yellow writing transfer paper' for fine work, 'thick rolled Scotch transfer paper... for brush work' and 'thin white [semi-transparent] French transfer paper... for fine outlines'.

Other recipes may have been semi-secret however, trial and error methods handed down by generations of craftsmen. As recently as the 1940s a few reticent old hands working in established firms were still made their own transfer paper. This is illustrated by a story from F. W. Niven & Co., in Melbourne, Australia, and while it may contain some mis-remembered 'facts' such as to the colour of the mixture, the method employed follows Richmond's recommendation that transfer paper should be hoisted up over wires or strings and left to dry:

Renfrew used to make transfer paper in a bucket, ... he'd paint this coating on. I think he used to give the paper three coats. It 51 Interview-Peter Simington, 'Recollections came out a pink colour but I think that was mainly so you could of the lithographic printing see it. So you could [distinguish the] transfer paper from white firm of F. W. Niven, paper. The mixture [itself], I think, was clear. Melbourne.' Melbourne. 22 November 1993. He had this stick with a tee piece at the top, and he used to Simington's story shows put strings up all over the factory, and he'd paint this stuff on that the method used by lithographer's to make and put it over the [stick] and he'd pick it up [with] the stick. their own transfer paper, in The stink was terrible! For three or four days he'd make him- Australia, in the middle of the 20th century, was self a batch of three of four hundred sheets of this paper. I essentially the same think it used to [have] three coats, with a day between coats. method described by Richmond, op. cit., in He'd have this bucket mixed up, and with a big wide brush which he wrote: 'the he'd paint it on the sheet, then over the stick wet side up, up, addition of colouring hang it on the string, and he'd collect them ail the next day, matter to transfer paper is for the more ready take them all out, and put another coat on...51 determination of the coated side" and when hanging the paper up to This adds a personal insight to the formal directions given dry it was necessary to "put lines across a room, in the sixth edition of The Grammar of Lithography by about nine inches apart. [and] lay the wet paper Richmond in 1886. over a T shaped piece of wood, and place it on the line neatly and cleanly." pp. 206-207. Senefelder died in Munich on 26 February 1834. His legacy is as significant as Gutenberg's in the history of printing in that he developed fully a completely new printing process that had far reaching consequences. Senefelder's contribution was not merely that he discovered the properties of Kelheim stone, or the simple principle that oil and water do not mix, but more importantly he manipulated all the chemical properties of inks, acids, fats, gums, tars and pigments to satisfy the requirements of a variety of applications. Ranging from chalks to transfer inks, and from stone preparation to the invention of prepared paper plates and the recognition of zinc, copper and even of brass plates as suitable printing surfaces for use in chemical printing. Further, these experiments and inventions culminated in his most important discovery -transfer paper. In this single idea he re-introduced to printing processes the advantages of indirect image transfer first exploited by Gutenberg. Senefelder's invention rendered the separation of words from pictures unnecessary, a division that was inescapable in all previous methods of printing. For all his originality, few it seems, recognised the potential his inventiveness, or that lithography influenced developments in printing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries far more than is generally realised.

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Chapter 5 The Spread, Improvement arad Effects of Direct Lithography on Print

Ideally.. .lithographed music should be considered along with other applications of commercial lithography, particularly jobbing printing, with which it has much in common. But even less is known about these branches of the lithographic trade than is known about lithographic 1 Michael Twyrnan, Early music.-Michael Twyman.l Lithographed Music: A study based on the H. Barron Collection, Farrand Press, London In the 19th century, chemical printing progressed through 1996, p 12. the whole of its first phase - direct lithography. In Germany and Italy, France and England, it evolved from simple semi-mechanical relief lithography on deeply etched stones through successive stages to mature as direct lithography. Meanwhile, the indirect transfer of images from copper plates with the aid of transfer paper, chromolithographic printing, photolithography and finally, collotype half-tone printing, were mastered. These important technical advances have been viewed by print historians with considerably less interest than equivalent developments in mechanical or typographic printing.

Until recently the progress of lithography in each country has only been outlined in a piecemeal fashion. Weber2 made the point that the first surveys of lithographic printing were only conducted on a national basis. Leon Lang, Jean 2 Wilhelm Weber, A History Bercier, Henry Bouchot and Andre Mellerio wrote about of Lithography, Thames and Hudson. London. lithography in France. Surveys of the German lithographic 1964, p, 12. tradition were written by Franz Maria Ferchl and Carl Wagner. Weber went on to state that it was not until 1906 when Walter Graff published The Introduction of lithography in France that the fact became clear that the French went to Munich to learn the art of printing from stone. English historians likewise took a nationalistic viewpoint in telling 3 Michael Twyman 'Charles the story of lithography. Belatedly, P. B. Watt3 wrote in Joseph Hullmandel: Lithographic printer general terms of 'The rise and progress of lithography in extraordinary' (end note Q N 1chapter 2.. Britain' in an article published in the British Lithographer, in acknowledges the contribution of Watt). December-January, 1891. in Pat. Gilmour (editor) LastinE Impressions, ~lexandriaPress. London. 1988. Until recent times, English writers, other than historians, have concentrated on the purely technical aspects of chemical printing. Ackermann published Senefelder's A Complete Course of Lithography in 1819 and Charles Hullmandel The Art of Drawing on Stone, in 1824. In recent years Twyman has drawn attention to other overlooked early English manuals on lithographic printing. Notably the

4 Michael Twyman. Henry Treatise on Lithography by Henry Bankes which first Bankes's Treatise on Lithography. The Printing appeared in Bath (1813) and a second edition, printed in Historical Society, London. 1976. London, (1816), and also to the Rev. George Hunt's

5 Michael Twyrnan, Early Specimens of Lithography (published, 1819).5 The latter Lithographed Books: A Study of the Design and work is technically interesting for two reasons. Specimens Production of Improper Books in the Age of the of Lithography is an early example of the use of transfer Hand Press, Farrand Press. London. 1990, paper to compose pages lithographically. It is also of inter- p. 52. The author adds that this book was printed est because Hunt recognised the versatility of indirect in December 1818 in Chelsea by A. C. image transfer as a means of combining images with roman Marcuard, and a copy sent to the Society of type and also with non-roman alphabets such as 'Hebrew, Antiquaries. Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, Chinese, Bengali and 6 Ibid. other languages.'=

The tendency to focus on technical aspects of chemical printing is a continuous theme in English literature on the subject. W. D. Richmond's comprehensive book, The Grammar of Lithography, first appeared in 1878 and is representative of this tendency in the 19th century. Richmond's manuscript was read, by and approved of, by I some of the foremost lithographers of his day before

7 W. D. Richmond, The publication.' This pattern of technical publishing was Grammar of Lithography, (sixth edition), Wyrnan. repeated in this century in Thomas E. Griffits's simpler London. 1886, p. xiii. the editor acknowledged the manual The Rudiments of Lithography (1946). contribution made by Louis Haghe. Michael Hanhart, William Simpson and Harry The full scope of chemical printing during the 19th century Sanders and Richmond provides a useful still requires both broad and detailed examination to do bibliography of lithography, pp. 243 - 6. justice to the changes in printing technology it I I foreshadowed. This chapter focuses on four aspects: (a) technical progress, (b) the spread of lithography in England, France and Germany, (c) the changing purposes for which

lithography was used and (d) its part in anticipating the I invention of photography.

I

The study of lithography has not only been arbitary, it is also been cyclical. Long intervals have occurred between one wave of interest and the next. Sporadic interest by print and art historian alike, has affected our understanding of the development of chemical printing as a whole, and its study tends, even in a broad survey, to be clustered around individuals or isolated events. Because of this, it is perhaps easier to convey something of developments in the nineteenth century by linking single aspects like the first major application of Senefelder's invention - lithographic music printing - with a single place: Germany. Although lithographic music printing was also taken up in Italy and to a lesser extent in France and England, much less appears to be known about the development of lithographic music printing in those countries. Beyond direct stone lithography, technical, specialist, or ephemeral applications of lithographic printing have not excited the interest of many researchers.

The Napoleonic wars provide a suitable reason to shift our focus from Germany to France and England where another early application: the military use of lithography, gained attention. After the Napoleonic wars the supposed decline in interest in lithographic printing in England and its revival I in France introduces the reader to the period of popularity that was due to the pioneering efforts of the Compte de Lasteyrie and Godefroy Engelmann. Among the many artists who made lithographs in France between 1815 and c1835

8 Claude Roger-Marx. some important figures emerged.8 At present we owe much Graphic Art of the 19th Century, Thames and of our limited knowledge of the development of the Hudson, London, 1962, pp. 39-40, artists such as lithographic process at the time to the work of art historians Boilly. Bergeret. Lejeune, Lomet. Vivant-Denon, who focus their attention on these artists. Girodet-Troison. GuBrin. Desmarais. Bacler D'Albe. i Hersent, and Marlet. Art historians have little time for specialist printing I techniques or for the mundane ephemera of the jobbing printer. Only artists of the first and second rank who have I contributed to the history of art with prints of extraordinary impact or inventiveness capture their attention. Characteristically, Claude Roger-Marx writes of the early lithographers that 'There is no need... to linger over the first 9 ibid., p. 38.. Roger-Marx cites lithographic prints by clumsy attempts made in Munichg...and subsequently in Mettenleiter, Mayrhoffer. Winter. Wagenhauser Diisseldorf and in Austria. Among a flood of weak and and Hauber. characterless likenesses... one or two portraits stand 10 ibid.. p. 39.. Roger-Marx cites portraits made by outi0.. .[along with]. ..a more or less faithful series of KrOger. Friedrich Jentzen. Gustave Feckert, Leider reproductions after Diirer or the earlier masters.'" The idea and Kriehuber. that only high art is worthy of consideration in charting the 11 ibid.. p. 39.. Roger-Marx cites lithographs by progress of lithography as a new printing technology Strixner and Pelotti. conceals from view other insights that might be fruitfully obtained from examining more mundane ephemeral documents. This problem is encountered repeatedly in the history of printmaking as an art form. It is also encountered throughout the history of the book.

A major development in the progress of the direct lithographic process, was chromolithography, made popular by Godefroy Engelmann in France and by Charles Hullmandel in England. The problems of coloured inks, colour separation and colour registration, partly solved by Le Blon in coloured engraving, were applied with success to lithography by Engelmann in France. Engelmann's advances in colour lithography came to the fore in 1837 with his

12 Weber, op. cit., p. 83. patent for what he referred to as 'lithocolour printing, or lithographs in colour imitating painting.'''

The hope Engelmann entertained was the same one that had occupied Senefelder when he had pursued the goal of successful colour printing, namely, the goal of imitating painting in printed editions. Nature could not be successfully imitated by black and white engraving or lithography no matter how carefully the subtle nuances of tone were manipulated. It was, Engelmann thought, through the imitation of painting that lithography presented itself as the appropriate tool with which nature could be most faithfully represented. His technical innovations were: to discover independently the usefulness of printing three primary colours with the addition of black to,provide a full range of tones and colours, to modify the lithographic press 13 ibid.. pp. 87-88.

I and to print on dry paper,13 thus minimising the problems of stretch and shrinkage. Englemann's chromo-lithography, like music printing, had broad appeal. Thus chromolithographs entered into a period of commercial, if frivolous, popularity in France and England.

fig. 12 John C. Bourne, lithograph, THE ENGINE HOUSEAT SWINDON, 1846, illustration from Ken Baynes and Francis Pugh, THE ART OF THE ENGINEER, pl. 145., p. 154. Source: Science Museum, London.

The appetite for cheap coloured prints among the citizens of England coincided with the growing desire for self- improvement, and further up the social scale, with the delights of the Grand Tour of Europe, a passion for railway travel (see fig. 12 above), serious scientific exploration, and a hankering after exotic places. Landscape prints of the 'picturesque' in England and abroad fed this appetite in an expanding middle class (see fig. 13 p. 101). A heightened interest in the facsimile editioning of ancient manuscripts and in the 'grammar' of ornament presented perfect opportunities for the lithographer to expand the visual syntax of the medium.

It is extreme to suggest that the public interest in the 'picturesque' album and the carefully lithographed facsimile edition were direct antecedents of the invention of photography. Nevertheless both of these popular forms of publishing, together with the desire to accurately represent nature, as articulated by John Ruskin, exerted a strong pull on the popular imagination. Henry Fox Talbot's sketches made at Lake Como with the camera lucida, and his 14 The brief ascendancy of direct lithography as a 'photogenic drawings' of plants and crystals, which mark means of security printing in the 1850s had its the beginning of English photography combined with his beginnings in the 1820s. Twyrnan, Lithography interest in etymological studies were, like Louis Jaques 1800 - 1850: The techniques of drawing on Mandi. Daguerre's and 's experiments stone in England and France and their with lithography circumstances favourable to the emergence application in the works of topography, Oxford of a new technology and a new art form. University Press. London. 1970, p. 130, n I.,refers to 'a copperengraving printed in J. H. Ibbetson. There was a brief ascendancy of direct lithography in A practical view of an invention for better security printing in the 1850s. It began in the 1820~,~~but protecting bank-notes against forgery (2n ed.. aside from some minor technical developments in this field, London 1821)..' Ford op. cit.. p. 65. n 136, cites photolithography was the next development in chemical A. D. Mackenzie, The Bank of England Note: A history lithography of lasting significance. Little has been written of its printing, as the source of Rudolf about this important technical development by print Ackerrnann's suggestion that machine engravings historians. Twyman provides some useful information about might be transferred to lithographic stone and development and use of photolithography in England by Sir bank notes be printed lithographically to ensure Henry James in Early Lithographed book^.'^ Otherwise there that security from forgery was maintained. are, seemingly, only scattered articles and passing See also Harry Carter. The House of Ensched6 references16to the various inventions of photolithography in 1703 - 1953. Joh. Enschede en Zonen. Holland, France, Australia and Russia. The reasons why Haarlem. 1953 p. lii.. who refers to 'Lithography in seem to be those already alluded to, books treating the colours replac[ing] letterpress for printing decorative aspects of lithography as 'Art' have so far had a securities about 1850' in Holland. Lithography was much wider appeal than books on more utilitarian quickly surpassed in this field by improvements in developments of real significance in lithographic printing letterpress printing. technology. 15 Twyman, Early Lithographed Books pp. 244-246. Most studies, consequently, paint a non-technical if 16 See--Richmond, op. cit., attractive picture of the progress of lithography during the pp. 187-196. 19th century. The illustrated gift book and the 'picturesque' 17 For English topographical books and gift books album are as much in evidence in lithographic history as see--Ruari McLean, Victorian Book Design and they are in the typographic media of engraving and Colour Printing. (second edition). Faber and Faber. aquatint.17 The use of lithography in the 'production of London, 1963. The first of these picturesque albums improper books' as Twyman calls them, the quirky self to be printed lithographically is published or cheap editions, the technical manuals, the Charles Hullmandel's Twenty-four views of Italy, survey maps and music printing, are mostly hidden from drawn from nature, and engraved upon stone. general view or glossed over as being of mirior interest. printed in London in 1818, cf.. Twyrnan 'Charles Joseph Hullmandel: Lithographic printer extra ordinary" chapter 2., p.49. in Gilmour, op. cit. In this context Elizabeth Eisenstein's argument that the fig.13 Joh n C. Bourne. lithograph. THE GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD. Illustration from Ray. invention of typographic printing had important THE ILLUSTRATOR AND THE BOOKIN ENGUNDFROM repercussions for Western science deserves closer scrutiny. 1790 TO 1914. pl. 86. If her theory is right it can be argued that lithography should have had a similar liberating effect on the use of

Weber, op. cit., pp. 48-51. illustration. It should by this measure show up as a tool Weber provides some that increased interest in lithographed technical illustration insight into the level of official interest in and in lithographic scientific publishing during the lithography during the Reign of Napoleon I. nineteenth century. The facts as far as they have been among members of the French intelligencia. It is explored are interesting but inconclusive. Clear examples suggested by Weber that Denon exercised his of serious scientific interest being shown in France are powerful position to demonstrated by Napoleon's director-general of Imperial include Mannlich as an associate of the lnstitur museums Dominique Vivans Denon's visit to Johann Royal de France, along with the mathematician Christian von Mannlich, director of the Royal Galleries in Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) in 1809. Munich. Denon remained in Munich to learn lithography Denon also claimed the friendship of the naturalist after Napoleon's departure, and he also had links with and philosopher Baron Senefelder.I8 Von Mannlich also kept Johanri Goethe Friedrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) informed of developments in lithography. Weber, somewhat who had spent some time in Paris lecturing at the tenuously, links Senefelder's experiments in colour lnstitut Royal while his book was being published lithography with the interest in lithography shown by von in 1804. 19 ibid., p, 37. Mannlich and Goethe in their corresponden~e.~~Weber suggests it is through this correspondence with von Mannlich that Goethe's colour theories may have influenced Senefelder's colour printing experiments.

There are parallel links between scientists, artists and lithographic printers in England such as those between . Hullmandel and the artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (who made no lithographs, but was interested in colour theory) and Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Like the earlier, but not fully researched, links between Denon, Gauss and Humboldt in France, these English connections were not necessarily, as Eisenstein conveys in her study of early typographic printing, motivated by an interest in scientific

20 Twyman, in Gilmour, op. endeavour.20Social connections between Hullmandel, cit.. refers to H. B. Jones's The Life and Letters of Faraday and Turner must be balanced against business and Faraday (2 vols.), London 1870. vol. 1.. p. 419, in professional relationships between lithographers, and an account of a visit to artists such as Theodore Gericault, James Duffield Harding, one of Hullrnandel's I 'conversaziones" by George Barnard, a Thomas Shotter Boys, William Westall, George Scharf and I lithographic draftsman. and related to Faraday by others. There are indications that commercial life and social I marriage. Listed among the guests are many engagements were placed ahead of research and science. 'Royal Academicians, such as Stanfield. Turner. Westall. Landseer. &c. Yet Harding, Boys and Faraday do seem to have taken a i [and at these suppers] ... we had charades, close interest in Hullmandel's lithographic experiments and Faraday and many of us taking parts with Gargia, patents. In this criscross of human interaction, the Malibran and the rest." Twyman loc. cit. also correspondence between Faraday and von Humboldt is mentions that Charles Darwin lived a short understandably of a scientific nature, naturalist and chemist distance away from Hullmandel in the same conferring over the phenomenon of electricity in eels street but finds no definite social connection between and how to feed and keep them. Hullmandel, on the other them. hand, because of his business connections in Europe I occasionally undertook the role of delivering letters for Faraday, and Faraday in return wrote a testimonial for 1 Hullmandel vouching for the originality of Hullmandel's lithographic patent.

I Hullmandel's visit to Munich where he met Senefelder and learned about the art of lithography may be supposed to have been premeditated but this cannot be proved. Yet it is interesting to observe that Hullmandel was in the unusual position of being aquainted with both Senefelder the inventor of chemical printing and the eminent chemist and physicist Faraday, revered as the discoverer of electric and

21 Faraday's discovery was magnetoelectric ind~ction,~'work that led to the invention made in 1830. It is of interest to note that Sir of the electrotype, used widely in mechanical printing. Humphrey Davy had already contributed to this new area of study with the electric arc in 1801 and Actual links between lithography, natural history and went on to discover electolysis. a precursor to scientific illustration are less commonly noted. Early the introduction of the electrotype in printing. examples that can be pointed to are the illustrations of Adolph von Menzel in The Poisonous Plants of Germany (1831) and in Edward Lear's lllustrations of the Family Psittacidz, (1832) printed by Hullmandel. Other examples are alluded to by various authors, yet surprisingly few of 22 Twyman. in Gilmour. op. cit., p. 64., refers to these avenues of investigation are explored.22 Hullmandel's work for '...some of the leading The seemingly limited role lithography played in the academic institutions. such as the Linnean advancement of scientific scholarship is illusory. The use of Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Royal lithography in scientific fields was widespread. Institution." This suggests that the usefulness of Bibilographical works such as Claus Nissen's Die lithography in printing illustrated works for Botanishae Buchillustration (1966) and Sacheverel Sitwell, scientific publishing was, to some extent. Buchanan Handersyde and James Fisher, in Fine Bird Books recognised. See also - John Ford, Ackermann 1700-1900 (1953) provide ample proof of this fact. There 1783 - 1983: The Business of Art, Arthur are also good examples of lithography being used as a tool Ackermann Publishing Limited, London, 1983, of literary scholarship. Elliott Stock, (referred to by Morison, (p. 64.) in which he draws attention to Ackermann's see ch. 3, p. 71), was inspired by his lithographic demonstration of a lithographic press, and the experience to pursue the cause of modern bibliography in gift of this press to the Royal Society of Arts. England with a series of publications 'from 1880 onwards, The Antiquary (1880) was followed by The Bibliographer (1884) and Book Lore (1877)'. Parallel with English bibliographical scholarship, orientalists such as Richard Burton unearthed works that originated in foreign lithographic sources. The recovery of rare works from earlier times and cultures is demonstrated by Burton's acquisition of a revised edition (1886) of the 'French translation of "Al Raud al Atar wa Nazhat al Khatir" discovered in Algeria by a

23 Mary Lovell. A Rage to French army officer about 1850' and originally printed in Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton, 1876 on 'lithbgraphic sheets' in an edition of.25 to 35 Little Brown & Co.. London. 1998, pp. 876-7. copies.23Such references are scattered and have not, until now, attracted critical attention from print historians in a unified study,

As recently as 1997 William Ashworth and Angus Carroll went some distance towards rectifying this imbalance. Writing of an exhibition of forty-nine items displayed at the Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, Missouri, called 'Paper Dinosaurs', Ashworth and Carroll revued some nineteenth- century discoveries made by paleontologists, and published in scientific journals, that were 'accompanied by , extraordinary lithographs and drawings.' They concluded, this neglect arose 'because these works typically have been scattered throughout the proceedings of scientific societies, 24 William B. Ashworth, Jr., and Angus J. Carroll. buried in government documents, or located in difficult 'Paper Dinosaurs' Biblio: The Magazine for to access monographs [and] libraries and museums have Collectors of Books, Manuscripts, and seldom bothered to gather them in one place for Ephemera, June 1997, v 2, no 6, pp. 24-29. public vie~ing.'~"

The earliest example cited by them is of William Buckland's paper 'Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of 25 William Buckland, 'Notice Stone~field'~~.'The first published description of a on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of dinosaur', Buckland's 1824 paper contained five Stonesfield'. Transactions of the Geological Society lithographed illustrations. Richard Owen (see fig. 14),who I of London, 1824, series 2, VOI. 1, pp. 390-396. coined the name Dinosauria in 1842. also made use of ! lithography to illustrate the Archaeopteryx, in 1863, with a . 26 Ashworth. op. cit.. p. 29, full-scale, gate-fold, representati~n.~~Owen's illustration was refers to Richard Owen's paper 'On the preceded by another lithograph of a dinosaur, the Archaeopteryx of von Meyer, with a description Compsognathus (see fig. 15),described in Andreas of the Fossil Remains of a Long-Tailed Species, from Wagner's 'Abhandlungen der Mathemat.-Physikalischen the Lithographic Stone of Solenhofen.' published in Classe der Koniglish Beyerischen Akademie der the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Wissenschaften' in 1861.27These examples of lithographed Society of London. vol. 53. 1863. pp. 33-47. scientific illustration published by learned societies are 27 Ibid. complimented by others published in official government 28 Angus Carroll, 'Books and publications. Bones' Biblio: The Magazine for Collectors of Books, Manuscripts, and Ephemera. June 1997, Carroll in 'Books and Bones'28reports on the highlights v 2. no 6. pp. 30-31. among illustrated papers on paleontology that were published by the United States Government Survey and printed by the U. S. Government Printing Office somewhat later (~1894-1929).In this report no distinction is made fig. 14 Foot of an IGUANAOON, Richard Owen, from between engraved plates and lithographs but it highlights MONOGRAPH ON THE FOSSIL REPTIL~AOF official government sources as an avenue for further THE WEALDONFORMATION , PART IV. LONDON: investigation into the use of lithography for this purpose. ! PALEONTOGRAPHICAL 1 Socrm: 1857, Series: Carroll's point is bourne out by the number of lithographic ! Paleontographical Society Volumes, vol. and photolithographic illustrations of a scientific nature that 10, 1856. Illustration reproduced from were included in official Victorian Government publications Ashworth and Carroll 'Paper Dinosaurs', in Australia from the 1860s onwards, a pattern that crosses BIBLIO,VOI. 2.. no. 6., June 1997. national boundaries in official publications throughout the

fig. 15 COMPSOGNATHUS, lithograph, from Andreas Wagner- 'Neue Beitrzge zur Kenntnis der urweltlichen Fauna des lithographischen Scheifers, ' ill ABHANDLUNGEN OER MATHEMATIC.-PHUS~KAL~SCHEN CLASSEOER KONIGLICH BAYER~SCHENAKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN.vol. 9, 1861. Illustration reproduced from Ashworth and Carroll 'Paper Dinosaurs ', BIBLID,vol. 2.. no. 6.. June 1997.

English speaking world, and perhaps more widely, as the advantages of lithographic printing were realised.

Additionally, among commercial lithographic printers isolated examples of lithographic tabular works such as I Hullmandel's 'Chronology of England from the Conquest' and Ryde's Hydraulic Tables printed by Hullmandel and

29 Twyman, in Gilmour, Walton in 1851, are noted by Twyman under the heading op. cit.. p. 88. of job printing.29 By the middle of the 19th century, the fashion for picturesque topographical prints became intertwined with the pictorial needs of expeditioners whose explorations were supported as being contributors to knowledge as often as they were regarded as tourists. 'Day and Hague, Lithr. to the King' supplied lithographs to fill this particular niche in G. A. Hoskins's book, Visit to the Great Oasis of the Lybian Desert, with twenty lithographs and a map published 30 G. A. Hoskins, Visit to the in 1837 by L~ngman.~OThis is a minor example. John Scott Great Oasis of the Lybian Desert, Longman, Rees. Russell's The Modern System of Naval Architecture3l Orme, Brown. Green & Longman, London, 1837. (three vols.) with lithograhped illustrations printed by Day Copy in the State Library of Victoria. and Sons, London, and hand tinted in colours, stands out 31 Ken Baynes and Francis and demonstrates that by the 1860s lithography was being Pugh. The Art of the Engineer. The Overlook used extensively for technical publishing (see fig. 16). Press, New York, 1981, pp. 164-169. Lithography in the service of governments for the use of government documents and map printing was a widespread application. Far flung examples are the introduction of lithography to India, at Calcutta in 1823, and Australia by Sir Thomas Brisbane in 1821. fig. 16 John Scott Russell, hand coloured lithographs, THE GREAT Otherwise, technical illustrations were just as likely to be GISTERN,illustration from Baynes and Pugh, printed by more traditional methods. A notable example THE ART OF THE ENGINEER, pl. 162-164.. p. 165. being Byrne's Elements of Euclid published in 1847. Why Source: Science Museum, London. this was so is not clear but it seems likely that the economics of engraving and letterpress printing among competitive printers with a large and skilled workforce were 32 Francis Claudon, The Concise Encyclopedia of still provided a significant incentive to continue publishing Romanticism. Chartwell Books. New Jersey. 1980. such works by traditional means. illustrations throughout.

In general, lithographed scientific illustrations in print fig. 17 below: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, lithograph, remain largely uninvestigated. Indications are, however, that 1796, Claudon, OP. or. p. 215. Source: much remains to be discovered about this branch of Bibliothbque Nationale, Paris. lithographic printing among the official publications of governments- and in the proceedings of learned societies. A circumstance seeming to confirm the validity of Eisenstein's proposition that advances in printing technology promoted the spread of knowledge.

Until now, music printing, cartography and printmaking seem to have gained precedence over natural history, technical illustration or engineering drawing. Roger-Marx, writing on fig. 18 below: Achille Devbria, portrait of Madame de art, dismisses the earliest lithographic portraits as poorly Stadl, lithograph, 1834, Claudon, OP. ClT. drawn and printed, and other writers have not challenged p. 237. Source: Bibliothdque Nationale, this view. It may turn out, however, that in broad terms Paris. portraiture was a very significant application of the new I fig. 19 below centre: Charlotte Bronte, lithograph, methods of printing before photography was invented. undated, Claudon, OP. CIT. p. 211. Source: Printed lithographic portraits, as an extension of the shaded , Bibliothbque Nationale. Paris. pencil sketch, produced an immediacy to likenesses drawn

fig. 20 below right: Guiditto from life by lithographic artists of composers and writers of Pasta, lithograph, undated, Claudon, the romantic movement. Referring only to Francis Claudor~~~ OP. CIT. p. 247. Source: Bibliothdque de as a source, the number of writers' portraits that can be i'Op6ra. Paris. cited as examples of lithographic portraiture includes Samuel Taylor Coleridge (fig. 17), Charlotte Bronte (fig. 19), Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott in Britain; and Alexandre Dumas, Alfred de Vigny and the historian Jules Michelet in France. This pattern appears to have been widespread. Other lithographed portraits such as those of Adam Mickiewicz (Poland and Russia) Juliusz Slowacki (Poland and France) and Benjamin Constant and Madame de Stag1 (Switzerland and France), (fig. 18) show this. In music, lithographed portraits of Franz Schubert, Hector Berlioz and Giacomo Meyerbeer are found in the company of lithographic portraits of performers like Giuditto Pasta dressed in stage costume for Rossini's Semiramis (fig. 20). Elsewhere, lithographic portraits of Beethoven also abound (see critics of lithography on pages 119-20),but these

have been furiously attacked for their shortcomings. I

In this brief exploration of the early uses of lithography, various distortions and gaps must be acknowledged. Unintentional bias is inevitable. Records have been discarded or collected according to no particular plan. How these surviving collections have been viewed in the past cannot be easily corrected. Obvious connections must therefore be made between lithography and printed music, I between lithography and the topographical print, and lithography and the illustrated gift book, but the hidden history of lithography has been presented to a smaller reading public by a few specialist researchers, and what is known at present is still far from comprehensive.

The earliest practical use of chemical lithography seems to have been centred on entertainment rather than science. The cost of engraving sheet music recommended the less costly medium of lithography as suitable for .printing music 33 Weber. op. cit., p. 48 I in both Germany and France.33Senefelder was the first to recognise this opportunity. Driven by poverty and desperation Senefelder thought that he might print sheet music with his new process after seeing a page of poorly 34 Senefelder. A Complete printed music in Ing~lstadt.~Realising the significant Course of Lithography. D. 13 advantages of writing musical notes directly on lithographic stone instead of relying upon the skilled craftsmanship needed to engrave music on metal, he went to his friend Gleissner, described by Senefelder as a Court mcsician, with his idea. With Gleissner's support he printed twelve songs composed by Gleissner in 1796.

Through Gleissner's patron Count Torring, Senefelder sought patent protection from the Elector of . But Senefelder was unsuccessful in obtaining privileges from the Elector Charles. In 1798, however, rights were granted to Senefelder and Gleissner for fifteen years by his successor the Elector Maximillian Joseph.

35 J. Warrack, Carl Maria von News of Senefelder's invention soon attracted a talented Weber (second edition). Cambridge University composer in Carl Maria von Weber, whose father, Franz Press, Cambridge. 1976 pp. 32-33. Anton von Weber had known Senefelder from his days in the theatre.35 Weber senior recognised the opportunity of publishing the younger Weber's music by means of lithography. Carl Maria von Weber left his musical studies to assist Senefelder as an apprentice with his new invention. In 1799 Weber became the first major living composer to 36 William Gamble Music have his music printed lith~graphically,~~his Opus No. 2. By Engraving and Music Printing: Historical and December, 1800, Weber had learned proficiency in the new Technical Treatise, Pitman, London. 1923. p. 65. art and wrote to the music publisher Artaria in Vienna to say that he was now able to 'engrave music on stone in a 37 Twyman. Early manner equal to the finest English copperplate engra~ing'.~' Lithographed Music. p. 92. n. 7. refers the reader to This letter was no doubt written with the intention of A. Hyatt king, Four Hundred Years of Music obtaining orders for such work as after learning the art of Printing (London 1964) and H. Schwarz. Die lithography from Senefelder, the two Webers moved to Anfsnge der Lithographie in Osterreich (Vienna, Frieberg where they set up a lithographic press of their own. 1988),p. 17, n. 24. This idea was short lived because Weber, alone, found the work uncongenial.

Senefelder and Gleissner were visited soon after at their Munich printing office (towards the end of 1799) by Johann Andre from Offenbach. Andre was already an important music publisher who had a thriving business printing sheet music from tin plates. AndrB had acquired some of Mozart's scores in manuscript from the composer's wife, including parts of Mozart's Seraglio, after the composer's death. The music of Mozart, it seems, was printed in greater quantity by the means of lithography than any other composer in the

38 ibid.. p. 94. in his study of early years following Senefelder's invention.% the Baron Collection. Twyman shows that of all the surviving music scores assembled there are Senefelder concluded an agreement with the far-seeing forty-seven items by Mozart listed in the Andre, by which Senefelder was free to continue the new catalogue. This is almost twice the number listed for method of printing (in 1801) with Gleissner at Munich. the next most popular composer. Some three Andre obtained seemingly universal commercial rights quarters were printed by two lithographic music beyond Munich in this partnership with Senefelder and printers: twenty one scores printed by Andr6 at Gleissner and immediately set about obtaining patent rights Offenbach and eleven by Breitkopf & Hlrtel of in Paris and London. Johann Andre's plans for the new Leipzig. Twyman cautiously points out however, that invention were extensive. He envisaged the establishment like so much evidence in establishing a clear history of lithographic printing presses in Berlin and Vienna and in of lithography, this estimate is based on a Paris and London. To this end the Gleissner family moved to single collection that represents a Offenbach to assist Andre there with setting up a serendipitious catch-all at best. lithographic press. Johann Andre persuaded Senefelder to go to London with another brother, Friedrich (in France known as FrBderec), to take out an English patent. Senefelder's Munich press was handed over to his two brothers and the plan was that he would go to Vienna to set 39 ibid.. p. 26. up a press there.39

While Senefelder was in London with Philipp Andre, Johann AndrB sent Gleissner's wife to Vienna to obtain a privilege to print lithographs there. Acting independently meanwhile, Senefelder's mother also went to Vienna to seek the same privilege to print lithographs for his two brothers Theobald and Georg. When Senefelder heard about this development he wanted to go to Vienna and smooth over the disagree- ment himself, but Philipp Andre would not agree to his departure. The result of this disagreeable contest of wills was that Senefelder tore up a newly signed contract with AndrB. This resulted in a permanent rift. Senefelder's technical know-how remained confined to Munich while Andre's commercial skills continued to operate in Offenbach. Finally, in 1803, Senefelder, after severing his agreement with Andre, was granted privileges to print

40 Senefelder. A Complete lithographically in Austria.40 Course of Lithography, p. 52. While the drive to print music lithographically seems to have been an economic one, the opportunity to exploit music printing may have presented itself as an obvious choice because of the general popularity of music in Germany. Court bands and a flourishing trade in sheet music throughout the German states, provided a favourable climate in which lithography and music printing were able to combine successfully. In spite of the precarious financial alliances and failures of nascent lithography in Germany, the connection with music printing and lithography persisted and spread, with extensive world-wide use being made of direct lithographic printing for this purpose well into the twentieth century.

Conversely, the effects of lithography on music should also be considered. Drawing on Alec. Hyatt King's observations about popular music publishing during the Napoleonic wars, Twyman makes the case for lithography nicely.

The impression gained from the H. Baron Collection is that lithography managed to exploit wells of popularity of the kind that had probably not been tapped before, while continuing to be used for the 'enduring forms' of music.

In the context of music printing he also refers to 'the

41 Twyman. Early democratisation of printing and p~blishing'"~being an effect Lithographed Music, p. 103. of lithographic printing in the nineteenth century. As with music, the increasing use of lithography for popular portraiture, characature and other forms of pictorial representation, can be interpreted as a distinct modernisation of communications as revolutionary in its own way as any of the political changes that accompanied its progress.- Weber's acknowledgment of the scholarship of Walter Graff in Introduction of Lithography in France (1906) in charting the study of early lithography across national boundaries, is paralleled in Felix Man's 150 Years of Artists' Lithographs (1953). Man's book provides further insight into the early years of French lithography. It is somewhat disappointing, therefore, that Revolution in Print: The Press in France 1775-1800 which appeared in 1989, perpetuates the his- torically biased view in American printing literature of printing as being purely typographic, throughout the revolutionary period and during the Napoleonic wars. While the sub-title of Revolution in Print carefully frames the scope of the Bicentennial exhibition and invokes the mood of the revolutionary period between 1775 and 1800, the treatment of printing technology in Revolution in Print is less exact. Stretching the discussion about printing beyond 1800 to 1813, Carla Hesse's essay 'Economic Upheavals in Publishing' relies principally on two sources: Paul Delalain's

42 Carla Hesse, 'Economic L'lmprimerie et la librairie B Paris de 1789 a 1813,42and Upheavals in Publishing" in Darnton and Roche, her own statistical surveys of the Napoleonic era.43Of that Revolution in Print. p. 92. other 'revolution in print', lithography, no mention was 43 ibid, p. 326.. citing Carla A. Hesse, "Res Publicata: made. This is unimportant to the main objective of the book The Printed Word in Paris, 1789-1810," Ph. D. Diss., which was to 'commemorate the Bicentennial of the French Princeton University. 1968. Rev~lution'~~.Perhaps unwittingly, Darnton and Roche's 44 ibid., p. vii. history of print in revolutionary France contributes to a false idea; a perception that the history of lithography in France really began in 1813. Their omissions reinforce Gernsheim who wrote that 'In 1813 the craze for the newly invented art

45 Gernsheirn. The Origins of of lithography swept France'45.Gernsheim's statement, is Photography, Tharnes and Hudson, London. 1982. consistent with Renee Loche's well publicised 'fact' that D. 29. Lasteyrie's 'first lithographic printing works [were

46 Ren&e Loche, Lithography, established] in Paris in 1816'46and together they contribute Editions de Bonvent, Geneva. 1971. p. 88 to a false impression being made in the mind of the reader that lithography played no part in French cu!ture before 1813.

Outside the United States however, there have been several useful investigations into the incunabula period of French 47 Weber. op. cit.. lithography. WebeP7 confirms the work of earlier scholars pp. 45 - 54. with the fact that there were at least four attempts to 48 The facts are not easily verified. By one account establish lithographic presses in Paris between 1803 and the Andre brothers were granted their ten year 1807. The first of these resulted from FredCrec and Johann patent in Paris in February. 1803 (see Senefelder, A Andre's 13 December 1801 Paris patent application for the Complete Course of Lithography, p. 52). lithographic process. An application that was granted for ten

49 Weber, op. cit.. p. 45. years48on 11 February, 1802. Peter Frederec Andre set up Twyman's version in Lithography 1800 - 1850: his first lithographic press at 29 rue de Berry. One view is The techniques of drawing on stone in England and that although Frederec AndrC was of French Huguenot France and their application in the works of decent, as a German citizen, he is said to have been topography, Oxford University Press, London, forbidden from running a printery in Paris at this time. The 1970. however, differs from this account and he lithographic business was, therefore, sold (or by one writes that Andre sold 'the rights to Mme Verney in account, licensed) to a Madame RBvillon, wife of a paper February 1803 for the pur pose of printing music". It manufacturer on 13 October in the following year.49FrBdCrCc is likely that Mme. Revillon and Mme.Verney results Andre's departure from Paris in 1803 may also be from a confusion over the name of the same buyer, attributed to another cause. The war with England had cut as Twyman adds that Mme.Verney was the wife off all contact with his business there. The 'Continental of a paper maker from Villeneuvesur-Yonne. System' devised by Napoleon forbade trade with England in pp. 42-3 all of the countries of Europe under French control.50 50 Ford, op. cit.. p. 32.

51 Felix H. Man. 150 Years of Artist's In 1953, Man fleshed out some of the background to the Lithographs: 1803 - 1953. William Heinemann sale of Andre's press with information from Paul Limited. London 1953. Hoffmann's account (in translation) from a letter from p. xx. One plate from this series, an edition of prints Wilhelm Reuter to the Trustees of the Berlin Academy of by J. C. Susemihl and P. N. Bergeret, is shown by Man; a drawing by P. N. Fine Arts in December 1804 that says 'Monsieur AndrC was Bergeret which gives both the addresses of the art somewhat embarrassed, as he had no news from England dealer. Mr. Bell of Southampton Street. [because of the war]. It seems to me that he will not risk Strand, and P. Andre, The polyautographic Office. 5 continuing this enterprise.I5l Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square. Patentee. The Mr. Bell mentioned, was John The planned edition of prints by Johann Conrad Susemihl Bell, publisher of La Belle Assemblbe. (Twyrnan, Early and Pierre Nolasque Bergeret was therefore abandoned. Printed Music. p. 42 and again on p. 111). The demise of FrCderCc Andre's first lithographic print shop also played a part in the foundation of another lithographic establishment. In 1803 Andre sold some of his lithographic stones to Charles de Lasteyrie, who later on (in 1810) planned to set up in Paris as a lithographer.

In 1803 a second Parisian lithographic music printing business was planned by lgnaz Pleyel in partnership with Anton Niedermayer but this attempt fell foul of the Andre brothers patent rights and had to be abandoned. In this context Michael Twyman wrote that the earliest tangible use of the words 'Imprimere lithographique' are recorded on an 52 Twyman op. cit.. does not make clear whether this undated sheet music registered in Paris52in 1803. By sheet was printed for Pleyel, by Andr6, or by 1804, Twyman points out, the term lithography was gaining some other lithographer. acceptance and was used in a prospectus for the second Paris printing office of Frederec Andre.

A third lithographic press was set up in Paris by Franz Johannot in 1806. Johannot was a cousin to Frederec Andre, and like him, was a native of Offenbach. Weber made no further remarks about Franz Johannot's Paris endeavours, other than to add that he 'had some success as a lithographer in Offenbach, and had published in 1803 twenty-three 'new drawings of embroidery after the French

53 Weber. op. cit.. p. 46. and English models... engraved and printed on polyautographic stone'.'53At present I do not know why Weber failed to give more details of Johannot's Paris lithographic plans, perhaps the facts are lost to posterity.

The first substantial evidence of sustained lithographic i production began with Frederec Andre's return to Paris in 1807. His work, in association with Susemihl and Bergeret during the period 1802-04, was renewed by Andre in 1807. Various publications to which Andre's press contributed at this time include lithographs printed for Louis Aubin Millin's Le voyage au midi de la France and others.

The value of lithography for use in military communications

54 Senefelder, A Complete in the field was extolled by SenefeldereS4He saw benefits for Course of Lithography, p. 257. a military engineer who could quickly prepare maps for a military staff to show alterations in the disposition of forces already assembled in the field. These maps'could be supplied, Senefelder maintained, with greater security than had formerly.been the case.

Perhaps Senefelder's promotion of lithography as a means

I

114 1 of communications on the battlefield was the initial cause of French interest in the process. Officials and military officers of the French empire took a keen interest in the invention. Louis Bonaparte made a lithograph Four Men of

55 Weber. op. cit., p. 47. the Imperial Guard in 180555and a French General Louis Francois Lejeune who visited the Senefelder brothers' press in Munich with Napoleon in 1806 is said to have made the drawing, The Cossack rider while there.56Also, Colonel 56 James Cleaver. A History of Graphic Art. (second Lomet (in 1805) and Dominique Vivant Denon visited Edition) Scholar Press. Yorkshire. 1977. p. 149. Munich in 1809 with the Emperor.

A geographer from Napoleon's Egyptian adventure was among the first to take an interest in the new chemical printing when he visited the printing establishment of Anton Niedermayer at Regensburg. In France the conjunction of music, architecture and science occurred when the partnership of Choron and Baltard purchased Andre's second Paris press on the recommendation of Lasteyrie.

The formative years of lithography in France did not excite I the interest of the American print historian William Ivins. He viewed the introduction of chemical printing as simply a case of: 'Several French Artists, notably Denon, learn[ing] I lithography during the Napoleonic invasions of Germany, and carrying the technique to Paris [where Denon] succeeded I after the Restoration, in getting the highest in the land to practice it as a diversion.' In searching for traces of the beginnings of French lithography one may reasonably question this opinion, and think of the remarks made by Twyman about English lithographic incunables. He writes: 'It seems likely that our understanding of the earliest book pro- duction by lithography, that is, of books which have their text matter printed mainly or entirely by the process is very fragmentary indeed. Books of this kind were usually published in small editions, many of them on an informal I basis, and there can be little doubt that some have disappeared-without trace.' Further, it is only in recent years that the study of English lithography has attracted such detailed attention, and most of it from this single print historian.

Lithography was introduced into England in 1800 by Peter Frederec Andre, accompanied by Senefelder who remained in London with another Andr6 brother, Philipp H. Andre, for about seven months until a patent was obtained. For Senefelder it was a frustrating visit. He grumbled at the slowness in obtaining his goals, but reconciled himself to the delays which he attributed to Philipp Andre's secretiveness, by making further studies in chemistry. An English patent was granted to Andre in 1801 and Senefelder returned to Offenbach.

Philipp Andre, in business at 5 Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, issued the first part of Specimens of Polyautography on 30th of April, 1803. Twyman, in I commenting on the execution of this set of twelve I 57 Twyman. Lithography lithographs, expressed uncertainty as to how much of the 1800-1850,p. 31, has doubts that contradict work was completed by Andre, a difficulty also encountered Man's statement in 150 5 Years of Artists' by Man '. After Philipp Andre's departure from England ! Lithographs, p. xvii, where the latter expressed the Georg Johann Vollweiler, music teacher and father Carl view that 'this folio t contains twelve prints Vollweiler (composer and an assistant to Johann Andre at which, without doubt, were all published by Andre in Offenba~h)~~who acted as a signatory to the licensing 1803'. Twyman states that the reason for earlier agreement between Johann Andre and Senefelder, took over confusion over the authenticity of Andres first the English patent and Philipp Andre's press in London. series is traceable to F. M. Ferchl's doubts about Specimens of Polyautography, was then reprinted by Andre's completion of the series. Doubts which Vollweiler in 1806. arose from his seeing a 1805 on a print from Vollweiler's 1806 Many writers have justly praised Andre for Specimens of edition of Specimens of 1 Polyautography. Polyautography. The edition, issued in two parts (six in 58 Twyman. Early Printed each) effectively illustrated the reproductive possibilities of Music. p. 27. lithography. By engaging prominent artists a portfolio of I prints that included work by Benjamin West, Richard Cooper,

William Dellamotte, Thomas Barker, Henry Fuseli Conrad I Gessner and by Hearne, Barry, Courbauld, Warwick, and Thomas Stothard was assembled between 1801 and 1803. Altogether, more than thirty artists were asked to contribute and some other prints not included in the two editions of Specimens of Polyautography survive. These British prints, many of which were preserved by T. Fisher, (now in the British Museum, consisting of some 400 prints that have survived) clearly, however unreasonably, overshadows the obscured achievements of lithography in unsettled, revolutionary France.

Between them, Philipp Andre and Vollweiler printed altogether some 100 lithographs before Vollweiler left England.59During his stay Vollweiler also printed a series of 59 Twyman, Lithography 1800-1850, p. 31. lithographs for the antiquarian T. Fisher called A Series of Antient Allegorical, Historical, and Legendary Paintings on the walls of the Chapel of the Trinity at Stratford Upon Avon in Warwickshire and others for Huet Villiers Rudiments and Characters of Trees (1806), the latter was published by Rudolph A~kermann.~~ 60 ibid.. p. 251.

Vollweiler employed D. J. Redman at Fitzroy Square for a time as an assistant lithographer. Redman left Vollweiler's employ to set up in business on his own as a lithographer in Bath. Established in Bath, Redman printed the first English manual of lithography, written by H. Bankes, and called Lithography, or, The Art of Making Drawings on Stone, for the Purpose of Being Multiplied by Printing in 1813. Redman was the first English lithographer to set up a press independently, and he experimented with English stone. For a time he returned to London and joined the Quartermaster General's Office as a lithographer.

Like the French military, the English Government soon recognised the usefulness in acquiring a lithographic press for military purposes. For this reason Vollweiler, when he departed from Britain, was able to sell his press, (previously Andre's, and the first in England), to the Quartermaster General's Office. This press, Twyman suggests, was sold on terms which represented it as an overvalued "secret' for which... Vollweiler was paid £100... in return for the details of the process and the 61 Mention of the sale, and materials required to work it.'==It was installed by the working of this first lithographic press in Lt. Colonel Brown in Whitehall, in 1807. In 1808 Redman England by the Quartermaster General's worked as a lithographer in the Quartermaster General's Office is to be found in Twyman's two books Office. By these steps the first lithographic press in England Lithography 1800-1850, pp, 33-34, and in Early was used to print military plans for the Peninsula war. lithographic Books p. 127.

The effects of the French Revolution on the English print 62 Ford. Ackermann 1783 - trade had been painful. Ford62writes that the loss of paper 1983: The Business of Art, p. 28. imports meant hard times for John Boydell and J. R. Smith, who, between them, were the dominant print sellers of the day. Ford reports that their exports to France of line, stipple engravings, and with a market value of £200,000 a year were lost.

Against these losses Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834) discovered fresh opportunities where his competitors found obstacles. The popular, if stilted, topographical and historical print previously monopolised by the likes of Boydell, was surplanted by Ackermann's more lively offerings.

In the new social and political environment topographical prints drawn by Rowlandson, or satirical prints by Gillray coincided with the increasing public appreciation of satire. Gillray attacked established values represented by Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery with his print Shakespeare- Sacrificed; --or- The Offering or Avarice, makes the new 63 Godfrey. Printmaking in mood apparent.=' This trend towards social commentary in Britain, p. 70, Fig. 7. printmaking was paralleled by another development, an emerging generation of British artists who preferred to work

in watercolour. ..

Ackermann blended his interest in art and chemistry by supporting these artists though the sale of their work at his gallery in 1800. He favoured the watercolour methods of 64 Ford, op. cit., p. 26. and 'Turner, Westall and Girtir~'~~over those of Gainsborough n 44 - refers to Ackermann. A Treatise on and he employed watercolour artists of the calibre of Ackermann's Superfine Watercolours, p. 20. Rowlandson, Augustus Pugin and Samuel Prout. Ackermann's devotion to this particular cause was prompted in part by self interest; the commercial development of his own make of watercolours, which he launched in 1799.

Ackermann was prominent among German emigrants in London, he was opposed to French policy in Saxony during the Napoleonic wars and gained recognition as a strong

65 ibid.. p. 32. refers to the supporter of the British Go~ernment.~~He had crossed the role played by Ackermann in secretly supporting his channel from France to England in 1783, after leaving the friends in Saxony with large sums of money. services of one of Paris's leading carriage builders

66 ibid.. p. 15. Antoine Carassi.'j6

Carriage building and soon brought him to public attention in London, where, in conjunction with the engraver and publisher J. C. Stadler, Ackermann's first book of drawings Imitations of Drawings of Fashionable Carriages appeared in 1791. Collaboration with Stadler led to Ackermann himself publishing a third book of designs in 1794. Ackermann's London business soon evolved from carriage building alone, into one of teaching drawing to hopeful candidates for the Royal Academy Schools and at his new (1795) address at 96 Strand, from which he 67 ibid., p. 9. published Lessons for Beginners in the [sic] Fine ArP7 in 1796.

Twenty years earlier, the mastery of etching and aquatint by British artists had coincided with increasing European travel in Europe, British artists mingled with the tourists. 68 ibid.. pp. 60-61. Henry Tresham working in aquatint in ltaly'j8 and had eighteen illustrations published in La Awenture di Saffo in 1784. Richard Cooper from Edinburgh, also went to Italy during the 1770s to make studies for his etchings and aquatints. In 1778 Cooper published a large. aquatint from his Italian tour entitled Ponte Nomentiano and the following 69 ibid., p. 61. year, another, called A View of the Interior of the Colos~eurn.~~Paul Sandby, who mastered aquatint in 70 Godfrey, op. cit.. pp. 60-61. See also- 1775,'O contributed to the public's awareness of more Arron Scharf. Art and Photography, Allen Lane, distant places in his Views of New South Wales (1777). The Penguin Press, London, 1968. p. 1. for Similarly, William Hodges's series of aquatints Select reference to Paul and Thomas Sandbys' use of Views of India, published in 1786, also satisfied the the camera obscura along with a long list of other increasing appetite for such pictuesque landscapes artists beginning with Daniele Barbaro's from beyond Europe. recommendation of the device to artist in 1568. English watercolour artists mentioned by Scharf and Ackermann seized upon the fashionable aquatint to exploit of relevance to this chapter who used the the commercial returns to be made from architectural and camera obscura in interpreting the landscape topographical subjects. His first major publication in this are 'John Crome, Thomas Girtin, Samuel Prout, [and field which contained 104 aquatints, was The Microcosm of John] Ruskin. Scharf. p. 3.. also quotes from London, published in three volumes between 1808 and Paul Sandby's son that his father: 'aimed at giving his 1810. Modelled on other publications which had already drawings the appearance of nature as seen in the tapped this market such as Malton's Picturesque Tour camera obscura with truth in the reflected lights, through the cities of London and Westminster (1796-1800) clearness in shadows and aerial tint and keeping in and John Boydell's Thames from whom he gained the the distances and skies.' services of two of his most valued future collaborators; Combe and Stadler.

In English books of the period the word 'picturesque' occurs repeatedly in many different titles. Dibden's engraved work (1821) An Autobiographical Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany in three volumes as a guide to places of architectural interest set the scene for the many topographical books by English artists that followed. Interest in Italian art, French and German architecture, and alpine scenery, fed the appetite for topographical prints and 71 see Twyman's Lithography 1800 - 1850. Oxford for books devoted to picturesque landscapes and 1970, for a richly detailed account of the architectural landmarks at home." topographical print and English lithography. Ch. 13. 'English Topographical Lithography, 1818-1830'. Soon 'picturesque' subjects were also being exploited by pp. 181-200 and Ch. 14. 'English Topographical lithographers. Mature examples of this parallel development Lithography. 1835-1855'. pp. 201-225. were the lithographic plates in Taylor's Voyages Pittoresques by Boys (published in Paris). These were closely followed in 1839 by his highly successful Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent etc., printed by Hullmandel in London. Picturesque Architecture in Paris contained prints made in four colours using the tint process worked out by Hullmandel, and was regarded as a "significant artistic achievement... using a fully evolved system of colour 72 Cate. Phillip Dennis. The lith~graphy."~~Edward Lear was another lithographic artist Color Revolution: Color Lithography in France who increasingly travelled abroad. In 1837, Lear began to 1890-1900. Peregrine Smith, New Jersey. 1979. draw his Views of Rome and Its Environs, published in pp. 2-3. 1841. This was followed by Illustrated Excursions in Italy (1846) and Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania (1851). English lithography owes much more to Lear than is generally realised. His drawings, totalling more than 460 lithographic plates, have received some detailed attention

73 Gordon N. Ray, The by Gordon Ray7' who devotes four pages to the subject of illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to Edward Lear's books and provides a useful list of 1 1914. Pierpont Morgan Library and Oxford his lithographs. University Press, New York 1976, pp. 59-61. The first use of lithography to print topographical subjects in England was made in the publication of Miss F. Waring's Twelve views of Scotland printed by Philipp Andre and published by Ackermann in 1803. Ackermann became I interested in this new avenue of chemical printing, after

74 Ford, op. cit.. publishing lithographic prints for other printers.74In 1816, pp. 61, 63-4. he resolved to set up a lithographic press of his own. I

I Ackermann's lithographic press was first employed in support of his successful monthly publication The Repository of the Arts, Literature, Commerce, manufactures, Fashion and Politics. His career as a lithographic printer was short, from 1816 to 1824, but it was an influential one. He recognised the advantages that

lithography offered in printing 'bills of exchange, tables, , copies of school drawing books, patterns for needlework, I 75 ibid., p. 63. maps and plans and music.'75In the preface to Ackermann's London edition of Senefelder's book (1819),

he emphasised the ability of lithography to rapidly I disseminate facsimiles of architects drawings and, for officials and men of business to make 'copies of the most important despatches or documents without delay.' He took on the role of lobbyist to English parliamentarians over such issues as the tariff levied against lithographic stones, He demonstrated the new process and published two of the most important manuals on the subject : Senefelder's A Complete Course of Lithography and Hullmandel's The Art of Drawing on Stone.

Some of the drawing books and topographical prints that Ackerrnann published were lithographed at 101Strand, 76 p.64. ibid.. where he also printed lithographs for other publisher^.'^ Space became a problem however as Ackermann expanded his publishing enterprise to embrace an emerging market for gift books and annuals. In October 1822 he published his first annual in this genera - Forget Me Not : a Christmas and New Year's Present for 1823. Ford suggests that the size and complexity of this venture was a contributory reason for Ackermann sending his lithographic printing to Hullmandel's establishment in December 1823, and to cease printing lithographs altogether at 101Strand in pp. 64 5. 77 ibid., - 1824."

Ackermann's acknowledgement of watercolour painting as a separate art form at the turn of the century gained added significance for the progress of English lithography later when Charles Hullmandel introduced his 'Lithotint' process, a technique that emulated watercolour in print during the 1830s and 40s. Then, when Ackermann withdrew from lithographic printing, and Hullmandel asserted his leadership over it, competition in the form of an English branch of the French firm of Engelmann, Graf, Coindet & Co. appeared on the scene to threaten Hullmandel's supremacy.

In this competitive environment the claims and counter- claims made in defence of authorship and technical innovation in chromolithography becomes confusing. Hullmandel, acknowledged as the inventor of the 'lithotint' process, was at times opportunistic in his claims. He 78 See - Twyman, 'Charles sought, for understandable commercial reasons, to get Joseph Hullmandel: Lithographic printer extra testimonials from Faraday and Harding in support of his role ordinary', pp. 84-85, in Gilmour, (editor) Lasting as the originator of all aspects of the lithotint process.7s I Impressions, 1988, p. 64.. Twyman gives a good account of Hullmandel's misgivings In his testimonial letter of 12 April 1827 Faraday wrote 'I about the activities of Engelmann. Graf. have no hesitation in stating, for the information of all of Coindet & Co. whom it may concern, that having been made aquainted 79 Frank A. J. L. James (editor). The with, and having witnessed your method, and other methods Correspondence of Michael Faraday, Institute of preparing lithographic drawings, I know yours to be of Electrical Engineers, strikingly peculiar and different from the other^....'^^ Harding London,Q 1966, letter N 321. Faraday to C. J. Hullmandel. too, working for Hullmandel at Great Marlborough Street and 12 April 1827. also from his own premises as a semi-independent litho- 80 Twyman, in Gilmore. (editor) op. cit.. graphic artist during the 1830s, seems to deserve some of

81 Twyman in Lithography the credit for the lithotint process. Just how much Harding 1800 - 1850,cites the emerging competition from contributed was described by Hullmandel as being a the lithographic firm of Day and Hague 'appointed 'Modification of lithotint - invented by me put in practice by lithographers successively to the King and to the Harding in 1841.'s0 Queen'. p. 209, and, 'the rising firm of M. & N. Hanhart p. 225.' He also Yet it is apparent that, in his enthusiastic defence of his writes of other competing firms as a group (p. 209) commercial supremacy, he claimed too much for himself. In namely the 'leading printers of tinted the climate of lithographic competitiona1 and experiment two lithographs in England... A. DucBte. Graf and Soret. notable disputes concerning Hullmandel's lithotint process C. F. Cheffins... and I Standidge and Company.' arose regarding the preparation and printing from stone and : the method of producing tints of colours. I

First Hullmandel was criticised for exaggerating his ! contribution to lithography by Boys. Boys concluded in January 1840 that Hullrnandel had overstepped the mark and he felt compelled to defend his own integrity as an innovator. In a letter to The Probe Boys wrote that 82 James Roundell, Thomas Shotter Boys, London , Hullmandel was wrong to claim that "'I only adopted the 1974. pub. Octopus Books, quotes from Boys' invention of which he claims the merit, by furnishing me i letter to The Probe in which he defends the with a new and desirable material". I deny it.la2The issue on I originality of his lithographic innovations. this occasion was over the use of a 'pencil' (brush) in pp. 46-47. applying colours, and rubbing back colouied areas on the I 83 ibid., p. 47. stone in the process of ~rinting.~'Twyman in 'Charles Joseph Hullmandel: Lithographic printer extraordinary' remarks of this exchange between Hullmandel and Boys that 'In support for Hullmandel's position it should be said that he had already printed colour plates from separate stones for G. A. Hoskins's Travels in Ethiopia, 1835, and that the techniques of "painting with a brush" and "rubbing down" half-tints referred to by Boys in his letter of 10 Jan. 1840 had been fully explored by Hullmandel experimentally 84 See - Twyman, in in the early 1830~:~~Twyman concludes that both sides of Gilmour. (editor) op. cit.. p. 77 and n163. n. 164. this dispute shared the honours. 85 Twyman, Lithography 1800 - 1850, p. 146, n. I., writes that Hancock's Charles Hancock, however, made a more serious attack on patent. NP 7552: 'Improved means of Hullmandel by challenging the originality of his methods in producing figured surfaces, sunk and in court for aspects infringing his 1838 patent; a method of relief, and of printing therefrom, and also of aquatinting in relief.a5This challenge arose because of a moulding, stamping, and embossing' was believed misunderstanding of Hullmandel's method of stopping out to be infringed where the patent referred to relief the surface of a metal plate or of a lithographic stone by aquatinting 'in which the darkest parts of the plate using a mixture of four and a half ounces of resin and a were stopped out instead of the lightest.' quarter of an ounce of This was, Hancock believed,

86 ibid.. p. 147. n. 2. "nothing more than aquatint on the surface of stones and

87 ibid., p. 146, n. 1. plates in Hullmandel won this particular contest with the support of the lithographic artists 'Harding, Hague, Boys, Gauci, Scarfe and Walton' and Hancock was 88 See - Twyman, in Gilmour, (editor) op. cit.. p. 64., supported in the matter by Hullmandel's competitors

89 Roundell, op. cit.. William Day and Joseph Graf. pp. 46-47.

Hullmandel's claim to have invented the stump method was contradicted by Boysa8 who wrote 'I perceive the drift of Mr Hullmandel's letter; it is no more than to claim for himself the invention, and put forth the advantages of stumping.'a9 The issue of drawing techniques referred to by Boys cannot properly be separated from the method of preparation objected to by Hancock. The specifics of the preparation Hullmandel sought to protect by his patent consisted of, after drawing on the stone with a brush, stumping or rubbing back the inked surface of the plate or stone, or by scraping the surface, standing the printing 'surface on an incline and coating it with the resin and pitch mixture. The advantage that Hullmandel sought to protect.was that when the mixture had been allowed to dry the surface coating would shrink and crack. This provided, he proclaimed, an efficacious inking surface that permitted him to apply printing inks to the plate or stone with greater sublety and effect.

But, as Twyman points out, his plate preparation was of 90 Twyrnan. Lithography 1800 - 1850.p. 148,n. 2. questionable value.g0 The real, unspoken of, innovation was the technique of laying washes of tone onto the stone or plate in successive layers. A technique that showed off to advantage the skills of English watercolourists. While Hullmandel may have believed that his coating aided in the printing of these washes by breaking up the hard lines that formed around the edges of a brush stroke as the ink dried, it was an altogether unnecessary step. The effect could also be effected without it by the simple method of layering washes of varying strengths of lithographic ink and rubbing back the edges where necessary. In the light of this, there may have been other aspects to his method, not disclosed in the patent document, that provided some labour saving advantage.

That these disputes generated such heat over issues that today would appear to be of little consequence, and methods which now would not be considered patentable, is of social rather than technical interest. From Hullmandel's point of view, the protection his patent provided may have been aimed more at the goal of retaining the loyalty of artists whose work he printed than at the benefits of patron- age that he derived from the procedure.

Chromolithographic books designed and illustrated by Owen Jones added a new dimension to the English appetite for the picturesque. In ones's books the older tradition of descriptive architectural landscape is transformed. A new, closer, focus featuring details of architectural design in Plans, Elevations, Sections and Details of the Alhambra, rather than-the whole topographical panorama has arrived. His early books with unsurprising foreign and historical titles 91 See McLean. Victorian and subjects like Ancient Spanish Ballads in 1841 and the Book Design and Colour Printing, pp. 91-97 and chromlithographs in The Queens Boudoir published in pp. 115-124. for an extensive coverage of the 1842, printed by M & N Hanhart and his Alhambra, 1842- illustrated books designed by Owen Jones. 1845, created a fashion for the widespread use of flat

92 Twyman. Early polychromatic decoration. Lithographed Music, see pp. 62.127.144. and 444, describes the unorthodox incorporation The overwhelming direction that chromolithography took of-plate numbers and signature numbers in was not to support the needs of science or engineering sheet music printed by Rome lithographers Ratti & but was instead squarely aimed at pleasing the eye. The Cencetti. He Also discuss es Hullmandel's system, in desire for novelties was answered by Jones with curious which both initials and numbers were placed on decorative bindings such as that of The Preacher, with the back of the stone, op. cit., p. 62., n. 38. its wooden binding, in 1849. Further examples of In Chapter 10. 'Plate and other Reference numbers,' sumptuous and exotic chromolithographic books ibid., pp. 125-30.. He examined the use of designed by or under the direction of Jones include plate numbers assigned to music scores on copper Flowers and their Kindred Thoughts and The Song of Songs plates and lithographic stones and signature in 1848, The Works of Horace, and Fruits of the Garden numbers used in the assembly of lithographic and the Field in 1850, and the great The Grammar of books. Twyman points out that '...such [plate] Ornament composed of one hundred plates printed numbers appear less often on lithographic music than by Day and Son in 1856.91The collecting and they do on engraved categorising of ornamental detail was popular with other music... [and] ... appear sporadically. sometimes as rarely as once or twice Victorian designers too. Notably Pugin, whose Glossary of in an entire work. This departure from the Ecclesiastical Ornament was published in 1844, and Wyatt engravers' convention of numbering the face of whose The Art of Illuminating appeared in 1860. I each plate is explained as being due to the three dimensional nature of lithographic stones which provided more choice of where identifying numbers might be placed.The The acceptance of lithography by typographic printers in the inconsistent use of signature numbers in early years of the nineteenth century was inhibited by the lithographic music books presents a slightly technical ignorance of lithographers, or by their disregard for different problem. Twyman divides early typographic print conventions. An informal attitude to plate lithographic music printers' usage of signatures into and folio numbering that the early lithographers brought to three representative g2 groups. He places those the process stands juxtaposed against the views of who were already expert in letter press printing powerful typographic critics who abhorred what they practices and had metal type at their disposal first. regarded as the poor standard of printing in much Next, those lithographers that resorted to signatures lithographic work. only when a music publication was extensive enough to require it. And From a typographic perspective lithography was slow and lastly, a group that little understood letterpress messy. The sharpness of impression obtained from metal tradition, but felt obliged to imitate it occasionally. type produced a clearer image more quickly. Type setting by hand, while slow by modern standards, was faster than hand lettering or making transfers from type. In addition, the speed of the rotary letterpress machine was faster than the lithographic flatbed press and so collectively the letterpress system was judged to be more efficient.

For these, and other reasons, typographic printers occasionally condemned lithography for its detrimental

93 Andrew J. Corrigan, A g3 Printer and His World, effect on typography. Corrigan has been particularly Faber and Faber. London, 1944, p. 97. scathing in this regard. He wrote 'it is time that somebody pointed out the close relation between lithography and the decline of letterpress printing in the last century.' In partic- ular, the 'bad design of lettering and ornaments [and] inordi- 94 ibid.. n 1.. pp. 97-8. nate use of colour and tint.Ig4He attacked the 'hoard of job- bers [who] wrote and scratched and bit and hatched and stippled and... [did everything else] ... except draw on stone'. Because of lithography, Corrigin complained, type developed 'goitre and elephantitis, club foot and dropsy... until the world of Caslon and Baskerville, Jenson and Bodoni and Aldus, became the world of Caliban'.

Corrigan's tirade against lithography does make a valid point. Print historians have always blamed the ugliness and I exaggeration of nineteenth century on the rise of advertising, or on the industrial revolution, or on designs borrowed from street signage. Lithography is never mentioned by them in this context - either for good or ill. It is, therefore, useful to consider the role of lithographic lettering in relation to typographic design and so balance the picture.

A first step to remedy this imbalance has been made in : 95 Twyrnan. Early Lithographed Music, Twyman's chapter 'Display lettering and illu~tration'.~~ pp. 160-74. Shown there are examples of letters drawn on lithographic stone for the title pages and wrappers of lithographed music. Lithographic lettering, which borrowed its style from the tradition of engraving, was augmented by designs which were : fig. 22

fig. 21 fig. 23

fig. 21 Above: Twyman, C~RLY Most noticeably, the new letterforms popularised by type LITHOGRAPHED MUSIC, founders throughout Europe - fat faces, Tuscans, Egyptians, p. 166, figs. g and h, Schott, Germany, and shaded letters - [these] found their way on to title pages c1814. and wrappers.... In addition, it became popular to reverse lettering out of a solid panel, which was very much easier to do fig. 22 Above. top right : in lithography than in engraving. Lettering also began to be Nicolette Gray, arranged more frequently on curves, sometimes convex at the NINETEEMHC ENTURY ORNAMEMED TYPEFACES top of the page and concave at the foot, so as to provide a (second edition) surround to the design. p. 203., fig. 39, A 'Tuscan' shaded type from the Caslon Type designers may at times have been forced to follow foundry. 1830. lithography's lead in lettering design rather than the fig. 23 Above, bottom right : R. S. Hutchings, A reverse. Nicholette Gray in Nineteenth Century MANUAL OF DECORATED TYPEFACES, p. 35, Ornamented Types and Title Pages shows her first Thorne Shaded, c1810. example of shaded letters as being issued in 181696and 96 Nicolette Gray, Nineteenth two sizes of shaded type from the foundry of Blake Century Ornamented Types and Title Pages, Garnett (both c1819) and one from Thorowgood; Five Line Faber and Faber, London, 1938. p. 197. Shaded NQ 2 (1821), a design which first appeared in 97 R. S. Hutchings. A Manual 1820.97Most of these examples antedate the lithographic of Decorated Typefaces, Cory, Adams and MacKay designs shown by Twyman (Early Lithographed Music, Ltd., London, 1965, p. 35, states that Thorne page 166, details g and h of ornamented and shaded let- shaded, like the design shown by Gray. was ters dated 1814) in fig. 21. above. Thorne shaded fig. 'believed to have been cut' around 1810. 23, is believed to have been cut in 1810. Nicholette Gray but did not appear in a specimen book until 1820. shows a decorated shaded letter dated 1830, fig. 22. --cf: W. Turner Berry and A. F. Johnson, Twyman however, has definite published dates (both Encyclopaedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press. 1814) for his examples. Consequently, lettering reversed London. 1953. p. 285. who date Thorne's design out of a solid or a tonal background in lithography, is from 'about 1820.' shown by Twyman to have been in use contemporaneous- ly, if not before the first known typographic examples in 98 Nicolette Gray, op. cit.. England.98These observations may modify the common p. 198. (fig. 40. Thorowgood. 1837). Gray belief that English type design was in advance of shows seven examples: three with solid back- European lettering design, and restrict the claims of grounds, dating from 1828 to 1834. (p. 173)and; English typographic innovativeness to technical advances four with ornamental backgrounds, 1844-5. in type founding. These examples call into question the idea that English type founders single-handedly extended the range of letter design in the early nineteenth century.

The new freedom of expression that lithography provided to lettering artists was extended to all branches of graphic representation. In the field of topographical illustration John Ruskin made the judgement of David Roberts that his drawings for The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Egypt & Nubia, 1842, (lithographed by Louis Haghe), were 'the first studies ever made conscienciously by an English painter, not to exhibit his own skill, or to make capital out of his subjects, but to give true portraiture of scenes of historical and 99' See Ray. The Illustrator and the Book in England religious interest.Ig9In general however, Ruskin found little from 1790 to 1914, p. 56. use for lithography. His frequently quoted advice to young who---~- cites Ruskin - in Praterita. vol. II, ch. 2. artists makes this clear. But for the lithographs made by John Lewis whose...

sketches in Spain, lithographed by himself, are very valuable, get them, if you can, and also some engravings (about eight or ten, I think, altogether) of wild beasts, executed in his own hand a long time ago; they are very precious in every way. The series "Alhambra" is rather slight, and few of the subjects are lithographed by himself; still it is worth having. 100 John Ruskin, The Elements But let no lithographic work come into the house, nor even look of Drawing, p. 347. at any, except Prout's, and those sketches of Lewis's.'*

Potentially, portrait artists were able to take advantage of this new freedom, whether for the purposes of caricature or, for fidelity of likeness. Criticism of the poor likenesses obtained of early lithographic portraiture drawn by inferior artists and of the romanticised rendition of landscapes 101 Anton Schindler. shows how ardent this desire for accuracy was. The desire Biographie von Ludvig van Beethoven, (1860) a new for accuracy in all things is demonstrateb in Anton edition bv D. W. MacArdle (editor) and C. S. Jolly Schindler's attack on the extremes !ithographers went to (trans.) as Beethoven as I Knew Him: A Biography by gain c~~mercialprofit from Beethoven's portrait.lol Anton Felix Schindler. Faber and Faber. London. Schindler expressed disgust at the liberties taken with 1966, pp. 455-56. Beethoven's likeness by lithographer and music publisher alike. Schindler wrote :

Soon after Beethoven's death the commerce of artists and publishers began to throw itself into the business of duplicating his portraits. These copies were bad, but they were sold in great quantities. The prototype for many of these was SteinmCller's lithograph, published by Artaria & Co. The blatant contrast between this bit of fantasy and the lithograph made from Steiner's portrait and published by Matthias Artaria is sufficient to condemn it. To present the master with short hair is like painting a lion with its mane cut off. Moreover, this likeness shows Beethoven as much too old, while the expression of his character has nothing to do with the creator of great works of art. A reproduction made by Kriehuber, that master of convention and flattery, was published by Haslinger. This lithograph shows Beethoven with a black cravat. With no thought whatsoever, Kriehuber included this article of modern dress. The white cravat, which had been in vogue for a full century and which our Beethoven always wore, apparently was to the lithographer an affront to aesthetic propriety of dress.

He chastised individual lithographers for their abysmal portraits of Beethoven. Johann Andre was castigated for his, as were those portraits made by Schott at Maintz and by Lauelle at Aachen. Schlesinger's portrait was, Schindler wrote, a 'caricature,' and Mittag's lithograph, was the 'worst and the ugliest' of them all. 'We live, Schindler reflected, in

102 McArdle and Jolly. op. cit.. an unhappy day ... when poor wares are considered good p. 445. The reference to a lithograph by Steinrnirller business.' in the text on page 455 is contradicted in the footnotes by a reference to Not content with pointing out the faults of lithographers and an engraving prepared by Steinmirller from a engravers.lo2he also attacked music publishers for their lithograph made by Stefan Decker in 1824. arrangements of Beethoven's music. Andre's firm came in for criticism from Schindler for distorting the Beethoven sonatas. He describes this venture as 'one of the most 103 Ibid.. p. 445. deplorable and most bizarre phenomena this commercialised epoch has seen in the music-publishing 104 C. J. Hullrnandel, The Art business.' Schindler saw little in lithographic printing that of Drawing on Stone, Ackerrnann. London, pleased him in 'the ltalian musical deluge of the 1820'~.'~~~ 1824, pp. VI/VII. His views may be thought extreme, yet they, like Ruskin's were already commonly enough held in the 1820s to cause Hullmandel to vigorously defend the new process.lo4

In England, dislike and resistance to the new chemical printing by the vested interests of typography were quick to appear. In 1824 Hullmandel reported that 'a reviewer of Captain Franklin's journey, in a quarterly publication

[expressed the hope] that the public will no longer be I presented with "greasy daubs of lithography".' Hullmandel : responded stoutly:

I am of course alluding to the better productions of the

lithographic art; not to those inferior drawings which, I am well I aware, are distributed pretty freely to the public. Those who attack lithography as a means of inundating the shops with bad specimens of art, forget that copperplate has the power of 105 IV. /bid.. p. spreading forth also a tolerable quantity of trash, many of which are of the lowest class, as several shops in London will

The cheapness of lithography as compared with copperplate engraving when used to illustrate typographic books was a key issue. Hullmandel was fearful of the 'enemies of lithography' who thought that ease of production would mean that the print buying public to be 'inundated with rubbish.' Hullmandel questioned this assumption with the retort 'May not the same thing be said of printing? Has not the facility of multiplying been the cause of thousands of bad books being laid before the public? But is every person forced to purchase a work because it is published? And are amateurs obliged to buy every bad lithographic print which is brought forth from the press?' Certainly not, rather the opposite was true. Hullmandel expressed the opinion that it was a pity that lithography had not been 'discovered four fig. 24 Illustration of a camera obscura from Arron centuries back and enabled us thereby to possess Scharf, ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY. Allen multiplied copies of original drawings of , Coreggio, Lane, The Penguin Press, London, 1968. and all the great masters.' In this he, like Ruskin, was desirous of the faithful representation of original work.

106 Roger-Marx, op cit.. p. 17. I In the nineteenth century the intellectual climate in England adhered to 'the discovery of the world of nature'.lffi The proliferation of topographical drawings and prints was greatly expanded by Ackermann who was in tune with this I desire. His watercolour manufacturing, and promotion of water colour painting by artists of his circle, increased public interest in this medium of expression. Lithography, too, was eminently suitable for interpreting pencil drawings and precisely layered transparent washes. The lithographs of Lear, Bonnington and Boys, (complimented by the water- colours of Venice and Rome by Turner and in art criticism by the writings of Ruskin) contributed markedly to the cultural climate in which Talbot began searching for ways to generate pictures of the natural world without having to 107 Roundell, op. cit., p. 35., resort to the need to draw. and pl. 23.

108 Cornelius Varley, author of a 'Treatise on optical The means to this end presented itself to Talbot in the form drawing instruments' his other significant activities of the camera lucida. Talbot's use of this instrument on his include the invention of the 'lever microscope for sketching expedition to Italy is widely reported on by watching the movements of animalcula' and photographic historians as a significant step towards the 'Chairman of Exhibitors. class 10, at the Great realisation of his discovery of photography. The role of the Exhibition of 1851' His invention of the Graphic camera lucida in the invention of photography in England is Telescope was also used to notable effect by already well known, but the desire of artists, engravers and T. Horner to create his Great Panorama of London lithographers to faithfully represent nature appeared in at the Colosseum in Regents Park. Varley various guises. Notably, it also appeared in the form of the combined the skills of scientific instrument Graphic Telescope invented by the artist and inventor maker and inventor with those of an artist and Cornelius Varley (1781-1873).107 was, at his death on 21 October 1873, the last surviving foundation Varley'sio8 Graphic Telescope has been shown to have been member of the watercolour society. (Dictionary of used by lithographic artists and engravers to make accurate National Biography. vol xx 148-9). topographical drawings. Based on the evidence of 109 Roundell, op cit., p. 35. preliminary drawings like those made by Boys of Royal and the Quai d' Orsay,logJames Roundell suggested that 110 Varley patented his this, like other drawings, were sketched with the aid of the Graphic Telescope on 5 April 1811, (No. 3430) - Graphic Telescope. Varley's Graphic Teles~opel'~was See--Dictionary of National Biography commonly used by engravers to accurately transfer drawings pp. 148-9. , to printing plates. In Roundell's opinion, Boys, an experienced engraver, used the Graphic Telescope to make 111 Roundell's plausible claim the preliminary line drawings on tracing paper which he then remains unsubstantiated (author's note). transferred to the lithographic stone.lll Roundell reasoned I that the markedly different styles of topographical drawings made by Boys - loose expressive sketches against accurate un-picturesque wide-angle topographical line drawings - showed that the intervention of an optical device was likely

to have been used in achieving such accuracy (see fig. 25). ;

112 An exception to this I general lack of curiosity is Such connections between optical aids to drawing, direct David Hockney's book Secret Knowledge, Thames lithography and engraving in the first half of the nineteenth & Hudson, London, 2001. This is the first serious century are sparsely documented.l12 Roundell's suggestion publication which deals . with the role of the camera that the Graphic Telescope was likely to have been used in obscura and the camera lucida in altering the way conjunction with transfer paper and lithography deserves in which Western artists have experienced and closer attention. It remains to be discovered how interpreted the visible world with their art. widespread this particular practice may have been among , skilled topographical artists to employ optical and mechanical aids in constructing their drawings. Yet the expediency of using a lens to project an image onto paper was clearly of value to others whose drawing skills were weak. In this context it is less surprising that the chemical ' fig. 25 LE POM ROYAL n LE possibilities of direct lithography were combined by NiCpce QUAY ORSA SAY, Paris, reproduced from with transfer paper and the lens of a camera obscura to Roundell's THOMAS SHOTTERBOYS , pl. 23.. realise his goal of reproducing printed images. p. 90. In the social climate described, lithographic innovations clearly assisted in the germination of various inventions of photography. In England, those discoveries made by Talbot (1835) and in France, NiQpce's 'heliographic' process followed by the first true photograph made in a camera obscura, (Nigpce, 1826),become more explicable. By taking into account the contributions made to pictorial representation and to chemical transfer by lithographic artists we may dispel a little of the 'mystery' surrounding the various inventions of photography that had puzzled Gernsheim so much. Chapter 8 The Role played by Lithographic Transfer in the invention of Photography

Davy has invented a new pleasure, for which language has no name Robert Southey to Thomas Wedgw0od.l 1 B. Wedgwood and - Hensleigh Wedgwood, The Wedgwood Circle Studio ... from the very outset the photographic process was Vista. London. 1980. used for two distinct but closely interrelated purposes. D 112. The reproduction of existing pictorial images and the production, or generation, of records of the evanescent, elusive images of whatever lay within the focus of the lens-in other words, photographs 2. Estelle Jussim. Visual - Beaumont Newhal12 Communication and the Graphic Arts: Photographic Technologies in the Nineteenth Century, R. R. Bowker and Company, New York, 1983, p. vii. Robert Southey's remark about Davy's discovery of the efficacious effects of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) delivered at the Bristol Pneumatic Institute (c 1798-99), highlights the impact new inventions had, and continue to have, on the language of their inventors. The inadequacy of language to fully describe new processes is however, just one of the concerns of this chapter. Another, is to untangle and clarify the role played by chemical printing and lithographic transfer in the invention of photography. A third concern is to illuminate the social climate that made photography necessary and made its successful incorporation into print culture a reality. 3 See Minor White's introduction to French Primitive Photography, How the invention of photography is perceived today is often Aperture, New York, 1969, (unnumbered p. 1.) in based on a belief that it was an entirely new departure in which he wrote 'Apparently photography was born the graphic arts.3 Photographic history usually relates that unique, though at that period the uniqueness may either Daguerre or Talbot, or both, invented practical not have been as clear as later. Painting and photography. Frequently, an author will indicate in passing, photographs looked so much alike that book that Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the world's first reproductions wipe out the differences easily, if not to photograph. In this orthodox Pantheon we have three the expert eye, then certainly to the casual inventions and three sets of claims to a 'unique' medium eye.' While similarities between early photographs of graphic communication. But these significant claimants to and their ~ainted contemporaries has often the mantle of 'inventors of photography' are not alone, been remarked upon (and much has been written there are others like Hercule Florence and Hippolyte Bayard about the points of contact between artists and their who are variously qualified to put forward similar claims. use of the photographic medium) the similarities between early photographs and lithographs has not Perhaps, a thoughtful questioner might ask: what led to the attracted the same attention. The supposed idea of photography? What were the circumstances in that uniqueness of photography would seem even less quarter century between 1826 and 1851 that made certain if it had. practical photography possible? The answers to these questions, 1 suggest, spring partly from lessons learned by . generations of craftsmen who engraved on metal plates, partly from improvements in etching, and finally from experiments made with Senefelder's invention of chemical lithography. These graphic processes, all stages in George Sarton's concept of a double invention of printing, became intermingled with the discovery of the chemical sensitivity of silver salts to light, the use of the camera obscura as a drawing tool and to improvements in lens making.

Behind these experiments, improvements in pictorial representation elevated the art of drawing to that of a socially valued occupation among the educated. Drawing had become a valuable tool in science, in Government service, in the liberal arts, and in addition was encouraged as a leisurely pursuit. The eighteenth century invention of the lead pencil and the emergence of the art of watercolour painting were also instruments that directed the engraver's craft towards greater precision in pictorial representation.

The desire for increasingly precise drawings among artists led to a greater reliance on mechanical aids. The quest for 4 Richard R. Brettell, Roy precision (truthfulness of vision as a mirror of nature) led to Flukinger, Nancy Keeler and Sydney Mallett an increasing use of the camera obscura and its Kilgore, Paper and Light: The Callotype in France successors and variants; the camera lucida and the graphic and Great Britain, 1839-1870. D. R. Godine, telescope. This search for truthful images was taken further Boston, 1984. p. 18 n18. in particular cite Leon by lithographers. Support for this position comes from Lang and Jean Eugbne Bersier's La Lithographie Brettell, Flukinger, Keeler and Kilgore who draw attention to en France (Mullhouse Societe Godefroy the increasingly lifelike effects achieved by lithographers in Engelmann. 1946), pp. 16-17. who drew the 1830s.= attention to the work of 'French lithographers [who] realised their greatest achievements in the It can be observed that the distinction between science and 1830% when artists like Eugene lsabey and Paul art in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Huet mastered the tonal techniques of manibre was not always a clear one. Before 1800, Josiah noire and lavis lithographique to transform Wedgwood's interests, like those of his son Thomas, were what began as a fundamentally linear clearly wide, ranging from ceramics and engineering to medium into one of bold and expressive science and art. In France, Joseph Niepce and his brother chiaroscuro.' 5 For details of Rudolf Claude combined interests in chemistry, the design of an Ackermann's invention of 'transparency' views internal combustion engine (the Pyrt?olophore), lithography, (~1796)see --John Ford, Ackermann 1783 - 1983: and as a result of repeated experiments, what was not The Business of Art, Arthur Ackermann quite yet true photography. In England we find Cornelius Publishing Limited, London, 1983., p. 18. 29, Varley combining his interest in optics (notable for his 49. and n. 25. 50. These were frequently aquatints 'Treatise on Optical Drawing Instruments' with the invention pasted onto glass, then varnished to transmit light of the graphic telescope), the lever microscope, his position when illuminated from behind. This invention is of as an adjudicator at the Great Exhibition and as the last interest as it anticipates the magic lantern slide surviving member of the 'Old Water-colour Society' in art. and has similar properties to Ni6pce's use of oiled Similarly his contemporary, Rudolph Ackermann. contributed paper to transmit light onto photosensitive to the design of carriages, to street illuminations or bitumen. The use of 'transparencies' as street 'transparencies' on translucent paper for lamp shades and illuminations (such as the thirty foot high backlit fire ~creens,~and to the chemistry and the manufacture of transparency erected by Ackermann at 101 Strand watercolours. Ackermann's interests extended to in July 1814). These public displays made a lithographic printing and later, when it became known, to considerable social impact and were much talked photography. Talbot with his photogenic drawing box (1839), about. Such 'transparency' street illuminations on also had wide interests: drawing, etymology, translation, paper and glass were still popular in the 1860s. See mathematics, the study of crystals, astronomy and botany, a listing of such transparencies, often with all clearly demonstrate the prevalence of new 'virtuosi' in the artist named, in J. G. Knight's Prince Albert in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe with an insatiable Victoria (Melbourne. 1868) pp. 77-95. Whether such thirst for knowledge and self-improvement. illuminations were popular in France after the Napoleonic wars has not been ascertained, but it Nor should the importance of social contacts and private seems likely. correspondence between such individual researchers be 6 Talbot (1800-1879). was a member of all three. underestimated. The Manchester 'Lunar Society' (See--Gail Buckland, Fox Talbot and the Invention of composed of Joseph Priestley, James Watt, Josiah Photography. University of Queensland press, St. Wedgwood and their circle of friends is but an earlier Lucia. 1980), she lists his fellowship of the Linnean incarnation of the Victorian interaction created by members Society at the age of 29 (p. 20), provides of the Royal Society, the Athenaeum Club, and the Linnean speculation as to his possible social S~ciety,~epitomised by correspondence between Talbot, Sir connections with some 300 luminaries of the John Herschal, David Octavious Hill, Sir David Brewster Victorian age, (p. 22). He was elected as a and many others. . member of the Royal Astronomical Society at the age of 22, (p.17), and While it has been suggested that the NiQpcesin France, he was also an active member of the Royal were aware of the experiments of ~homasWedgwood Society in 1836 (p.18). and Sir Humphry Davy in England,' evidence of Talbot 7 Morris Bede, Images illusion and reality, having any prior knowledge of the important experiments Australian Academy of Science, Canberra. 1986. made by the NiQpces', seemingly, cannot be established. p 28. This is perhaps a little surprising, given the social links both Niepce and Talbot had with other English luminaries such as the Director of the Botanical Gardens at Kew, William Townsend Aiton, and with other members of the Royal Society.

Certainly, Helmut Gernsheim was puzzled by the failure of the Royal Society to publish Niepce's paper, 'Notice sur I'heliographie' and seems surprised that there is no record

8 Helmut Gernsheim. The of any communication with Niepce or his supporters Origins of Photography, Thames and Hudson. ... in spite of... flattering remarks and Niepce's personal contact London, 1982. p.36. with Dr W. H. Wollaston, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Royal Dr. William Hyde Society, the memoir ['Notice sur I'heliographie'] and specimens Wollaston was the inventor [including the photograph brought from France] were never of the camera lucida in formally communicated to the society, because the cautious 1807, and periscopic NiBpce had only alluded in general terms to his invention. As meniscus lens for the he was unwilling to disclose the secret of his process, the camera obscura in 1812. Royal Society could not take cognizence of it, and there is no A periscopic meniscus record at all of the matter in the Council minutes. This decision prism was made for seems inconsistent with the fact that Talbot in his Ni6pce by Chevalier communication 'On the Art of photogenic Drawing' on 31 in 1828. January 1839 gave no details of his process and supplied these only after his papers of 21February and 21March. 8

Gernsheim went on to speculate about what the effect of NiCpce's paper might have had on the course of photographic history if it had been accepted by the society.

Publication wol~ldno doubt have at once reminded Sir Humphry Davy, President of the Royal Society in that very year, [I8271 of his own and Wedgwood's experiments. (Sir) John Herschel, FRS, would have come to hear of these, as well as of NiBpce's, experiments, and he could have provided Davy with the neces- sary fixing agent, having in 1819 discovered the property of hyposulphite of soda to dissolve the various silver salts. This would in all probability have led to photography on paper twelve years earlier, and Talbot would then never have been heard of 9 Ibid. in this connection.

In the light of the above, it is a curious fact that Talbot seems to have begun to experiment with the idea of photography quite independently in the 1830s without knowing anything about the work done previously by Davy and Wedgwood or of the successful prints made by Joseph Niepce.

Previously, the effects of invention of lithography on the preparation of printing surfaces has not attracted the 10 Michael Twyrnan, attention of photographic historians. Yet it seems likely that Lithography 1800 - 1850: The techniques of drawing the chemical manipulations used to modify the properties of on stone in England and France and their lithographic plates were instrumental in opening the eyes of application in the works of topography, a wide circle of experimenters to the potentiality of chemical Oxford University Press, London, 1970. p. 130. coatings in sensitising and transforming familiar everyday 11 Twyrnan, Early materials such as paper and metal making them into Lithographed Books: a study of the design and powerful new tools. production of improper books in the age of the hand press, Farrand. London, 1970. p. 51. The popularity of 'transferring' and advertisements for

12 See the end paper transfer paper soon appeared.'O Lithographic transfer paper advertisement in Thomas Hood's The Anniversary of was first used in England in 1813.11 The idea of transferring the Literary Fun Charles Tilt. London, 1832, soon became common knowledge and what may have been (alternatively titled The Comic Annual on the title lithographic transfers were publicised in Thomas Hood's The page). It is not clear from the language used by Tilt, Anniversary of the Literary Fun as 'the fashionable art of what exactly is meant by the word 'transferring'. transferring' in 1832.12 Similar advertisements may even This little volume is the only example I have seen, have appeared earlier. Transfer paper was certainly therefore I do not know when such advertisements promoted as a commercial product in England by Rowney began to appear. and Forster,13 and it is likely that early advertisements for 13 Twyrnan. Lithography 1800 I - 1850, op cit, p. 130. transfer paper products also appeared in France. The I transfer idea was also applied to various processes such as typolithographie and anastatic printing. In this context Twyrnan adds that Senefelder's discovery of lithography hinged upon the fact that when he had moistened 'a leaf of I an old book ... with gum water and charging it with ink I before each impression... in one sense transferring images from old documents can be said to be as old as, if not older than, lithography itself.' The practice of typolithographie to reproduce the leaves of old documents stemmed from this manipulation. The dampened paper resisted lithographic ink while the oil retained in the printed parts of the page accepted it. Once the leaf had been inked it was turned over and placed face downwards on the stone and washed l over with a weak nitric acid solution. The lithographic impression of the typographic page was then transferred to 14 Twyrnan, Early Lithographed Books, the stone by passing it through the press. From this op cit. p. 212. transfer copies were made for a new edition.I4 The first photographic experimenters, a number of whom were, unlike Talbot, also lithographers, relied upon very simple ingredients. Like Senefelder's soaps, inks and varnishes, the ingredients used to prepare stone, paper and metal plate to accept images captured from the sun's rays were often common household products, frequently having more in common with domestic recipes and preservatives for , ceramics and foodstuffs than with what we may think of as 'modern' science. The preservative nature of salt, nitric acid, and urea, the emulsive properties of egg white and gelatine, the usefulness of bleach and the transparency of wax: these, and other newly discovered chemicals such as iodine, were combined with more costly and dangerous substances like silver, gold and mercury.

The answer to the question : what made photography possible, may be due to some extent to random I observations of the effectiveness of sensitised surfaces; stone, paper, glass, and metal, and the experiments that

lithography encouraged among its practitioners. Compelling I evidence supporting the connection between the invention of photography and the catalytic effects of lithography, or at least advances in chemical printing, can be demonstrated I by the number and stature of the group of experimenters who contributed to both forms of expression. In France, in the first wave of discovery were Niepce and Daguerre, in Scotland, Hill, and in South America Hercule Florence with his gelatin process.

Essentially, photography is concerned with three things: (1)efficient, rapid and definite image capture, (2) image preservation and, (3) image reproduction. In photography, the first two of these tend to attract more attention than the third. Except for those professional photographers who are

interested in printing methods, the repioduction of images I has tended to be left in the hands of the printer. This was not always so. Early photographers like artists and lithographers (and they were often the same people) were more concerned with how a photograph image might be reproduced.

In most photographic literature, the usefulness of lithographic transfer to photography has been overshadowed by the seductive power of the photographic image. Because the various silver processes made powerfully resolved images possible, the role of chemical lithography and lithographic transfer paper in revealing photographic images and permanently fixing them as illustrations has been considered to be a dead end and of no practical value. As the means of making the first permanent photographic images possible, lithography is underestimated. Neither is it considered important that the photo-reproduction of book illustrations printed in commercial quantities was first accomplished by the agency of lithographic transfer.

Lithography's liberating effect on the graphic arts had a profound effect on forms of visual expression in printing. This development was seized upon by artists and scientists alike who exploited the potential ease with which visual information could be spread by means of the new process at a lower cost than before. The diversity of graphic techniques expanded the possibilities of artistic expression and information transfer. The tactile nature of lithographic chalks and the variety of effects that could be achieved by an artist working directly on stone or plate were welcomed with enthusiasm. To those less skilled in drawing, like NiBpce, the process was no less appealing.

The immediacy of direct lithography to transfer the printed image from stone to paper was further enhanced by I Senefelder's use of indirect transfer to reproduce images on lithographic stones with transfer paper. To early nineteenth century observers, who saw graphic reproduction I accomplished with such ease, the idea may have taken root in more than one mind that this method might one day provide a means of transferring and fixing images directly from nature. 15 Nowhere are the details While this idea remains speculative, the fact is that the made entirely clear. Gernsheim says in The idea of photography was first accomplished with the Origins of Photography Thames and Hudson. 'help' of a lithographic press.'= The world's first photograph London, 1982 (p. 29). that the experiments made by made by Niepce relied, in part, on common lithographic Niepce had resulted from the excitement caused by practices and chemistry, and the catalytic events lithography the craze for which had 'swept France in which preceded it, Niepce's Heliogravure process 1813'. Morris. op. cit., like many others, points out relied upon a variant of the application of lithographic that NiBpce's first idea was to use photosensitive transfer paper.16 bitumen to transfer drawings to a lithographic stone for the purpose of printing from it. Morris, This opinion, based upon Niepce's discoveries, is lent loc. cit., also shows a still life (plate one) of a set further support by the independent invention of photography table made by Niepce as a glass negative plate with by Hercule Florence (1804-1879), another practicing artist photosensitive bitumen in 1822. This image is not familiar with printing processes, who began work in a authenticated by Gernsheim, but assigned printing shop in Brazil at the age of 21. Born at Nice, to the category of anonymous (probably France, in 1803, he, independently of any known contact Daguerre or Niepce de Saint-Victoire), and titled with developments in France, invented a method of Table prepared for a meal, p. 35, Philip Meggs, A photography1' (in 1833-39) in a makeshift laboratory at the History of Graphic Design, Van Nostrand Reinhold, Villa Paulista de Campiiias, in Brazil. Florence's inventions New York. 1983. p. 166.. also provides a summary included 'a form of ', a kind of gelatine pad of the steps that Nicephore and lsadore capable of reproducing printed copies. Gernsheim describes Niepce took as they progressed from this invention as a kind of copyingl8 which he lithography to photography. See also-David Bruce. says Florence called 'poligraphie.' This information suggests Sun Pictures : The I Hill-Adamson Collection, 1973. p. 19, for 'the fie.- 26 ~MM~GRAMF AMILY. first evidence of his , ...... --.. National Historical 'speculative turn" ... [of . Museum. Sao Paulo. mind] demonstrated by Brazil. ~e~roduced his interest in the still from THE 6RlTlSH recent technique of JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY, lithography' which 14 January, preceded his calotypes.' 1988, p. 17.

16 As alluded to above. another source of inspiration may possibly have been the method used to create gas-lit street 'transparency' illuminations. It is also possible that the idea was arrived at by personal observation alone, owing no debt to any other source.

17 John L Ennis. 'Photography at its Genesis', Chemical and Engineering News, v. 67. NO. 51, 1989. pp. 26-42.

18 Gernsheim. The Origins of Photography, p. 81. 19 ibid., p. 82. This that the sequence of events in Florence's printing endeav- information is based on Boris Kossoy's Hercules ours predated any effective European development apart Florence 1833; on the isolated inventions by the from Niepce's and that Florence's idea of 'photography' Brazilian photographer, Facultade de Cornunicao contributed significantly to the climate in which photography Social Anhernbi: 1977. p. 108. took root.

Gernsheim's research (in 1982) which implied that Hercules Florence invented photography some years before Daguerre's experiments were made publiclg has been hotly 20 John Fisher, 'A Journey to Brazil' British Journal of But whatever the finer details of Florence's Photography, v. 135, 14 January 1988. pp. 17-19. process may have been, it can be seen that indirect transfer and the influence of printing clearly had an effect on the invention of his 'photography.' Florence was discouraged by the disinterest shown by the French Academy in his inventions in 1833, and it would seem from Gernsheim's account that he was not satisfied with the results that he achieved. But Florence had overcome a major problem when, after unsatisfactory results with ammonia, he successfully fixed his images with urea.

Ultimately, Florence compared his own achievements unfavourably with the borrowed ideas and opportunistic self-promotion that attended Daguerre's process. Achievements which gained him celebrity and world attention when his claims were made public by Francois Arago on 6 January 1839. In far-off Brazil Florence's invention may have seemed to be a modest advance. Nevertheless, his ability to record images, and fix them, before either Daguerre or Talbot supports the argument that printing processes and, significantly, lithographic ingredients like gelatine, were important elements in the discovery and development of photography. In Florence's discovery there is also a hint of the future work of Abel Niepce de Saint- Victor and Poitevin.

Two distinct strands of development led to the invention of photography. The first evolved from the discovery made by a host of keen observers that exposure to sunlight had a darkening effect on silver salts. The second sprang from the catalytic effect of indirect lithographic transfer. While quite different and separate approaches, the two strands of development had four things in common. (1) The methods of pictorial reproduction relied upon chemical reaction, (2) both ie: Niepce's lithographic transfer, and Daguerre's and Talbot's methods, were achieved by the action of sunlight on a sensitised surface, glass or paper, and required time for exposure; (3) these procedures exploited the principle of indirect transference, and; (4) both methods once realised, faced the problems of obtaining permanent images and reliable reproduction by editioning. Problems which succes- sive experimenters tried to solve by both chemical and mechanical means; with printing plates, printers ink, and the printing press.

Silver nitrate and silver chloride are always associated in the minds of students of photography with the invention of the photographic process. The contribution made by lithography is only mentioned in passing. Yet it is acknowledged by almost all writers on the subject that the world's first photograph was the product of experiments in lithography by Joseph Niepce (1765-1833) and his

21 ibid., Fisher says that son I~idore.~~ Gernsheim's claim 'was later exhaustively investigated and disproved Experiments with silver salts alone had, by the 1820s, led to general satisfaction' but Fisher does not reveal his to no substantial result. Before Joseph Niepce's invention, sources when he dismisses Gernsheim's Thomas Wedgwood with the assistance of Sir Humphry Davy remarks. The article is very general in its in England had some success with the idea of capturing treatment and does not come to any significant images with the light of the sun using silver salts. But they, conclusions. I have not, so far, found any source that like others before them in Europe, had failed to find a supports his opinion on this particular point. means of making these dark images permanent. The results obtained by Niepce in 1816 were more impressive. It was not until lithographic transfer techniques were applied to the idea by Niepce that a practical photographic result was achieved. His photoengraved portrait of Pope Pius VII on pewter plate in July 1822 was the first significant achievement. His 'heliographic' process was soon followed 22 Helmut Gernsheim. The by the first successful photograph from nature made in the Origins of Photography, p. 36. camera obscura in 1826.

23 ibid.. p. 30. The sole reference to this information is based on a This was no coincidence. Joseph NiCpce and his brother letter from Nicdphore to his brother Claude on 16 Claude had experimented with silver salts and the camera September 1824 now at the Academy of Sciences, obscura in Sardinia (1797-1798) 'to record the images of Moscow. This, and other reliable information of the the camera obscura by chemical means.Q2and Joseph had inventions of Nicephore Niepce is mostly to be continued these experiments even after he and his son found in the extensive researches of Helmut began to lithograph popular religious prints. It is also Gernsheim. l have depended on the claimed (Morris 1986) that Joseph and Claude NiCpce were information in his books on the history of familiar with the experiments with silver salts made by photography published since the 1950's which WedgwoodZ3during the 1790s and reported on by Sir have treated the contribution made by Thomas Davy to the Royal Society in 1802. Nidpce. Gernsheim in focusing on the contribution made by The fugitive nature of images made by the exposure of Nidpce to the invention of photography has left much silver compounds such as silver nitrate, to sunlight had room for speculation about the role of lithography in frustrated any further development by Wedgwood and it was successfully solving the photographic problem. also an unsolved problem that frustrated Claude and Joseph NiCpce in their earliest experiments in Sardinia. By 1816 Joseph NiBpce, well aware of the problems of reversed negative impressions made by the action of light on paper impregnated with silver salts, attempted to make contact prints using these same impressions as paper negatives. He exposed a series of paper prints from nature by using a camera obscura at Chglon-sur-Sabne in Burgundy, the site of their family estate. In addition to using these negative images in an attempt to make positive ones, (with little success), he also attempted to solve the problem of making such images permanent. Paper prints, made successfully by Joseph NiBpce during 1816, and fixed with nitric acid are said to have survived until 1867. Copies of these were sent to his brother Claude in London. Evidence 24 ibid. for this assertion is ascribed to Victor Fouq~e.~~

Readily accessible evidence confirming the NiCpce brothers' knowledge of the work of Wedgwood and Davy is conflicting. Lady Elizabeth Eastlake asserted that the NiBpces' had no knowledge of Wedgwoods and Davys work. Bede Morris

25 Morris. op cit.. p. 28. See claims that the Niepce brothers knew of Wedgwood's and also-Alan Trachtenberg (editor) Classic Essays on Davy's experiments in England.25 Photography pp. 39-68, for a reprinting of Lady Elizabeth Eastlake's essay (. March Gernsheim refers to the popularity of lithographic printing in 1857) in which she states that [NiBpce] 'cannot be France as a contributing factor.26The prospect of turning a called a successor to Davy and Wedgwood; for it is profit from lithography encouraged the Niepce brothers to probable that the path they had traced was take the process up in 1813. The reason for their doing so unknown to him.' Morris's remark that 'Niepce, an was to recover from the debts that they had incurred in amateur inventor who lived at Chalon-sur-Sabne, knew developing another of their inventions, the impossibly of Wedgwood's experiments with silver named Pyreolophore, a kind of internal combustion engine salts in which light was used to produce images which the brothers had constructed as the motive power for on treated leather' is not footnoted and remains a boat on their estate in the village of Saint-Loup-deChalon unsubstantiated. near Lyons. 26 Gernsheim, The Origins of Photography, p. 30. As with the use of nitric acid to fix paper photographic 27 ibid.. p. 29. See also- Trachtenberg. Classic prints, there is an unsubstantiated suggestion that the Essays on Photography. p. 3, notes that 'Joseph Pyreolophore was also used as the motive power for a Nicephore Niepce and his brother Claude made trials lithographic press that the brothers de~igned.~'These with a camera obscura and sensitised paper to connections with lithography have not been previously produce pictures for a hot-air, engine powered considered as important, or indeed connected, but it lithography press they had designed.' This statement is clear that these accumulated facts are worthy of suggests that the Pyreolophore, often closer attention. mentioned as a power source used to propel a boat, may have also been employed to drive their printing press, but Trachtenberg provides no source for this information. Joseph and his son lsadore persisted with lithography, and when lsadore was called upon to join the army, it fell to Joseph Niepce to keep the printing enterprise going. Consequently the practical invention of photography was effected by Joseph Niepce alone as a result of his search to fix images made first with silver salts on paper and then by his more productive experiments with lithographic bitumen and 'transfer paper.' Without Senefelder's invention the I preconditions that made practical photography possible are difficult to imagine. There was one other difficulty to be over- I come however; the makeshift and unsuitable camera obscuras made by Niepce. This was a decade long problem that occu- pied him until a suitable manufactured camera obscura was finally purchased in 1827 from Vincent Chevalier in Paris.

The term 'transfer paper' was used interchangeably by Senefelder to describe the application of traced images to a lithographic stone and also to describe the application of indirect transfers using a chemically prepared transfer

paper. Reliance on familiar words and concepts becomes I intermingled with the need for new words to describe new arts and inventions. The language of printing was relied on by Joseph and Claude Niepce in their letters to describe the action of making sun pictures. They 'pulled proofs' in the manner said to be done in lithography, and used words like 'Graver' and 'gravure' interchangeably, whether in the act of etching a plate, or for making a sun picture. Later on, Herschel too used lithographic language to describe his pro- cedure as requiring 'first and second transfers' before he settled on more recognisable photographic terms; 'positive' and 'negative'. Talbot also encountered the same difficulty when he made what he termed 'photogenic drawings' and 'photogenic etchings'. j

Joseph Niepce was an incurable inventor and tinkerer. He had little skill however, as a draftsman. The tools in use I in a lithographic printing establishment required printing inks and soft crayons with other properties, a variety of acids such as nitric acid, various oils, soaps, waxes, fats, pigments, and bituminous materials for 'stopping out' were 28 Henry J. Rhodes, available and in constant use.28This environment, subject to The Art of Lithography, Scott, Greenwood and his inventive mind, was conducive to experiment. Joseph's Son. London. 1914., p 50. preoccupation with procuring a satisfactory image (or in his case the inability to achieve one) led to experiments with a variety of lithographic tools. At first, lithographic stone was used and due to the unsuitability of locally quarried stone (Kelheim stone being too expensive) he then turned to glass plates and later to pewter plates which he found were more suitable for his needs.

Faced with the difficulty of creating a satisfactory image fig. 27 Heliotype, 1827, THE HOLY FAMILY, Nicephore Niepce,

Joseph coated the paper support of a number of existing 29 Transparency in so-called drawings with oil, or sometimes wax, to make them French transfer paper was an acknowledged feature tran~parent.~~Being already familiar with the chemical of transfer paper manufactured in that properties of silver chloride as reactive to light, he applied country at the beginning of this century. I have not yet the former idea to bitumen of Judea which he discovered traced the origins of this innovation, but it possible had a similar useful property; hardening when exposed to its origins lay either in the discoveries made by light. Having found in bitumen of Judea a chemical agent Nikpce or that perhaps French lithographers had that would behave in the required way, Niepce recognised already begun this practice before 1813. that it also had the desirable protective property of resisting acid. These discoveries led him to the unprecedented procedure of chemically preparing a photosensitive plate with a 'transfer paper' contact image to obtain a permanent print.

With these contact prints of drawings on paper made transparent with oil or wax Niepce exposed a pewter plate to sunlight after placing a drawing flat on the surface of the plate previously coated with bitumen of Judea. After exposure had taken place he lifted the drawing from the plate and dissolved the soft asphalt from the unexposed portions of the plate by treating it with lavender oil as a solvent. Having completed the preparation of the plate so far he etched away the unexposed lines to leave the non

30 A suitable means of doing printing areas standing in relief in the manner of an etching this would have been by passing the plate through or engraving. When he had completed these steps he was a transfer press. How Niepce went about able to take impressions from the inked plate.30 transferring an image using a glass plate is not clear. It is a strong possibility that an image In his experiments in July 1822 NiBpce coated the surface exposed on a glass plate was transferred to a of a glass plate with bitumen of Judea to reproduce an lithographic stone for printing. engraved portrait of Pope Pius VII.

Further progress was made. Niepce's heliographic religious prints of Cardinal d' Amboise (1826) and another heliograph portrait The Holy Family (1827) show this clearly. See fig. 27 (p. 148). This was achieved at about the same time as his first successful photographic image. The portrait fig. 28 Heliotype, 1826. THEF IRST PHOTOGRAPH, of Cardinal d' Amboise which NiBpce photoengraved on a Nicephore Niepce. Gernsheim Collection, pewter plate was reetched by Lema'itre in 1827. University of Texas. From Philip B. Meggs, A HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN, Van Nostrand Nidpce was inspired to expose glass and pewter plates Reinhold, New York. coated with bitumen of Judea in a number of his home 1983. p. 167. made camera obscuras. It occurred to him that he could use the action of sunlight on bitumen of Judea to capture a picture directly from nature. In the celebrated letter of 16 September 1824, Joseph Niepce's wrote to his brother telling him that his large camera had been used to expose a view onto a large lithographic stone from an upstairs window and that two further 'views of the lower courtyard' 31 Gernsheim, The Origins of were made 'with my small cameras, one on glass and the Photography, p. 33. other on stone.l3I Much of the information that survives regarding Nikpce's progress at this date is based upon the evidence of this letter. The use of a number of cameras of different sizes, and the innovation of exposing sensitised lithographic stones in a camera should be noted. The fact that he took exposures in different rooms and also in the courtyard shows that the surviving 'world's first photograph' once had companions. The description of the fine details and tones revealed by the process when the stone or glass plate was viewed at an angle are enticing. It must be regretted that proofs from these stones, and the , heliographic plates themselves, that marked the steps by which he made his discoveries do not survive. !

In 1826 his simple idea of applying the techniques devised in his photo-etching process was transformed into something quite new when he placed a similarly prepared pewter plate in his camera obscura and then by exposing it all day through the window of an upstairs room, he was rewarded that night, after washing it as before, with the world's first surviving photographic image; a view of the courtyard behind his house (fig. 28, p. 149).

Gernsheim says that 'Niepce brought this photograph from nature, with some other 'heliographs', which were copies of 32 Helmut and Alison engravings, to England in 1827, in a fruitless attempt to Gernsheim, Historic Events 1839-1939. Longmans. interest the Royal Society in his invention.'32 Green and Co. Ltd., London. 1960, p. 1. Claude NiCpce left the family estate and went to Paris, then afterwards on to London taking the Pyreolophore with him in the belief that he would find more support for this invention in England than he had in France. By 1817, Claude Niepce was a resident in England, where he died in 1828. Throughout this separation the two brothers maintained a regular correspondence between Chslon-sur-SaBne and Paris, and also, ChGlon-sur-Sadne and London. At least once, in 1817, Joseph sent sample prints to Claude. In 1822 he wrote again to Claude about his experiments and his success in making permanent prints by his heliographic process, in which he employed light sensitive bitumen of Judea.

Joseph NiCpce and his wife visited Claude in England in September 1827. While staying at Kew, Niepce met the botanical illustrator Francis Bauer who became a firm friend. Bauer encouraged Niepce to submit his invention to the Royal Society. The paper called Notice sur I'heliographie that NiCpce wrote in response to this suggestion was written at Kew in December 1827. Neither Notice sur I'heliographie, nor Niepce's accompanying specimens, were ever formally submitted to a meeting of the Royal Society because Niepce was secretive and unwilling to reveal full details of his discoveries. Consequently, his reluctance is given as the reason why his paper was rejected.

However, he tried again through an intermediary; the 33 Gernsheim, The Origins of Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, W. T. Aiton, Photography, p. 36. to gain recognition for his invention from King George IV. 34 ibid.. p. 36. Talbot did however submit full When this overture also failed, he made a third attempt working details of his process to the Royal to arouse interest in his invention, this time through the Society shortly afterwards, on 21 February 1839. Society of Arts.33 As Gernsheim has pointed out, when Acceptance of his initial paper may therefore have Talbot submitted his paper On the Art of Photogenic Drawing been permitted on the grounds that a more to the Royal Society in 1839 he did not meet with the same detailed account was expected to follow. resistance that had faced Ni6pce twelve years earlier, even though, like NiCpce, Talbot omitted details of his process.34 Initial contact between NiCpce and Daguerre (1787-1851) took place in 1826 soon after Daguerre first heard of NiCpce's experiments from the Paris instrument makers Charles and Vincent Chevalier. The Chevaliers had been commissioned by Niepce's cousin to build a camera obscura for him to his specifications. The Chevaliers were shown examples of the Heliograph process, and their astonishment at such a development was soon conveyed to Daguerre. Daguerre sought him out to discover his methods, and the results of this meeting ultimately brought photography to the attention of the world in 1839. Niepce's 35 ibid., p. 37 success in fixing an image on paper with printing ink was well in advance of Daguerre's experiments with silver chloride paper and phosphor~us,~~a method that was still plagued by instability and impermanence.

In fact, Niepce had by now, in 1829, developed a new method of increasing the contrast of his photographic images by using silvered copper plates as a substrate and I blackening the unprotected metal with iodine vapour in a

closed box. The coating of bitumen that protected the I 36 ibid. lighter parts of the plate were then dissolved and bright silver contrasted with the dark silver iodide. This method yielded a much sharper image than before.36

Niepce and Daguerre were forced into collaboration because of NiBpce's failure to interest the Royal Society in London in his invention, a circumstance compounded by his need for I money. This difficulty, together with the death of Claude in England and the abandonment of the PyrColophore, forced Niepce to come to an agreement with Daguerre in December 1829, when they entered into a business I partnership for ten years, by forming the firm of

37 Arron Scharf, Art and Photography, Allen Lane The Penguin Press, The photographic images obtained from Daguerre's iodine London. 1968, p. 6. and mercury process3' were not perfected until after he gained access to Niepce's process. The iodine and mercury process was preferred by Daguerre to results previously obtained by Niepce's methods. Daguerre, after initial difficulties with instability in his process, was able to fix images with a degree of permanency in 1837 by using salt as the stabilising agent. Salt also was used as a fixing agent by Talbot in England. It is likely that both Daguerre and Henry Talbot hit upon the idea of using salt as a fixing agent because salt was a known preservative used as a means of fixing dye in cloth in the textile industry. But, whatever the source of this idea, when used by Daguerre and Talbot, it was only partially successful in preserving photographic images.

After Nicephore Niepce died in 1833, the partnership agreement with Louis Daguerre was renewed in 1835 by lsadore Niepce. Relations between lsadore Niepce and Daguerre were, at times, difficult. In renegotiating the agreement the balance of ownership shifted in Daguerre's favour and the firm was re-named 'Daguerre and lsadore Niepce instead of Niepce-Daguerre.' In 1837, the i publishing of a successful Daguerreotype; believed to be the still life composed of plaster casts which is sometimes called Inside an Antique Shop, prompted the enterprising Daguerre to plan the sale of the Daguerreotype process by subscription. His object was to raise, by the sale of 400 shares, a total sum of 400,000 francs, or alternatively, to make an outright sale to an individual purchaser for 200,000 francs.

* * *

How does the orthodox explanation of how photography was invented stand in relation to the view that photography was

the child of lithography? The common explanation rests - upon the broad understanding of the sensitivity of silver salts to light and the history of this knowledge. Johann Heinrich Schultze, at the University of Altsdorf, had discovered the light sensitive properties of silver nitrate in 1727. A discovery that ultimately was harnessed to provide a superior means of capturing image from nature. Schultze's discovery was followed by experiments made by the Swedish scientist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who examined the properties of photographically useful silver nitrate by dissolving silver chloride in ammonia, and having thus refined it as silver, converted it back to silver nitrate again with nitric acid.

The summarised discoveries of Thomas Wedgwood, published by Sir Henry Davy (1802) in the Journal of the Royal Society, represent the first of many attempts to fix images from nature. There were many other early 19th century experimenters, including the Niepce brothers, who invented, or contributed to the invention of photography, by means of the photosensitivity of silver salts. Also, in the United States for example, James Wattles had conducted photographic experiments using sensitised paper in a darkened box camera in 1828 at New Harmony, / 38 John L Ennis. Indiana, Samuel Morse also claimed to have made 'Photography at its Genesis'. Chemical and experiments in this direction in either 1811 or 1812, at Engineering News, v. 67. I NO. 51. 1989,pp. 26-42. New Haven.38But with the exception of Talbot's independent work, and the rapid progress made by Bayard after Daguerre's announcement, there were no other clearly workable processes apart from Niepce's invention.

The supremacy of Talbot's invention of photography over all other claims has been forcibly argued by Gail Buckland (1980), who claims that Talbot's invention of photography was entirely original. The foundation of Buckland's argument is based on the fact that Talbot's process represents what is recognisably 'true' photography. Her argument is that Talbot's I paper negatives and the resultant positive prints were the significant breakthrough in establishing photography as a new medium of communication. At the core of this argument is the rapid speed needed to make a satisfactory photographic exposures. This point is stressed by photographic historians.

In England, Talbot invented photography by following an alternative route. Talbot's process belongs, in some respects, with the experiments of Florence, Wattles, Morse, Bayard and others, in that he concentrated his efforts on paper sensitised with silver salts. What sets Talbot apart was his persistence with the idea of capturing images directly from nature long after others who had had the same idea had given up. In addition, he was not shy in making claims for his discoveries and bringing them to the notice of the Royal Society.

He wrote that he had thought of the idea of capturing the images of nature, which he termed photogenic drawing, while travelling abroad in Europe. To arrive at this goal he began to experiment with silver nitrate which he knew to be a light sensitive chemical. By preparing paper in a saline solution, and then, when dry, further treating the surface with a strong silver nitrate solution he was able to make paper with a surface of silver-chloride that was sensitive to

light. With this paper he made contact prints under sheets I of glass of plants which he named photogenic drawings, or what we call photograms. These he fixed by washing with another saline solution or a solution of potassium iodide. Daguerre, through Arago, presented the results of his invention to the French Academy on 7 January 1839 and when Talbot heard of it he "rushed his work to London" and 39 Colin Clair. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, London reported on his work to the Royal Society on the 31 January 1969. p. 7. 1839.39After this publicity the improvements in photography came rapidly, developing into both an independent technology and a popular art form.

The case for Talbot as the inventor of photography that I Buckland presents, is however, not entirely watertight. The issues are vexed by fine distinctions as to what constitutes true photography. This is illustrated by Robert Sobieszek's remarks in French Primitive Photography that :

Photography was invented in France by Hippolyte Bayard in 1839. The Groundwork to Bayard's discovery was provided by the experiments of the Englishman Henry Talbot. Although 40 Robert Sobieszek. French Talbot is usually accredited with the discovery, it is a matter of Primitive Photography, record that Bayard made and exhibited positive, paper prints Introductory essay. (unnumbered p. 3). as early as June 24, while Talbot did not make his definitive Aperture, New York. 1969. process public until late 1840.40

The independent work of Bayard (1801-1887) who pioneered the direct positive method of making a photograph in March 1839 clearly has its supporters. In Bayard's method, writing paper was steeped in silver chloride to sensitise it. The prepared paper was then exposed completely until the silver chloride turned black and then the sheet was immersed again in a second bath of potassium iodide. By making a fresh exposure in the camera, an image was effected by the bleaching action of light on the potassium iodide. This process then required fixing with a potassium bromide solution. A number of other direct positive processes were tried at about this time, notably by Dr. Andrew Fyfe (February 1839) in Edinburgh, and by MM. Lassaigne and Verignon in France.

Bayard's prints on paper were prepared with silver chloride independently of the method developed by Talbot. Bayard was able to exhibit thirty photographs of still life subjects in Paris by 24 June of 1839. Technically, his method was advanced for its time because he was able to progress rapidly in reducing his exposure time from one hour in March 1839 down to twenty minute exposures by 10 June.

In all of these competing processes there are recognisable features of modern photography that conceal the initial steps by which practical photography was reached. The numerous processes based on the light sensitivity of silver, or processes using alternative chemicals, and those like Bayard's direct positive prints, have served to conceal the initial role played by lithography and lithographic transfer in the invention of photography.

41 Elizabeth Anne McCauley's aptly titled book Industrial Madness: Commercial Photography in Paris 1848-1871.Yale University Press. p. 8 It was Daguerre's announcement of the Daguerreotype that opened the floodgates to the clamour of innovators. The 42 Gail Buckland, Fox Talbot and the Invention of 'industrial madness' that took hold4=and the patents and Photography, University of Queensland Press, St. improvements that obsessed mid-nineteenth century Lucia. 1980, p. 27. commercial photographer's minds. Talbot had said that if he had been aware of the difficulties Wedgwood and Davy had encountered he, himself, may not have persisted.42

Once an idea is abroad innovators are quick to come forward with solutions. The successful discoveries of NiCpce and Daguerre in France, and of Talbot and Herschel in England, soon led to an explosion of activity among artists, printers, chemists, inventors and businessmen, who anticipated the profits that might be had from an increasing and rapidly prospering middle class. In England, , starting from a base of three studios in the capital in 1841, there was an increase to 284 photographic studios in London alone by 1866. It was also estimated,

in the Photographic News of August 1861, that there I were 33,000 people in Paris who depended on photography either directly or indirectly for their living.

While all the writers on the subject that I have consulted refer to the NiCpce's experiments as being inspired by the lithographic process, they also repeat that it was by this means that an intaglio photogravure process was found.

The honour of discovering the catalyst which provoked ! this advance must undoubtedly be due to Niepce. NiCpce's efforts provided the first tangible proof that images could be captured from the reflected light of the sun and, importantly, preserved as pictures, regardless of exposure I times, substrates or chemicals.

It is regrettable that little mention is made of the printing press that Niepce used to achieve this result. That he experimented with images etched on stone is known, but his efforts in this direction remain sketchily understood. Nor is the question of the Niepces 'pulling proofs' fully explored. Were these initial proofs lifted from a lithographic press of his own design as has been claimed by Trachtenberg, (see n. 23.), or did he adapt a transfer press of the kind used to copy copperplate engravings? And what intermediate steps, if any, in developing his photogravure process were undertaken? Without clearer information on the subject the strongest link with the lithographic processes remains the use of oiled or waxed paper 'transfers' in making a contact positive on the chemically prepared plate and the use of bitumen of Judea.

While the problem of fixing an image for permanency on paper was first solved by Niepce in 1826, the superior scientific knowledge of Herschel, who had known of the 43 Philip B. Meggs, A History of Graphic Design. p. 167. solvent properties of the hyposulphites on silver salts since 1819, found that he could stop the action of light and fix images on paper more permanently with sodium thiosulphate." This discovery provided Daguerre and Talbot alike with a reliable means of preventing photographic images from fading-

Herschel's experiments were a major contribution that made photography on paper practicable in 1840. His experiments made soon after the publication of the processes invented by Daguerre and Talbot showed that the application of hyposulphites was a satisfactory method of

fixing a photographic image. But this practical solution was I only made known as a result of Arago's announcement of I Daguerre's 'discoveries' six years after Niepce's death. Daguerre's earliest (1837) print like Talbot's first paper negative (1835) had both already solved the problem of fixing their images; if less successfully. This problem as we I have seen had also been solved independently by Hercules Florence (1833) by the use of urea to make his images fast against fading. Florence's method of fixing his prints with ammonia was also tried by Talbot, and by Andrew Fyfe in Scotland.

Once photography became public knowledge the search for other chemicals and methods increased. Herschel for example, in addition to discovering a satisfactory means of fixing photographs, invented the 'Cyanotype' or blueprint process in 1842. The method used for preparing paper for Cyanotypes was basically the same as the procedure required in preparing paper for photography. Herschel's blueprint paper was prepared by brushing ammoniocitrate of iron and potassium ferrocyanide into the paper and leaving it to dry in the dark. Plans and drawings were then contact printed by exposing the drawing laid over the treated paper in sunlight. When an exposure was judged to be sufficient, the treated paper was washed, and the washing process both fixed the image and brought out the strong blue colour in the treated paper. The blueprint became a standard method of duplicating architectural plans, and was still being demonstrated in technical courses in schools in the 1950s. before it too was replaced by commercially manufactured papers and I by technical advances in motorised chemical plan

I printing machines.

I have found little information describing Herschel's invention of the blueprint, but it is clear that he at first thought of the new process in photographic terms. A Cyanotype photogram of peacock feathers made by Herschel in 1845 is similar to Talbot's Photogenic drawings (photograms) made in 1840. Later occasional I use of this paper by photographers in a camera is reported on, but it has little use for this purpose because of the unnaturally strong blue colouring. Herschel had come to I the rescue of Talbot and Daguerre by solving the problem of fixing a photographic image. But, the unsatisfying tendency of early photographs to fade, still remained. Talbot, like Niepce before him, concluded that photographs fixed with a more reliable ink such as printing ink, would offer a more reliable solution. With this idea in mind, he experimented further and succeeded when he introduced gelatine mixed with bichromate of potash. This preparation, 44 Buckland, op. cit., p. 112. when exposed to sunlight, was a suitable mixture for fixing a photographic image on to a metal plate. Once this was done it was suitable for etching." 45 ibid.. p. 114. A very similar process was invented by Paul Pretsch who took out a patent on his electro-photoengraving process upon his arrival in England in 185445.In Pretsch's process, when the plate was dry and the bichromated gelatine coating had hardened, it was used to make either casts of

the grain deposited on the plate's surface or to take I

electrotype copies from it directly. Once patented, Pretsch I formed his Photo-galvanographic Company to exploit the new medium. R. M. Burch, who was among the earliest keen observers of colour printing processes, described the i application of colour to Pretsch's photomechanical method 46 R. M. Burch, Colour Printing and Colour as capable of reproducing finely grained photographs from I Printers. Harris, Edinburgh 1983.,p. 221. metal plates, reminiscent of collotype printing in the fine- ness of its detail.'=

Talbot worked out several ways of reproducing tonal photographic images captured by the camera and transferring them to the printing press. But printing halftones by mechanical printing methods proved to be a difficult thing to accomplish. Talbot, whose thinking was determined to some extent by familiar mechanical printing processes, succumbed to known and reliable methods of graphic reproduction, ie: etching and engraving. Under these circumstances, photoengraving must have seemed to him to represent the next logical step. He made the choice of a steel substrate for this purpose, and he introduced an intervening fine gauze screen on the plate between the negative and the sensitised surface of the plate. The gauze was used to break up the surface of the plate into compartments by means of its mesh making a pattern of tiny exposed dots. This measure permitted different tones and densities to appear in the printing. In doing so he achieved the now-familiar effect of deriving halftones from the varying degrees to which the plate is exposed to light in the individual cells composed by the 47 Buckland. op. cit.. p. 113. screen. In 1851, using this method, he was able to etch a photographic image onto the steel plate.47

In 1852, he tried a different approach. By preparing a steel or copper plate with a mixture of gelatine and bichromate of potash to hold an image on the now photosensitised plate's surface, he was able to fix a photographic image. He then 48 ibid.. p.114. added an aquatint coating of fine copal resin to provide a grain when the plate was etched with ferric chloride.48By immersing the plate in three separate baths of diluted acid successive 'bites' could be controlled so that in the subsequent printing stage more or less ink would remain on the plate. By this means, rich blacks and subtle halftones could be developed and printed from. This was a considerable technical achievement, but not one that could easily be used as a production process because it required careful labour intensive attention at each step. Talbot's pho- toengraving process known as 'Polyglyphy' was featured in the 1858 Photographic News. Further examples of this 49 Burch, op. cit.. p. 220. process were to appear in the same publication for a num- ber of years afterward^.^^

Talbot's discoveries opened up the possibility of printing many copies of photographs on a letterpress printing press. Many now saw the commercial possibilities in suchaadevelopment and some attempted to follow Talbot's lead. All of these experiments applied the direct method, that is, making the surface of the stone or plate photosensitive, and fixing the image directly on the surface. Abroad, the search also continued for a successful means of printing from photography.

The use of glass plates to record photographic images, explored by Niepce in 1824, was also, after the announcement of Daguerre's process, taken up by Herschel who found glass plates suitable for the purpose in 1839. Herschel used glass plates as a transparent support for a 'negative' and he discovered that he could also make direct positives in the same way by treating the back of the glass with smoke or by placing the exposed glass plate on a black background.

Niepce's cousin, Claude Felix Abel Niepce de Saint Victor, continued the experiments on glass plates begun by Joseph. Eventually he succeeded, and in a paper presented to the French Academy of Sciences in 1847 his findings were made public. His discovery, after early failures with starch and gelatin bases, was that egg whites made an effective transparent coating for a glass plate when stabilised with a few drops of potassium iodide and salt. This coating once it had dried, was further prepared by dipping it in an acid solution of silver nitrate. After the image was exposed, the plate could be developed in gallic and pyrogallic acid. Abel Niepce de Saint-Victor's process was a significant step forward in that it produced a smooth grainless negative. But the process was still relatively slow, taking from five to fifteen minutes to complete an exposure. The slowness of the process did not however stop Talbot from patenting the glass albumen plate in England in 1849. The use of albumen (Niepce de Saint-Victor) and bichromated gelatine (Pretsch and Louis Alphonse Poitevin) soon proved to contain useful properties for other advances made in photolithography.

With the spread of photography, the search for a perfect means of photographic reproduction became very competitive. A profusion of new inventions poured forth. Contrary to the common idea that halftone photographic reproduction was entirely the province of the typographic printer, the earliest examples were all lithographic. Gernsheim has listed fifteen new photolithographic processes alone. Five of these were based upon Niepce's bitumen process. The remainder, were based on the discovery of the utility of bichromate of potash. 50 Michael Twyman. Early Lithographed Books: A Study of the Design and In Early Lithographed BooksSOTwyman observed that Production of Improper Books in the Age of the 'lithography was the first of the major printing processes to Hand Press. Farrand Press, London. 1990, be used successfully in conjunction with photography.' He see p. 18 for reference to similarities between books was, very likely, thinking of the first use of lithography to printed photographically and books printed from make printing available to the photographer without having lithographs with the aid of transfer paper. For to paste photographs into typographically printed books. The photolithography, see chapter 12, op. cit., first photolithographic plates removed the barrier between pp. 243-258, especially the first use of printed image and text and were accomplished 'in France by photographic reproduction. I Lemercier, Lerebours, Barreswil, and Davanne in the early 1850s.' In acknowledging these developments, the point is made that those following the path of chemical printing were more successful in their quest than were those who attempted to reach the same goal by the means of typographic printing.

In pointing to the connection between lithography and photography Twyman, in my opinion, confirms the inevitability by which lithographic processes led to solving the problem of reproducing photographs with printing ink on paper. There is certainly room for further research on this topic. Examples of early photolithography appear, seemingly without explanation, in various books on photography. Sobieszek and White in French Primitive Photography provide one such unexplained example - a halftone photolithograph (undated, but probably c1855) by Piallat depicting with great clarity a 'warehouse of agricultural implements'. It clearly shows the telltale signs of light falling away around the edges of the lensed image. The image is otherwise very clear and detailed. Who Piallat was is not explained, and it is quite likely that there are other exponents of photolithography whose work is unknown today to the general reader and the specialist alike.

In general, the preoccupation with photographs as a means of recording nature did to a large extent absorb the energies of most aspiring nineteenth century photographers. This understandable preoccupation with the recorded image has had a lasting effect upon the way in which photographic historians have interpreted the photographic record.

Because of this emphasis on the image rather than the process, there is good reason to draw attention to, and re-examine, some of the conflicting evidence recorded by photographic historians. Attention has been drawn to several instances of conflict that have not been pursued here because the resolution of these discrepancies lies outside the framework of this thesis. For example, different assessments of the importance of the discoveries made by Florence have been noted in passing. Conflicting accounts as to how much the Niepce brothers knew about the work of Wedgwood and Davy have been pointed out, and also, the degree of uncertainty about attribution of images made by members of the Niepce family has been shown to remain unresolved.

More important to this particular study however, is the incomplete record of the nature of the full range of experiments made, their sequence, and any related studies made by the Ni6pces which hampers our ability to assess fully their particular dependence on lithography in solving the problem of capturing images from nature.

This particular emphasis, however, overlooked a more utilitarian use for the new medium - the practical application of photography as an aid to line reproduction in illustration. In the next chapter the application of line photo-reproduction in the inventions of Edward lzaak Asser of Amsterdam, John Osborne, and his assistant Duncan McHutchinson at the Department of Lands and Survey in Melbourne, and Colonel James and Lieutenant A de Courcey Scott at the Ordinance Survey, Southampton is examined. The reproduction, by lithographic transfer processes, of humble line drawings permitting the reduction and enlargement of artwork introduced a new tool with incalculable effect for the future of graphic communication.

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Chapter 7 John Qsborne and the Invention of Photolithography

1. Michael Twyman. Early 'Lithography was the first of the major printing processes Lithographed Books. Farrand 1990. p. 243. to be used successfully in conjunction with photography. The first photo-lithographic methods are generally held to have been those developed in France by Lemercier, Lerebours, Barreswil, and Davanne in the early 1850's. ' -Michael Twymanl.

Introduction In 1852 a Parisian lithographer Lemercier, with two chemists, Barreswil and Davanne, and an optician, Lerebours, developed a version of the bitumen of Judea process devised by Nicephore Niepce to make his Heliographs, Their process was the first successful method of obtaining half-tone photographic reproductions from a lithographic stone.

On the 20th June of that year they submitted a description of their invention to the Academy of Sciences at Paris. Two years later, Lemercier went further and published a set of six halftone prints under the title Lithophotographie. A full set of these prints was given to the Paris Academy of Sciences2 (9 January, 1854) as a further proof that practical 2. Hank Ebberling, The Australasian Printer, photo-lithography had been achieved. August issue, vol. 23, no. 8. Thomson publications, However, the success of their method was limited. Chippendale, New South Wales, 1972. Lemercier soon abandoned it because only a few copies pp. 22 - 23. could be reliably made and after 1860 he adopted Alphonse Poitevin's process in preference to the method he and his associates had patented.

Alphonse Poitevin's discovery, (which followed on the heels of Talbot's work and was patented by Poi,tevin in 1855), was that the light sensitive properties of bichromated gelatine could be applied as a coating to a lithographic stone where it supplied additional properties of repelling water and retaining ink. Poitevin also found that a fine random grain or pattern of dots is formed in the exposed gelatine surface which produces a continuous tone when inked and printed from. Poitevin was awarded the Duc de Luynens prize for 3. The quality of Poitevin's reproduced this promising advance. images were very good. A glance at his photolithographs 'Picture of a Woman' Poitevin took out both English and French patents for his (1855) and 'Memoirs of a Madman' (1856) process. Relying on the antipathy of lithographic ink to will confirm the success of his moisture, his process was capable of being used on a technical achievement. Both are reproduced in variety of substrates, (Wood, stone, metal and glass were Bede Morris' Images: lllusion and Reality. mentioned by him), The method he favoured, however, was Canberra, 1986, on pages 87 and 85 the exposure of photographic negatives directly on to the respectively. photosensitised stone. Better results were got by a follower, F. Joubert, from a variation of Poitevin's process. Joubert's print was reproduced in The Photographic Journal in June fig. 29 above, Alphonse 1860 in an edition of 2000 copies. Poitevin. 'Memoirs of a Madman' Photolithograph. Poitevin's ability to reproduce reliable photographically print- ed images in quantity remained, like those printed by the fig. 30 above right, Alphonse Poitevin, 'Picture Lemercier partnership's method, limited in scope.3 of a Woman' Photolithograph. (See fig. 29 and fig. 30). A less glamourous, but very useful form of photolithography was a method of reproducing line illustrations in book and map printing. This form of photolithography was first made workable in commercial quantities by John Walter Osborne and his assistant Duncan McHutchinson while working in 4. In contrast with the Department of Lands and Survey in Melbourne4. In Osborne's 200 to 3000 copies, Poitevin England an almost identical process was invented by 'could only obtain 300 copies and Lemercier, Colonel Sir Henry James and Capt. de Courcey Scott at the after purchasing Poitevin's patent Ordinance Survey Office at Southampton. A third method, rights. was only able to successfully reproduce predating both of these, was invented in Amsterdam by 700 copies by Poitevin's method. Isaac Asser in 1857. The question as to who was first to accomplish this advance has been revisited many times by various authors: Hank Ebberling, A. S. Kenyon, and Bruce Tory in Australia; Helmut Gernsheim, Ian Mumford, David Woodward and Elizabeth Harris, and Michael Twyman internationally, without any of them arriving at a clear 5. Hank Ebberling, op. conclusion5. It is one of the aims of this chapter to clearly sit.. and Ian Mumford. 'Lithography. show how Asser, Osborne and James contributed to the Photography and Photozincography in process and what credit should be apportioned to each. English Map Production before 1870'. Cartographic Journal, vol. 9. no. 1, The background to Osborne's invention June issue. 1972, pp. 30-36. Cf. A. S. The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 led to a host of Kenyon. Victorian Historical Magazine, new settlers arriving in the newly created colony of Victoria. 1926 - 27, pp. 176-7; Helmut Gernsheim, The By the mid-50s the authorities could not keep up with the History of Photography, p.546; demand for surveyed land, nor with the printed maps Michael Twyman. Early Lithographed Books, required for land sales when subdivisions were announced. Farrand. London, 1990. pp. 246-7 and; Engravers and lithographers were stretched to the limit and Bruce Tory, Photolithography. the crisis had administrative consequences that were Associated General Publications and instrumental in making Osborne's invention a priority. Graphic Arts Monthly, Sydney/Chicago, 1953. p. 1.;Elizabeth M. In 1858, at the height of these difficulties. Charles Wybrow Harris. 'Miscellaneous Map Printing Ligar was appointed Surveyor General of Victoria. Ligar was Processes in the 19th Century' in David born in Ceylon, He was a graduate of the Royal Military Woodward (editor). Arthur Robinson and Academy, Sandhurst, and had until 1840, advanced his career Elizabeth M. Harris, Five Centuries of Map with the British Ordinance Survey of Ireland. Appointed Printing, University of Chicago Press. Surveyor General of New Zealand in 1841, Ligar's controver- Chicago 1975, pp. 134-5. sial career in that colony was soon repeated in Victoria, where mistrust and complaint plagued him and his administration. Within a short time of his appointment Ligar introduced a new method of geodetic survey in place of the older methods of trigonornetrical and magnetic survey. His

6. Charles W. Ligar. 'Report on the General Survey of Victoria" promised the 'Report on the General Survey of Victoria', advantages this method had brought to unsurveyed NQ 38, Votes and Proceedings of the countries like Algeria, Canada, and the United States, where Legislative Assembly. Victoria, 1859-60. its "necessary precision, rapidity and cheapness" was pp. 1-7. proven invaluable7. 7. ibid, Ligar quoting W. M. Gillespie, Professor of Engineering, Union Ligar's survey method overlaid existing survey points. These College. U.S.A.. p. 4. had been established, he said, at great cost and were characterised by serious delay while tree clearing on mountain tops was proceeded with to obtain clear lines of sight. Ligar introduced a geodetic grid approximately six

miles square, composed of subdivisions of the meridians of I fig. 31 below, Map 'Colony of Victoria' overlaid with longitude and latitude. (see figs. 31 and 32). the grid lines of C. W. Ligar's proposed geodetic survey. The rapid completion of this survey work, and the plan of

s:~:~= putting up for sale parcels of land to settlers, necessitated

SUBDIVISIO~ streamlining the map making process within the Survey a&, ..fv a-LN.l,.W Department. Ligar, imaginatively and decisively, requested from Dr George NeurnayerS that Osborne be transferred to a newly created position of Photo-lithographer within the Lands and Survey Branch. (This was done before any work on Osborne's invention had been carried out).

Ligar's geodetic survey plan wasn't liked. His methods were : resisted. Mr Mollison MLA raised a Notice of Motion in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday 26 January 1860, asking the Government :

1. What is the value, under the present circumstances of the colony, of the proposed system, as compared with I the mode of survey hitherto adopted, viz:- that by triangulation? 2. Whether the meridians and parallels, so called, can be laid off with sufficient accuracy, at any moderate cost, in a country possessing rugged features? 3. Whether, taking into account that trigonometrical stations have been already established for a complete 1 I flg. 32 above, grid lines of survey on that method, that anything is gained in C. W. Ligar's proposed cheapness, rapidity, and accuracy of survey by the geodetic survey,from proposed system of meridian lines? 'Report on the General Survey of Victoria' I LAV&P, NQ38, 1859-60. On 9 February 1860 Mollison continued his harassment of 8. Neumeyer's biography the Surveyor General. He asked the House: , is found in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 5. That an address be presented to the Governor... to obtain [from] 1851-1890. the principle officers of the Ordinance Survey, or of any other com- pp. 375-6. Osborne, petent scientific persons at home,g [their opinion] on the proposed Magnetic Survey Department was Geodetic Survey. transferred without difficulty, because, as accurate astronomical Still not satisfied, on 23 February, Mollison pressed his observations were needed for survey attack again, demanding that the Government consult - I work, the Melbourne observatory operated at that time under the ... the Heads of the Survey Departments of France, Russia, and direction of the the United States of America on the proposed Geodetic Survey. Surveyor General.

9. England. But Ligar had already acted. His policy was being I implemented, and Photolithography was the means by which

he proposed to print his sale plans and survey maps. I Osborne's invention and patent had become key elements , 10 James Service. Victorian in Ligar's strategy. Mollison's attack in the Legislative politician. (1823-1899). Australian Dictionary of Assembly, however, added to widespread pressure for an Biography vol. 6, pp. 106-112. inquiry. Spurred on by Thomas Ham's letter to James

11 Joseph Pittman. 'Report Service,lo and Joseph Pittman's report (1860)11 claiming on the contemplated removal of The Printing that large savings could be made by placing all of the and Engraving Branch of the Geological Survey lithographic printing departments together under the control Maps &c and also on . the advisability of of the Government Printer, John Ferres, the inquiry into organising A Central Engraving and photolithograpy and Osborne's patent got under way on 10 Lithographic Branch in connection with the August 1860, almost a year to the day after his discovery Government Printer as recommended by The Civil had been made. While the inquiry's proceedings were Service Commission 1859.' 1860. VPRS acrimonious, the outcome was decisively in favour of 1189/P, unit 758 file 60/N4652. Osborne and Ligar.

12. Jean Gittens. 'John Walter Osborne' ADB. VOI. 5. pp. 375-6. Osborne was born in Ireland on 28 February 1828, He

13. A. S. Kenyon. arrived in Melbourne in December 1852. On 1 March 1958 'Photolithograpy, a Victorian Invention', he joined the Magnetic Survey Department on a salary of Victorian Historical Magazine. vol. xi. NQ 3, £180 per annum. A year later, on 1 March 1859 Osborne March 1927, p. 176. wrote that Osborne was transferred to the Department of Lands and Survey as 'was called in by C. W. Ligar... and asked why a 'Photolithographer' with an increased annual salary of he could not print directly upon the £300.12 His efforts in this direction were greatly lithographic stone a negative he had encouraged by the urging' of the Surveyor General.13 supplied in the usual course of his duty. Osborne explained why Various dates have been supplied as to when he started the negative form would not suit, but promised to this work. By one account: 'On 1August, [I8591 Osborne experiment along the lines desired by Mr Ligar.' had begun to investigate the problem of transferring plans 14 Gittens, ADB op, cit.. from a photographic negative directly onto lithographic 376. Cf. - Legislative Assembly. Victoria. Votes stone'14. In the minutes of evidence given before the inquiry and Proceedings, Victoria, 1860-61, 'Photo- into his invention he said that he began work on the idea on Lithography Report of the board appointed by the the 8 August 1859,15 It has been asserted by TolmanI6that Hon. The President of the Board of Land and on 8 August Osborne used Poitevin's method in this first Works...', (Report 11) : The first step in this unsuccessful attempt to reproduce a photolithographic direction having been taken on Saturday 6 image. In the letter Osborne wrote to Professor G. Brown August 1859 and work on a solution commencing Goode (8 June, 1888) at the Smithsonian Institution on the following Monday' p. 61. Osborne stated 'On.. . 119 August 18591 ... despite Mr. 15. LAV&P Victoria. op. cit. Ligar's objection to stone as a crude material, I invented 'Photo-Lithography Report NQll),p.1. the photo-lithographic process which since then has been 16. Ruel Pardee Tolman. known by my name. (By which he meant the invention of (reprint) Cowans. The Paper. Printing, Stationery photolithographic transfer paper). and Allied Trades of Australasia. vol. xi NQ 42. On 31August he successfully made a photo-lithographic April 1926. pp. 12-13. (from an article by print of a parish plan.17 Such was the success of his idea Tolman. Assistant Curator in charge, Division of that within 26 days of his first attempt, the Department of Graphic Arts. U. S. National Museum. Lands and Survey were able to publish a map by his Washington, DC). Cf- Kenyon, Victorian meth~d.'~On the 1st September 1859 Osborne patented Historical Magazine. 1926 - 27. p. 177, who wrote his photo-lithographic transfer process and on 3 September 'This was about the 7th of August. 1859. By the the first photolithographic map for public sale was 19th, he had produced his first photographically published by the Department of Lands and Survey. On 30 produced litho.' Gittens, op. cit., wrote: 'On 25 November he read a paper describing his claims of August he arrived at a solution to the problem.' successfully developing a workable photo-lithographic Cf. LAV&P Victoria, op. cit. 'Photo-Lithography process capable of delivering 2000 to 3000 impressionsig, Report NQ11).p.3. In his reply to the question to the Philosophical Institute of Melbourne. 'What was the date of your obtaining your first result with the transfer paper?' Osborne replied 'The The substance of Osborne's claim 19th of August, 1859.' Some convincing evidence supports Osborne's claim of 17. Harris, in Woodward. op. cit.. pl. 5.10. Hand precedence over the claims made by Sir Henry James. The written notes by Osborne now in the Smithsonian first is a letter Osborne sent to a friend in Ireland, to which Institution on two samples of Photo-lithographic map he referred during the Photolithographic Inquiry into his printing headed 'Parish of' in reverse (wrong reading) invention. Asked 'When did you first begin? Osborne replied states 'Experiment 40. August 31. Specimens of 'In August, 1859.' This exchange continued: 'So that in the prints the transfer of which was wiped off with a month of October, 1859, the process was in full operation?' sponge. These specimens may be regarded as the - 'Yes; on the 3rd September, the first sale plan was pub- first really good photo- lithographs' (Osborne's lished.' Asked when 'did you send any account of your underlining). success to England?' Osborne answered 'The first was sent 18. Kenyon, op. cit., p. 177, stated that Osborne's by the September mail, which left on the 17th.' - 'To whom photolithographic plans were ready 'on the 3rd of was it addressed?' - 'To Mr. William Dowden, of Cork; it September, just four weeks [later, being] plans was a private communication.' - 'Would he have been like- of country lots, parishes of Mandurang and ly to have communicated the result of your discovery to any- Ravenswood. [and] were published and sold to the body?' Osborne replied 'I fear he may have done so, for this public at 1s. each.' This is based upon Osborne's reason-he instantly wrote to me, stating that my process evidence before the inquiry into his invention was anticipated, and therefore was not capable of being where he said: 'the first sale plan was published' patented; thereby removing from his mind the impression on 3 September, (LAV&P. 'Photo-Lithography Report' that there was any further necessity for secrecy. In this he P 2). made a fatal mistake' When asked 'When did you patent 19. Harris, in Woodward, op. cit. This figure was revised your process? he answered 'On the 1st September, 1859.' downwards to 1000 impressions by Osborne and reported by Tolman in Further noteworthy evidence of the practicality of Osborne's his Cowans article in 1926. This remains, how invention is the collection of experiments now in the ever more than the numbers of impressions Smithsonian Institution, Washington, in which a photo- obtained by either Poitevin (200) or Lernercier (700) lithographic print of a parish plan dated 31August 1859 is and the image was more resistant to wear than it preserved.20Thirdly are the published maps that have was in either of their processes. survived: a photolithographic map of the 'Parishes of

20. Ibid, pl. 5. 10. Ravenswood and Mandurang', (fig. 33), dated 3 September

21. The maps referred to are 1859 being the oldest, was included with his report to the contained in volumes 1, 3, 5. 6 and 9; a loose-leaf Philosophical Institute in November. Others are preserved in collection of maps in deposited with the volumes of maps belonging to the Department of Land and library by the Department of Lands and Survey. Survey now in the State Library of Victoria's map roomz1. The earliest maps in the State Library of Victoria photo- lithographed by Osborne bearing a date is 'Country Lots, Parishes of Balliang and Mouyong, County of Grant, 59/346 (51), Photo-Lithographed by J. W. Osborne at the Crown Lands Office, 31st Decr 1859', (in vol. 1). The other maps photolithographed before 14 February 1860 are shown in fig. 34.

Further photo-lithographic images that demonstrates Osborne's claim to having invented an efficient working pho- tolithographic process are found in the Victorian Legislative Council Votes and Proceedings for 1859-60. Three charts prepared and printed photo-lithographically by Osborne prior to 14 February 1860 were included in a report to the parliament 'Results of the Magnetical, Nautical and Meteorological Observations made and collected at the Flagstaff Observatory Melbourne'. They are dated thus:- 'Mean Direction of the Wind, March 1858 - August 1858', printed photolithographically by J. W. Osborne at the Crown Lands Office Melbourne on 5 February 1860 and two fur- fig. 33 Map of the 'Parishes of Ravenswood and ther maps 'Mean Direction of the Wind, September 1858 - Mandurang' February 1859', are labelled and dated 8 and 9 February 22. Victorian Parliamentary Papers: Victorian 1860.22(See fig. 35). Legislative Council Votes and Proceedings 1859-60. vol. 3.. It may be wondered why it is thought necessary to publication no. 32. - 'Results of the Magnetical. encumber the reader with such detailed evidence. The reason Nautical, and Meteorological is a simple one. Many writers have concluded that Osborne's Observations Made and Collected at the Flagstaff invention was just another process, not a significant advance. Observatory, Melbourne, and at various stations in the colony of Victoria.' In addition to 'Mean The circumstances in which Osborne found himself were Direction of the Wind. September 1858 - unenviable. While Sir Henry James and his team presented February 1859' it includes photolithographed charts a united front, the issuing of a patent to Osborne, as a of 'Temperature of the Air from the month of March Government employee, had sparked objections and 1858 to March 1859.' photolithographed 16th. acrimony in Melbourne. November, 1860. 'Atmospheric Pressure' and 'Wind Roses'. Under examination, Osborne accepted Sir Henry James' claims of independent invention. James, from Osborne's point of view, was his supporter. Osborne emphasised that technically both processes relied upon the indirect transfer of

FIG. 34. PHOTOUTHOGRAPHIC MAPS ISSUED BY OSBORNE BEFORE 14 FEBRUARY 1860

1. County Lands, Parishes of Yarranye & Salisbury Photo-lith. by J. W,Osborne, Octr. 17th/59.

2. 'Country Lands, Parish of Macarthur. County of Normanby. 59/413 (1561) Surveyed by Lindsay Clarke and Photo-Lithographed by J. W. Osborne at the Crown Lands Office. January 30th 1860' (vol6)

3. 'Country Lands, Parishes of Nattyallock. Rathscar & Moyreisk, from seven to eleven miles north of the township of Avoca. 60/438 (830), Photo-Lithographed by J. W. Osborne at the Department of Lands and Survey Melbourne, 8th Feb 1860' (vol3)

4. 'Country Lots. Parish of Fingal, County of Mornington, 59/288 (1290). Drawn at the Crown lands Office Novr 14th,1859, Photo-Lithographed by J. W. Osborne at the Department of Lands and Survey Melbourne, 8th Feb 1860' (vol5)

5. 'Country Lands. Parish of Branxholme, County of Normanby, 59/413 (1561) Surveyed by Lindsay Clarke and Photo-Lithographed by J. W. Osborne at the Crown Lands Office, Feb. 10th 1860' (vol 6)

6. 'Clarke's Special Survey, Suburban and Country Lands, Parishes of Kerrie and Gisborn(e), County of Bourke. [proclamation] 17/60 (-) Surveyed by T. Nixon Assistant Surveyor. Photo-Lithographed by J. W. Osborne February 13th 1860' (vo1.9)

the photographic image. Their innovation, photolithographic ! transfer paper, was the correct method and they only differed in the details. He emphasised these similarities to distinguish his process from the less useful, but tempting, method of direct transfer which Poitevin had relied on, and which process I the engraver Thomas Ham had accused Osborne of copying, or of combining with Asser's method, and dishonestly claiming that his patented process was original. 15 'Photolithographed charts of 'Temperature of the Air from the month of March 1858 to March 1859.' Photolithograph. John Osborne.

Letter to Varian from James at the Ordinance Survey Office. Southampton. dated 22 August 1860 in which he writes 'I have received the specimens of photo- For Osborne there were other difficulties too: details of Sir lithography, which you referred to in your last Henry James' method were sketchy, and Osborne had relied note ...' suggests that they corresponded at some upon a letter from his brother-in-law for information. (It has length, (LAV&P, 'Photo- Lithography Report' p. 68). not been established why Osborne's brother-in-law, lssac

Ibid, pp. 46-7. In S. Varian, was in communication with James). James' letter evidence, the originality of Osborne's patent was to Varian tabled at the Inquiry, strongly reinforced the claims disparaged by Melbourne photographer G. W. Perry made by the Ordinance Survey Department at Southampton who had written in a letter to the Melbourne Argus on in Scott's report.23There was also the fear that details of 7 August. 1859. attacking Osborne's application on his invention had become public knowledge. What the the grounds that it was not substantially new. consequences of this fear were remains unclear.z4Osborne Perry also claimed to have successfully made stated that he did not think that James had any prior photolithographs after reading of Asser's process knowledge of what he, Osborne, had done, but his answer in Sutton's Photographic Notes. was equivocal: 'I think not; but I could not say that.' In Sir Henry James' report for 1859 he claimed to have discovered the secret of photozincography in the winter of 1859. This places his first experiments in December, 1859, four months after Osborne's patent was lodged. James wrote that while holidaying on the Isle of Wight he was asked to suggest an inexpensive means of copying and printing some etchings. On returning to Southampton the next day he 'had the chromocarbon print taken [from an etching he had brought back with him] and transferred to zinc the same day and that this was the first Photo- zincograph ever taken here or elsewhere.'

After this, a 'small deed of the time of Edward I.' was copied and bound into his 'Report for the year of 1859' and in a

footnote it is recorded that this 'specimen is dated 14th I February, 1860.' (Cf. fig. 38, p. 194). This clearly supports Osborne's claim of precedence by 'six months' and it confirms that Osborne's process was in regular practical use in Melbourne before James' first plate was published.

25. Ibid. p. 75, received after In the appendix to the 'Photo-Lithography ReportIz5are two the inquiry, but appended to the report before letters. The first, from Sir Henry James (23 November publication. 1860) to Osborne in which he wrote... 'The process which i you have invented appears in every essential point to be identical to that invented by us, and which is described in my report to Parliament for last year.' and '...There can be no doubt of the great value of this invention, especially for the purpose of reducing and transferring plans to stone, zinc and copper.' After drawing attention to some of the work that they had printed by their method of photo- zincography, James concluded: 'I shall be very glad to hear I that you have received some reward for this discovery, for ! although it is the same as ours, it was made independently of ours.'

From these remarks it becomes clear that James was not being candid, claiming precedence because of the difference of printing from a zinc plate, whilst also implying that his process was operational in 1859 by attaching his first published print to his 1859 report issued in February 1860 as proof.

All of this would be harmless enough excepting that, after his report was published, he was asked by an unnamed representative of Osborne's, from Melbourne, whether Osborne should take out 'a patent for a process which he called Photolithography.' James produced his report containing the sample deed and asked whether Osborne's process 'differed from ours?' Osborne's representative, convinced that the two processes were the same, was then told by James that 'it was useless for him to attempt to take out a patent, as my printed report had been every-

26. Captain A. De C. Scott. where circ~lated.~~This statement does not agree with R. E.. Report ON THE PHOTC-ZINCOGRAPHICAND Osborne's answer made under oath in Melbourne in August ANALOGOUS PROCESSES 1860 that when he sent his first report to William Dowden PRACTICED AT THE ORDINANCE SURVEY Omc~, SOUTHAMPTON, London, of Cork on 17 September 1859, Dowden immediately 1863, in James' preface, p. v. replied that Osborne's process 'was anticipated and there- fore not capable of being patented.'

In addition to this inconsistency, James argued that photolithographic printing on zinc was valid grounds for asserting that he had invented the process first. In his letter to Osborne, in 1860, he reversed this argument by implying that there was essentially no difference between the two processes because it was 'in every essential point... identical to that invented by us.'

At Southampton, they had made prints from De Courcey Scott's experiments into Pouncy's chromocarbon process, and they had become aware of Asser's invention of photolithography in ~msterdam,then, 'in the winter' James suddenly hit upon his photolithographic transfer paper idea.

There are grounds, but no proof, for the suspicion that

James' development of Photozincography may have . benefited from some inkling of Osborne's discoveries. Standing against this argument is the suggestion by James, De Courcey Scott and the staff of the Ordinance Survey Office that Osborne's Melbourne invention was no more than an interesting coincidence. In Victoria, British position was spelt out in the Photo-Lithographic Report: 'It is noted by the Board that the Governor of the Colony had received a dispatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies conveying the happy news that James conceded to Osborne the 'originality' his discovery in the Australian colonies' and no more.27 27. LAV&P Victoria, 'Photo- Lithography Report' James' letter to Osborne p. 75 Cf. Kenyon, Sir Henry James's report and subsequent accounts op. cit.. p. 177. The publication of Sir Henry James' and de Courcey Scott's report of their 'independent' invention of Photozincography at the Ordinance Survey Office, Southampton, has generated further versions, published on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia, which compound the suggestion that recognition is due more to James than to Osborne. Such an account of James' discovery first appeared in the American Art Printer and was reprinted in 1893 in the

28. The British Lithographer. British Lith~grapher.~~Clearly based on James' report of his October-November, 1893. p. 9. discovery it is instructive to reprint it here:

The Discovery of Zinc Etching But few of the readers of this journal know that photo-zinc etching and photo-lithography, in so very many ways the same thing, were invented by two different men at about the same time, the one being in England and the other nearly on the opposite side of the globe, in Melbourne Australia. It was in the year 1859 that Mr. Osborn, [sic] of the Survey Department of Australia, sent a young man to England to confer with Sir Henry James about the new Australian method of reproducing and making printing plates for publication. Sir Henry James was surprised that the method was so very much like his own invention, which he made-nearly-by accident, and he showed the young man some very good prints, and told him the story of how he came to invent this great medium of modern reproduction.

According to a book on zinc etching, published in 1862, by A. D. C. Scott, Sir Henry James was visiting friends at Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, and made the acquaintance of a young lady artist who had great skill and talent in copper etching. She mentioned to Sir Henry James that it would be of great advantage to the public if there could be a way of producing art subjects in a cheaper manner than that of copper etching or steel engraving. The idea aroused in Sir Henry James the desire of finding some means of duplicating the etching made originally by the artist, so that the prints might be obtained in quantity. After trying several methods of fixing a picture on a metal plate he tried to make a print on chrome , which process was used at that time (1859) in photography. He prepared the paper, printed a picture on it, then inked it in and developed it, and obtained a very nice copy which he transferred to a sheet of zinc. he further prepared and etched it, and his pleasure knew no bounds at the satisfactory results he attained in etching his plate deep enough to print many thousand copies from it. He began to improve his method day by day, and in a short time he found himself overworked on reproducing old manuscripts and masterpieces of ancient art. Handwriting of Edward 1. and the great Doomsday book, writ- ten in 1066, at Winchester, were among the first great works of reproduction by his invention. Day after day new treasures of art of long-forgotten masters, authors, and celebrates, came to light and brought refinement and education to mankind.- American Art Printer.

It is abundantly clear from this account, From James' and Scott's original report, reprinted in 1863, and from Mumford's paper also, that James, De Courcey Scott, and Rider, were at first clearly following a method similar to that originally pioneered by Mungo Ponton (Scotland, 1839) and developed further in France by Edmond Becquerel (1840) and Poitevin (1855), before it was first used successfully in England by Pouncy to print half-tones in 1858.

In A World History of Photography, Naomi Rosenblum describes Pouncy's process as being a:

... carbon process, based on researches into the light sensitivi- ty of dichromate (then called bi-chromate) [as used] ... and in England by John Pouncy in 1858, substituted chromated gela- tine mixed with pigment for silver salts as a light sensitive agent for positive prints. When exposed against a negative, a sheet of paper coated with a mixture of gelatin, coloring matter -which initially was carbon black, hence the name- and potassium dichromate received the image in proportion to the amount of light passing through the negative; where thin, the gelatin hardened, where dense -the light areas of the scene- it remained soluble and was washed away with warm water after exposure. In its early applications, the light areas in the carbon print tended to become completely washed out, but this problem was solved in 1864 when British inventor Joseph 29. Naomi Rosenblum. A Wilson Swan discovered that by using carbon tissue coated World History of with pigmented gelatin in conjunction with a transfer tissue of Photography, Abbyville. New York, 1984. p 197. clear gelatin, the lightest tonalities were retained. -29 This is of course, a half tone printing process and not at all similar to the method devised by Osborne or claimed as an I! original breakthrough by James. I

I! It seems that James may have had a limited grasp of the i processes his department was experimenting with. Michael I Twyman's has remarked that James' contribution to the I development of photozincography was not so much as an innovator but as an entrepreneur. From a technical point of ! view Asser, in this scenario, is supposed to have provided i the breakthrough, with some credit due to de Courcey James wrote that De Courcey Scott 'adopted 30. Twyman, Early Lithographed Books, Pouncy's method with some success,' and he added that Farrand, London, 1990, p. 246, based the publication of Asser's method became the basis of upon Sir Henry James' Preface to Scott's Report. Scott's work, yet, when he came to describe his invention of photozincography, he was imprecise, stating only that he 'made a chromocarbon print and transferred it to zinc.'3' 31. Ibid, Scott's Report.

A recent (1990) description of the process developed by James and de Courcey Scott is provided in Twyman's Early Lithographed Books: A Study of the Design and Production of Improper Books in the Age of the Hand Press from which this extract is drawn:

'The process Photozincography as used at Southampton was as follows. A sheet of paper coated with a solution of gelatine and bicarbonate of potash was exposed to light through a neg- ative of the image to be reproduced. The paper was then placed face down on to the zinc plate that had been covered all over with a thin coating of lithographic ink and varnish, and both were then pulled through the press together so that a film of ink was deposited all over the paper.

The ink was later removed from the unexposed parts of the paper by immersing it in a bath of warm water for five minutes and gently rubbing its surface with a sponge dipped in gum water. When the sheet was free from unwanted ink and gum, the paper was placed face down on to a zinc plate or stone 32. Twyrnan. Early and the image transferred in the normal manner.' 32 Lithographed Books, op cit. p. 244. Source: Scott. Report On the Photo- incographic and Analogous The process described here of a photolithographic transfer Processes practiced at the Ordinance Survey Office, is very like that devised by Osborne. Unlike Osborne, Southampton. London, 1863 however, James acknowledged Asser's transfer method, which employed a wheatmeal paste impregnated with bichromate of potash. This cannot be reconciled with Osborne's assertion that James had prepared his photo- lithographic transfer paper with 'gum arabic and bichromate 33. Ibid, Twyman. p. 244, mentions bichromate of of potash only.'33 potash alone in connection with Asser, however W. E. Soderstrom, . in Charles Shapiro (ed.) The effect of James' report is misleading. It casts a shadow The Lithographer's Manual, 5th edition. The that is reinforced by Twyman who writes that 'Shortly after Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, Inc., Asser discovered his process, a modification of it was Pitsburgh, 1974. p. 1.7. clarifies this point, writing successfully used by Sir Henry James and his staff at the , that Edmond Becquerel 'established that it was Ordinance Survey Office, Southampton... [and that] ...very not the bichromate of potash as such which was similar methods were being developed by J. W. Osborne at very light sensitive, but that the size in the paper the Survey Department in Melbourne at much the same (starch, which) greatly increased the light time.'= This biased colouration is reinforced by W. E. sensitivity' in 1840. Soderstrom, (The Lithographer's Manual, 1974),35and at its 34. Twyman, Early Lithographed Books, op extreme by Bruce Tory in Australia (Photolithography, 1953) cit. p. 244, 246. who wrote unequivocally that 'James produced the first 35. W. E. Soderstrom, op. cit.. The Lithographer's Photo-litho transfer' in 1859.36 Manual, p. 1.7,

36. Bruce Tory, Others too, like Helmut Gernsheim in The History of Photolithography, I Associated General Ph~tography,~~suggest that Osborne had 'introduced a Publications, Sydney. & Graphic Arts Monthly, modification of E. I. Asser's transfer process.' In saying Chicago. 1953. p. 1. mentions NiBpce, Scott so Gernsheim gives the impression, perhaps ! Archer, Talbot, Berchtold. Barnett. Egloffstein. Swan unintentionally, that Osborne's invention was based and the Jaff6 brothers but , makes no mention of directly upon Asser's work. either Asser or Osborne.

37. Helmut Gernsheim. The History of Photography Gernsheim appears to have made some assumptions in 1685-1914: p. 546. grouping together the common features to all three process- es. Namely: the invention of photolithographic transfer paper of some kind, the use of bichromated potassium (a matter of dispute in Asser's case), and a common method of passing prepared paper at various stages through a 38. LAV&P, 'Photo-Lithography Report' James' letter to copperplate press. Osborne p. 68.

39. John Walter Osborne. 'On Osborne denied any knowledge Asser's process before a New Photo-lithographic I Process,' Transactions of February, 1860.38This denial appears to be true. The paper the Philosophical Institute of Victoria. Melbourne that he read to the Philosophical Society on 30 November 1859. pp. 4-15, including fold-out map of the 185939made no mention of Asser, yet Osborne referred to Parishes of Ravenswood and Mandurang. Victorian a number of others who had experimented with , vol. 29. photolithography, namely: Larnercier [sic] (1853), 40. Ibid. Lemercier and Joubert. Macpherson, Poitevin (1856), Pouncy, G. W. Newton (1858), and Jobart [sic] (1859).40

Gernsheim fails to show how Osborne's invention was

41. Mumford adds that Scott directly derived of Asser's process while Mumford's and Rider experimented with the photolithographic reference to Scott's knowledge of Asser's process relies idea of chromocarbon printing used by John upon the brief reference to Asser's process made by James Pouncy in the plates of Dorsetshire in the preface to Scott's Report.41 Photographically Illustrated (1857). To add further uncertainty Bruce Bernardd2 states that the 42. Bruce Bernard, The Sunday Times Book of photolithographic transfer paper methods devised at Photodiscovery: A century of extraordinary Southampton and Melbourne were simple adaptations of images 1840-1940. Thames & Hudson. Poitevin's process. While his remarks are not without some London. 1980, p. 258. chemical foundation, the simple trap he sets for the unsuspecting reader should be disarmed. The ingredients used by Osborne and James were commonly used by many photographers, and therefore, like Poitevin, each inventor used them, but differed in the combination, refinement, and quantities used, for each method. Asser, with conspicuous originality, appears to have used different ingredients to Poitevin, Osborne and James, but did, in common with the latter two, developed an indirect photolithographic transfer. (Poitevin used a direct transfer method). Asser inked in his transfer, after exposure, by hand instead of by passing it through a copperplate press. Osborne and James used the latter to apply the ink evenly before exposure and washing off the dry unexposed background after exposure with hot water.

Osborne's counter-claims however, have found some sup port in America. Ruel Pardee Tolman (in an article reprinted in the Melbourne trade journal Cowans, April, 1926) assert- ed that Osborne's process was implemented well before the English version of the process was perfected at Southampton. I The photo-lithographic process developed by Mr. Osborne and Mr. McHutchinson in Melbourne in August, 1859, was the first commercially successful process to be invented. A very few months later a similar process was the result of the investiga- tions of Colonel Sir Henry James, of the Ordinance Survey Office, Southampton, England. -Cowans 43 43. Tolrnan, op. cit.. pp. 12-13.

Tolman's account of Osborne's invention is consistent with the evidence.

The three photolithographic transfer processes compared Asser's transfer may or may not have contained some bichromated potash. Later accounts of his process, reported by August Albert (1908) and Karl Albert (1927), say that gelatine and a chromate bath were used. Ebbeling's translation of Asser's 1857 recipe, however, suggests otherwise. In Asser's process the photosensitive agent appears to have been starch (wheatmeal paste), a property of starch discovered by Edmond Becquerel (1840), and acid in the form of carbonate of soda acting on this paste when the treated paper was exposed to light.

In all three processes (Asser's, Osborne's and James') I exposure of the transfer was by sunlight passing through a negative placed in a frame to make a , (analogous to making a photogram or an a blueprint). In all

three photolithographic transfer processes, various coatings ; applied to the paper were passed through a copperplate

press (under the weight of a cylinder to smooth the surface I of the paper). In both Asser's and James' methods the removal of bubbles of air is mentioned as an important part of the preparation process.

Asser's process The use of lithographic transfer ink on chemically prepared paper by Asser at Amsterdam in 1859 was clearly a significant step forward and while it exhibited some similarities to the processes later invented by Osborne and James, his invention must be set aside from the argument until its connection with the work of James or Osborne is I clearly established. Ebberling44(1972) became interested in exploring the 44. Ebberling. op. cit., provides a translation of claims made for Osborne by Kenyon and others. He visited Asser's recipe from Gesamtgebiet des Holland and France and wrote a curiously inconclusive Steindrucks oder voll stdndige theoretisch- article published in The Australasian Printer entitled Photo- praktische Answeisung zur AusObung der lithography, an Australian Invention. His article lost direction Lithographie in ihrem gansen Umfange und when he encountered the earliest contribution to photo- auf ihrem ietzigen lithography made by Lemercier, Barreswil, Davanne, and Lerebours, a discovery for which he seems to have been unprepared. Nevertheless Ebberling provides significant details about the process patented by Asser.

Asser prepared a paste which was poured into a flat bottomed dish. Into this, a good quality rag paper was pressed face down onto the paste to prevent air bubbles forming. Next, when the coated paper was dry, the paper was photosensitised under darkroom conditions with 'a strong solution of carbonate of soda [which was] poured onto the uncovered side' of the paper. The photosensitivity prepared paper was then left until the carbonate of soda had soaked into it and Asser cautioned that 'Additional pourings may be necessary.'

When this step was completed the paper was hung out in i the darkroom to dry. Asser's third step, also carried out by Osborne in his method, was to pass the prepared

photosensitive paper face up through a lithographic press to 'even out the surface,' a step carried out in darkness.

Asser's patent suggests that his method was not entirely satisfactory as a practical commercial proposition. The

difficulty of preventing air bubbles, the different properties I of wheatmeal starch in Asser's process compared with the more sophisticated combination of gelatine, bichromate of potash, and albumen in Osborne's, and the need for additional pourings of the carbonate of soda solution, I together with Asser's procedural order, suggest a measure of uncertainty in the outcome. Asser's patent, supplied by Ebberling,45was partly for a 45. ibid., p 22. transfer paper coated with:

A not too thick paste, made from good wheatmeal, [which] is spread onto a thick sheet of wood free paper of the best quality. The paste is poured onto a flat dish, a sheet of paper is placed on the surface of it, and to prevent the occurrence of air bubbles, this sheet is slightly pressed down with the fingers, to get a good coverage over the whole surface of the sheet. After the paste has dried, the paper is taken into the darkroom and a strong solution of carbonate of soda is poured onto the uncovered side. The liquid must stay on as long as the paper absorbs it. Additional pourings may be necessary. To dry the sheet it is, with wooden pegs, hung onto a string in the darkroom. After drying it is placed on a polished stone, paste side up, and a couple of times pulled through the press to even out the surface. Keep it away from light! Afterwards the sheet is exposed under a negative. From time to time the exposure frame has to be opened, and a corner of the paper to be lifted to inspect the progress of the exposure. The sheet is processed in several developing baths and is kept wet until all exposed parts are white and the unexposed ones have turned brown. If cold water does not give results, warm water may be used and the washing continued until all signs of the carbonate of soda have disappeared. Then the sheet is hung out to dry again. If the drying can take place under the influence of the sun or the heat of a stove, a cleaner image will result than when dried in the shadow or in cold air.

To reinforce the lines of the image the rear side can be dampened with lukewarm water, dried with blotting paper and, while flat on a stone or a sheet of glass, ordinary lithographic ink, thinned with a little oil, can be rubbed into the image. A thin layer of asphalt dissolved in alcohol is rubbed onto the surface with a cottonwool pad until the whole area is dry. The moisture in the paper prevents the solution from sticking to the unexposed parts. If the white areas still take on some black, go over it with the roller and afterwards with a wet sponge. The 46. ibid. remaining moisture is taken up with blotting paper. -46

On the basis of this procedure Ebberling recognises Asser as the inventor of photolithography. The date cited by Ebberling and drawn from German and Austrian sources, is

47. Twyrnan, op cit. p. 244. 1857, a date confirmed by T~yman.~'

In Asser's recipe the exposed sheet was 'processed in sev-

eral developing baths and... kept wet until all exposed parts I rernain[ed] white and the unexposed ones. .. turned brown'48. What the baths contained is not stated. Only warm 48. Ebberling, op. cit., p. 22. It is likely that 'unexposed' water is mentioned. The brown colouration is likely to have should read exposed. been caused by exposure to sunlight and the removal of carbonate of soda through the action of water seems to have been essential to making a successful transfer. In the same way unexposed bichromated gelatine was removed from Osborne's transfer by swelling it off the surface of the paper with hot water, and by James who removed the unwanted residue of unexposed bichromated gelatine with gum dissolved in warm water.

In Asser's process a mixture of asphaltum and alcohol was afterwards rubbed into the white lines on the exposed transfer paper while it was still damp. The unexposed brown areas rejected the asphaltum while sticking to the lines. Thinned down lithographic ink was then applied to the transfer paper and it adhered to the asphaltum.49The inked 49. Ibid. Ebberling is ambiguous on this point, photolithographic transfer prepared in this way was then writing 'If the white areas still take on some black, transferred to the stone for printing. go over it with a roller and afterwards with a wet sponge.' Alternative Osborne's Process accounts of Asser's process published in Of the three photolithographic processes, Osborne's was Sutton's Photographic Notes have not been the most sophisticated and his explanation of how it was located and comparison with Ebberling's accomplished was also the clearest. In treating the paper translation has not been possible. with albumen he ensured that the portion not wanted for printing the image separated cleanly from the exposed paper. In applying bichromate of potassium and gelatine in a separate layer he combined an excellent photosensitive surface with a practical method of fixing the exposed parts 'tenaciously' to the transfer paper, and when treating the exposed transfer with hot water, an efficient means of removal of the unwanted parts was obtained. In Osbor~ie's transfer the inking was applied smoothly all over the paper by running it through the press and then allowing it to dry. When wet with hot water after exposure, the unexposed areas of gelatine swelled up and was released from the albuminised layer. The finished transfer, after all imperfec- tions were removed, was applied under pressure on to the stone by passing it through the press again when the ink was dry. It was then ready to print from, being identical with a conventional lithographic retransfer.

It is clear that Osborne, with Ligar's active support had gone to considerable pains to acquaint himself with technical developments in Europe. He studied the method previously tried by Poitevin and found it wanting. The requirements for making a successful lithograph using photography was to make of a reversed, but positive image on stone, in order that the print, when pulled from the stone, was right reading. Unaware of Asser's process he believed that all of the methods for making a photo- lithographic print previously tried were by direct transfer to the stone. These methods required direct exposure by either placing a cumbersome sensitised lithographic stone into a camera or by making a contact exposure of the sensitised stone using a 'positive' made from a negative. The image was then either printed from the coated stone while the coating remained serviceable or by etching the surface of the stone after exposure to create a permanent image.

The notion of exposing lithographic stones of great weight and varied sizes in a camera seems Neolithic today, and as Osborne pointed out, it was impractical. Progress had been little better with negatives. In 1859 these were prepared as needed by the photographer who poured a collodion mixture onto glass plates. Glass negatives and positives if they were to be used to make contact prints directly on the stone presented further exposure difficulties as the surface of the stone, and the rigidity of the glass plate, often made imperfect contact. This, together with the thickness of a glass prevented bringing the image into perfect contact with the stone. This resulted in variations in the density and the sharpness of the image. Osborne's use of a paper 'plate' solved this problem.

Next he described a number of processes already tried. Lemercier (1853) and Macpherson (1856) both used a varnish made from asphaltum applied to a lithographic stone. This method had three drawbacks. The first was caused by the impurity of asphaltum, and the unpredictability of the results obtained. Also, the processing was costly as a bath of ether was needed in which to dip the stones. and finally, the uncertainty of exposure times, with its inherent risk of having to begin all over again. He then turned to Poitevin's patent of 1856 which was based on Talbot's discovery that sunlight could chemically alter gelatine or gum mixed with bichromate of potash, and he described Poitevin's method which was to directly expose a surface coated by this means to sun light, and then to wet the stone with water, and directly apply printing ink which would only stick to the sun affected parts50. By printing from 50. John Walter Osborne, 'On a New Photo-Lithographic this surface a paper copy could be produced. Process.' Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, Melbourne, November 1859, refers The direct exposure method was not workable for several twice in his paper to the reasons. Firstly, direct exposure of the stone in the camera Photographic Journal, the issue of December11, 1858, page 93. which or a contact exposure made with a positive plate would print described the process patented by Poitevin, and from the stone as a negative image; this had no practical the issue of November 22nd.1858 in which a value. Secondly, by contact printing from a negative a patent similar to Poitevin's for photolithography by positive image could be printed lithographically but this G. W. Newton was reviewed in detail. Talbot's would be a reversed positive unsuitable for maps and invention was given wide publicity in the Autumn of having only a possible application in 'portraits of an inferior 1858 in Photographic News, but Osborne does description.' Finally, and it is believed that Osborne tried not mention this. this method5=among his earliest experiments, the 51. Tolman, op. cit.. p.42. states that the 'first gelatinous image was unstable on the surface of the stone, (attempt), based on Poitevin's idea, was and was not chemically bonded to the stone as is normally made on the 8 August. 1859, but was the case with a lithograph, consequently its impermanence unsatisfactory, because it soon wore out.' caused it to be worn away quickly when successive prints were made. In Poitevin's process the photolithographic image was transferred to the stone when wet. Osborne's process was more certain because a stabilised image was transferred when dry.

Osborne commented on the merits of his process and the disadvantages of those devised by Poitevin and Asser. 'Poitevin', Osborne said in his 1861 American patent, 'inks the exposed surface in a moistened state; I, on the 52. John Walter Osborne. Patent No 2168, U S contrary, ink it when dry. Asser also washes and wets his Patent Office 'Photo- Lithographic Transfers. transfer and applies the ink while it is wet.'52 John W. Osborne of Melbourne, Australia, August 27, 1861.' generously supplied by Osborne demonstrated a thorough grasp of developments in Elizabeth M. Harris. Curator. Department of photoreproduction and printing. In his paper5" read to the Graphic Arts. National Museum of American Philosophical Institute at Melbourne in November 1859, he History. Smithsonian Institution. referred to the efforts of Talbot to apply engraving to the Washington D. C. photographic process, and to the efforts Niepce and 53. Osborne, 'On a New Photo- Lithographic Process.' op. Poitevin as well. His speech was quite detailed in surveying cit. pp. 9-11. Osborne passes comment on the the processes and methods used by Poitevin in the processes of 'Lamercier (sic) ... Macpherson... preparation of his plates and stones. He agreed with the Poitevin in the year 1856 Malone [who observed assessment of Poitevin's processes advanced by PouncyS4 the working on stone by Poitevin and reported on it that the method still needed refinement, but he conceded in the Photographic I Journal of December that good tonal results from landscapes and portraits might 18581, Pouncy ... G. W. Newton [and] Jobart (sic).' be printed lithographically by following such a line {Athenaeum February, 1859). of experiment.

54. Photographic Journal of 8 January 1859. Osborne was however, keen to point out the advantages of using photography to reduce and print maps. He acknowledged the work of James of the Ordinance Department of Great Britain in successfully using photography in reducing of maps in 1855 by depositing a photographically reduced image on to the surface of a

! copper plate as an aid to the engraver. Maps made in the field by the surveyor were difficult for the artist to reduce and redraw in a small scale, and it was found more convenient to draw them at a scale that was comfortable for the artist. Photographic reduction, therefore, presented an attractive alternative to drawing complicated details material on maps of a manageable size. i Well aware of the possibility of printing photographic half- tones on stone he advised his audience that while the printing of photographic images were probably more I interesting to them, he thought that the photo-reduction of line drawings had a more practical value, and in any case map making was what he was employed to do. Taking a photographic negative of a map which he had carefully prepared to scale he made a contact print by exposing the sensitised paper to sunlight through the clear and unprotective parts of the negative which corresponded with the image of the map. The chemical reaction produced by the action of sunlight resulted in 'the visible effect after removing the negative (was) the formation of a picture in brown upon the clear yellow of the paper, corresponding to the transparent portions of the negative, or to the black lines on the original drawing.55' 55. Osborne, 'On a New Photo- Lithographic Process.' op. cit., p. 6. The next step was to coat the face of this paper positive with lithographic transfer ink. This was done by placing the paper face down on an inked lithographic stone and applying the ink to its exposed surface under pressure as it passed through the press. This resulted in the exposed image being completely covered with an ink layer, but significantly the ink now clung to the exposed portions of the paper.

Next, Osborne set about stabilising the albumen layer by floating the paper face up on the surface of boiling water, after which, the paper was given a further soaking until the unaltered gelatine (not exposed to the light) swelled up and lifted the ink with it. By this process, and by further encouragement with a sponge, the last of the ink was removed from the white areas of the transfer, leaving only the clear and well defined lines of the map. After this more boiling water was poured over the prepared surface to remove any residue of the gelatine. Development being completed, the paper was allowed to dry.

This was, Osborne said 'a bona-fide lithographic tran~fer.'~~ 56. ibid. with all the features of existing transfer papers with the added desirable adhesive properties of the' albumen preventing slippage on the stone.

Osborne then set out for the members of the Philosophical Society the advantages of his invention. It was both simple and practical, easy to learn, and easy to carry out, and he observed with some wit that apart from his own process, the absence of examples of photolithography in Australia by any of the methods previously patented in other countries might be because they 'did not pay in the working, or (were) too difficult, intricate, or imperfect in their details, to admit of being advantageously carried out.'57His process 57. osborne, op. cit., p. 12. In a footnote on the same incorporated a well known and reliable method, having all page he observes that patents 2815 and 2816 of the useful attributes of lithographic transfer paper, but December 1855 taken out in England by Poitevin capable of procuring a photographic image. When his photo- for photolithography and carbon printing had not lithographic transfer was applied to the stone, a normal been renewed-source: Illustrated London News. lithographic transfer was the result. The image being 22 January 1859. p.33. embedded in the stone, it did not wear away, as it did when using Poitevin's method, and 2000 to 3000 impressions could be taken without loss of quality or sharpness of image. (A figure he afterwards revised downwards).

The utility of Osborne's invention was essentially modern. He had dispensed with the uncertain and experimental methods of his predecessors whose attempts to manipulate various wet and unstable chemical solutions resulted in constant difficulties in preparation, and unreliable results. In their place he had invented a fully prepared paper in a dry form. His prepared sheets, or even exposed ones kept in the dark were now as transportable and as storable as modern photographic paper. In order to activate the exposed sheet he had merely to apply the ink to it, float it face up in a bath of boiling water to loosen the gelatine from the unexposed, and therefore unhardened negative areas. and wash a way the unwanted residue.

In his address to the members of the Philosophical Society of Victoria, Osborne put forward an articulate case for adopting his process. But what he did not say to his audience was, that in adopting his photolitl;ographic process, the Department of Land and Survey under Ligar would require changes affecting the working methods of the surveyors in the field, a plan that elicited sharp objections from draftsmen, engravers and lithographers, employed by the Government.

Before turning to Ligar's instructions, it is worthwhile to

58 John Osborne's patent examine some aspects of Osborne's patent.58His idea was was first registered in the Colony of Victoria on simple enough. He set out to create with photography a 18 April 1860. No. V293/59: - 'Certain utilitarian transfer similar to the lithographic transfers improvements in obtaining lithographic impressions already in use. In the patent he had two objectives. Firstly, by the aid of photography.' to protect the originality of his idea, and the benefits that might flow from it. Secondly to state clearly how his patent worked, and how someone unfamiliar with it could carry out his instructions and duplicate his results. Osborne began by describing the general nature of the invention as follows:

The invention has for its object the production of a drawing or design on lithographic stone or metal... [and] from which ... an indefinite number of impressions can be printed in the litho- graphic press in the usual manner.

His second objective; to state clearly how others following him might proceed, was in conflict with the first, so rather than conceal or obscure his working methods, a course of action that he had criticised Poitevin for, Osborne made an extensive claim covering all the methods likely to achieve the same results. Osborne's claims were broadened in the patent to cover all the possible ingredients he could think of that might yield the same, or similar results. Consequently he listed gelatine, metagelatine, gum Arabic etc., and having dealt with ingredients, he then turned to the practical exploitation of his invention. In this he applied the same principle, that is, he reserved to himself all the obvious practical methods of applying chemical compounds and inks to receptive substrates. This is in sharp contrast with the pedantic and at times obtuse guidance offered by James and Scott in their report.

Sir Henry James' Process Like Osborne's method, the process employed at Southampton by A. De Courcey Scott and Sir Henry ~ames consisted of a photolithographic transfer paper coated with a mixture of gelatine and bichromate of potassium. In James' process, the addition of gum Arabic substituted for the use of albumin in Osborne's process. The ratio of 2 ounces of bichromate of potash to 10 ounces of hot water mixed with 3 ounces of gelatine in two applications was applied, dried, and then passed through the press to give it a smooth finish. Now light sensitive, the transfer paper was exposed under a negative, from one to twenty minutes depending on weather conditions, while still fresh, then dried again and placed face down on to a zinc plate spread with lithographic ink and passed through the press again to ensure that the finished transfer retained a thin even coating of ink.

When the ink was dry, it was removed from the unexposed parts of the transfer by damping the back of the paper until the gelatine swelled and was lifted from the surface by the application of warm water mixed with gum and gently rubbed clean with a sponge. It was Osborne's opinion that ! this step in James' process was more likely to damage the finer lines than by his method and he believed that Scott and James would eventually adopt his method as the superior one.

I Different modes of application I There was a sharp contrast in the manner in which the two processes were used. Osborne's application was designed for a purely practical need. His experimental maps quickly evolved into a utilitarian process that was used by the Victorian Government for many years to come. In contrast James first applied his invention to reproductions of historic manuscripts. A project calculated to please the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Ewart Gladstone, who was responsible for the preservation of the ancient documents

housed in the new Public Record Office. I

It may have been that at Southampton too, photolithography or photozincography was thought to be inferior to engravings fig. 36. above. Scott. 1863: Photozincograph reduced from an engraving. fig. 37. right, Scott, 1863: Photozincograph reduced from an engraving. fig. 38. below, Scott. 1863: page from the Doomsday Book, photozincograph, originated c14 February, 1860, by James and Scott. Cf. fig. 32. Osborne's first published map, p. 173. fig. 39. below rlght, Trees on Southampton Common, photozincograph, 1863. for the printing of first class maps. The uses to which photozincograpy was put was mainly decorative and it appears to have been employed to demonstrate novelty and technical virtuosity. Examples of photo-zincographed copies of fine engraving were displayed by Scott and James in their publication. See figs. 36 and 37 : photozincographed engravings; fig. 38 : print of the first photozincograph, a leaf from the Doomsday Book; fig. 39 photozincographed half- tone photograph of Trees on Southampton Common.

The merits of the two processes were unequally presented. James' publication (1863 edition) was superior in every way. The presentation of Photozincography outclasses the maps printed under the stringent rules that were applied using Osborne's guidelines issued at Ligar's instructions in Melbourne. The guidelines, which aimed at efficiency and cost saving, proved to be excessive. Many of the maps printed in the Lands and Survey Department in later years were quite ugly compared to those which were personally prepared by Osborne. In contrast, when maps engraved earlier, by Ham, Philp and others, were copied and printed by photolithography, there was no appreciable loss of sharpness or detail from the decorative features that embellished them. Ham's criticism of the aesthetic shortcomings of photolithography is therefore partially vindicated where the guidelines are concerned.

Some of the causes of dissatisfaction with Ligar's policy As instructed by Ligar, Osborne drafted a new set of guidelines called - 'Specification for the guidance of Government Surveyors in the preparation of all original plans on the scale of four inches to one mile, and under'59 59. Harris. op. cit. in Woodward: illustration for surveyors in the field, which insisting on complete from Osborne's personal papers, a gift to the uniformity in the preparation of plans, and insisting that Srnithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. lines must be drawn in 'strong Indian ink" that is, in an undiluted, solid black line, and that 'colours and tints' must be rendered in a solid black. Such rules are easily appreciated today, now that photographic reproduction techniques are common knowledge, but then the guidelines resulted in criticism from field workers, and scepticism amongst engravers and lithographers who feared for their employment prospects. The Specification appeared on a sample map Country Lands, Parish of Barkly, County of Bourke. The notes were made by Osborne, and the map was lithographed by J. B. Philp. This map was printed in September 1859 and the issue of legibility is addressed under the heading of 'General Remarks'.

all plans of surveys sent to the Surveyor General's office from the field to be on drawing paper only and not on tracing paper or cloth, to be forwarded rolled up and not folded such precautions being necessary to the satisfactory reduction by photography. Great care to be taken that all the writing and figuring be kept well apart & not be crowded in so as to interrupt other work, nor to be written - - - between the lines showing creeks, roads, &c., but along them leaving a clear interval of a chain between. thusROAD 2 CHAINS WIDE 3 40'0'0 The exact thickness of the lines, letters, & figures as shown on the specimen, to be most carefully preserved as also intense blackness* in them. The preparation of the original plans in the manner above specified is absolutely necessary to ensure their successful reduction and lithographing by the process of photo-lithography, which has been adopted in the Surveyor General's Office.'

*The intensity of blackness to be obtained by rubbing the ! Indian ink until it leaves a white streak beneath the stick and i the saucer.'O 60. ibid., pl. 5.11 'John Osborne. 'Specifications for the Guidance of Government Surveyors in the Preparation of all The specification carries a marginal note signed by Ligar Original Plans on the scale of four inches to one mile, thanking Osborne for his efforts in the preparing it. and under." ' Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution. Ligar aimed at standardisation, and ultimately to reduce the number of draftsmen required. He set about this by sending

his draftsmen out into the field with instructions to show the ; j surveyors how to prepare their own drawings on the spot.

Conditions of employment in Melbourne, compared with those at the Ordinance Survey Office, ~outhampton,appear , to have been quite unstable. Whilst the principal officers in both Survey Departments crowed triumphantly that their ever reducing costs were evidence of their upto-date skills and efficiency, in Melbourne. Public Service employment conditions were poor. Office space was cramped. Buildings dusty and poorly insulated and the various lithographic departments had become widely dispersed or were 61. Sir Andrew Clarke. uncongenially arranged. All departments were in competition (1824-1902) appointed Surveyor General of for Government funds. Members of the Geological Survey Victoria in March 1853. A.D.B., vol. 3., 1851- Branch, under Alfred R. G. Selwyn, whose lithographers and 1890. pp. 409 - 411. draftsmen shared space in the Surveyor General's 62. Photo-lithographic Report. p. 35. A circumstance that Department, were keen to move. The lithographic staff, possibly explains Ham's hostility towards Osborne hostile to the Surveyor General's plans, were of the opinion and Ligar. that the various lithographic departments should be 63. Pittman, op. cit. restored to a central location under conditions which had 64. Kenyon, op. cit.. p. 177.. apportioned the operated when Captain Clarke was head of the Crown Lands credit for the invention of photolithography as De~artment.~~Joseph Pittman, together with Ham, (whom follows 'His [Osborne's] knowledge of lithography Ligar had recommended to Selwyn for transfer to the was nil, but he had the able assistance of Mr. Geological Survey De~artment)~~asked for all lithographic McHutchinson, a litho- graphic printer in the departments to be placed under the control of the department. The latter's contribution was a method Government Printer, John Ferres. Pittman argued that after of inking the whole surface of the positive by Clarke had retired from the position: pressure upon an inking plate, and floating it upon hot water to hasten drying. This very useful branch experienced (...I can assert Osborne, however, hit without fear of contradiction) a decadancy from which it is upon the essential part, and that was the use not likely to recover, until reorganised under a similar of a paper coated with a discipline... The successor to Capt". Clarke, considered mixture of albumin and that he would best effect economy, by lopping off various gelatine sensitised with the usual potash branches, which, however only increased the responsibility chromate.' and increased the expenditure, as each branch struck root elsewhere and became nearly as expensive as the parent 65. John Moore, (Victorian Public Servant) in stock, producing ultimately a number of distinct establish- H. J. Gibbney and Ann G. ments instead of one.63 Smith (comp.). A Biographical Register. 1788-1939: Notes from the name index of The findings of the Inquiry into photolithography the Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. /I, L-Z, As a result of Ligar's policy, Osborne and McHut~hinson~~in Canberra. Australian National University, taking the unusual step (with Ligar's consent, and John 1987. pp. 116-17. Moore's65and others advice) of patenting Osborne's 66. Kenyon, ibid. p. 177., also suggests that the heat photolithographic process in Victoria and New South Wales produced by the inquiry into Osborne's and whilst employed by the Department of Lands and S~rvey,~" McHutchinson's process was generated by fear of were subjected to the scrutiny of an official' board of inquiry unemployment amongst the conventional in Victoria into their claims. This coincided with attacks on lithographers working for the government. This view Ligar's policies and the desire of Selwyn and others to is borne out by the tone of the evidence submitted to distance themselves from the Surveyor General, improve the Enquiry by Ham. their own departments and to consolidate all of the colony's Government printing under the direct control of the Government Printer, John Ferres.

The desire expressed by Pittman to return to this longed for central system as recommended by a Civil Service Commission in 1859 was not achieved. The departments had grown with the needs of the colony and each branch, such as the Lands and Survey Department and the Railway Department, had adapted themselves to supply their own special needs as they had developed.

The outcome of the inquiry produced the desired result for Osborne and McHutchinson. It provided for a large grant of money to Osborne and McHutchinson in return for the use of the process by the Government. In its final report to the Victorian Parliament the Board of Enquiry summarised the following recommendations regarding the invention:

A board was appointed to investigate as to the originality of the invention, and to its value to the Government, and this body reported in part as follows, on 10th. August, 1861;-

VIII. The Board have witnessed the entire process of photo-lith- ography as practiced by Mr. Osborne. They have examined many gentlemen who were supposed to be competent to give them information on the subject, and have carefully perused the photographic journals relating to the improvements that have been made from time to time in Europe in this particular branch of the photographic art. They have investigated the process of photo-zincography as pursued by Sir Henry James, the Director of the Ordinance Survey at Southampton (as far as the published accounts of that process have reached this country); and have carefully considered the published accounts of the processes of M. Poitevin, of Paris, and M. Asser, of Amsterdam.

They have now to report that-

Firstly. In their opinion, the interposition of a transfer paper in the photc-lithographic process of Mr. Osborne was original on the part of that gentleman; and Secondly. That Mr. Osborne and Mr. McHutchinson are equally entitled to credit for having overcome several practical difficulties which presented them- selves in the course of carrying out the process so improved. Ian Mumford, however, writing of the invention of Photozincograpy says that James was responsible for Osborne receiving an award of 51000 from the Colonial Se~retary.~'It is not entirely clear from reading the Victorian 67. Mumford. 'Lithography. Photography and Government's 'Photo-Lithography Report' that this was the Photozincography in English Map Production case. It was unanimously recommended by the Board that before 1870'. Cartographic Journal. '...the Legislature should be asked to vote the sum of June. 1972. p. 33. 51000, as a reward to that gentleman (Osborne) for his valuable discovery ... contingent upon the free use of the photo-lithographic process being ceded by Mr. Osborne in perpetuity to the Government of Victoria; and that the sum of 5200 should be awarded in the same manner to Mr. D. McHutchinson for the practical assistance which he afford- 68. Both migrated to the ed to Mr. Osborne, in carrying out the process so United States: Osborne to California and Ligar improved.' This was decided on 13 November, 1860, and it to Texas. John Osborne's departure from Victoria was supported by the timely arrival of James' letter, '...in might be thought by some modern readers to be an which full justice is done to the originality, so far as this opportunistic betrayal of the generosity he had country is concerned, of Mr. Osborne's discovery.' received from the colony's government. Patent laws were, however, somewhat different then. As he The difference between the Victorian Government's account pointed out in his evidence it was not necessary for and Mumford's modern interpretation is a striking example of him to have invented photolithography in order how James' views still retain an authority that it little deserves. to take out a patent on the invention and enjoy a monopoly on its use. Neither Osborne nor Ligar remained in Au~tralia.~~In 1863 it was, therefore, necessary to take out Osborne was teaching his process at the establishment of a patent in Victoria and others in the United W. Korn & CO. in Germany where he stayed for fourteen States in order to protect his intellectual months. The Osborne process was adopted by the Prussian property rights. GovernmenP9 and it was used to print an official account of 69. ibid. Mumford. the Prussian Expedition to Japan, China and Siam, a work illustrated by A. Berg.

Osborne was clearly a gifted and intelligent inventor who was unusual in that he successfully retained some control over the commercial exploitation of his invention. In 1861 Osborne, while still based in Melbourne, took the step of registering an American patent on his photolithographic transfer process. His 1861 American patent was later renewed in July, 1874, under the title: Improvements in Photolithography. Then in August, 1864, he went to the United States, where he went into business,

t During the 1870s Osborne a member of the Washington Philosophical Society and became interested in the Smithsonian Institution's Graphic Arts collection. He had a typically 19th century scientific turn of mind, interested in classifying and reclassifying his samples and discussing these ideas with S. R. Koehler, Curator of the Graphic Arts Collection, at the Smithsonian Institution. Always interested in photolithography, he had collected many samples of inno- vative printing processes and improvements made by others during his lifetime.

Osborne's letter (June, 1888), to Goode at the Smithsonian ! Institution advising him of the dispatch of his collection of photolithographic samples made the interesting observation that:

Of the general character of the photomechanical work in this collection, it may be said, that photolithography is more fully represented than any other of the processes classed with it, and that most of the specimens of all kinds, will be found to

belong to a period extending from 1852 to about 1872. I Photolithography predominates for the reason that there was i much more of it done in the years indicated, than of intaglio or relief work; the two latter not having reached a condition of commercial importance ti1 after 1872.' 70 70. From information supplied by Elizabeth M. Harris. Department of Graphic Arts, National Museum of The range of dated samples representing technical American History, Srn~thsonianInstitution. advances listed by him is impressive; Washington D. C. Lerebours, Barreswill & Devanne, Lamercier (sic), MacPherson (1852); Talbot (1853); Paul Pretsch (1854); Poitevin (1855); Cutting & Bradford, Pouncy, Asser (1858); Osborne, Lamercier, (1859); Col. James, (1860); Turner, (1861); Burchard, Rehn, (1862), Pouncy, [Plage or [Glage?, Toovey, Osborne, Korn, I Mandel, (1863); Swan, Dallas, (1864); Egloffatein, Leggo, (1865); Osborne, Willis, Korn, (1866); Henry, (1867); Woodbury, Eidlitz, (1868); Rehn, (1870); Bierstadt, (1871); Edwards, Wenderoth, (1872); Leggo, (1873); Bien, (1874); Moss, (1880); Roche, Ives, (1881); Meisenbach, (1883); I Sprague, (1884); '...and many others of lesser note.' 71 71. ibid. Osborne's letter, and the list of samples he bequeathed is revealing. Leggo and Bier~tadt'~are both far more 72. For reference to William A. Leggo and Leggotypes see significant than most modern writers have acknowledged. David Reed. The Popular Magazine in Britain and Cutting & Bradford, who featured prominently in the evi- 1 the United States 1880-1960, British dence given at the Melbourne Inquiry into his photolitho- Library, London, 1997, pp. 30-1. For information graphic process by Thomas Ham and others now seem to about the Bierstadt brothers and the have been entirely forgotten. It is clear that Osborne, in his introduction of collotype printing in America see: day, had a superior grasp of the important issues that Nancy K. Anderson, Linda S. Ferber and applied then to developments in printing technology. Helena E. Wright. Albert Bierstadt, Art and Enterprise, Hudson Hills Press, 1990, p. 267, 269, Against all opposition Osborne forcefully asserted his claim 274. and Helena E. Wright, 'Partners in the to the originality and effectiveness of his process. For a Business of Art: Producing. Packaging and while his claims were supported by writers in America and Publishing Jmages of the American Landscape Australia, but with the passage of time, his contribution has 1850-1900' in Pioneers of Photography. been largely forgotten, Later writers in following the line Springfield, Va., Society of Imaging Sciences and taken in Sir Henry James' report have paid little attention to Technology. 1987, pp. 274-85. other evidence. It is, therefore, fitting that a little over a century after Osborne's death, that we should be reminded of his originality, vision, enthusiasm, honesty, professional integrity, and his pioneering spirit. Chapter 8 Direct Transfer and the Invention of the Collotype Process

1 Edwin C, Middleton in the 'The impossibility of obtaining any work in the English Preface to Collotype and Photolithography, lliffe and language on the subject of Collotype first led to my trans- Son, London, 1889. lation of the German work of Dr. Schnauss, and the fact that no work has hitherto appeared fully dealing with the matter is the excuse I offer for the present publication. ' -Edwin C. Middleton, 1889

Writing two decades after collotype printing came into commercial use, Middleton felt compelled to publish a textbook in English for the benefit of the English printer. The late development of collotype printing in England has often been attributed to climatic differences between England and Germany. This reluctance to print halftones from glass plates in English-speaking countries, however, was not confined to Britain. It is surprising under these circum- stances that collotype printing was introduced so early into Australia, (in 1873), contrary to the general trend.

Representing a separate thread of development leading to ! the invention of photolithography, and coincidentally to collotype, was the development of Mungo Ponton's chrome I carbon process in 1839. Ponton had observed bichromate i 2 The term bichromate has of potassium's sensitivity to light when combined with been superseded by the t modern term dichromate. organic substance^.^ His pioneering work was continued by As most of the books and documents discussed here Edmond Becquerel in France who discovered that light refer to bichromate this term has been retained sensitivity in bichromate of potassium was increased throughout. proportionately as larger quantities of organic material like starch, paste, glue, gum and sugar were added to it. The technical explanation behind this discovery was that the organic compounds became oxidised in chromium trioxide and, as a consequence, the decomposition of the chromate 1 3 Middleton. op cit, p. 12. salt content of the the solution reduced the chromate salt Chromate of chromium is an old term for chromic to chromate of chr~mium.~ acid - chromium tri-oxide - CrO, (Chromium 3 + salt) (3 : 2)..CAS Registration NQ24613-89-6. Becquerel made this discovery in 1840. His idea was was Chromic acid was used by printers to etch taken up by Alphonse Poitevin who made further progress in zinc plates. Chromic acid is no longer used. 1855. In 1858 the chrome carbon process in which finely ground colour was added to a solution of chromated gelatine. Poitevin's work in combining bichromate of 4 Middleton (tr. Schnauss). 4 op cit. contradicts the potassium with gelatine , was then employed with singular others saying that Poitevin mixed bichromate of success in England by John Pouncy to print half-tones from potassium with albumen and gelatine on a paper photographs in 1858. But in spite of these advances, by substrate p 10. 1860, the problem of how to successfully print half-tones, chemically and planographically, remained unresolved and the direction developments took, favoured the dominant technology; letterpress printing. Hence, the ideas of Paul Pretsch and Henry Fox Talbot held the attention of printers and publishers until the 1870s.

In The History of Photography 1685-1914 Helmut Gernsheim listed fifteen different experimenters into photo- lithographic processes between 1839 and 1854 who used either light sensitive bitumen or bichromate of potash as 5 Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. The History of the basis of their experiment^.^ Photography 1685-1914, McGraw Hill. New York, 1969. D 545. Commercial applications of indirect lithographic transfer to print photographs as book illustrations remained unachiev- able for another fifty years. The reason for this delay was because a satisfactory method of reproducing the subtle halftones achieved in photography could not be found. In let- terpress printing Talbot, in his photogravure process, attempted to master this problem by two ingenious methods. One of which was to expose a steel or copper printing plate through an intervening gauze screen to break up the image into dots. This idea anticipated the various methods of screen ruling that finally solved the problem in the late 1880s. Talbot's alternative method was to etch half-tones by exposing a negative to a photosensitivly treated plate evenly dusted with particles of powdered resin in the manner of an aquatint and then etched. Both of these intaglio methods worked fairly well and the latter idea was not unfamiliar to the traditional letterp'ress printer who was used to printing etchings and engravings with a conventional rolling press. Talbot's methods were both uncertain and slow and so modern photogravure did not become immediately workable. However, his idea of using a gauze screen did suggest to others a way forward. Frederick Eugene lves partially solved this difficulty with his glass cross line screen, (patented 1882), and George Meisenbach's horizontally screened blocks led the way in popularising letterpress halftone photo reproduction in the daily press (in 1891). Ives' invention of the glass cross line screen received a powerful boost with the commercial 6 T. S. Barber, William Atkins development cross line screen manufacturing in 1890 by (editor). The Art and Practice of Printing, Max Levy with his 'Levy Screen.= vol. IK. Photo-Engraving, Electrotyping and Stereotyping. London, nd. pp. 2-3. In the meantime, any real progress made in printing Cf. W. E. Soderstrom. Charles Shapiro (editor). halftone photographic reproduction happened in the field of The Lithographer's Manual, Pitsburgh, (fifth lithography. William A. Leggo and George E. Desbarats edition). 1974. pp.1 : 7-8. anticipated lves in 1869 with a glass cross line screen of their own, scored on an exposed collodion plate. Their method was applied to the Canadian Illustrated News (1869-71). In 1873 they founded the New York Daily Graphic where Stephen H. Horgan printed photolithographic 7 David Reed. The Popular Magazine in Britain and halftone illustrations in 1880.' the United States 1880-1960,British Library. London. pp. 30-1. Meanwhile, the collotype processes anticipated by Poitevin Cf. Barber, op cit. and developed further by Josef Albert, Professor J. Husnik' with the 'Gelatinotype' and Obernetter's process licensed in New York as the 'Artotype' which, in printing from multiple plates, resembled chromolithography. These methods filled a need for a time because collotype was then in advance of 8 Middleton. op cit. pp. 10-11. the reproduction of photographic images printed by letter- press processe~.~

Collotype printing plates (without mechanical halftones) being similar to lithography, relied upon the principle that bichromated gelatine was receptive to ink In proportion to the exposure it received through a photographic negative.

Indirect transfer, photolithographic transfer paper and photographic negatives all contributed to the development of the collotype process. This represents something of a paradox because the collotype process is a direct printing process similar to direct lithography, traditional intaglio engraving, etching and relief printed wood blocks.

The working of a collotype printing plate depended upon solid blacks being transferred to paper from the parts of the plate that had been hardened most by exposure to light. The hard parts of the coated plate were more receptive to ink; the softer parts were less receptive because they retained some moisture and attracted less ink. Half and quarter tones and even the faintest of greys were achieved by the protection afforded to the unexposed bichromated gelatine by the denser parts of a photographic negative. Thus, in the printing stage of the process the gelatine coated plate remained soft in inverse proportion to the amount of light it received during exposure.

As in lithography, parts of the plate had the virtue of retaining water, and those parts which took up water rejected ink. In collotype plates the retention of water was directly related to the softness of the exposed gelatine, so that the finest of continuous half tones could be achieved without recourse to a mechanical dot as was necessary when an indirect mechanical line screen was used in either lithographic or letterpress printing.

Between 1860 and 1869 Alphonse Poitevin's invention was explored by Lemercier and others so that a method of direct transfer of ink to paper was developed which, being similar to lithography, was easily understood by lithographers and pushed inexorably forward by a succession of inventors towards the goal of producing realistic photographic half-tones in commercial quantities.

In 1865, in an advance upon Poitevin's invention, C. M. Tessig du Mothay and C. R. Marechal at Metz, in eastern France, and their followers, invented a collotype process for printing half-tone photographic images from a bichromated gelatine film which was anchored to a metal plate. This attempt, while a step forward, was not a commercial success. The bichromated gelatine in their process proved to be unstable and the emulsion that they prepared was prone to lift away from the plate during printing.

9 Helmut and Alison If we defer to Gernsheim as our authority, a truly Gernsheim, History of Photography. p. 548. successful collotype process was not perfected until 1868.9 In that year three different experimenters all adapting variations of Poitevins photolithographic process. All; Husnik, Albert and Obernetter, succeeded at about the same time in getting a true collotype process to work. Husnik's silicate of soda - bichromated gelatine method was supported with many papers on his discoveries and he did much to publicise collotype.

The most influential process as a commercial proposition was the Albertype process. Albert's process, developed dur- ' ing the late 1860's, consisted of a layer of bichromated albumen that had been applied to a glass plate instead of a I metal one. This innovation consisted of coating the plate 10 Schnauss, (Middleton. tr.). with an albumenised layer, that like Osborne's photolitho- op cit.. p. 14 I graphic paper, was allowed to dry before being coated again i with bichromated gelatine and exposed.'O 'This method' says Schnauss 'was first published by Albert, who 11 ibid. originated it.''

Albert was notable for achieving commercial acceptance for his Albertype process. However, the problem of producing a robust image capable of withstanding repeated impressions for longer and longer print runs remained until Ernest Edwards, a photographer, made improvements to the Albertype process which he re-named the Heliotype process. Heliotypes were used in England (1872) to print photographic illustrations of Charles Darwin's work, Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, and again 12 Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of in 1873 to illustrate John Thompson's Illustrations of China Photography, p. 451. and its Peo~le.'~ 13 Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, op cit. p. 548. Fourteen years before Middleton's book was published

14 Thomas A. Darragh in (1889) the first attempt to make practical collotype prints in . 'Illustrations' for History of the Book in Australia. Australia was developed by John Degotardi in Sydney. vol. 1.. yet to be published writes that 'Collotype was Degotardi's interest in the idea was aroused in 1872, i used for a short period both in New South Wales possibly earlier. This led to his use of a variant of Albert's and Victoria.' and supplies the date of January 1885. process which attracted public attention is Sydney in 1875. 15 ibid Rosenblum, p. 451. By way of comparison, Albert's process was introduced into

16 Albert Bierstadt England by the firm of Sawyer Bird & Company at Ealing13 (1830-1902). landscape painter became famous in around 1870. But the British endeavours of Edwards and America for the chromo- lithographs of his Sawyer Bird & Co. were isolated cases, not to be repeated paintings printed by Louis Prang. Albert Bierstadt with any conviction for many years. In commercial terms the took to photography with enthusiasm and made process was not worked by sustained effort in England or in stereographs of his work (1859). He encouraged his the Australian colonies, until the 1890~.~~ two brothers to start a photographic business in New Bedford and was active in reproducing his When Middleton translated Julius Schnauss's Collotype and paintings by means of wood and steel engraving, Photolithography into English the book appeared in print just 'and the new photo- mechanical processes of as the collotype process had ignited British interest. This collotype, photoengraving I and photo-gravure. interest arose because of the wide commercial success

While Prang continued to collotype enjoyed in Germany where printing firms were make chromo-lithographic reproductions well into able, increasingly, to flood the Britain's imperial markets the 1890s, Bierstadt distanced himself from the with collotyped and illustrated books. During the process in the 1870s because the process fell 1870s the collotype process prospered on the continent of out of fashion. Instead he I turned to collotype which Europe where it was highly regarded as a prime means of his brother, Edward Bierstadt, introduced into printing expensive or limited edition books and in volumes the United States in late 1869. (cf John Degotardi's where accurate reproductions of works of art were required. adoption of the process in Sydney, c1875, in this volume, chapter 7: 'Direct In the United States circumstances were similar to those Transfer and the Invention of the Collotype Process' applying in England. The collotype process enjoyed a brief p. 198). period of popularity in the United States being introduced Sources: Nancy K. Anderson, Linda S. Ferber late in 1869. The first to make use of the process were and Helena E. Wright, Albert Bierstadt. Art and Albert and Edward Bierstadt. Noted in passing by John Enterprise. Hudson Hills Press, 1990, p. 267, 269, Osborne amongst his collection of samples as 'Bierstadt, , 274. and Helena E. Wright, 'Partners in the 1871' in his letter to Professor G. Brown Goode at the Business of Art: Producing. Packaging and Smithsonian Institution, details of these experimental prints Publishing Images of the American Landscape have remained largely unremarked.15 Indeed it is only recent- 1850-1900' in Pioneers , of Photography. ly that information about the scope of Albert and Edward Springfield. Va. Society of Imaging Sciences and Bierstadt's work has been published. Edward Bierstadt Technology. 1987. pp. 274-85. introduced the collotype process into the United Statesi6 in late 1869. Albert Bierstadt 'assisted Edward in establishing a collotype business in 1869-70 and worked with him to publish several collotype prints after his paintings.'

In this context the efforts of John Degotardi to work with the collotype process in Sydney between 1873 and 1875 demonstrates a level of interest and innovation that was as unusual in colonial Australia as it was technically advanced for the English speaking world in general. It reflects both his background as a printer and his cultural connections with technical developments in printing in German printing circles. His known correspondence with fellow intellectuals

17 John Fletcher, John and printers in Germany was with Friedrich Carl Bobardt (in Degotardi, Printer, Publisher and 1871)17and with Herr Alois von Auer, Imperial Councillor of Photographer. Book Collectors' Society of His Majesty the Emperor of Austria; Director of the Imperial Australia. Sydney, 1982. p. 68. Printing Institute at Vienna, who Degotardi, in admiration,

18 J. Degotardi. The Art of called the 'Nestor of the Art of Printing, its greatest expo- Printing, Degotardi,, Sydney, 1861. nent since the day of its discovery.'18 pp. 10 - 11. The story of John (Johann Nepomuk) Degotardi's life (1823 - 1882) and his career in the annals of Australian printing history is yet to be fully evaluated. John Degotardi followed his father's profession in Europe as an itinerant printer in and around Graz. John Degotardi was born at Ljubljana, Slovenia in September 1823. In his youth he was, when nearly eighteen years of age, apprenticed for two years to the printing firm of Andreas Leyham's Heirs as a 19 John Fletcher, commentary in a facsimile edition of compo~itor'~.From 1843 until 1852 he led a journeyman's John Degotardi's The Art of Printing. Brandywine life travelling variously through Germany, Switzerland, Press. 1982 (unnumbered page 2 of this pamphlet). Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein. In 1851 Degotardi went to London where he worked as a compositor for the printing firm of John Wertheim and Co.

Degotardi left Britain in the Panthia for Australia where, by April 1855, he had set up in business as J. Degotardi & Co. 20 Ibid, p 6. (unnumbered) at the Sydney address of 20 York Street.zoThe scope of his printing was wide ranging and deserves further attention. While at York Street he printed theatre posters and a 21 A surviving poster printed by Degotardi in the journal. A poster which survives is in two colours on silk, it collection of the Performing Arts Museum. announced a 'Grand Evening Concert, 28 April 1855'.21 At Melbourne. York Street he also began to publish The Spirit of the Age.22 22 John Fletcher, in the facsimile edition of The Art But the next year (1856) John Degotardi had relocated his of Printing. (6th unnumbered page of business in new premises at 313 George Street, Sydney. In this pamphlet). this new office he printed sheet music such as 'Schulhoff's 23 The lithographic cover of a m.usic sheet for Drawing-room Mazurka.IZ3Other printed music such as that 'Schulhoff's Drawingroom Mazurka', is found in a for Henry Kendall's 'Silent Tears' with music by George bound volume of sheet z music once in the Peck is the only work of music printing Fletcher 4 mentions. collection of Agnes Cole daughter of Captain G. W. It would be extraordinary if other work of this kind had not Cole, St. Ninians. Melbourne. Cole was the been printed and a search of music collections is likely owner of Cole's Wharf. reveal other examples. This sheet is printed in blue ink on white stock by John Degotardi, general printer and engraver, 313 Books were also printed there; Hanson and Bennett's book George Street Sydney. Publisher: H. Marsh's History of Australia's Discovery and Colonisation (1865) is Musical Cadeau Office. (also of 313 George one, and he entered into journalism while at 313 George Street, Sydney) and Joseph Wilkie 15 Collins Street when he published the short-lived Australische Street Melbourne (collection of the author). Zeitung from that address.

24 Fletcher. op cit.. (8th unnumbered page of this In January 1861, Degotardi printed and published his 'little pamphlet). manual' The Art ofPrinting. As far as is known, the first book on the subject of printing, in Australia, it provides

some valuable insights into the state of the 'art or science.' ; Each of the printing processes is treated in turn. He is enthusiastic about the printing presses of Robert Hoe and the automatic paper feed to presses invented by Auer.

He also made the interesting, but unsourced, reference to the legend that Johann Fust (Gutenberg's, and later Schieffer's business partner) was the model for Goethe's

Faust; the origin of the term 'slip' of paper coming from the I

breaking up of 'copy' into small sections for ease of setting I I by many compositors; the composition of gelatine printing rollers, and an evocative word picture of a serene 19th century Sydney, where he writes with the insight born of I experience about the intricacies of newspaper production:

'How few who sleep calmly at night, stretching out a hand at an early hour for their morning's gossip, perchance grumbling if the luckless boy be a little late in the delivery, reflect what a stream of activity is going on during the calm hours of their rest, to supply them 25 J. Degotardi, The Art of with a narrative of the world's history for the space of Printing. Degotardi. Sydney, 1861. twenty four hours.'25 Footnote to p. 15. Degotardi's views defend the idea that the importance of printing could not be underestimated. This is a classical view once championed by Francis Bacon and one that has been raised again by Elizabeth Eisenstein in The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. In The Art of Printing Degotardi wrote:

'Amidst all the discoveries that science has placed at the disposal of man, none has been so important in its results as that of Printing. In what ever capacity we view it, either as a branch of Art or Science, it may well claim the highest rank as the very fountain of civilisation, for 26 ibid. p. 3. which it has effected more than any other invention of ancient or modern

The Art of Printing is both educative and promotional. It contains specimen illustrations which demonstrate the arts of copper engraving, lithography, chromo-lithography, the anastatic process, zincography and two examples of 'the latest invention' photolithography. He concludes by assuring his readers that his establishment; Degotardi's Sydney Printing house, was 'the only one in this hemisphere where all the most important branches of the Art of Printing are combined.'

In 1861 Degotardi was excited about the new invention of photolithography (fig. 40). Details of which were still not then generally known to the public. He described how to make a photolithographic transfer directly on stone by the agency of a glass transparency. The stone should be pre- pared with a roughened surface, if tones are required, in the manner he recommends for chromlithographic work. Exposure of the glass plate in contact with the sensitised stone required several hours. Afterwards, when the expo- sure was completed and the image fixed, the lithographic 27 ibid. pp. 20 - 22. stone was ready for printing in the usual way.27

Rg. 38 above, Photolithograph fig. 40 above, Photolithograph Degotardi's enthusiasm extended to the promotion of his illustrated in John Degotardi's THE ART OF adopted country as well as the promotion of printing PRINTING, from the facsimile edition. technologies. in the preface to The Art of Printing he emphasises that 'all the specimens and illustrations in this pamphlet have been executed at his establishment, and that the entire pamphlet is an Australian production, the type having been cast in Sydney.' The extent of this claim is still to be verified. We are not told who cast the type and there were at least two foundries working in Sydney at the time. Also, the border used to print the title page is typical of the fashion in 1860 and he may not have intended to include the border design within his meaning when he wrote

about the casting of the type. While it is by no means I certain the the title-page border it is identical to one then sold by the English type foundry of Stephenson Blake and Co. This border design was also used by Degotardi he printed the sheet music for 'Schulhoff's Drawing-room Mazurka'.

In The Art of Printing Degotardi also mentions the use of guncotton used in the preparation of collodion photographic plates. A process devised by Scott Archer. Degotardi's lithography, anastatic printing, collotype and photolithography eventually led him to set up in business as a photographer.

The correspondence that Degotardi had maintained with his printer friends in Germany was now turned to good account by John Degotardi's half-sister Josafin who, now on her way to London to embark for Australia, stopping first at Munich. Under instructions from Sydney to order a printing press from Badener's factory, as well as chemicals and other printers' provisions, she was introduced by Herr Kaiser to the inventor of collotype Josef Albert. Her account of this I meeting is preserved in a letter to John Degotardi dated 23 ! October 1872. It reads in part:

'Herr Albert is very strict and bossy with his employees, particularly these days since he's extending his business and this means he's often away in the country. When Herr Kaiser introduced me to him, he had only two observations to make. In the first place, he thinks that two months is too short a time for me to get to know the ins and outs of the collotype process. His view is that I'd need at least six months. Secondly, I should be a bit taller to make the work involved easier. As far as the first point is concerned I'll be as attentive as I possibly can be in gathering all the information I can during the time I am here. This will be until the beginning of December so I'll be working in Albert's studio-workshop for eight or nine weeks until I leave for London where, as I've found out , I'm to be on board by 28 John Fletcher, John the 20th De~ember.'~~ Degotardi: Printer, Publisher and Photographer, p. 69 At 25, Josefin acted with a maturity and energy that was no doubt expected in an age when resourcefulness was as nec- essary as it was expected. Following her instructions from her brother she duly noted that 'collotype printing is still not perfected, but keeps on being improved all the time' and that she enjoyed the freedom of the print shop where she was able to 'start on any job, and if it's not urgent' and could 'do the first and second preparation, and if the plate is all right I can run it through once. If they think they can't manage it then I have my own press where I can print.' The photography section was however barred to her. Negotiations with Albert continued and technical and finan- cial dealings with Badener, Kaiser, Albert and her mentor 29 ibid.. pp. 69 -71 Herr Meier occupy her thoughts in her letters to Sydney29. Other batches of materials were sent on with the help of Carl Bobardt, but had difficulty in obtaining printing rollers,

as even second hand ones were in short supplyJ0. Josefin 30 ibid., pp. 71-72 Degotardi arrived in Sydney in March 1873 on the

31 ibid.. p 72 MacedonJ1.

With the information thus obtained, John Degotardi appears to have made some use of the notes made by his sister in Albert's studio, which permitted him to become the first collotype printer in Australia. Evidence that he succeeded in this goal is reported on. Degotardi's i exhibit at the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition of 1875 received an award for:

'Photo-mechanical printing. This process is partly the invention of the exhibitor and partly worked after Albert's process. For cheapness and simplicity of manipulation, and also for perfect permanency, the process stands unri- valled, being printed on a printing press with printer's ink: requires no mounting or special preparation of the paper.' Degotardi's application of the collotype process was, it seems, to some extent his own interpretation of Albert's method. The work appears to have met with a less favourable response from the judges of the Engraving, Lithography and Photography section of the Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition in 1879, who merely awarded him the accolade of 'Highly Commended' but nevertheless reported:

Heliotype process, very well executed, the negative being worthy of commendation.

This implies that the photographic aspects of Degotardi's exhibit was was considered to be better than the printing of the image. Examples of Degotardi's work are to be found in the Archives office, New South Wales. The pioneering efforts of Degotardi to introduce the collotype 1 process into Australia in the 1870s lapsed when he, either through ill health or for other reasons, changed direction and turned to the practice of photography as the mainstay of his business.

Elsewhere attempts to improve photo-lithography were made I by other hopeful patentees in Australia during the 1870s and 80s, but little is known about the success or otherwise with 1 which these processes were worked, or of the degree of orig- inality these experiments entailed. As a group these inven- tors seem to occupy to a lesser extent than Degotardi a tran- sitional position between the original and commercial suc- cess of John Osborne's invention of photolithography for line illustration and the collotype processes introduced by James and Donald Taylor in Adelaide, and Francis Niven at Ballarat.

Of these minor Australian innovators the PhillipStephan i Photo-litho and Typographic Process Co. Ltd., at 155 Clarence Street, Sydney, showed the most promise. The Phillip-Stephan patent being a three colour or multi- I colour process which from the patent details provided appears to be an attempt to introduce a species of photochromolithography. However, the details given in the , patent registered in Victoria give the impression that their process was very much a hit or miss affair. A set of twelve pictures printed by the PhillipStephan Photo-litho and Typographic Process have survived in a series of views of 32 PliillipStephan Photo-litho Sydney. Now in the Mitchell Library, Sydney", this set of & Typographic Process Co. Picturesque Views of photographs is accompanied by a note on the back of the Sydney, PhillipStephan Photo-litho & Typographic which was transcribed by Ferguson as follows: Process Co. Limited. 155 Clarence Street. Sydney, c. 1888 (Ferguson number 'The following particulars are explanatory of the Phillip 14113a). Stephan Process-The inventors of the process are Samuel Phillip and Adam Stephan. The former is a pho- tographer, and the last named is a lithographic printer. For some three years past, they have, in a cellar situat- ed in Wooloomooloo, worked hard and continuously to perfect this discovery, which combines the knowledge of both trades...... towards the end of last year (1887), a company was formed and successfully floated ...'

The photographs include views of Watson's Bay Park, the Zoological Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (2),Potts Point from the Domain, St. Marks Darling Point, a fountain opposite the Domain gates, the Sydney Observatory, Wooloomooloo Bay, Circular Quay viewed from Dawes Battery, the Sydney Botanical Gardens and Farm Cove.

Among other Australians who experimented with the idea of printing from photographs at about this time were Charles Nettleton and Fernand Desroziers of Carlton, Victoria, who patented their new process, which they called 'photogravure or zincography' on the 15 February 1879, and in April of the same year George Sutherland Jr. also living in Carlton, laid his claim with the patent office of 'Improvements in preparing transfers and moulds for lithographic and surface printing,' an idea with features that seem to anticipate the Levy screen. (See Appendices for patents).

Commercial use collotype among Australian printing companies was not carried out to any recognisable extent until the beginning of the 1890s. In ~ustralia,this revival of interest in collotype paralleled a renewed interest amongst British printers when the process blossomed there in the decade before 1900. During the 1890s the commercial application of collotype in South Australia was commenced by the successful working of a version of the process by Scottish immigrant and photographer, James Taylor. Taylor began to use the collotype process in Port Pyrie in the late 1880s. But as far as 's known, full and successful exploitation was not commenced until 1903 when his son Donald Taylor started in business as 'Donald Taylor & Co. Art Printers' in Adelaide with his father's help. In 1905 the business was renamed the Donald Taylor 33 David Cook. Picture post C0110type CO. Ltd.33 cards in Australia 1898 - 1920, Pioneer Design Studio. Lilydale, Victoria. 1986,pp. 151 - 152. As happened in Britain and America, mechanical typography dominated, collotype printing was largely ignored as a commercial proposition in Australia Gzfore 1890. Then

collotype printing suddenly, and unexpectedly, found favour i in the regional city of Ballarat, in Victoria, where Francis Wilson Niven at began enthusiastically promoting his 'Crisp I Photo' process. The originality of Niven's 'Crisp Photo' is questionable, and the identity of the true inventor of his process remains something of a mystery. There is no clear evidence supporting the claim that the 'Crisp Photo' process was developed by Francis Niven or his assistant Harry Crisp. In fact one document points to the possibility i of concealment and a concocted story designed to disguise , the source of the invention.

Niven was outspoken and successful. He was clearly jealous of his early business partner Hermann Deutsch and often in later life claimed that Deutsch owed his success to Niven rather than the other way around.

During the Ballarat gold rush Niven's printing business thrived. Lithography was ideal for printing maps, prospectus- es, and share certificates for the mines and were printed 'in millions'. Later, chromolithographs and letterpress theatre posters were printed too and colourful orange box labels 'thrown off' for export to Tasmania. The advent of the 'Crisp Photo' process coincided with the depressed business cycle of the '90s and led to one of Niven's most dangerous ventures; publishing illustrated books with collotype plates. He was well connected with politicians and business leaders. A member of the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Committee, promoter and Chairman of the Ballarat Electricity Company, he (or perhaps his son) clearly believed that the way to deal with business depression was to trade out of it. A Melbourne branch of the firm was formed, and Niven's Cyclopedias were widely promoted in the daily press. But by 1901 it became clear that this strategy was a failure. Francis Niven retired to Melbourne in ill health, the Ballarat branch of the business began to run down, and competition from Sands and McDougall of I Melbourne for the Ballarat directories put the declining business under pressure. The Ballarat branch of F. W. Niven and Co. was sold in 1905, and today the Melbourne branch of the firm of F. W. Niven which was continued by his son is also defunct.

Any account of the life of Niven and the invention of the I

34 A form of the collotype 'Crisp Photo' Process34which he promoted with energy is a printing process employed I by the firm of F. W. Niven destined to remain a controversial topic. In his role as a at Ballarat. successful businessman he can be played as a braggart, a villain, or a brilliant entrepreneur and successful inventor. Many of his real achievements are likely to remain hidden behind a mass of conflicting reports, most of them generated by Niven himself.

Nivens's boastful and theatrical personality and his undoubted natural abilities may be traced to his successful father, Ninian Niven, self-styled 'Professor of Landscape Gardening' and, quite genuinely, Curator of Dublin Botanic Gardens (1834-1838). Niven senior was born at Kelvin Grove near Glasgow c.1799, and was the'son of a Scottish gardener. In later life Francis Niven referred to his origins as 35 The British Lithographer, being from 'a good family of Scotch extraction, having a Volume 3.- No 13. October-November 1893. decided artistic tendency, especially on his father's side.'35 36 This is repeated in what Francis Niven was born in Dublin in 1831, and educated 'in was clearly a prepared press statement in both the best of the good schools in that At thirteen Niven 'F. W. Niven-profile' in The Australasian claimed to have run away from home, out of dislike for his I TypographicalJournal, Melbourne, June 1897, step-mother, and went to sea for five years3'. In 1850, now p. 7. and. op cit. in the feature article published in nineteen, he saw his first ingots of gold on board the The British Lithographer, Countess of Seffon on the west coast of South America and 37 ibid., The British Lithographer, heard stories of the gold discoveries in California 'a few I 38 F. W. Niven, days sail to the north of us3'. Still indentured, he returned 'Reminiscences of 1850-54'. The Ballarat to Liverpool where he heard news of the discovery of gold at Star, Saturday 12 December 1896. Ballarat and on obtaining his certificates of seamanship he set out for Australia with the son of a near neighbour in Dublin, John Allingham. They left Liverpool aboard the Anna for Melbourne on 5 April 1852 and arrived at Hobsons Bay

39 Passenger list. The Anna. on 27 July39.Niven's account of their three month journey is 1852. Victorian Public I Records Office. Niven full of youthful humour and is written in the swashbuckling appears in the passenger list as a seaman. He style of an adventure yarn in Boys Own Annual. He tells the joined with John J. Allingham to form a party story of 'a weary passage of 124 days before being driven to seek gold. to find protection from the easterly gales to the north of Kangaroo Island at Holdfast Bay where 'we were boarded by a small tug boat, which reported that gold was being got by tons at Ballarat, Forest Creek, and Bendigo!' In the second I

installment of his account of the journey headed 'Mutiny on I I 40 F. W. Niven. the High Seas',40he wrote that the crew and some of the 'Reminiscences of 1850-54, Mutiny on the passengers immediately wished to leave the ship, but High Seas', The Ballarat 4 Star, Saturday 19 because the legal niceties were not observed they were December 1896. judged to be mutinous. Some days after the dispute was settled, the crew were imprisoned by the captain, and he and some other passengers brought the ship safely to Melbourne. This account by Niven, while exciting, is clearly exaggerated if not entirely fiction.

Niven was indentured for four years and issued with a 41 Francis W. Niven Collection. University of Mariners Ticket in 1847 at the age of sixteen. In 1852 he Melbourne Archives. (uncatalogued) : Mariner's received a Certificate of Competency as Second Mate. In November.Register Ticket' 1847: Dublin' l1 January 1852 he was paid off by captai" George Wheeler certificate of competency as Second Mate, February of the Countess of Seffon after a final journey from 1852: Testimonial NQl., u1 (reference) 4 February, Liverpool to Calais and back . The Anna, according to 1852. Niven's account, arrived at Hobson's Bay on the 15 April after a passage of 126 days (the actual journey took 114 days and the Anna disembarked its passengers, Niven and Allingham included, on 27 July 1852). It is here that the difficulties of establishing the truth of Niven's story begins. Niven and Allingham had formed a party of six while on board the Anna and on their arrival in Meibourne set out for Forest Creek (Castlernaine). Niven provides an interesting account of his first impressions of Melbourne, the poorly printed maps of the colony, and his experiences on the gold fields. At Ballarat he recalled the mixed fortunes of miners, including the underground death of one in 'The Tale of Cockney Bob', and the looting of the dead digger's gold in which Niven casts himself in the exemplary role of the mate 42 F. W. Niven, going to the town to seek help.42 'Reminiscences of 1850-54'. The Ballarat Star, With this uncertain (but first hand) story in mind we come to Withers account of how Niven changed his career yet again making the transition from gold miner to lithographer.

43 W. B. Withers, History of In Withers History of Ballarat 43 Ballarat, second edition, 1887, (Facsimile Edition 1980).F.W. Niven. Ballarat. Niven purchased a lithographic press from a Ballarat resident, Alfred Ronalds (1802-1860), who began his 44 Thomas A Darragh, The lithographic and engraving business in Geelong in 1849.44 Establishment and Development of Engraving Niven described Ronalds variously as 'someone fresh from and Lithography in Melbourne to the time of England'45and 'as the late Mr. Ronalds, of the Wendouree the Gold Rush. Garravembi Press. 1990. Nursery Gardens' who had introduced lithography to Ballarat p. 28. in 1853." In the former version the purchase consisted of 45 'F W Niven-A Profile', The 'a hand press, a copper-plate press, and a few litho stones Australasian Typographical Journal, June 1897. ... and ink... [the presses] had been used for many years in 46 ibid.. Withers, p. 284). the Staffordshire potteries... [and were] ...p urchased for £40.' in the latter version they were described as 'little hand presses... cherished old companions [rather] than 47 ibid. active ~orkers.'~'

48 The English Australian and Chinese Advertiser Niven's first attempts at drawing on stone are said to have lithographed on the Ballarat goldfields, two taken place when 'in August, 1856... Robert Bell printed editions of which are now held in the Latrobe Library his Chinese Advertiser from stone,48and about the same Collection. State Library of Victoria. time Henry Harris, E. C. Moore, C. Abbott, and others 49 Withers, op cit, p. ... ). started the first Ballarat Punch, F. W. Niven assisting in the 50 On stylistic grounds the illustrations with one of Ronalds' hand presses49.'Withers' cover illustration (University of Melbourne remarks are backed up by a leaf showing a lithographed Archives) is very like the two printed covers design for the cover of the Ballarat Punch amongst Niven's preserved from the second series of the papers which was dated 1856 by Niven, or someone acting Ballarat Punch. What appear to be differing for him.50(See fig. 42, p. 221). In a profile of Niven printing technologies, (the author has not seen the published towards the end of his life in The Australasian original of the first edition as it is in private hands Typographical Journal of June 1897 his Australian career and has had to rely upon photocopy reproductions) begins at Ballarat, where after seven years (1859) of all are at odds. The banner of the first Ballarat Punch. kinds of deep mining work he 'began to look about for a set in Figgins' Tuscan Ornamented (1843) or its more reliable occupation.' German equivalent (1842). along with letterpress text. appears to be printed from type alone without the aid Niven, by Withers account, began to teach himself of lithography. (Page one in this instance was also lithography from a few pages in Ure's Dictionary of the Arts the cover). These features. together, make Niven's in 1857. Ure's Dictionary entry begins thus- claim that this cover design was intended for The lithographic press in common use has long been the first Ballarat Punch regarded as a very inadequate machine. The amount of suspect. See fig.41. manual power required to work it and the slow speed at However, to insist that the which, under the most favourable circumstances, copies lithographed illustration in can be procured, disables lithography in its competition the University of with letterpres~.~~ Melbourne Archives was definitely for the second series of the Ballarat Punch is, by itself, not Directness in a textbook is an advantage. For the pioneer clear cut. Niven's intention in making the lithographer with little technical support a careful descrip- drawing cannot be dismissed entirely. The tion of a Napier and Sons steam driven lithographic press very few complete copies from either the first or the and how it was operated was useful. A detailed account of second series of the journal available for study makes such a claim risky.

51 Andrew Ure. Ure's Dictionary of the Arts, was first published Inthe 1830s. See - Ure's Dictionary of the Arts (sixth edition) 3 vols. London. 1867.

fig. 41 right, Banner of the BALLARAT PUNCH, first series, NQ 5 issued 25 November, 1857. This issue appears to be set entirely in type. lithographic methods, a recipe for making lithographic flg. 42 above, BALLARAT PUNCH. , design for a cover? dated in ink Dee1856. crayons, two more for making lithographic ink and details of I Niven Collection, s2 I University of how to apply it, how to prepare autographic paper and Melbourne Archives. autographic ink, were included too. In all, with the fig. 43 above rlght, BALLARAT PUNCH loose leaf, preparation of inks, paper surfacing or , the (verso), University of Melbourne Archives. lithographic transfer process, a method of engraving and printing on stone by the 'lithotint process,' fixing or 'etching' 52 Autography. or the operation by which writing the stone and the practice of chromolithography are or a drawing is transferred to stone. described in six compact pages.

Niven later claimed that he experimented with these few simple tools to make his first , which along 1 with other work, earned him about £50. He also said that , another job for 5000 bill heads done by him was pulled

from the stone a sheet at a time until'the repeated etching I caused the work to stand up so high that the stone might just as well have been printed as a letterpress block. Thus the legend of the self taught lithographer working far into the night was spawned. This version of events may not be entirely untrue. In 1862 Niven was still renewing his Miners Right (£1.0.0) and by the year 1869, while now the owner of a successful printing firm, he was still paying 5s. per year for his miner's license. These later 5/- miners rights obtained in 1867,1869, and 1887, suggest that he did not give up all interest in gold mining (perhaps as a 53 Niven may have invested hobby) for some time.53 as a sleeping partner in a gold mine and required a miners' right to do so. Weston Bate however, in Two newspaper cuttings kept by Niven at this time (Ballarat Lucky City, Melbourne University Press, 1978, Times,3 September, 1858 and Ballarat Star, 30 July 1857) provides another possible explanation. After the may relate to his attempts to price his work: Eureka rebellion miners' rights became an avenue to land tenure. F. W. Niven Prices listed of work available in the Star purchased a residential jobbing Office- property in Ballarat North. (Letter in Melbourne University Archives). This Large size per 1000 52.10.0 private purchase may have ordinary size do. 2. 0.0 required a renewal of a miners' right as a small size do. 1. 0.0 54 condition of ownership. An alternative explanation to both these scenarios On the back of an undated lithograph for Martell, Brydon & is that Niven retained an interest in gold mining as Hedrick's brandy is another list of lithographic printers a hobby. prices signed at the bottom F W Niven- 54 Newspaper cuttings and lithograph in the Niven Collection. University of Transferring common sized bill heads and under 4d.each, Melbourne Archives. large invoices 6d. each. Transferring equal to the working of 100 impressions. Printing- 4to. bill & letterheads 10s/ - per 1000 8vo. ditto ditto 7s/6 - do. 4to. circulars 4d. per 100 do. 8vo. ditto 3s/ - do. 1/2 sheet demy (black 6s/ - do. Whole sheet 10s/ - do. Writing- 8vo. circulars 6d. per line 4to. ditto 8d do.

Evidence in support of Niven's independent start as a lithographer is relevant. A page from the Ballarat Punch mentioned above has drawn in pencil on' its reverse side a sketch of a fanciful and primitive lithographic press. It is a novelty which may or may not have been capable of being made to work. Was it a joke, a fanciful conversation piece? 55 Hermann Deutsch arrived or a serious attempt to work out a means of printing on the at Melbourne in the Sussex in January 1857 goldfields? Its appearance suggests it was a doodle, yet (Shipping list. Public Records Office there are aspects of its construction suggesting that Niven Melbourne). Listed in the passenger list as may have thought seriously of constructing it. (See fig. 43, 'Lithographer - German.' By 1859 the partnership p. 221). of Deutsch and Ferguson was located in Lydiard Street Ballarat (bill head: partnership was formed, (c.1857-9), with Hermann . Bot. of Oakley Hunt and A Opie. 1859).The output of lithographic prints made by Deutsch5=who was afterwards reviled by Niven at every the firm of Deutsch and Ferguson include those opportunity. The reason for his repeated outbursts against his drawn in 1859 by partner unknown. Hermann Deutsch was bankr~pted~~ F. Cogne and include old are views of Mount Bunninyong, a View near in the alluvial gold-share crash of 1870 when hundreds were Yuelle's Swamp, the Court House and the Chamber of ruined by a fall in market values of more than £2,000,000.57 Commerce. Deutsch's business card also But Francis Niven's contempt for Deutsch continued to surface exhibits a high standard of printing. The dissolution of long after financial disaster overtook his old employer as the the business partnership between Deutsch and Australasian Typographical Journal reported in 1897 : Ferguson took place in 1859 under circumstances Professional opposition came along in the shape of a German that suggest that Deutsch was not an unfair man stone engraver, who declared that he had been receiving f9 (Government Gazette vol. per week from the Government; and our novice [Niven] was so 2, p 2109, No 1370: much impressed with his own deficiencies, and opponent's Dissolution of Partnership. Hermann Deutsch and imagined superiority, that he actually accepted an offer of John Ferguson). apprenticeship from the 'enemy,' and gave all his little plant as By 1862, Deutsch, now a premium, only to find out later on that his employer did not established in Bridge Street, advertised know nearly as much of the profession in a general way as he lithographic printing. did himself. engraving of dies, seals and stamps, general printing and commercial Niven's ego suffered whenever early lithographs of the stationery in addition to show, business, visiting, Ballarat goldfields were ascribed to Hermann Deutsch, and and wedding cards, all 'executed in a superior he grasped every opportunity to criticise Deutsch when style' along with the usual bill heads. letterheads. when cheques and bills of ... exchange. Other items on sale included a range of ... steady progress for the benefit of his employer continued to cordial labels (John W. Butler, Birtchenell's be made, and the excitement at this period (1857-58) was so Ballarat Directory, S. L. keen that any apology for a picture or view of 'the field' was Birtchenell. Ballarat, eagerly sought for and purchased for dispatch to far-away 1862, p. 26.). At this time the firm also operated friends. The discovery of the 'welcome' nugget, 2,217 ounces, from a second address in at the 'claim' on Bakery Hill, may be cited as an example of Main Road Ballarat East. this. A litho reproduction of the nugget and a view of the place 56 Government Gazette. where it was found was drawn and worked by Mr. Niven ; thou- 9 July 1870, vol. 2. sands of copies were sold art a 1/-per copy, £450 being p. 1011Return of realised to the proprietor on this venture alone. lnsolvencies for the week ending 9th July 1870 in the Geelong Circuit District:- 2541. Hermann His particular resentment seems to have been reserved for Deutsch, Ballarat, photographer. 2nd July. the profits obtained by Deutsch irom drawings which Niven insolvent Court Office. Geelong. claimed were his. The success of the welcome nugget 57 Spielvogel Papers, vol .2. lithograph cited above, was singled out but there were also Edited by P. G. Mansfield. Ballarat Historical Society. other views of gold mines, shown with their underground 1981, p 120. Here Spielvogel tells of the workings, which Niven claimed, had benefited from his example of Koorinoor mine shares falling in value 'mining and trigonometrical experien~e'.~~ from £2,500 in 1863 to less than £50 in 1870. The population of the city fell by 7000 in the Hermann Deutsch was regarded as an expert lithographer depression in two years by the mining community on the Ballarat gold field in the , from a high point of 58.000 in 1868. late 50s and early 60s, and was praised locally for his 58 F W Niven-A Profile'. The Australasian Typographical lithographic views. But the ambitious and impatient Niven Journal, June 1897. bought Deutsch's share of the partnership in 1863. 59 The British Lithographer, loc. cit.. pp. 5-7. g In The British LithographeP the circumstances surrounding the purchase seem calculated to arouse feelings against Deutsch. In it, Niven implies that Deutsch benefited unfairly 60 ibid. from his dealings with him. 61 A business card made by Niven soon after the transfer of the business In a few years the German gentleman completed his fortune by took place shows a map a lucky stroke in a mining venture, curiously enough from of Ballarat's boroughs on information he received from Mr Niven, who had not the means its reverse side. The lithograph appears to be to profit by the information himself; but it led subsequently to the work of Deutsch, but it his purchase of the business on terms at about double its gives us the following value in 1863.60 details about Niven's business at 23 Bridge St.. opposite the British Queen Deutsch's subsequent fate suggests otherwise. In fact, the Hotel, F. W. Niven Lithographic Printing & incautious Niven's outburst may even arouse suspicions Stationary Establishment (late H Deutsch). that he 'salted' Deutsch's future prospects, by painting a 62 There is no direct proof rosy picture of future wealth in a gold mine, to get control of that Niven was inventing history. One difficulty is the business.61 that lithographic equipment may have been imported as 'machinery' rather than printing Years later, having become an established community and equipment. The technicality may have been business leader, Niven also audaciously claimed to be the exploited to avoid duty, or it may simply have not pioneer of steam-lithographic printing in Victoria.. . been thought of as belonging to the printing category because it was In 1858 the first steam lithographing machine in Ballarat and not typographic. Two in the Colony was started by Niven, at 19 Lydiard street, and entries are listed in the was a great success. About the same time another was got to Victorian Customs Bill of work in Melbourne, by H. de Grouchy. Entry, 13 July 1861, three packages of machinery valued at f100 imported He may have believed, naively, that his claims would never by William Detmold. and Victorian Customs Bill of be ~hallenged.~~This story, perhaps designed to demon- Entry, 11 September 1861, four packages of strate his vision, is now disputed. It is now believed that machinery valued at £250 imported by William lithographic printing was pioneered by Arden and Strode Detmold. l have located no earlier reference to such imports by Detmold. (1840). Other earlier illustrative lithographers of note were Henry Lingham (1843), who printed a series of lithographic 63 Thomas A Darragh. The Establishment and prints in the Port Phillip Magazine, Thomas Ham (1843), Development of Engraving and Lithography in who later worked for the Government Printer, and Alfred Melbourne to the time of the Gold Rush. Ronalds who in 1849, lithographed at Geelong3. Power Garravembi Press. 1990. p. 28. lithography was introduced to the Geological Branch of the

64 A Messrs Greig's Patent Government Printing Office in 1860 by Thomas Ham.6Wther Steam Lithographic . Machine imported by early power lithographic plants which may predate Niven's Francis Cooke. Pittrnan's Report, op cit.. See also first power press were set up by H. L. Robinson, and also Thomas A. Darragh. 'The Geological Survey of by the firm of J. W. Pearson and Co., later bought out by Victoria under Alfred Selwyn. 1852-1868. Edward Whitehead in 1864, and renamed E. W. Whitehead Historical Records of Australian Science. 7 (1). & CO.~' pp. 1-25. p. 6.

65 Peter Whitehead. Melbourne, interview (16 The rise of the Ballarat firm of F. W. Niven was rapid during May, 1996). the 1870's and Niven extended his printing business to encompass book publishing. The first edition of the History of Ballarat focused on the events of the gold rush and the conflict at Eureka. This first edition contains many fine lithographic illustrations but there is no reference to the history of printing on the gold fields. In hindsight this is a mixed blessing, for in the second edition Withers gives (for the period) a detailed account of Ballarat's early printing his- tory. But the relationship between W. B. Withers and Niven was that of employee and employer, and in reporting the sequence of events in the second (1887) edition of the History of Ballarat, Withers relied on assertions made by Niven now nearing the zenith of his career.

Niven, nevertheless, has some sustainable claims as a mechanical and chemical innovator thirsting after improve- ments to build on his business success. Evidence that he may have considered entering lithography by way of a home-made press shows this. His drawing on the reverse side of a lithograph for Ballarat Punch, (see fig. 41, 66 Melbourne University p. 221)66suggests that Niven attempted to design his own Archives, dated Decc 1856. locally improvised lithographic press. Ttiis drawing shows a primitive device which has as much in common with the construction of a windlass as that of a printing press. The clue to its purpose lies in the pencilled indication of the tympan resting above the lithographic stone. Its construction is crude and the mechanism relies on a heavily weighted cradle-like device weighed down with stones. Suspended from ropes or cables to provide stability, the bed of this press with the weight of a lithographic stone on it, may have retained its balance as the stone passed laterally under the blade. The stone weights may also have had another purpose: to provide a means of applying 67 This is not the first controlled pressure to the stone.67 reference made to concept of a locally made lithographic press. A lithographic press had More printing press drawings signed F. W. Niven, or initialled reportedly been constructed in the F W N and presumably made by him, show a Australian colonies and was in use in Melbourne sophistication in drawing that convinces one of his genuine in 1843. See Darragh, Engraving and Lithography interest in the mechanics of printing engineering. But what in Melbourne at the Time of the Gold Rush. p. 20 value these undated drawings (figs. 44, 46-8, and fig. 50) and n. 38 which gives the source of this information may have as evidence of genuine innovation is not easy to as the Port Phillip Magazine. 1843. vol. 1. determine. Some are clearly direct copies of existing nQI., p. 48. machines, drawn by him or an assistant with the object of 68 Machine drawings in the possession of Peter altering them. One of these shows a Hughes and Kimber Simington, Melbourne and kindly lent to the author. flat-bed machine in elevation, with instructions and 22 November 1993. suggested measurements for the modification of the rack.

(fig. 46 and fig. 47, p. 228). I I

The most extraordinary drawing (fig.44) shows a four colour sheet fed rotary press of an unexplained, and very sophisticated design for the period c1903-5. Initialled FWN, it is in advance of many later machines. A clue to its origins lies in a journal article 'Crabtree Down Under' issued by R. W. Crabtree & Sons Limited (~1960)who 'bought a controlling interest' in Bell and Valentine, the Melbourne printing engineering firm, '...in 1949.' Illustrating this article is 'an early leaflet issued by Bell and Valentine [showing] the four colour press made in 1908.' (See fig. 45). Its features were: 'Prints four colours at a handling. Stretching and shrinking of paper between entirely overcome. Absolute register. I Perfect rolling. Perfect delivery,' and it reduced the machine cost printing labels, playing cards and three colour process work by 70%. The firm of Bell and Valentine Ltd., formed in 1919, had a considerable history going back into the 1870s when Robert Bell of St. Kilda built his first printing press. It is not unlikely that Niven had dealings with Bell or his descen- dants. As Niven died in 1905 it is the only plausible expla- nation for his drawing. What the connection was beyond this is impossible to say, but there is cause enough to think that some some ideas were shared.

fig. 44 above, drawing of a QUAD. CROWN FOUR-COLOR MACHINE four colour sheet fed / \ rotary press initialled F W N. nd. Kindly supplied by Peter Simington. flg. 45 right, magazine advertisement for Bell and Valentine's 1908 four colour press Kindly supplied by Peter Simington.

Pri.~Fu Won .1 Dr Hulli.~. -&I -4 Yi.Liz .I Paw krn. ?din* I.linb 0,-. AW. E*", ?.kt El&.:. P& M.". 1.4-n kclji: Gal .I LhL. PL+.I t(..tCJI h W-f a,h BELL & VALENTINE, South Melbourne; fig. 46 above, drawing of a two colour Hughes & Kimber litho press: driving which 2ft. 9 in. diam, length of stroke of carriage 5ft. 8". length of rack 88". Initialled F W N, lower right hand corner, nd. Kindly supplied by Peter Simington. fig. 47 above left, detail, drawing of Hughes & Kimber shown above. fig. 48 right, drawing of a three colour press on company letterhead in use prior to 1905. Kindly supplied by Peter Simington.

fig. 49 above, Furnival lithographic press. Cf. fig. 48 at right. fig. 50 right, direct rotary two colour sheet fed lithographic machine, 1 % inches = 1 foot. Signed E W. Niven. Kindly supplied by Peter Simington. In the second edition of the History of Ballarat (1887) Withers made no mention of Francis Niven's interest in photography drawing attention only to those who were in business as professional photographers. But an article in the British Lithographer (1891) referred to 'nature printing, or photographic reproduction, [which] next engaged the attention of Mr. Niven, he having long practiced as an amateur photographer', thus suggesting that Niven interest in photography may have led to this new method of collo- type printing.

69 The British Lithographer, In The British Lithographer article69we are encouraged to October - November, 1893. pp. 5-7 incl. believe that Niven and his assistant, the lithographer Harry supplementary plate. Crisp, worked tirelessly to perfect 'a distinct method' of making collotype prints. A process moreover, that once perfected, was put into production under the protection of the name 'Crisp Photo Process'

The development of collotype printing in Australia (and in Britain) at this time represents a progressive, modern approach to printing half-tone photographic work and it remains to be shown how this came about.

What is odd is the insistence by Niven that the invention was Crisp's. For Niven, who was angered by any mention of the lithographic skills of Hermann Deutsch, was uncharac- teristically keen to heap praise on his obscure lithographic assistant. In Ballarat and Vicinity published by F. W. Niven & Co. in 1894-95, W. B. Kimberley wrote:

More recently the new collotype, discovered by Messrs F. W. Niven and Harry Crisp, and patented by Mr. Niven under the name of the 'Crisp Photo' process, has succeeded beyond the expectations of these gentlemen... Since this extract was writ- ten the process has been further improved, and additional advantages discovered. After taking off 10,000 impressions from the plate recently, the latter was found to by no means impaired, but rather improved.

The implication that the process was Crisp's idea, with some collaboration from Niven, followed by a new phase where Niven's improvements were embraced is questionable. An answer to which, I believe, may be found in an unpublished letter from a London printer to another 70 The Glenny/Edward letter Ballarat identity, Henry Glenny70. found among F. W. Niven's papers is now in the possession of Peter Simington. Glenny arrived on the goldfield of Ballarat before the Eureka rebel- lion in 1854. His wandering career, like so many of the immL grants of the 1850s altered enormously as conditions in the colony changed, where 'one decade was as different as possible from the preceding one' as can be imagined. Working at first as a store keeper, then a postmaster, a town clerk, and later as a pho tographer at Kyneton, Castlemaine and finally Ballarat, he finally

71 Born in County Down, turned to writing.71 Ireland, on the 5th August 1835. Glenny wrote under a variety of nonde-plumes. He travelled several times to England where he did busi- He wrote for the Ballarat Times, Evening Mail, ness in placing share floats for 'Australian properties on the Evening Post, the Star, and for the Ballarat home market', the total of which were said to have been Courier. He was also the Editor of the Ovens and valued (1894) at over £1,000,000. This figure included the Murray Advertiser, at Beechworth in northern float of the Queens Birthday Company of Dunolly Victoria. Best known as 'The Australian Silverpen' (E150,OOO) in 1892. In 1894 he floated several other gold his stories were published in Journals and Jottings and diamond mines on the London market72.At some time (At Home and Abroad), Adair, Belfast. 1889. before 1891 he was approached either directly, or through 72 W. B. Kimberley, Ballarat an intermediary, by a London printer, Arthur D. Edward of and Vicinity, F. W. Niven. Ballarat. 1894-95, the Photophane Printing and Publishing Company, who pp. 206-7. proposed to franchise his photo-printing process in the Australian colonies.

This letter, dated 2 July 1890, written by Edward of the Photophane Printing and Publishing Company, 846 Old Kent Road, London, and addressed to Glenny regarding licensing and floating of Edward's process also to be called Photophane in Australia. In it Edward refers to an offer to pay Glenny for setting up business arrangements for the process throughout Australasia. He expressed some anxiety that protection be obtained for the name 'Photophane' and claimed that in London the name has 'been valued at several thousand pounds.' The body of the letter describes the process, and refers to photo-reproductions obtained by the process and to a box of samples, of which, he asks Glenny to... Please look after case which is sent... to yourself. We have marked everything specimen so that no duty shd. be claimed of inside. I have sent a resume of contents. These will probably on arrival be mixed up, so please look carefully through & I count every sheet. Where no description appears on the face, I you will find it on the back except in cases where I have dupli- cated the samp!e in which case a description appears on only one copy.

The details of the process accompanied by a complete is I proposal for the set-up, staffing, costs, and profit sharing arrangements he was hopeful of obtaining through Glenny in the Australian colonies. He asks j Glenny to contact Messrs. Baker & Farquhar, of Melbourne 'who are certainly magnificent photographers' for references and assures him that no competitive typographic process is capable of producing comparable results. Edward wrote:

About five years ago I took up with photography, and gradually became an enthusiast. Under ordinary circumstances photo prints are very expensive, very uncertain in quality, & in course of time fade or discolour. Studying further the one aim of the I photo scientist for many years has been to grasp permanent photography and to place it on the printing machine, in the 1 hope some day of printing from a negative as one does from a litho stone. As a practical printer I knew that this once done successfully, the return would be enormous. I found that from 12 to 14 years work of a kind had been done--but the result I photographically was a failure, the negative being transferred I

to a printing plate which even in its first copy did not give any I of the delicate half tones (I will endeavour to send you a fair published sample) & after about 100 copies were off gave I nothing but a blur (every print I am sending you is one of the overs after the order has been completed-in most cases this has been several thousand and in more than one 50.000 to 100,000). The art world rejected it. The photo world spurned it as mechanical, and a litho drawn or wood block was preferred by the commercial world. Unprejudiced I went to work-found that the plate used was of bichromatical gelatine, in the first place of course, with a heavy grain that stamped every picture mechanical, 2ndly, not fine enough to absorb or return the delicate artistic points of the negative. 3rdly, too weak to stand the friction of printers rollers, 4th, killed by cold or damp & melted by hot weather. I went to work, with this advantage, I had nothing to unlearn-no personal prejudices to kill. My knowledge of chemistry told me gelatine alone was no good & that one formula for preparation of plates would not do for all weather and circumstances [why sometimes we vary it daily, according to the slightest change of temperature-and even give a different one to different machines]. Gelatine alone would never stand the wear & tear of the machine, often giving 6 times the pressure of a litho machine. Our plate does stand all this-it reproduces everything that is in the negative; every copy is equal in quality formerly charged to the trade £8 per 1,000 have been sold at two shillings each! In telling you all this, I am revealing that which hasn't hitherto been known outside our house- to reveal the fact is bad enough, but to patent, and publish the full specification would be most unwise, & we would not consent to such a course. We have but two men who could do the work frm beginning to end-but every department is carried on separately. Each is amply duplicated, and each working with the other forms a layout whole. Every skilled employi. is under an agreement wh. amply protects us. I will take you step by step this the whole process. As a sample a long way above the cost to us take a photographic view the style and size of those I am sending you attached to glass without frames in box complete. We call them opalines. The photographer is employed at a salary of three guineas per week. He can comfortably produce 8 negatives per day- generally more, if you take the cost of chemicals do., each neg. will cost 2/6 x 4 = 10/6d. Now a negative is a reversed image of the original. Place it in contact with a piece of sensitised paper, print by the aid of light and on the paper you have the image the right way. If instead of paper. we print the neg. on the Photophane plate, the image the right way on the plate, but put the plate on the machine and print off it the whites are reversed. However ...... we must first reverse our negative. For this purpose we have ...... a most valuable process , which could be patented. Each neg. costs a few pence say = 4 = We pay one plate preparator £4/10s. per week-he fills up his time on other things, but he easily prepares daily 6 plates the size I am Illustrating (ie: each plate with 4 10x8 negs. on it) so that the 4 in labour cost 2/6 and in chemicals less than a 1/- together say.. . 3/6. The plate then goes on the machine, & a ... day's work is 600 perfect runs, ie: 2,400 photos at a cost in labour (Man & girl or boy) of 12/-, paper 30/-, & ink & chemicals about 2/- say ------44/- Add 25% for printing?, rent, & management &c., say - - 15/- 2,400 photos Gross cost = f3/14/6 less than one halfpenny each. The mounting on glass if put out 16/- per thousand, at home about 6/- glass back & box 3d. each. These have hitherto been sold in hundreds of thousands @ 8/2 for 12 (retailing at a shilling) and so far we have been unable to supply the demand of London alone... Our ordinary work blocks our machines. You have now the outside cost of the most expensive article we produce. For commercial and book work of course we get a lower price (see our list). The machines whose cost later on I give cover a picture or pictures 24 x 18 on paper up to 30 x 22-we frequently do 8 Royal octavos together (I send you a sample sheet) on art work for which of course we get higher prices-more than 2 together no matter what size, is rarely possible. Allow 600 perfected sheets per day-you know what you can charge-at least one price, & you can reckon yr. own profits. But you have many advantages over us. You would commence with an experience free that has cost us several thousand pounds. We are working in a building totally unsuited to a large business- taken on lease when I had only one handpress-you will build from our plans. You would commence with no experiments to make, & perfected apparatus, a result that has cost us at least 55,000. We had to fight great prejudices, &firms with unlimited capital-you have a clear field, & the leading houses of your colony eager to help and join you.

He went on to tell Glenny that a £20.000 share issue and float in the Australian colonies is 'absolutely in your hands- subject to your acceptance of terms herein.' In return for this undertaking he grants Henry Glenny Powers of Attorney. As to the amount of capital required, Edward estimated the building costs at 52,000, which, when added to by the sup ply of three machines @ £230 each, a gas engine, and other machinery & fittings could be installed for a total of £3,390, or, he continued, 'for £4,000 you should have a grandly fit- ted up perfect works capable of turning out an enormous quantity of work.' Edward also said that he had advised Messrs. Baker & Farquhar of Melbourne that Glenny would show them a case of samples when they arrived.

What happened next can only be speculated upon. The case of samples has long since disappeared. It would appear from the circumstances surrounding the survival of the letter that Henry Glenny had business dealings with Niven. Whether Glenny approached Niven with a business proposal, or whether he merely sought technical advice is unknown, but in either case, it is a remarkable coincidence that the invention by Harry Crisp of the 'Crisp-Photo' collotype process should appear at this juncture.

On the 7th. of July, 1891 Niven and his son Henry Ninian Niven, styling themselves 'Artistic Printers,' of 56 and 58 Lydiard Street, Ballarat, lodged the following patent (No.8862) 'An improved gelatine printing plate. in Victoria. The brief description of the patent suggests that it was of a photo-litho- graphic or collotype nature (lithography and the collotype process may both have involved the use of sensitised plates in 1891). The description is somewhat cryptic in its details, and unless a set of drawings, together with further details of the patent comes to light, the originality of the claims must remain to some extent questionable:- Claim 1. A printing plate prepared with a substratum that will give depth and toughness to the gelatine and firmly adhere to the surface of the plate, coated with the sensitising solution herein described and marked D, E, F, with the addition of bichromate of potash, sodium or ammonia which upon exposure under a negative will give the image almost entirely on the surface of the film.

2. A printing plate coated with the substratum marked A, 6. C, herein and then coated with the sensitising solution marked D, E. F, with bichromate added or the use of any other colouring matter that will produce a non-actinic colour so that the image will be almost entirely on the surface of the film.

3. In combination with our printing plate and as an alternative for a colour plate, a lithographic stone for printing flat colours such as the pathway shown in exhibit G the prints from which stone are in all cases finally printed over with the key plate as represented by exhibit H or with transfers therefrom.

It is one of the frustrations of this research that the accompanying exhibits to this patent remain undiscovered. Where they are located, if indeed they still exist today, is a mystery. It has been suggested to me that the inclusion of exhibits of this kind was an unusual step when registering a patent; and that such a measure was usually applied only 73 Several searches for the when it was believed that the patent might be disputed.'" missing exhibits have proved fruitless. There is no record of them in the State Library of Victoria or The technical success of the Crisp-Photo process was the Australian Archives Canberra. immediate. F. W. Niven and Co. were able to put the process into production at once. Two machines were assigned to the process and kept busy on permanent printed photo-reproductions for post cards and books. Examples of the Crispphoto process also appeared in the Ballarat Star at about this time. The article in the British Lithographer of October - November, 1893 provides an interesting word picture of the prosperity and sophistication of the Ballarat printing works, its layout, and the kinds of equipment then in use.

Much of the success mechanically Mr. Niven attributes to the use of the excellent machine specially imported from Messrs. Schmiers, Werner, and Stein, of Leipzig. In, addition to the above there is in the machine department on the litho side a Hughes and Kimber litho machine, which Mr. Niven has altered an adapted for collotype work; various fine litho machines by Wm. Greaves and the Messrs. Ratcliffe, of Leeds; hand presses, a stone grinding machine, and other requisites. On the letterpress side are various 'Wharfdales' by Messrs. Payne and Sons, and Messrs. Dawson, of Otley, ranging from folio to quad demy, power for the whole floor being obtained from one of Crossley's Otto engines.

Succeeding floors are devoted to the Artists' department, and warehouse and storage purposes, the top departments one being occupied by the composing and binding departments. In addition to a well-assorted collection of modern serviceable faces in type, and well-arranged frames, together with the various little etceteras such as our compositors delight in nowadays-a rule curver for instance-there is a proof press, Columbian hand press, and Arab and Golding jobbers. In the bindery there are two machines of Mr. Niven's devising, one being a varnishing machine, and the other for drying gummed or varnished work.

Elsewhere the features of Niven's collotype process are outlined as follows:

One of the main features of the process is the hardening of the delicate printing film on the plate without impairing the artistic results, and thus long runs may be successfully taken from it, and an excellent speed maintained. Some of the examples of chromo work which have been reproduced by it are really marvels of beauty and rival the finest hand coloured photographs; in fact it is difficult to believe at first sight that the pictures have been produced by mechanical means at all.

Such 'puffery' was self serving, yet it was not without foun- dation. The work was, for its time, technically ahead of any competing letterpress processes then available. Niven being a competitive and ambitious man, took every opportunity to further his cause.

In 1893 Niven's new series of books employing the 'Crisp- Photo' process were in preparation. On Monday 24 July 1893 the Adelaide Advertiser reported on a promotion for a projected publication to be called Fair Adelaide, which

74 Reviews of Bendigo was to be published in late 1894 by F. W. Niven & Co. The Quartzopolis appeared in the Ballarat Star in company's representative, Mr. Welesley A. Parker was, the October; 23 July, Ballarat Courier: 26 July, The paper confided, then visiting Adelaide and he was Ballarat Post and Bendigo Advertiser: the latter available for consultation by those interested in being making reference to the Crisp Photo-Process. On 5 included in the project. August. The Prahran Telegraph, reviewed Bendigo Quartzopolis, In 1893, the Ballarat Star also publicised Niven's recently which was on sale at 2/6d and referred to other published Bendigo Quartzopolis, also drawing attention to publications by the firm of F. W. Niven & Co., namely: the Crisp Photo-pro~ess'~.In the following year (1894), Marvellous Melbourne, and Golden Ballarat. Ballarat and Vicinity illustrated with 'Crisp' collotype prints was published. By now the firm's publicity machine was in full swing. Ballarat and Vicinity was reviewed by the British Printer, March - April, which came out with the judgement i 3 that the 'Crisp' process was 'equal to the best chromocollotype we have yet seen' and then went on to describe the publication and provide technical details for its readers. Then on page 7 of the London Times on 12 September 1894 another column appeared, echoing the British Printer, which said:

Srrfiblrmect to " RRiTf.SN LITHOGRAPHER."

fig. 51 above, The Crisp- work contributed by Messrs. Niven & Co. of Ballarat is general- Photo Process illustrated. ly speaking, equal to any works of the kind which can be turned THE BRITISH LITHOGRAPHER, out here, and is noticeable as being the first which has been vol. 3 nQ13. October - November, 1893. shown in England from our colonies.

75 Reviews of Ballarat and Vicinitv in the Ballarat Star and in Australia further ~ublicitvwas received from the and he Courier on 18 October and Star were Geelong- Times on 15 December, and .publicity for this and followed by still others on the 30 October in the the other books continued into the following-. year (1895) in Bendigo Evening Mail, and the Bendigo Advertiser the Bendigo Advertiser, the Bendigo Evening Mail, and a reviewing Bendigo and vicinity. host of other newspaper^'^. This public recognition must fig. 52 above, The offices of F. W. Niven & Co., 40 - 42 Flinders Street Melbourne.

have seemed to Niven to represent the peak of his long I career and his pride must, at last, surely have been satisfied.

76 Reviews of Victoria and It's Resources appeared in The Victorian State Government were sold the idea of a the press on 22 July in The Age 'Vagabond', who similar publication to promote the state. This publication, wrote of the Crisp Process; the arrival of the called Victoria and It's Resources, contained more than 300 first collotype machine from Germany; and of illustrations, and was widely reviewed7=. In the Ballarat Star Victoria and Its Resources which was to be a review of Victoria and It's Resources mentions the subsidised by the Government. There were contributions made by its editor E. Jerome Dwyer, various others- on 26 September Ballarat Courier and the other writers, and details of the book's 88 crown folio Evening Post: 28 September. Ballarat pages (including a map) and a full-size colour photograph of Star and the Argus. In October The Herald and the Ballarat Water Reserve, claiming that the book is well I the Tribune (3 October) and the Pmhran Telegraph aimed at British emigration. Reviewed in the Melbourne all published reviews. (Source: F. W. Niven's Argus, the contributors, Reginald Murray (mining), Mr. J. L. press book, supplied by Peter Simington. Dow (agriculture), and Mr. Williams (horticulture) were highlighted along with the news that a part of the edition (comprising some 2000 copies) had been purchased by the

Victorian Government for distribution in the United Kingdom. I In the Prahran Telegraph review the Crisp-photo process was mentioned, and that copies were sent to the Queen and Prince of Wales as, 'the distribution of such a work at the present time cannot fail to benefit the colony.'

The Australian financial crisis of the 1890s had its effect on the firm of F. W. Niven. By the 1890s F. W. Niven and Co. who had dominated printing in Ballarat and had established a market for their printing Australia wide, were assailed by one of the largest printing firms in Melbourne,

Sands and McDougall. Whether this development was a I result of Niven's decision to open a branch of his business in Melbourne or the cause of his doing so is difficult to say. The reason given by Niven for the relocation of the firm in Melbourne was that he began to suffer from ill health and decided to move to a lower altitude and warmer climate in 1 1901. The business, like many others, did not prosper during the 1890s and the losses incurred began to bite

at the turn of the century. l I In 1905 the firm was entering a crisis. Francis Niven's life- long enthusiasm, and promotional flair for printing books of photographic views may finally have placed the business in jeopardy. Niven had fought his last fight: he died in Melbourne on 3 December 1905, and was buried in the Ballarat New Cemetery on 6 December. Among the coffin bearers were James Hoskin and J. McCartney of the newly formed Ballarat Lithographic Company. His assistant Harry

Crisp too was a pall bearer. !

Losses incurred by the Cyclopedia account were probably central to Niven's decision to put the Ballarat business up I for sale. The sale of the Ballarat branch of the firm to the Ballarat Lithographic Company was effected during 1905. Whether the reason was that the collotyped Cyclopedia's I were diminishing in popularity, or whether it was because of a change in attitude and policy at the bank, Henry Niven i found himself faced with questioning as to the state of his : finances, especially regarding the Cyclopedia account. On 1 March 1906, Henry Niven received the following letter from The English Scottish and Australian Bank Limited:

Qijc GitgIirilj 5cottis'lj & 9nritrilIian @1111i liiiriteb. fileI[lottritc. 1st March, 1906

Messrs F. W. Niven & Co. Flinders Street

Dear Sirs, Upon examination of your balance sheet of 3 Dec'. last I was surprised to find that it disclosed such a serious position of affairs, the loss for the 9 months amounting to no less a sum than 55,199 10 2 of this 53,911 7 6 represents debits to Profit & Loss a/c in respect of the Cyclopedia a/c, thus leaving a trade loss of 51,288 2 8 for the period, or at the rate of over 51,700 per annum. I have not yet submitted the statement to my inspector, as before doing so I should like to have an interview with you with the view of discovering the cause of this loss, and what prospect, if any, you have of doing better in the future. I very much fear that I shall receive instructions to stop the whole a/c and wind up the business. I Yours faithfully, S. Davies, Manager. 1

I fig. 53 a photocopy of the To what extent Francis and Henry Niven were responsible E. S. & A. letter to F. W. Niven & Co., for this state of affairs, or when they became aware of 1 March, 1906 (reduced). difficulties, is not known. But there may have been some friction between father and son as far back as 1887. A reporter with the Ballarat Star (quoted by Withers) gives us this glimpse- I Since Mr. H. W. H. lrvine joined the firm, however, and relieved I Mr. Niven of the management of the commercial part of the I business, [thus] enabling him to devote his attention more fully to the artistic work, the firm's trade has increased by leaps and bounds, until now there are 65 or 67 hands employed.

Francis Niven's hand is clearly behind this self promotion, i

but one wonders how voluntary his retirement to the 'artis- , tic' side of the business was, given his intense interest in mechanical and chemical innovation and trade matters. The Cyclopedia enterprise may well have caused difficulties between father and son before the older man died. Henry Niven, however, must have taken responsibility for the future of the business because F. W. Niven's Will made provision for his son to use the money realised from the sale of his property, the bulk of his personal estate, to invest in the business for five years a interest of 5% paid annually to the Trustee before being obliged to make disbursements to other beneficiaries.

F. W. Niven's Ballarat business was sold to a partnership composed of ex-employees of the firm headed by Thomas Arthur Davey. The new firm was called the Ballarat Lithographic Company. Articles of Association acknowledging the change were lodged in 1905." The operation of the Melbourne branch of F. W. Niven's family business was still fig. 54 Francis Wilson Niven carried on by his son Henry Ninian Niven. Eventually F. W. , Niven's Melbourne branch also passed into the hands of the

77 Ballarat Litho. & Printing family of another of Francis Niven's apprentices; Henry Alfred Co. Limited. 1905. Memorandum and Articles Simington who had started with the firm in Ballarat in 1897.78 ; of Association of the Ballarat Litho. & Printing Co. Limited, 1905. Ballarat. 1905. I 78 Henry Alfred Simington's At the turn of the century a competitor to Niven in the field : name appears in the wages book belonging to of collotype printing emerged in Adelaide. James Taylor, a ! F W Niven now in the State Library of Victoria, it Scottish photographer who settled in South Australia in I shows that he started with ' the firm in 1897. 1864, had originally set up in business at Gawler, where he made 'carte de visite' albumen prints in the late 1870s. His portrait was taken standing in front of his shop, and is found among his photographic views of local businesses which were included in the Gawler Handbook of 1880. The 79 Alan Davies and Peter Stanbury, The Mechanical Gawler Handbook was written by George Loyau and Eye in Australia, Oxford i University Press, 1985. published by Goodfellow and Hele, of Adelaide79.Details of 1 p. 70. Taylor's business at Murray Street, Gawler, were reported 80 South Australian Register. 17 August 1880. on by the South Australian Register in August 1880.80 1 81 David Cook, Picture post James Taylor soon after took the significant, but cards in Australia 1898 - 1920. Pioneer Design unexplained, step of pioneering collotype printing. He is , Studio, Lilydale, Victoria, 1986. pp 151 - 152. said to have perfected the process during the late 1880se1 , at Port Augusta. In 1901 James Taylor and his son F. W. W. Taylor published the Port Augusta and Stirling illustrated News. Only seven issues were printed. But in all of these issues the illustrations were collotype reproductions of photographs taken by James Taylor.81 81 Australian Cartophilic Society Newsletter. December 1982. Another of James Taylor's sons, Donald Taylor, was born in 1877. More investigation is needed to discover the means by which James Taylor started in the late 1880s to become an efficient collotype printer. What is known is that Donald Taylor was taught the collotype printing process by his father. About 1903 Donald Taylor's business was established in Weymouth Street, Adelaide, trading as Donald Taylor & Co., Art Printers. In 1905 as Donald Taylor's business developed, James Taylor continued to be associated with the business supplying advice, and when needed, his photographs of Adelaide, Port Augusta, Port Pirie, and parts of Western Australia. In 1906 and up until 1911 Donald Taylor & Co. printed postcards for the South Australian Railways.

In 1911 the company closed its doors and went into liquidation. It was then purchased and operated by W. A. A. West until 1929. The firm was then purchased by William Teakle, who renamed the firm The Collotype Co. Ltd. Today the firm still operates as Collotype Printers Pty Ltd, at Mile End South near Adelaide.82 82 Fred C Hurnphreys, From a Rush Hut... A chronicle of the first 100 years of organisation of Master This chapter, which diverts attention from developments in Printers and Allied Trades in south Australia, Printing Europe and America results from primary documents for and Allied Trades Ernolovers Federation of Australia being available while European and American ~ustralia.South Australian Region, 1985, p. 176. documents and books on the subject are not. This does have a benefit within it however. These circumstances serve to demonstrate the extent to which printing industry technology transfer was freely available to ambitious and enterprising (and perhaps unscrupulous) lithographic printers. It demonstrates the extent to which chemical printing had become internationalised and how much it had I been absorbed into the mainstream of print. Nor was all fig. 55 Pop, Donald Taylor & Co. collotype post card, innovation in one direction only (Europe and America to 'Light's Monument, Adelaide, c1905-6. Australasia), as will become apparent in the next chapter which deals with the work of Frederick Sears in New I fig. 56 bottom, verso, Donald Taylor & Co. collotype post Zealand and in Britain in conjunction with Ira Rubel the card, Adelaide, showing a spurious, but popular. American inventor of offset printing. Australian Coat of Arms.

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Chapter 9 Indirect Transfer and the Invention of Offset Printing

The origin of the offset press is one of the least discussed subjects in the literature of printing 1 W. E. Soderstrom 'The - W. E. Soder~trom.~ Origin of the Offset Press' in Charles Shapiro. (Editor). The Lithographers Manual (fifth edition). The Ira Washington Rubel's innovation, offset lithographic Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, Inc.. printing on paper, discwered in 1903, was the culmination Pittsburgh, 1974. (1.9). of more than fifty years of accumulated, isolated or sometimes loosely related technical developments.

Before Rubel's discovery, the utility of indirect ink transfer on paper with a lithographic printing press was not discovered. Although indirect ink transfer had proved its worth in tinplate printing, typography's dominance over lithography maintained the illusion that nothing had changed and typographic literature reinforced this perception. Consequently it was not until the lithographic offset press emerged as a crucial step in printing machine design that the technological balance shifted finally to favour chemical printing. Even then it still took sixty years to do so.

Rubel was the first to see the potential of indirect transfer 1 of ink to paper in lithography, but he was denied the full financial rewards of his discovery because indirect I lithographic transfer was already being practiced by tin I printers in America. It had been in use by them for thirty years before the idea of applying this principle to paper was tried. For Ira Rubel the application of the idea of transferring ink to metal among tin printers had unfortunate consequences. In the United States his "offset" machine was already considered by patent attorneys to be a commonplace method of production and on these grounds his press, and his competitor's presses were ruled to be unpatentable.

Disappointed in the United States, Rube1 took his ideas to England in 1906 where he met Frederick Sears, a New Zealander, who had been born in Liverpool England. Ira Rubel's career, in the two years that remained before his death in 1908, was bound up with that of Frederick Sears 2 Gail Buckland, Fox Talbot who, like Rubel, was a zealot in the cause of offset printing. and the Invention of Photography. University of While in the service of the New Zealand Government Printer Queensland Press. St. Lucia. 1980, p. 77. Sears invented his 'High-light' process for the preparation of . 3 The first American patent for a typewriter was lodged photolithographic halftone plates. by William Austin Burt an inventor from Detroit in 1829. A description of this class of machine, and others that followed it will be found in W. Turner Berry's entry: 'Printing and related trades' in A History By the mid-nineteenth century the graphic arts had of Technology : The Late 19th Century, c. 1850 - progressed to a stage of modernisation that was as varied 1900, Vol. V., Oxford University Press, Oxford, as it was confusing. Experiments with photography and type, 1954-58, pp. 689-690. See also - Richard Z E. Huss's The or more correctly photolettering, had been tried by Talbot Development of Printers' Mechanical Typesetting (1843), and an early attempt at mechanical type transfer in Methods 1822-1925, University of Virginia the form of a prototype typewriter3 had been attempted in Press, Charlottesville, 1973. and Cornelius Detroit in 1829. Another noteworthy variation on this theme E. Delorca and Samuel J. Kalow. The Romance Division - A Different Side was an attempt to introduce a typesetting system for of IBM. Wyckoff. New Jersey, 1973. lithographic tran~fer.~This development had the unexpected 4 In 1877. Ottmar effect of leading to the invention of the Linotype ma~hine.~ Mergenthaler was employed by Hahl and Co., The typewriter keyboard solved only a part of this problem. a Chicago firm approached by patent lawyer James 0. Clephane and his Typesetting machines that relied on the principle of feeding associate. Charles T. Moore, with plans for a foundry type to be composed by a keyboard operator were transfer typewriter, and asked for help to make a tried as a seemingly obvious solution. These machines prototype which they hoped would replace however, met with limited success. Ottmar Mergenthaler's conventional compositing. I Their idea was to perfect a I machine able to print a breakthrough was a return to first principles. The use of lithographic impression with all the virtues of matrices to cast lines of type in the machine reintroduced printers' type, but effected by striking an the idea of indirect transfer into the process. The Linotype impression on lithographic transfer paper. While this machine in turn created a demand for the punch cutting of idea failed, the connection between lithographic transfer and the invention new typographic designs. This need for linotype matrices of the Linotype machine for letterpress printing is was in turn satisfied by the invention of the Benton worth noting. Huss, op. cit., p. 94.. and John S. punch-cutting machine. Thompson's The Mechanism of the Linotype, Inland Printer. Chicago, 1922. p. iii. These disparate developments in typography had parallels 5 After the failure of Moore's in the realm of pictorial printing. The progress of first 'transfer device' a 1 new machine was constructed to impress the chromolithography from early experiments (Senefelder and lines of type into a papier- mach6 matrix for stereo others) to the more mature processes devised by type casting. (Huss attributes Mergenthaler's Engelmann and Hullmandel, led in turn to more complex idea of stereotyping to Moore and writes that his lithographic colour printing between the 1840s and the later development of the Linotype had its origins in the 'rotary matrix 1880s. The laboured commercial chromolithography of the machine', which Mergenthaler patented but midcentury in turn, led to a fresher, more spirited revival of Clephane owned). 6 Phillip Dennis Cote. the process by French artists that reached its zenith The Colour Revolution: Colour Lithography in towards the end of the century.= An important aspect of France 1890-1900.Salt Lake City. 1987, Peregrine Smith Inc. gives a brief these developments in chromolithography was the effect on survey. The late nineteenth century French poster art printing in general of colour plate registration.' is often linked with the rise of advertising. 7 Robert Hoe (U.S.A., 1843) The discovery of photolithography also made an issue of developed a lithographic cylinder press able to the scale and accuracy of image transfer. Printed photo- . compete with letterpress machines. In Europe reproductions, first satisfactorily made with relative ease by similar ideas took hold. Dumontier (Rouen. 1844). made a lithographic press means of photolithographp and collotype printing, were that had an impression roller. This was also soon countered by letterpress printers employing artists to applied. (A. C. Waterlow, 1850). in England. See - photoengrave newspaper, book, and magazine illustrations R. M. Burch, Colour Printing and Colour on wood. This method of letterpress illustration was labour Printers, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1910. (new edition published by Paul intensive and various schemes were devised to make Harris, Edinburgh, 1983). g p. 201. Siegel (1852), improvements. The Levy screen (1893) was at the apex of designed a lithographic cylinder press which a series of methods devised to transfer photographic incorporated a scraper blade. Burch, op. cit, images to the page simultaneously with the text.1° The 'Lithographic Printing Machinery', p 201.. mentions two other halftone screen, inessential to the collotype process, machines: 'Two Glasgow patentees D. occupied an important place in the invention of paper Tannerhill (1854) and J. Wallace, proposed to 'offset' printing and played a significant part in Ira construct machines adapted to print from zinc Rubel's discovery. as well as from stone, the former's having two impression cylinders, to print two pictures at once. Separate from these developments, but significant for and from a reel of paper if required; whilst the latter had a stone or zinc offset printing, were the development of metal boxes and printing cylinder. A stone cylinder had, however. tinned cans used in food storage and preservation. These been patented as early as 1845 by Scholfield, a products encouraged the formation of a new branch of Manchester man, in combination with an decorative printing called tinplate printing. Biscuit tins, in impression cylinder.' 8 The New York Daily particular, soon became an essential decorative household Graphic (1873) first daily newspaper to adopt item serving both as an advertisement for the photolithography. manufacturer and a popular practical storage container for 9 Photogravure was invented by Karl Klietsch the consumer. Three distinct methods of printing on tin (1875). Halftone screens used in colour printing by Meissenbach (1882) were emerged. First came the direct transfer method, then a later replaced by the Levy screen. (See ch. 8.. p. more sophisticated indirect transfer method, and finally the 204. n. 6). idea of offset printing. 10 Halftone photographs first appeared late in the 1880s in Australia. The phenomenon of direct tinplate printing1' from 11 See M. J.. Franklin. British Biscuit Tins 1868 - 1939: deepetched lithographic stones (a method superficially An aspect of Decorative Pack2ging. London, 1979. New Cavendish Books. resembling letterpress printing) was plagued with problems. pp. 14-19, for more on the three methods of tin The chief difficulty arose from the necessity of the sheet plate printing in England. metal coming in direct contact with the stone and damaging the printing surface. Registration problems were also encountered if printings in more than one colour were called 12 ibid.. p. 14. for.I2 However, of the three main methods of tinplate plate printing, the direct method reliably reproduced attractive results when only one colour was overprinted on another, or when a colour was printed on a simple varnished ground (the combination of black printed over gold being especially popular).

The direct tinplate printing process was succeeded by tinplate printing accomplished by a method of 'indirect 13 See - Harry Whetton, (editor), and R. B. transfer' on a flatbed lithographic press.13The 'indirect Fishenden, Practical Printing and Binding. method' employed transfers or decals prepared on a Odhams Press Limited. London. 1948. pp. 230- transfer stone. The transfer method of tinplate printing, 231. By 1870 an 'indirect' method of tin printing was perhaps derived from transfers used in pottery and developed to solve the problem of slippage when metal sheets were printed. porcelain manufacture. These began to appear in England in Tin printers started to pre-coat sheet metal with the eighteen-fifties. M. J. Franklin (1979) in British Biscuit copal varnish before printing. An image drawn Tins 1868-1939 provides the example of an 1856 patent on lithographic stone was preprinted on transfer granted to Tearne and Richmond of Birmingham for trans- paper was then passed through the press and transferred onto the semi- fers applied to glass and papier machi. that 'implie[d] ... dry varnish on the prepared metal sheet. The their transfer method might be suitable for use on tin or printed metal sheet was then cured by heating it in iron.' Franklin draws attention to the exhibition of 'Show an oven. This 'indirect transfer' method is Tablets' at the Great Exhibition of 1862 and the award of 'a different to 'offset' printing in which the image medal for varnished metal plates decorated with transfers IS transferred from the ... plate to a roller and then to the prepared metal used mainly for outdoor advertising signs' to a French sheet in a flatbed press. This method remained the artisan, F. A. Appel.14 onlv means of 'offset' printing in England until 1903. Another English indirect tinplate transfer patentee Benjamin 14 Franklin. British Biscuit Tins 1868 - 1939. George George, active in London between 1860 and 1873, pp. 14-15. is also thought to have been mainly concerned at this time 15 ibid., p. 15. with the 'Show Tablet' idea.15 George's indirect transfer method, was however, used to print the oldest surviving decorated British biscuit tin for the biscuit manufacturer 16 ibid.. p. 15. Huntley and Palmer,16 the transfer design for which, is attributed to Owen Jones who also designed many of the paper labels for Huntley and Palmer. George's method evolved from one that first required the preparation of the 17 ibid., see details metal with varnish before the transfer was applied and then of another method of transfer printing patented needed to be protected with another layer of varnish before by Henry Mathieson of London. (1.882). A variation of this curing it in an oven. His later patents (1870 and 1873) method was used to print decals, or waterslide removed the process from the realm of the artisan, who transfers this century. previously coated the plate with oil colours and buffed the 18 The manufacture of commercial transfer surface of the metal before the transfer was applied. papers for making decals replaced the homemade .papers used by printer- George's improvement consisted of applying the colours to inventors. The best known pf these were sold as a prepared transfer paper instead of directly to the metal Simplex' and 'Duplex'. Ibid., Harold Newbound : plate. By this means it was possible to enrich the surface 'The word Simplex came from the [brand] name of of the design by building up the colours in layers. The the paper. It was an English paper, and there were two manufacturers of design was transferred to the transfer paper first and the transfer paper. One manufactured Simplex... flat colours were applied in layers afterwards. This scheme the other [Britains]. To print [a transfer] onto the ensured that the flat colours were applied directly to the gummed paper, th~black was printed first... and the metal and the decoration, which was the bottom layer on colours were built up behind it. You finished up with a white or several the transfer paper, became the top layer on the whites to give it a backing so that when it was metal plate." transferred the whole thing was reversed. [Transfers on] Simplex paper were mainly done the other way This innovation by lithographic printers making indirect around. ...y ou would normally print ... starting transfers of designs on tinplate led to the idea of printing off with two, or three, or four, coats of white, and decals.18 Decal transfers were also moistened and printing the successive colours onto that, this was printed on Simplex transferred to all kinds of manufactured goods in paper, and when the thing was finished and emersed widespread use at the turn of the century. By the end of the I into water, the gum would melt, and the whole thing nineteenth century many products were suitable for I would slide off, so you actually slid the transfer branding in this way. After 1900 there was a growing market off the paper, pull[ing] the paper out fro? for decals on farm machinery, bicycles, glass, underneath... .- Harold Newbound, interview, 22 April. 1994. 'wireless-cabinets, pianos, phonographs, and tennis 19 Percy Norwood, The racquets', leather and rubber goods and even shoes,lg had Australasian Manufacturer (May 27.1933) 'The Man decals applied to them. The use of the indirect transfer Behind the Factory No. 40. Thomas Arthur Davey'. method as applied to tinplate printing, however, fell into dis- 20 Warren C. Browne, Offset Lithography, use. A more efficient method of tinplate printing presented Photo-Lithography, Tin I Plate Decorating, New itself in the form of 'offset' printing. York. 1922 (second I edition. p. 169) refers to 'Tin plate decorating in France ... developed to a Offset printing on tinplate is also believed to have commendable degree prior to 1870. originated inFrance before 1870.20It was a method known 21 Franklin. op. cit.. p. 16. to 'Henry Baber of Pari~'~'and introduce'd in England by I Robert Barclay in 1875 by the use of a flatbed lithographic press modified for tinplate printing. Franklin writes of two English patents resulting from Baber's innovation, 'No. 22 Franklin. op. cit., p.15. 1168 granted to Robert Barclay and John Doyle Fry, and 23 Traditional nap rollers were No. 2590, granted to Robert Barclay' made from softened calf ... skin and hard glazed rollers were usually prepared by coating a Barclay's method of offset printing with a lithographic leather roller with hardened ink and then polished. Barclay's flatbed press eliminated the technical disadvantages of roller was probably a variation on this printing directly onto metal from a lithographic stone and idea. rendered the slower and labour intensive indirect transfer 24 .Guttapercha bindings in the printing industry have method, of tinplate printing unnecessary. It was at first seemingly gone unremarked by print historians this century. proposed that the offset 'blanket' that transferred the The use of elastic encouraged at least one image onto a metal sheet be made from a glazed cardboard nineteenth century inventor to attempt to comp~sition,~~but when Barclay's and Fry's patents came make a rubber stamp from similar material. into effect two years later (1877) glazed cardboard had In 1872-3 William Lambert's experiments in Melbourne. Australia, with already been replaced by a blanket made from the milky Caoutchouc, or sap, of the Morton Bay Fig rubber-covered canvas. tree may have arisen from knowledge of a similar rubber-like substance extracted from the source The use of GuttaperchaZ4in nineteenth century book of guttapercha, the fig tree Ficus Elastics. bindings and, thereafter, rubber in the manufacture of The rubber tree Hevea Brasilienses belongs to a rubber stamps, printing rollers, and for printing press different botanical group. the poincettas. No reference to the rubber- blankets, increasingly replaced traditional methods of like properties of the Morton Bay Fig are manufacture. The use of rubber printing discoverable, other than the work of J. H. Maiden. rollers for indirectly transferring ink onto paper on Curator. Technological Museum. Sydney, and later letterpress machines was assisted by the advent of ink Director of the Sydney Botanical Gardens, in Useful Plants of Australia. ducts and distribution disks.25The Gordon platen letterpress published by Turner and Henderson, Sydney. 1889. machine, and the many presses that imitated its design, Lambert's rubber stamp was exhibited at the introduced an iron ink distribution disk that rotated as the London International Exhibition of 1873. See- press was operated. lnternational Exhibition of 1873, The Victorian fihibition, Opened 6 November 1872: Official With the larger cylinder presses, ink rollers were employed Catalogue of Exhibits. Published by Mason Firth and McCutcheon. 1872. to spread and deliver ink to the in letterpress p. 171, and an advertisement in the printing, or to the stone or plate, in lithography. On the Illustrated Australian Good Templar Annual and flatbed direct lithographic press an inking slab was added to Directory for 1876,p. 71. Biographical deta~lsof W. one end of the carriage that supported the printing plate or V. Lambert are found in a privately printed family history: Peter Coad, The lithographic stone as it passed back and forth beneath the Lambert Connection, Bristol. undated. impression cylinder. The inking slab was coupled in tandem 25 Rubber was sent to the with the plate or stone as it passed back and forth beneath institute de France by Charles de la Condamine a fixed inking roller attached to an ink duct. The flow of ink from South America in 1736. The practical use of rubber came from the to the inking roller in these machines was controlled by a discovery of vulcanising by Charles Goodyear in 1844. flexible steel knife or blade and the action of the inking slab on the inking roller imitated the action of a hand roller by automatically transferring the ink to the sensitised plate or stone as it passed beneath it.

Barclay's patents for the offset process were sold to the match manufacturing firm of Bryant and May in 1877. The process was then licensed by Bryant and May to the British biscuit manufacturers Huntley, Boorne & Steven who enjoyed this privilege until Barclay's patents expired in 1889. It has been suggested that other British tinplate manufacturers may have used the offset method before 26 Franklin, op. cit.. p. 16. 1889 but legally they were not entitled to do so.26

In England, flatbed offset presses were the only machines available for tinplate printing until George Mann & Co. of Leeds unveiled their 'improved Mann standard rotary press' in 1903. The position in the United States is less clear, but the offset press was employed in tinplate printing there also well before its use for printing from paper was discovered 27 In the United States, late in the nineteenth century. thin metal printing plates were introduced which made possible a shift from the old flatbed stone presses to newer rotary machines. Tin printers i were quick to adopt the new rotary machines and As discussed in earlier chapters, the problems associated in 1903 an additional cylinder was added to the with the production of halftones in lithography had occupied rotary lithographic press. In 1904 the Mann Standard tin printing rotary the minds of photographers (Niepce and Poitevin) i lithographic press was marketed for the first time. lithographers (Lemercier, Asser and Osborne & James) and collotypists (Albert) for three quarters of a century when Rubel working in Nutley, New Jersey, and Sears in Wellington, New Zealand began to re-examine the problem afresh at the beginning of the 20th century.

1 Sears set out to solve the problems associated with the 'whites' and lighter tones in photolithographic printing as dull and heavy images instead of clear and bright ones. his I 28 The manipulation of solution was to introduce additional steps into the photographic negatives and the careful preparation preparation of negatives and into the etching of zinc of zinc and aluminium plates afterwards became plates.28His efforts met with derision in New Zealand and standard practice among offset lithographers. so Sears resolved to return to London. Between 1903 and 1904, Rubel, like Sears, began to experiment with photo-reproductions transferred onto a lithographic stone through a screen. This idea most likely originated from the technical advances already being made in photo-engraving for letterpress printing. Rubel's experiments with photo-reproduction do not appear to have been significant in themselves but his experiments with a stop-cylinder press led to the image being accidentally transferred, or 'offset', onto the rubber blanket when a sheet of paper was, inadvertently, not fed into the press by his assistant, so that when the next blank sheet was fed into the machine it took a near perfect impression from the blanket. Rubel's recognition of the importance of this discovery was described with some imagination by Carl Richard Greer in 1931. Greer wrote:

He (Rubel) was using a rubber blanket instead of the ordinary packing. The boy who was feeding the press forgot to send a sheet through, with the result that the image on the stone was transferred, or offset, on the rubber blanket. When the next sheet went through it did not give the effect Rubel desired and he threw it aside. The sheet turned over and on its back, but printed in reverse, Rubel found the design printed exactly as he desired. He asked the boy how this had happened, and was told. For the remainder of the afternoon they experimented, and then Rubel went home and set to work on the design of a press to print 29 See-Carl Richard Greer, indirectly by offset from a rubber blanket." Advertising and its Mechanical Production, Tudor. New York. 1931, p. 240. The nature of Ira Historically, Rubel is widely credited with the development Rubel's photolithographic experiments as far as I am of Offset lithography in the United States. While the aware have not been the subject of extensive study. development of offset lithography may seem to us a simple enough concept, the way forward was paved with difficulties. The direct method of printing from a stone or

30 Lithographic printing, aside plate on a flatbed lithographic press was a difficult enough from innovations among tinplate printers. idea for ordinary printers to accept,30and to advance further remained conventional and conservative. Change was to the idea of offset printing where the impression is often accepted grudgingly, even fearfully. How the complexities of lithography "offset" from the plate on a rotary cylinder press, via a were perceived by letter press printers is amply rubber blanket, onto paper is, with hindsight, the most demonstrated by Thomas McKellar's description of elusive application of the central principie of lithographic chromolithography. See- Thomas MacKellar, The transfer. But we now recognise offset printing as a better American Printer: A Manual of Typography, MacKellar. Smiths and Jordan, method by which ink might be applied. The idea was already Philadelphia. 1885. pp. 33-34. in use, as stated above among tin printers, long before its value was recognised by lithographers printing on paper. Because the solution to the problem of lithographic transference was not obvious, and because there were many other seductive challenges like photography and diversionary technologies like collotype to be mastered, lithography contributed to a variety of inventions before the now universally applied idea of offset printing was mastered by the printing industry.

As a result of Rubel's accidental discovery of offset lithography he set about redesigning a press capable of efficiently printing indirectly by offsetting the impression from a rubber blanket. Once the idea had been tested to his satisfaction, it became clear that to develop a fully commercial press required more capital and technical assistance. He took his ideas to Alexander Sherwood, a Chicago lithographer, and they then enlisted the help of Andrew H. Kellogg of New York who agreed to finance the venture, A partnership was formed between them.

Rubel, Sherwood and Kellogg agreed to build twelve offset presses, which became known as 'The Twelve Apostles.' The idea they agreed to was for these machines to be 31 Greet-, op. cit.. p. 240 leased out to one printer each in twelve different cities.31 When the first three presses had been constructed, dissension among them produced such tensions that the partnership was dissolved. Each partner taking one machine from the break-up of the business as their share in the proceeds.

The pre-existing use of the offset principle by tinplate printers was invoked in court actions that resulted from the break-up of the partnership, and from other printing engineers' attempts to exploit the idea. This ruling made it impossible for Rubel to protect his invention with a patent for his offset press in the United States.

Kellogg took his press to New Hampshire, where he began to build the Kellogg Offset Press. Sherwood, joined with the Potter Printing Press Company, in Plainfield, New Jersey, where they agreed to built a number of presses modelled after his machine. These presses were subsequently marketed as the "Sher-bel" offset press. When the first Sher-be1 machines had been sold, Sherwood withdrew, and 32 ibid.. p. 240 returned to his lithographic printing business in Chi~ago.~~

In 1906 Rubel took his press to England where, along side George Mann's tinplate printing machine, he is recognised for establishing offset printing in Europe. In England, Rubel met Sears and together they agreed to use Rubel's offset machine to work Sears' 'Highlight' process. But this arrangement was short lived because Rubel died soon afterwards without having realised any great fortune from his invention.

Mann's offset machine in England was easily adapted to print on paper. This machine soon became commercially successful both in England and abroad. The offset process, once clearly understood by lithographic printers, was regarded as a matter of simplicity. Unlike Thomas McKellar, writing of the complexities of chromolithography in 1885, Warren C. Browne, in 1922, thought that 'The process of printing by the offset press is by no means a difficult one... Three cylinders, one to carry the printing plate, another to carry the rubber blanket, and a third to carry the sheet and effect the impression from the rubber blanket to

33 Browne. op. cit.. p. 13. the paper, is all that is required.13' For most letterpress printers, however, the process remained something of a 34 In interviews with challenge for many years to come.34Browne saw advantages letterpress printers the difficulties and shortcomings of offset in offset printing because printing from the rubber blanket printing were often repeated, and costly required less pressure, and offset printing gave a truer mistakes referred to. impression on a wider range of printing papers. The paper could be thin or rough or hard and still print clearly. Less pressure meant less distortion, as the paper did not stretch as much. This meant that there was less likelihood of registration difficulties, or paper becoming creased or misfeeding into the machine. Similarly, only a third of the quantity of ink was required for printing clear and sharp images on an offset press as compared with a traditional lithographic flatbed press. Less ink also meant less mess. Thinner layers of ink dried faster and were less likely to 35 The term 'offset' is sometimes used to 'offset'35onto the back of other sheets when stacked. describe unwanted wet ink inadvertently transferred from the face of a freshly printed sheet onto the Ira Rubel's press, known as the Rubel Patent Offset back of another sheet placed on top of it. Lithographic Ma~hine,~~was illustrated in an article written 36 Frederick Sears, 'Alzinography, Lithography by Sears for the Penrose Annual of 1908-9. The machine of the Future'. Penrose Pictorial Annual, 1908-9, illustrated is an upright model. Also illustrated in the same D. 21 article is the 'Sears Nuttall Patent High-Speed Direct 37 ibid.. p. 22 Lithographic Rotary MachineI3' which appears superficially to be a reworked version of Rubel's offset press with some refinements. The large drive wheel on the Sears-Nuttall 38 The Sears Nuttall Patent High-Speed Direct machine38is shown encased in a protective housing and a I Lithographic Rotary Machine may have printed delivery board attachment is added to the front of his directly from a lithographic metal plate directly on to paper in a manner similar machine. Why Sears called it a direct lithographic rotary to that employed in rotary letterpress printing from a press is not entirely clear. The two machines look similar curved plate. and the plate cylinder is in the same position in both fig. 57 below. Rubel machines, see fig. 57. It may be that Sears lent his name Patent Offset Lithographic Machine and below right the to a direct lithographic press as an alternative to a machine Sears Nuttall Patent High-Speed that printed 'offset' from a third cylinder, but this has not ! Lithographic Rotary Machine (Penrose been clearly established. i Annual. 190849. pp. 21 - 22).

Nevertheless Sears's enthusiasm for, and belief in, offset printing is clear. Sears (quoting from the National Lithographer) wrote ' "Something more than a year ago we made a prediction that the introduction of the rubber blanket off-set press would revolutionise commercial lithography"... The prediction, however, has come true in every sense of the word; the off-set press has fairly revolutionised commercial lithography. The lithographer's day is coming, and the offset litho press is the sun in the dawning of that day.' He went on to say:

There are a large number of off-set presses today running on work that has been held by the letterpress printers for years, work that it was supposed the lithographers would never get a chance at again. Thousands, yes, millions, of impressions for the rubber off- set press have been taken from the letterpress printers within the past few months ; a large number of off-set presses are being run overtime right now during the dull period on work that was formerly done from type ...commercial work can be done on an off-set press by lithography cheaper, faster and better, than it is possible t to do it by the type process... Commercial work has come back to the lithographer to stay and Ira Washington Rubel was the man 39 Sears. op. cit.. pp. 20-24 who brought it back.39

Sears was the son of a British lithographic printer, process engraver and draftsman who conducted his business in 40 New Zealand Freelance. Liverpool." Before settling in New Zealand Sears travelled 14 May, 1904. widely throughout the Australasian colonies. In 1905-6 in the first of three articles published in the Penrose Pictorial Annual, he gave an account of his life in Australia. He arrived in the South Australian colony around 1881.

By 1883 Sears was at work in Western Australia as an officer in the Western Australian Government Survey Department. Leaving Western Australia, he visited the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales in the east where he was made 'many tempting offers' of work. Sears then moved north to Queensland, to set up his own business, where he was flooded out in 1890. This setback caused him to move to New Zealand where he was in residence

41 rrederick Sears. in 1891.41 Reminiscences of Lithography and Process at the Antipodes', Penrose Pictorial Annual vol II, In New Zealand Sears worked for the New Zealand London. 1905-6. PP. 121-124. Government Printer in Wellington. During this time he experimented with a new process he had devised at home. The site of his experiments is probably the same location at his home that was illustrated in the Penrose Annual, vol. II, on page 124, as 'the Studio of the Sears Engraving Company, Belhampore, Wellington New Zealand.

42 New Zealand Freelance. Like his father, Sears had worked as a process engraver 14 May, 1904. and draftsman. He also had become experienced in the use 43 Frederick Sears. 'Alzinography, Lithography of photography. His invention of the Highlight Process in of the Future'. Penrose Pictorial Annual, 19089, pp. 20 - 24 New Zealand was a photomechanical process that he 44 Richard Alexander McKay developed with a view to improving the prospects for (editor) History of Printing in New Zealand: 1830- halftone reproduction in lithographic printing. By the time 1940. Wellington Club of Printing House Craftsmen. Sears invented the Highlight Process he had already been Wellington. New Zealand. 1940. p. 109. McKay's explanation of the dabbling in inventions for some time. He is credited with the connection between 'Alzinography' and offset invention of a butter cooler in Queensland and a railway car printing is unsatisfactorily vague. The Penrose coupling among other things.42 Pictorial Annual articles do not make the picture much clearer. Sears' Sears -Nuttall Press shows that In New Zealand the problems associated with the Sears was a beneficiary in his association with Rubel reproduction of photographic halftones gained his attention. but it does not make clear how much Sears' process. or the money he made He developed the 'Sears' high-light process which he later from it, contributed to the success of Rubel's English called 'Alizinography, or Lithography of the future'43this has offset press. been presented by R A McKay as a process leading to 45 Henry J. Rhodes. The Art of Lithography. Scott, photo-offset printing. McKay wrote: Greenwood and Son, London. 1914. p. 259. wrote 'There are several methods of producing half- 'He had an experimental plant at his home and devoted all of his tone work by lithography, spare time to his system, which was in effect a combination of the best of them being patented processes. The lithography and photographic exposures at first, but later 'Sears" high-light process. developed to something approaching photo-offset. He succeeded the 'Frey" process, and the 'Stagmatype" process in raising capital in Wellington and sailed for England and America are examples. Between to place his invention on the market. Like most prophets he had a 1910 and 1914 Frederick Sears' process enjoyed bad time. Firm after firm laughed at him, saying that his scheme considerable popularity in was unsound-it could never be worked.'44 the new field of photo- offset lithography. Likewise Burch, in Colour Printing and Colour This condensed description of events is uncritical. Printers. Edinburgh 1983. second edition, published Nevertheless, Frederick Sears invention was in its time by Harris, p. 266. was also impressed by Sears' regarded as significant enough to warrant further process and wrote with approval of the 'Highlight grocess.' The 'Frey' and attenti~n.~~The technical innovation and commercial Stagmatype' processes do not appear to have success of Sears's process is acknowledged by various enjoyed the same popularity with Burch that contemporary writers on printing technology. By it he the 'Highlight Process' did. A more thorough study of resolved a satisfactory means of eliminating dots from the the Sears' and other processes may yield useful insights into the light areas of halftone printing plates by removing them at development of offset half tone printing. the photo-negative stage of plate preparation. The "Sears" high-light process, which he also called 'Alzinography, or Lithography of the future' became associated with offset printing. Sears, after a capital raising, and with some enthusiastic support, returned to London with high hopes for his photo-lithographic plate making idea in 1904.

Improvements made to his process in the United States, we are told, led to his renaming the process Alzinography While promoting Alzinography to London printers Sears was lucky enough to meet Rubel. The two men found that their ideas for printing lithographically were in agreement and 46 Penrose Annual. 190809. pp 20-24. See also New they soon formed a working partner~hip.~~ Zealand Freelance, op cit.. and W. A. Glue. History of the Government Printing Office, Government Printer, Sears soon gained celebrity status and wrote authoritatively Wellington, 1966. pp. 131-2. at some length about the lithographer's art in England before the First World War. In the Penrose Annual of 1906-7 he was critical of the working conditions in lithographic shops. He criticised the attitudes of the workers to their I jobs and deplored the antiquity of equipment still in use that should have been discarded long ago. He I illustrated this point by describing the difficulty of exposing a panchromatic plate in an unserviceable old camera at one I establishment, and drew attention to the future possibilities I 47 This opinion continued to be affirmed by later that offset printing offered. For those who sought to writers as late as 1922. See- Browne, improve the appearance of halftone illustrations in pp. cit., pp. 1516 - lithographers can now catalogues and scientific publications he prophesied that accomplish with photo- mechanical half-tone work what has hitherto halftone illustrations printed on a lithographic offset press baffled the typographers to attain, would replace photoengraved letterpress illustrations that is, they can print ordinary half-tone because the latter, being printed on high-gloss coated images on plain uncoated papers, free papers, reflected excessively from the page and was from the injurious gloss and glare of the highly glazed coated offensive to the eye.47To those who objected that the offset papers now in universal use for press could not compete with the speed of a good letter- this work.' press machine he replied that fine rules and halftones had 48 ibid.. p. 17. By 1922, been perfectly printed by him on undamped, 'rough drawing 7000 impressions a day were common place, and Browne paper... at the rate of 3500 runs per hour.'48 I writes of 'several hundred establish ments... printing more than 4000 an hour and In the 1908-9 Penrose Annual Sears wrote 'Alzinography, the work covers every phase of lithography.' Lithography of the Future.' The article is of interest because it describes with some zeal his belief in the bright future of offset printing, as he expressed it:

'the utmost limit has been reached in the block-maker's art, and that a great deal is still wanting, and that the only hope of getting perfection with three colours lies in the hands of the lithographer.'

In justification of his statement he went on to describe the difficulties of preparing process engraved zinc blocks for letterpress printing where 'in threecolour process blocks the pure blues are ruined by the presence of yellow and red, which of necessity must be there. The yellows are likewise dirtied by the underlying blue and red, and the reds are in their turn marred by the superfluous yellow and blue, which is always present'. Lithographic colour negatives made by his method which exhibited a great range of tones from solid areas of colour to white highlights were transferred to zinc plates and etched in ten minutes and then proofed; the letterpress blockmaker, Sears maintained, was compelled to spend days 'to get his highlights and gradations correct.'

The advantage of offset printing, Sears wrote, was that it I I 'offers great facilities for facsimile reproductions of works i of art in colour or monochrome, as the presence of superfluous colours and false tones is altogether absent.' (Note here the practice, later a standard one, of printing the lightest colour, yellow, first and the darkest colour, black, when the four colour process was introduced, was not a feature of Sears's method).

In 1909, printing inks were not capable of reproducing colours without becoming muddy. This state of affairs I continued well into the 1950s. Pigments were neither finely ground enough, nor pure enough, to produce an accurate representation of natural colour as seen by the eye. The preparation of photoengraved blocks, whether prepared from I zinc or copper, required careful exposure and etching to produce the optimum image for each colour. Too much photographic exposure or too little etching could easily produce one block in a set that was too strong in colour and out of balance with the remaining blocks. Added to this were the difficulties presented by the opacity of the inks. Yellow ink was then relatively opaque. So it became the common practice to print the non-transparent yellow, tonally the lightest plate, first. The darker red and blue blocks demanded careful registration. The misalignment of screen angles producing undesirable moire patterns sometimes appeared in carelessly prepared work. Later, when a black block was introduced in four colour work it was printed last. When a black block was used, it provided richer tones than could be obtained from a three colour print with its muddy greenish or brownish dark tones. A black block sharpened the image, and it could also conceal to some extent the imperfections of registration sometimes encountered in the earlier days of colour printing.

In 1909 photoengraved three colour printing was becoming commonplace, the printer endeavouring to produce any dark tones in a picture by the means of overprinting three primary colours. Frederick Sears had, he believed, simplified the preparation of zinc plates for offset printing to such an extent that the imperfections of letterpress colour printing were made embarrassingly obvious:

... It is because of these unalterable conditions that almost anyone can now-a-days tell a three colour block product, and that people of artistic taste are tired of the process. The block man prints his three halftone negatives, red, yellow, and blue, each on a separate piece of zinc; he now commences to etch away the false tones, to reetch, fine-etch, and re-etch again, and after he has taken days, and sometimes even weeks, to get his high-lights and gradations correct he has been aiming to get at where the litho man was when he had printed his high-light negatives on to the grained zinc. When he has gone through this performance with his red, yellow, and blue, he takes a proof, and if it is not like the copy he etches a bit off one colour, and then another, and then a third, until at last he can go no further and the block must do. He can't put on any work, and he dare not take his needle point dots 49 Sears, 'Alzinography, away-he is stuck.49 Lithography of the Future.' Penrose Annual, 190849. pp 20-24. There was no favourable comparison to be made, Frederick Sears believed, between the labour-intensive, time- consuming, letterpress process, and the quick, efficient, preparation of zinc lithographic plates for the offset press. He continued :

Not so the lithographer; he proceeds after printing his negatives on to zinc to prove them, and if any want reducing, he reduces by etching, which takes a few minutes, and if there is too little colour here and there the plates are reprepared, and with litho chalk or litho ink he draws in the deficiency, and if he thinks it necessary prints the blue negative on to another piece of zinc and works it up for a grey or an extra red or an extra blue, and by this means and process he can get so near the original that all but perfection is obtained in five printings, and the product is equal to a chromo lithograph in twelve or fifteen printings, to say nothing of the drawing saved, and the true spirit and touch of the original artist is kept. The future of illustrating in colour and monochrome will be done by high-light negatives as the base, the litho artist as the guide, and the offset rubber machine printing from zinc on to rough drawing paper. I make this statement without fear of contradiction from anyone who is capable of judging. Lithographer, artist or process block man. The lithographer's day is coming, and the offset litho press is the sun in the dawning of that day ...[and] ... Lithography offers great facilities for facsimile reproductions of works of art in colour or monochrome, as the presence of superfluous colours and false tones is altogether absent, and the purity and richness of any one colour is not ruined by any unnecessary underlying colour. For instance, we have our high-light metzograph negatives, red, yellow, and blue, with all the gradations from solids to pure high-lights. We print each on to separate pieces of litho-grained zinc, etch them (which takes ten 50 ibid. minutes) and then proceed to get our colour proofs.'50

Enthusiasm for offset printing before the First World War in Britain and America was reflected more widely than is perhaps generally realised. Printing has from the beginning been an international industry and printing technology transfer between North America and Europe predates the French Revolution. By the time the First World War broke out, the internationalisation of printing technology was as 51 The introduction of offset advanced in Australasia as it was in Britain or America.=' printing in Melbourne, Australia, would appear to have anticipated its Wartime demands seem to have repeatedly favoured introduction in New Zealand by twelve months. increases in lithographic printing and offset printing, like Offset printing was introduced to New Zealand lithography before it, has thrived during such national printing houses by Wilson and Horton Ltd.. Auckland. emergencies. in 1914. See--Glue, op. cit.. pp. 7-8. After World War One interest in offset printing slowed for a time, and the initial enthusiasm for offset printing, with a 52 In Australia rotary offset few notable exception^,^^ was not reestablished until printing continued to find rare and unexpected national priorities again created a need for technical support in newspaper production. See--Whetton and Fishenden. Practical manuals and maps in vast quantities during the Second Printing and Binding. p. 190, in which Whetton World War. writes: 'Although the printing of daily newspapers is outside the present scope of The reasons why there was a false dawning of offset lithography, the uninterrupted weekly printing were due, in the 1920s and 1930s to production of The Australasian, Melbourne. typography's powerful hold on its established markets in since 1929 may be instanced as but one outstanding achievement, defiance of any inroads made by offset printing.53This both of organisation and production, in this stranglehold was aided by obvious shortcomings in the new direction. The web rotary offset is a project for 'offset' method. For example better lithographic inks, which the near future can confidently anticipate a printing rollers, and more sensitive plates than were yet considerably extended one.' The quality of print production displayed in available, were clearly needed. But these were not The Australasian was of a very high standard. Not all forthcoming. Likewise the advances in transferred Images of the colour work however. published in The through photographic technology made by Frederick Sears Australasian, was done in house. Some of the four and others at the turn of the century were slow to be colour work was printed by Osbaldstone and Co.. a Melbourne printing firm improved upon. The struggles to improve picture quality in with a high reputation at the time. Nevertheless the lithographic reproduction by the average printer were remarks made by Whetton about technical attended by high costs, low budgets, and similar competing innovations at The Australasian, employing methods in the field of letterpress printing. Between the presses made by Bell and Valentine are correct. wars letterpress printing was able to remain competitive in . 53 There were 263 lithographic the lucrative field of advertising, and advertising, most I establishments in America in 1899. The number of times, meant newspaper advertising. The daily newspaper, lithographic plants stayed in the hundreds, dropping printed in large volumes on expensive, web fed, letterpress back in number in 1920- 21. In 1939 there were still only 789 lithographic machines had vast sums of money invested in it. Almost all establishments in America. Then the number leapt the advances in letterpress printing were operating within a forward to 8000 by 1972. closed system. There were no new ideas of great consequence left to exploit. Improvements in letterpress that were still made were mostly related to maintaining a high finish, improving precision and in keeping costs down in long printing runs.

Lithography by comparison was relatively open to new possibilities and fields of endeavour. Yet it was not until the Second World War that offset printing was again turned to with any enthusiasm. The reasons were simple enough. Under wartime conditions high quality printing became a lower priority. Now a speedy turn-around was essential. In offset printing a single manual could be pulled apart and laid out correctly imposed on a large sheet of paper. All the relevant matter, type, diagrams and illustrations, all arranged in their correct order, were photographed, turned over and photographed again. The imposed negatives quickly made in this way were transferred to lithographic plates and then a new edition of the manual was printed on the press. This relatively easy method of printing was increasingly combined with improvements in photography and increasingly large numbers of offset trained printers led to a heightened interest in offset printing.

After World War II offset printing technology slowly began to overtake letterpress printing. During the 1950s letterpress printers pursued the technical possibilities of precision engineering and high speed printing with vigour, but the problems they were solving with such precision (bringing type to finer and finer tolerances with precise makeready and precision engineered ) had already been solved in lithography half a century earlier. By the 1960s it was becoming obvious that the physical limits to high volume >

production in mechanical printing had been reached. All of I those in the printing trade began to recognise that the days I of letterpress printing were coming to an end.

The Benday dot and the Levy screen (used for many years by both typographic printers and lithographic printers alike) were replaced with finer screens. Glass ruled screens still

54 The Journal Company in use in 195054were gradually replaced with polyester Production of R. 0. P. Colour in the Milwaukee plastic contact screens providing the means to make Journal, The Journal Company. Milwaukee. 1950. sharper images with finer and less discernible dots. The 1 introduction of these synthetic photo-screens permitted the easy use in process cameras with vacuum backs. The reduction of the distance which light needed to travel with these new contact screens improved the resolution of I images. Accurately positioned screen angles used in gravure colour printing were adopted as the resolution of reprographic camera lenses increased. Zinc and aluminium printing plates which formerly used to be prepared by the printer on the premises, a method involving the noisy process of graining the plate on a machine with a revolving bed covered with hundreds of marbles became redundant. The sensitising and drying of plates on the premises had, until now, to be completed before they could be used. All of this was superseded by arrival of consistently uniform commercially manufactured plates. The manufactured plate was found to be more reliable. New bi-metal and tri-metal plates consisting of image transferring metal and non-image transferring metal were also introduced. These were superior to the older

: my !x.o in tr~1lc.ito write. about lithography in an :lnnual which is rich with ihe fintrst ' specime~xs of ihe process engraver's art in -. , -

fig. 58 above, Rubel and plates, but with the passing of the old methods the Sears (Penrose Annual, 1908-09. serendipitous delights of those less certain, experimental p. 20). days, went with them.

After 1960 the economic benefits of photo-typesetting and offset printing could no longer be ignored. The aesthetic benefits were, at first, perhaps less apparent, although comparisons were increasingly made. Two innovations, both of them relying on the principle of indirect transfer came to

the rescue of the designer. In the United States of America I IBM invented the golfball typewriter; in England a small company making dry transfer lettering blossomed into an international giant with its single product-Letraset. The impact of these two typographic tools on offset printing was as important as the development of a variety of ancillary devices such as copy cameras, visualisers, and photo-type- setting machines. The role of the compositor became less important and the graphic designer and the specialist typographer took over that role which had until now remained unchanged for centuries.

On the technical front, older lithographic printing press manufacturers in Britain and America found that their machines were being outstripped by cheaper and more efficient machines made in Japan and Germany. As letter- press printing retreated to its last bastion in the newspaper office, commercial printing shops, in-house office printing, company magazines and small publishing houses began to exploit the possibilities of photo-offset. Now, the changes first capitalised upon by Rube1 and Sears could never again be completely reversed by the efforts of letterpress printers determined to outstrip these innovations. Improvements in letterpress printing there still were, but by the 1960s the future of letterpress printing was threatened with extinction. Chapter 10 Conclusion

My thesis set out to show that Senefelder's invention of chemical printing, rather than photography, occupies the central ground between Gutenberg's invention of printing and the most recent communications revolution, electronic publishing.

While I have concluded that the invention of photography is intimately connected to the invention of lithography I have not been able to argue with conviction that the former was derived entirely from the latter. the links, however, are much stronger than is usually recognised, and photography may, historically, be shown to be more usefully placed within the bounds of chemical printing processes.

I have put forward the idea that lithography, photography, photolithography, and collotype printing collectively make up

a significant, related group of chemical printing processes. I If this position is found to be sustainable in the mind of the reader, the term planographic printing may become less attractive. Especially so, if we recognise that all lithography involves some lowering or raising of the printing surface; be it on stone or plate. Conversely, in the latter years of mechanical printing, letterpress printers aimed at minimising the height variations between printing surface and paper. Fine tolerances in packing the bed of the press, achieved a more accurate makeready, less pressure and less ink being applied which, in effect, imitated some of the advantages and surface qualities of chemical/ planographic printing.

These are not particularly radical observations, but historically a distinction was drawn between typography and lithography throughout the 19th century. A division that was acknowledged by practical printers everywhere. Most writers of printing histories, as we have seen, are still inclined to classify printing as a number of discrete processes arranged into somewhat arbitrary subgroups : 1) relief printing (letterpress and xylographic printing), 2) intaglio printing (etching. engraving and gravure) and 3) planographic printing (lithography, zincography, collotype, offset printing and screen printing). In this imprecise scheme, lithography is relegated to a relatively minor role while collotype printing is regarded as a curiosity. Further, subtle but significant links between the various chemical processes are rarely acknowledged or discussed.

In attempting to sort out these inconsistencies I have re-classified printing into three schemes : 1) the methods of printing as a class : a) mechanical, b) chemical, and c) electronic, 2) means of application : direct or indirect transfer, and 3) purpose : the use of printing for the reproduction of text and/or pictures.

In distinguishing arbitrarily between differing printing methods as either relief, intaglio or planographic processes

artificial distinctions were reinforced. These distinctions I underpinned the craft guild prejudices of specialist workers who saw themselves as separate, and sometimes as superior to their co-workers in other branches of printing. The resistance of engravers to photolithography is one example. (See ch. 7, pp. 196-8 and n. 62 on p. 197). This habit of thinking also encouraged specialisation. A pseudo- scientific classification system, reinforced the disparagement of newer technologies by practitioners of older ones. Sometimes the reaction was extreme. At first engravers feared lithographers and lithographers, in their turn, nervously lampooned photography. (See fig. 59 and fig. 60 on p. 266). I

The conventional classification of printing processes results, as we come closer to present day practices, in an increasingly complex and distorted picture of printing Plattel, fig. 59 above, progress. Significant, and often clearly related, technical 'Engraving at war with i Lithography'. It is interesting to observe developments in chemical printing have been treated that while there was , initially some separately from one another and have therefore remained opposition to the new process of lithography, largely outside the scope researchers into the history I in time the latter served engraving well, of print. engravings being often transferred to the stone and editioned as In making this generalisation good supporting evidence lithographs. has sometimes been difficult to unearth and a cause of

fig. 60 rlght, The lampooning of photography. 'Daumier made over thirtyfive lithographs and drawings on this subject alone' - Aaron Scharf. ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY. P. 19. much doubt, but there are enough examples of neglect and some instances of technical misunderstanding to give credibility to the argument that graphic technologies should not be viewed in isolation from one another.

Thirty four years ago Aaron Scharf wrote Art 2nd Ph~tography,~a book that was a revelation to those who had, 1 AaromScharf, The Art and Photography, Allan until then, thought separately about art and photography. His Lane. London, 1969. contribution to knowledge showed that artists were quite open to the possibilities offered by the camera when making their pictures and how the camera revealed the visual world to them opening the way to new insights. Recently, looking further back in time, fresh light has been shed on the relationship between the camera lucida and studio painting by ; 2 David Hockney. Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering David Hockney in Secret kn~wledge.~In chapter 5 of this the lost techniques of the Old Masters, Thames & thesis, adding to the ideas expressed in Hockney's book, Hudson. London. 2001. another connection was unexpectedly made. Namely, the belief that Cornelius Varley's graphic telescope, was perhaps used by lithographers to project images onto stone, especially the marvellously accurate images made by Thomas Shotter Boys, which, James Roundell has suggested, Boys made with . 3 James Roundell. Thomas the help of Varley's de~ice.~This fragment of information Shotter Boys. Octopus, I London, 1974. seems fill significant gap in Hockney's work. One that is I apparent in the time-line in his chapter 'The Visible Evidence' (see pp.184-5 in his book Secret knowledge).

Little attention has been paid to the cross-fertilisation that has occurred between related print technologies. David Reed in The Popular Magazine in Britain and the United 4 David Reed, The state^,^ refers to the problem several times. In his second Popular Magazine in Britain and the United States: chapter 'The Great Printing Revolution', Reed draws 1880-1960, British Library, 1997. attention to the successful, but rarely reported, use of lithographic halftone illustration in the Canadian Illustrated News in October, 1869. A method known as the Leggotype, that employed hand ruled glass collodion plates to print I photographic images from lithographic plates. Reed also points out that lithography was sometimes used to solve the problems of letterpress printing. A process devised by Firmin Gillot employed a polished zinc plate on which an image was fixed by means of lithographic transfer paper. The etched and lithographed images supplied by this method were then deeply etched by means of a number of intervening steps, until the images were sufficiently raised to be printed on a conventional letterpress machine. Known as Gillotage the process was a popular method of reproducing illustrations in Paris from the 1860s onwards. Reed gives details of Gillotage as a hybrid lithographic/ letterpress process as it was employed in the French magazine L'illustration, commencing in 1881..5 These little known examples of indirect lithographic transfer are paralleled by the employment of more 'visible' direct lithographic plates in popular magazines. Again, Reed 6 ibid, p. 37, pl. iii. Reed provides examples: Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (1876)6 draws upon Robert Burch. Colour Printing and Colour which had chromolithographs bound in and included a full Prints, London 1910. as his primary source. colour lithographed advertisement; the American weekly Puck (1877) embellished with lithographed cartoons and the entire chromolithographed British childrens' paper, The Little One's Own Coloured Picture Paper (1885).

Throughout this thesis there are many other instances of I this crossover occurring. The attempt, for instance, to use 1 lithographic transfer to solve the problem of typesetting with , the invention of a 'transfer typewriter'. An idea that led indirectly to the invention of the linotype machine and the successful mastery of mechanical typesetting is just one. (See n. 4., p. 244).

Photographs used as an aid in reproducing scenes from life on wood engraved blocks in the Illustrated London News 7 Michael Bogle. Design in Australia: 1880-1970, and The Graphic have previously excited much comment, yet Craftsman House. 1998. provides an illustration to my knowledge, no one has thought it in any way (p. 16) of F. C. Terry's lithograph of 'The first remarkable that photography was also employed to guide exhibition held in the the lithographer's hand.' Museum. Sydney, New I South Wales, 1855, which suggests that photographic reference was used in That lithographic artists based their drawings on its execution. photographs and acknowledged their sources is not being 60 right, Mr Moeller's fig. . --,---... , . -, -_ .--. ------.--_ - --- A--1-1 -.----- , Excavation', -*N,:~% d,...,! ,.-,%<..c ; -:s., u photograph by M. N O~LLEU~EXCAVATIONS. Richard Daintree. 1. *.- l".,,~d' <'>A* . 5d. 1 . ..u:.,* )mr :.rr

Reilly and Carew, SUN PICTURES OF VICTORIA: THE FAUCHERY - DAIMREE COLLECTION -1858, . 'Engraving of photograph.. .Rush near Navarre', photograph by Daintree, the engraver not named, My point is that lithographs made with the aid of photography have excited very little interest amongst scholars. The Daintree/Shepherd example above is a contemporary acknowledgement only and come to the aid of my argument because lithographs copied from photographs are not commented upon in later literature on printing or history at all, whereas many references are made to wood engravings cut with the aid of photographs as if this procedure is somehow of special significance. (See fig.61, p. 269 : 'Engraving of photograph... Rush near Navarre', also taken by Daintree).

The faithfulness of lithography in representing photographic images is clearly apparent in the Daintree/Shepherd example. The ability of the lithographic artist's tools to create soft effects and therefore to interpret a photograph with the effects of light on landscapes and on inanimate objects is a striking difference that should not pass unremarked. When compared with the comparatively stiff wood engraving shown in Robert Brough Smyth's The Gold Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria, (made with the help of another photograph by Daintree) the lithographs are clearly superior to it in the faithfulness of their representation. The Brough Smyth example, characteristically, when reproduced in Sun Pictures of

8 Dianne Reilly and Jennifer Victoria, is captioned 'Engraving of ph~tograph'.~ Carew. Sun Pictures of Victoria: The Fauchery - Daintree Collection -1858 Passing from direct lithography to photolithograpy and Currey O'Neil Ross Pty Ltd. Melbourne 1983. collotype (a related advance) has also attracted little 'Engraving of attention from print historians. Chapters 7 and 8 of this photograph', p. 22. thesis go some way in examining aspects of these advances in printing technology, but I have little doubt that much useful information remains to be uncovered, and will, in time, provide a more balanced picture of the effects of lithography and photography on the selection &d printing of images. A recent, very brief, visit to Paris revealed to me the existence of photolithographs reproducing images of sun spots printed by Lemercier in 1861. These, at present housed in the Quay D'Orsay Museum, are a surprisingly early amalgamation of the new technology of photolithography with astronomy, and this connection too seems to have passed unnoticed.

Putting the neglect of chemical printing aside, I found in examining the classification of printing technologies more attentively that, a less familiar idea emerged. The idea of dividing printing processes (means of application) into the classes of direct and indirect image transfer. (This approach has the merit of identifying the common characteristics by which a process is made to work instead of merely providing a fixed description of its physical attributes). See chapter 2 of this thesis where, figure 2, 'The Web of Developments in Printing Technology' and figure 3, 'Mechanical and Chemical Printing' (p. 29 and 34 respectively) show how this arrangement can be used to regroup printing processes more intelligently.

Another discovery, not incompatible with the idea of direct and indirect transfer above, is to classify printing as George Sarton did, as a double invention of processes designed to print text (moveable type in the first instance) and a second more suited to reproducing illustrations. See chapter 3 of this thesis 'The Double Invention of Printing'.

It should be acknowledged that others have had similar ideas about 'double inventions' in print. In her book, The Origins of Graphic Design in America : 1870-1920, Ellen M. Thomson has drawn attention to 'The great historian of periodical literature, Frank Luther Mott, [who] labelled the use of photography in printing "a double revolution" because photography changed not only how images could be made but how they could be printed.Ig From the perspective of graphic 9 Ellen Mazur Thomson. The Origins of Graphic Design in design, advertising and illustration history, the divergence America : 1870-1920, Yale University Press, New and convergence of means in constructing image and text is p. Haven. 1997. 14. a question worthy of further thought. I maintain that the invention of lithography (chemical printing) is of great significance because it was the first process to incorporate text and picture together in one operation. Moreover, it introduced a new way of thinking about tactile printing surfaces. What had been thought of as a means of impression and transfer, could now be considered afresh as something chemically manipulable.

By repositioning lithography within the framework of printing history, the long-term direction in which printing was being drawn by technology becomes clearer and it can present a somewhat different perspective from that marked out for it in existing histories that are biased in favour of a detailed reporting upon letterpress printing techniques.

The idea that lithography was a significant agent of modernisation (however negatively that may have been perceived), has found few serious commentators. As Andrew J. Corrigan pointed out in A Printer and His World (see chapter 5, p. 127 of this thesis), the unwanted influence of hand drawn lettering that the new process placed in the hands of lithographers had an adverse effect on the design of metal type in the nineteenth century. But Corrigan's observations are not the kind that have readily attracted the attention of researchers into the history of print. Aesthetic judgements and subjective opinions of the kind expressed by Corrigan are often unsupported. Because they are unsupported by a substantial body of tangible evidence, no matter how apt such opinions may be, they are rarely pursued far by incurious academic researchers.

For concrete proofs that support Corrigan's opinion we are forced to turn either to obscure, or alternatively, to very recent sources. One such obscure reference may be found in the Colonial Printers' Art Journal, a rare nin'eteenth century New South Wales publication printed in Sydney. In an article entitled 'The use and abuse of Typographical Ornaments' the Colonial Printers' Art Journal reports that 'in the first place, types were never intended and can never be made to counterfeit copperplate or lithographic

10 Batson and Atwater. printing.'1° (This article was previously published in The Colonial Printers' Art Q Printer's Friend). It is ironic that the display types in the Journal, vol. I., n 8. p. 115, Sydney, Colonial Printers' Art Journal are frequently hatched and August. 1882. shaded 'ornamentals' of the very kind objected to in the article and were purchased by Batson and Atwater, through F. T. Wimble and Co., from David Bruce's New York type foundry.

A recent source of information on the topic of lithographic letterforms is Twyman's Early Lithographed Music. In his chapter 'Display lettering and illustration' (pp. 160-74) he provides some indications of what Corrigan, as a typographer, was describing and objecting to. As a result of Twyman's study of lithographic letterforms we may well draw different conclusions from those previously published on the origins and influences on the design of 19th century display types. In fact, lithography exerted a powerful effect, both good and ill, on advertising, display typography and a whole range of illustrative applications.

11 The Liverpool Courant, 1712. The word Such criticism is sometimes misplaced. In the case of pho- advertiser was incorporated in the Publick Advertiser in tolithography, in at least one instance, a regression in the 1657. quality of lettering on maps resulted from rules and restric- 11 It is often asserted that tions being applied, rather than resulting from any technical the ornamental type called Union Pearl is the oldest difficulties arising from the limitations of the process. (See known example (~1690)of a decorated type pp. 195-7, chapter 7, 'John Osborne and the Invention of face.lmproved casting techniques was also Photolithography'). responsible for the design of some of large headline types. See Berthold Wolpe, The influence of lithography should not, however, be 'Caslon Architectural: On the origin and design of the overstated. The rise of advertising was not dependent on large letters cut and cast the invention of lithography alone. Advertisements were in by William Caslon II' in Alphabet 1964, R. S. every day use long before the advent of chemical printing.ll Hutchings (editor), James Moran Limited. London, Neither were types that imitated pen scripts a' novelty. 1964, for a gatefolded broadside specimen of Founders in each country cast letters in imitation of 'Eleven, Nine and Seven Lines Pica... in Metal'. vernacular letterforms, and the use of decorated letters pl. 1. (1764). predated lithography too.12 What is different after the invention of lithography, however, is the rapid diversification of of display type designs after 1800. Conventional explanations that have traditionally been advanced to explain this change in type manufacture, are, in the light of the points raised by Corrigan and others, far less convincing than before.

The neglect of lithography by historians raises an important objection to the intellectual leap that we are asked to make in order to accept Marshall McLuhan's paradigm that progress was from typography to electronic media. This leaves important stages of development in the history of printing technology unexplained. It also fails to account adequately for the progress made in reproducing photo- graphic images in books and journals. these shortcomings have created serious distortions affecting many historian's views about the development of printed communication.

McLuhan proposed that newspapers were a powerful instrument that modernised thought, poetry and language. He equated the liberated forms of text devised by Blake (whose attempt to depart from the 'linear' book is compared with the free forms devised by the French Symbolist poets Mallarm6 and Rimbaud) with this modernisation. Mallarm6 and Rimbaud whose discovery were, according to McLuhan, grounded 'in the format of [an ill-defined, mechanical] daily press... the key to the world of simultaneity ...[ offering] no single vision [or] point of view.' It may, with a revised view of printing technologies, be worth investigating McLuhan's interpretation afresh.

In particular, the nineteenth century newspaper in France quite early took on a more pictorial character. The lithographs of Honor6 Daumier published in La Caricature from 1832 onwards are prime examples of this change. For McLuhan, while it may be that the new medium of the illustrated daily was grounded in diverse unfocused reporting, Daumier's ideas were expressed with a sharp, populist, critical focus which he brought to bear on public opinion by the power and fluidity of his illustrations. The stiff wood engravings of the London Illustrated News and The Graphic of mid and late nineteenth century pictorial journalism in England had neither the verve nor the satirical power of Daumier's earlier offerings. Indeed it is not unreasonable to suggest that the lithographic illustrative folios, published in parts, like English satirical engravings in the latter part of the eighteenth century were influential in creating a demand for mass circulation pictorial magazines such as The Penny Magazine.

Certainly, from the 1820s onwards, lithographic illustration contributed more to the birth of photography than is generally admitted. A pool of skilled and gifted lithographers with an understanding of chemistry, (a necessity in devising photographic processes), had already accumulated the necessary skills by the time the invention of photography burst upon an unsuspecting public. Many of these artist- lithographers played an important part in bringing forth an array of technical innovations in photography during the early years of its development (see chapter 5 'The spread, improvement and effects of Direct Lithography on Print' and chapter 6 'The Role Played by Lithographic Transfer in the Invention of Photography'). In short the origins and development of the two media had much in common. For students of photography, cinematography, and media studies, exposing these common roots may provide some useful, if previously unappreciated insights.

What lithography had enabled artists to do in representing the visual world was transmitted in turn to a knowledge thirsty population in search of more realistic and authentic images of people, places and events. The invention of photography sharpened this sophisticated visual 'literacy' further than the lithograph had done and radically changed the way images of the visual world were perceived by the public. While lithography greatly assisted the development of photography in its early years, there were some fundamental differences that cannot be ignored. The invention of lithography had been relatively straight forward. There was one inventor, Senefelder, who solved all of the 13 Except for a solution to the basic problems within the space of a few short years.13 problems associated with making. a success of Photography was not as easily arrived at. Several inventors chromolithography which are usually attributed to shared in the discovery. many methods were employed : Godefroi Engelmann. paper negatives and direct positives impregnated with silver salts, photosensitive bitumen washed out in lavender oil, stone, glass and metal plates, the use of albumen, gelatine and wax and collodion, and improvised fixing agents like urine and salt were tried. As the commercial success of the Daguerreotype became obvious to all, faster, more sensitive chemical reagents, along with willing collaboration and sometimes fierce competition ensued between experimenters as they raced to patent methods of reproducing photographic prints in books, until finally, reliable methods were achieved.

Rapid commercial exploitation, before the new process

was fully perfected, clearly demonstrates the accelerated rate I of change that was increasingly evident in industrially advanced countries. These confusing circumstances obscured the fact that photography exhibited classic, if unrecognised, features of Sarton's second 'double invention'.

Ivins' and Jussim's interpretations of the significant features of engraving and etching (the essential processes outlined in Sarton's 'double invention' theory that highlights the purpose for which a printing process is devised), is a different one to that arrived at by Mott in so describing , photography. (See p. 271). Engravings and etchings were, of necessity, printed and bound into books separately from the text. So, at first, were photographs. They too had to be 1 printed by hand, stabilised in a fixative bath, washed and dried before being separately pasted into books as 'tipped in' illustrations. As I have shown, it was initially lithographers who were first to fully appreciate and solve this problem of the separation of text and image. The commercial interests of letterpress however, continued to dominate and prevail over acceptance of this technological breakthrough. The role that lithography had played in altering the nature of the illustrated magazine was continually overshadowed by the power of letterpress.

For a long time the main advantage of letterpress was the speed of the rotary press over the slowness of the flatbed lithographic press. It is one of the mysteries of printing progress that advances in indirect transfer in tin printing in the 1870s and 80s were not carried over into printing on paper until 1903-5. (See direct and indirect transfer and offset printing on tin: pp. 245-9). The introduction of rubber rollers no doubt had a part to play in this delay. However it is my opinion that the principle barrier to this alternative technology remained the vast capital outlay invested in the machines and men needed to print a metropolitan daily newspaper. An economic barrier to progress that preserved I the grip of letterpress, with a few notable exceptions until

the 1970s. t

For these anachronistic reasons print historians still celebrate advances made in letterpress like the wood engraved illustration for their widespread use, but not advances in photolithography for changing the way in which images were used. It is why we remain more familiar with the names of Meisenbach and Levy who, much later, developed methods of etching photographic halftones successfully on letterpress plates and it is why we have barely heard of the lithographic halftone processes invented by Lemercier, Poitevin or Leggo.

For much of the 20th century letterpress printing also I remained, by association, in the ascendant in book publishing. In books, as in newspapers, the way in which print was understood by the public remained undisturbed. In 14 The photograph, which magazine design however, layout and pictorial content did froze an instant in time, acquired a whole new change in response to the flexibility that lithography and language and syntax with the advent of the photography encouraged in designers.14 However magazine cine-camera. Now, the design, for all its flair, remained largely constrained by the relationship between parts and the whole and technical limitations imposed by being printed from the sequencing of multiple images altered photogravure plates on very large web fed machines. the meaning of the image -and the response to what the viewer saw. When, in the 1960s, printers did at last respond in large This was a new way of presenting magazine numbers to the flexibility of small offset printing, they were design. The Russian American designer still inclined to produce finished publications of similar Alexey Brodovitch is one of those who reformed appearance to those printed by letterpress. In fact many design and layout. In lithographically printed magazines and books of the period Harpers Bazaar Brodovich used were deliberately printed on glossy paper so that they might photomontage and picture sequencing in a be thought, by the public, to be expensively printed.15 refreshing way to emphasise this shift in presentation which In particular the history of commercial lithography is engaged the reader as a participant. See Andy poorly charted. The progress of lithographic printing when Grundberg, Brodovitch, Abrams, New York, it was applied first to zinc and then bi-metal and tri-metal 1989, p. 84 and ch. 4, plates for example, is only sketchily outlined and the 'The Cinematic Eye' ! 98-144 for Brodovitch's application of these methods in book and magazine treatment of the role of ! magazine designer as production remains an incoherent scatter of unrelated being akin to that of a

film director. details. The use of zinc plates in England and America I

15 The finest halftone printing has gained only the briefest attention from print in letterpress favoured the use of glossy coated historians and its early commercial use in Australia is papers to maximise a rich similarly confined to repeating a few bland descriptions of range of tones. the production steps involved.

Nor have the innovative uses of bichromated albumen coatings devised by Scott Archer in photography and the further advance made by Poitevin in applying this principle to a lithographic stone (some authorities say to paper also) to make photolithographic collotype plates been fully explored, (chapter 7, pp.166-7). The I development of collotype (chapter 8, 'Direct Transfer and the Invention of the Collotype Process') leaves a number of questions unanswered. How, for example, did Jos'eph Albert arrive at the solution of coating his plates more than once, first with bichromated albumen and then with bichromated gelatine? The answer is that at present we simply do not know. The spread of letterpress printing in Europe and beyond, has been comprehensively described. But a similar charting of lithography's spread contains many blank spaces. While the circumstances of the arrival of the first printing press in Ireland or in Mexico City is well known, the equivalent mile- stones in lithography are not clearly marked. Weber, Man and Twyman (who added Sweden, Calcutta, Bombay and Hobart to the edges of his known lithographic world) have mapped the spread of lithography in Germany, France, Italy and England. (Twyman has also charted lithography's progress in London).I6 In the United States, Peter Marzio 4 Michael Twyman, A Dictionary of London has filled in a gap on the eastern seaboard, but at the edge Lithographic Printers 1800-1850,Printing of his study the American West remains a void. And in Historical Society. Australia, Thomas Darragh's The Establishment and London. 1976. Development of Lithography in Melbourne at the Time of the Gold Rush is one small study amongst several on an

17 Cf. Clifford Craig. Old otherwise unexplored continent.17 Tasmanian Prints. Launceston, and More Old Tasmanian Prints, These complaints lie outside the scope (and the practical Launceston, 1984, and R. Butler. 'Australia's First limitations) of this study. There is little more that can be Lithographs'. The Australian Connoisseur and Collector usefully added other than to consider a few vestiges of the nP3, 1982, pp. 94-99, 130-131. context of digital publishing. It is clear that computer imaging, like lithographic transfer, is able to combine text and image at will, but it is also clear that special attention to the differences between text and image remains a requirement of the artist/designer/director working with these elements. the apparently seamless display of streams of information on a computer screen conceals the differences that remain and may well remain irreconcilable.

It has been my intention throughout, to try and understand and then convey something of the broader picture of developments in printing technology. To step back from the detail of a seemingly unending series of minor innovations is important. Detailed academic studies tend'to confine scholarship to a study of some carefully defined territory. Such arguments, that genuinely spring from curiosity and aim to reveal a particular insight, can also lower the horizons of readers and may lull the unwary, or unobservant, into accepting a distorted view of larger events. While detailed studies are manageable and useful tools in skillful hands, the cumulative effect of many similar studies can, in time, result in major distortions. In this situation an ability to review, synthesise and explain in broad terms what has happened becomes an increasingly difficult task.

In attempting to build a broader picture I have drawn upon many sources. As a result some questions have been raised without finding satisfactory answers to them. In particular, in the chapter on photography I have pointed out an uncomfortable number of contradictions and unexplored avenues of investigation. Questions that I have been unable to follow up or answer. This weakness is, I hope, justifiable on the grounds that an obscure, if not broken, chain of historical evidence exists that can and should explain its I development. This evidence needs to be reestablished and brought to wider attention. I

While the major innovations, such as lithography and photography are clearly outstanding events, it is not at all clear that they have been correctly placed in their broader context. Senefelder was the last artisan inventor in the 'heroic' mold. Not since Gutenberg had such a leap of imagination been accompanied by a completely new system of print production; a system that was the work of one man. Since Senefelder, such inventions have become, less and less often, isolated discoveries. Instead they have emerged as a continuous stream of interlocking developments.

In modern times the act of invention has been both assisted and hampered by the emergence of large-scale economic structures (see p. 2). The development of modern I management practices in commerce and government has changed the way in which discovery and innovation is done in the industrial and post-industrial state. The dynamics of invention are today affected by diverse, complex, collaborative and interactive forces inside large- scale commercial enterprises. This is a problem that is yet to be explored. In this context, a review of printing history such as the present one, being less dependent upon the letterpress tradition, is overdue. It is hoped that in recasting the existing historical model a clearer picture has emerged; one more in keeping with today's technical and commercial practices.

Please note

The text in this file has been automatically extracted and may contain minor errors. For the original version please consult the paper copy held in the Swinburne Library.

Appendix One

Contents

DENNIS BRYANS

The Beginnings of Type Founding in Sydney: Alexander I Thompson's Type, His Foundry, and His Exports to Inter- colonial Printers 75

JOHN BENSON Working-Class Consumption, Saving, and Investment in England and Wales, 1851-1911 87

JONATlUW M. WOODHAM Managing British Design Reform 11: The Film Dendly Lampshade-an Ill-Fated Episode in the Politics of 'Good I Taste' 101 I! I GUY JULIER I Barcelona Design, Catalonia's Political Economy, and the New Spain, 1980-1986 117

Reviews 129 Appendix One

Dennis Bryans The Beginnings of Type Founding in Sydney: Alexander Thompson's Type, ; His Foundrg., and His Exports to Inter-Colonial Printers

1 Introduction found within the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald. Alexander Thompson's type foundry is . In 1967 Dietrich Borchardt, an Australian librarian mentioned at least twice by the Herald, and Borch- , and bibliographer of more than years' thirty ardt drawing on this source, perhaps indirectly, ' standing,' wrote a pessimistic challenge for refers to Thompson's foundry in The Spread of future typographic researchers. He claimed that Printing, as follows: I in Australia 'there is practically no record of the inadentals of the printing houses . . . we don't The dependence on imported type became inaeas- even know precisely who brought out the first few ingly irksome and in the early 1850's attempts were founts . [and] . . it may justly be doubted made to produce type founts in Australia. On 7th. Jan- . . . uary, 1843, the Sydney Morning Herald could proudly whether snippets of information which extensive ' prodaim: The Goomment Gazette is now printed in a 1 I historical research might produce, would substan- fount of long primer type, cast in the colony by a Mr. tially add to the history of printing in the Pacific ' Thomson, who arrived here about two years ago.4 The , 1 region." He also referred in the same place to successful establishment of this foundry will be highly , Alexander Thompson's type foundry in Sydney advantageous to the printers, not only of Sydney, but I where 'attempts were made to produce type of Port Phillip and the neighbowing colonies, as old founts in A~stralia'.~Thus he sealed the fate of worn-out letters can be recast instead of being sent to ; Australia's printing history i.q a few withering England at a heavy cost. We bust Mr. Thomson may i words. meet with encouragement, for his types, as may be 7 It was an understandable response when Borch- seen upon reference to the Goumment Gazette, are , ardt wrote these words. Australian cultural values handsome, and in fact equal to those cast in London / or Glasgo~.~ were more firmly Eurocentric then. Consequently, while in the intervening years less and less of the Additional evidence of a type-founding indus- evidence has survived, and more and more of our try, not mentioned by Dietrich Borchardt, is to be typographic history has been sent to the tip, or to found in a rare publication Z7le Art of Printing in its the scrap-metal dealer, burnt up in printers' not Various Branches: With Specinlens and Illustrati~ns.~ infrequent fires, or allowed in some cases to rot, Published in January 1861 by the Sydney printer the task of uncovering the unexplored evidence and publisher John Degotardi, it was Australia's that is on record has long been neglected. In this first ever pamphlet on typography and printing in 1 1 article it is my wish to uncover some of these general. In his preface Degotardi makes a point of unexplored details, and to place the history of telling us that'all the specimens and illustrations I : Alexander Thompson's type foundry in its con- in this pamphlet have been executed at his estab- text. lishment, and that the entire pamphlet is an Aus- Information about ~us&alia'sfirst recorded tralian production, the type havii~gbeen cast in , type foundry is not easily found. The clues to S~dney'.~This reference to Sydney type founding, , the existence of a type-founding industry in New along with other references both to Australian South Wales, as Borchardt has noted, are to be type being used in the advertisements set by

]ouml of Design History Vol. 9 No. 2 0 1996 The Design Histo y Society

299 Appendix One

compositors at the Sydney Morning Herald and to Eagle and the Hellespont.16In 1850 and 1851, Alex- Thompson's type being used within the pages of ander Thompson also sent consignments of type I the Government Gazette, gives cause for a closer to Hobart Town:' two consignments to Auck- : examination of the premise that type founding land," and in May of the latter year, two boxes . was merely 'attempted' in nineteenth-century of type to Geelong.19 ~ustralia.' Further consultation of the Sydney Morning Her- ' ald's centennial publication, A Centu y of foumal- isnr 1831-1931, shows that the Sydney Herald had The Record of Alexander Thompson's Sydney continued its association with Thompson's foun- Exports dry during the 1840s and 1850s. The Sydney Mom- The Sydney Morning Herald's best wishes for ing Herald is shown by the following passage from Thompson's success in sending type to Tort Phil- the above publication as being active,in purchas- lip and the neighbouring colonies' most likely had ing, and using Thompson's Australian type six- its genesis in his own plans for he certainly entered teen years later. into inter-colonial trade. The first brief record of Before leaving the days of hand type-setting, it is his having done so occurs, like others, in the interesting to make just passing reference to a van- Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List. The ished industry, so far as Sydney is concerned. Sydney, ' entry of 3 October 1845~-'Shamrock, steamer, I in 1859, had its type foundry. We learn this in an inci- box types, Thompson'-finds a matching entry dental reference that the Herald makes on January 1st. in the supplement to the Port Phillip Gazette on of that year to the appearance of the new type used 7 October1'-'Shamrock, from Sydney: I box types, that day, which, conkasted with the old type in the G. Cavenagh'. preceding issue, is very noticeable. 'This type' the George Cavenagh at the Port Phillip Herald is Herald tells us, and with evident satisfaction, 'is of therefore the first recorded inter-colonial custo- colonial manufacture, cast at the foundry of Mrs. mer of Alexander Thompson. In July 1847 another Thompson, widow of Mr. Alexander Thompson, of this a*'' box of type was sent in the Shamrock to Port Phillip, and its contents of three cases of type We must conclude from the export information I were ordered by another Melbourne newspaper supplied by the Shipping Gazette b Sydney General I man, Thomas McCombie of the Port Phillip Gaz- Trade List and the two extracts in the Sydney i ette." Part of the consignment, a box of type, was Morning Herald (both published by Fairfax), and also delivered to Cavenagh. Thompson sent type in Degotardi's The Arf of Printing cited above, that to Adelaide in the steamer Juno in the following the 'attemptsf to make type in Sydney were suc- ' year," and more type, ink, and printing supplies cessful. were sent in the brig Phantom in 1849. Two boxes Type, therefore, was being manufactured in . of type were consigned in the Phantom on Australia as early as 1843, and some type may ; 28 Februaq 1850'~and a further consigrunent of have been made in Sydney as early as 1841. It is , two boxes was sent in the same vessel on 14 June also clear from these sources that Thomvson's

of the same year.'* In 1851 a further three boxes of foundry had a long-standing association &ith at ~ type were exported by him to South Australia. least one newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald. This consignment was loaded at Sydney on We do not know yet how reliant Thompson's 26 April in the Louisa15 and was destined for business was on the patronage of the Sydney j Adelaide, where it was received by Thomas newspaper, but it is clear that Alexander Thomp- Strode, who with &den had founded the Port son's business was a viable one, supplying news- ' Phillip Gazette. paper type throughout the colonies. Thompson exported type again in 1851, 1852, The utilitarian nature of Alexander Thompson's and 1853, following the political separation of the types, supplied predominantly to the newspaper

Port Phillip District from 'New South Wales to trade, may have been cauied by the lack of a , Melbourne in the newly created colony of Vic- profitable-market for display type among the ' toria. These consignments were dispatched in the small population of the Australasian colonies.

Dennis Brynns Appendix One

Other plausible explanations are the lack of finan- Sydney Directory. From this it can be inferred that ) dal or technical resources, and an absence of after her husband's death Mrs Thompson kept the labour. We cannot be certain of this, how- business going for a further seven years, and ever, for Australians then as now have always almost certainly she had the distinction of being ' enjoyed the novelty of fashion. The fact that no Australia's first, and very likely only, woman type : identifiable type specimen chart or catalogue has founder. yet been found that can be reliably attributed to One can only guess at why Mrs Thompson : any of the early Sydney type foundries does not disposed of the type foundry in 1865 or early preclude the possibility that they once existed. 1866. Perhaps it reflected the length of time she It may be noted that colonial type specimens of had been in business, an atfractive offer, financial imported display type were displayed and pro- necessity, or it may have been because her custo- moted in the daily press. Some representative, if mers were drifting away to other suppliers. These small, English type specimens reflecting colonial might all or separately have been reasons. Alex- taste from the 1840s can be identified in this form. ander Thompson's inter-colonial exports appear In 1845, in the 7 October issue of the Port Phillip to have stopped by 1853, coincidental with the Hernld, William Clark informed his readers that arrival in Melbourne of the English importer F. B. the Herald's general printing office had Frankly", at the height of the Victorian gold rush. Further pressure on Mrs Thompson's business received per late arrivals from London, several large founts of fancy letter which for elegance of design and may have been exerted by the attack on local beauty of manufacture cannot be excelled even in the type founders by the Sydney agent A. Cubitt in mother country. Every description of job work, includ- the Sydney Mail in the latter half of 1865. ing magazines, catalogues, pamphlets of any sizes, No reference to the sale of the business has yet , law forms, cards, circulars, bill-heads etc., executed been located in newspaper reports, but in 1865 the with accuracy and dispatch in entirely new type, and foundry passed into the hands of Archibald at the same charge as the other printing offices in Wright." The scale of the export trade during town. This notice contains thirty-two specimens of his Alexander Thompson's lifetime had been small various kinds of type, nearly every line of which is and it was carried on over a period of years, so printed in a different sort of letter. practical needs suggest that, in addition to sales of ' The liking for fashionable type can also be seen type made to Sydney newspapers, it would have in the advertisements of the day and may be required hired labour to do the work. It would ' found in the many annual directories published have been unusual for Mrs Thompson, in carrying ' in the major towns in each colony. The source of on the business left in her hands, to cast the type, ' these founts is almost certainly imported. At pre- dress and finish it, and then pack and dispatch it , . sent there is no evidence to support the view that herself. Perhaps the new owner, Archibald some of it was cast locally. Wright, was an employee who worked for Thompson or his wife. The Sale of Thompson's Foundry to Archibald Wright The Discovery of Gold and Its Impact on the Sydney Type Founders Alexander Thompson had been making and sell- ing type in sydney, and exporting it to other The discoveries of gold in California in 1849, and colonies, for at least sixteen years before he at Bathurst, west of Sydney, in May 1851, both had died." After his death the business was continued their impact on commercial life in Sydney. But it , by his wife. was the discoveries in Victoria, at Ballarat, in I Virtually nothing is known about Mrs Thomp- September, and then at Forest Creek, that really son. She is publicized as the owner of Thompson's made an impact. Early in 1849 Sydney manufac- type foundry in the I January 1859 editorial in the turers had sent picks and shovels to the miners in Sydney Morning Herald and her name appears each Calif~rnia.~~So in 1851, just three weeks after the year, sometimes poorly identified," in the Sands discoveries at Ballarat, they were able to respond I

The Beginnings of Type Founding in Sydney Appendix One

quickly, with the first consignment of pick-axes, facturers. It was natural for these newcomers to ' crowbars, quicksilver machines, cradles, pumps, look to England for printing equipment. I buckets, and prospecting pans, on their way south In the 1850s~imports from London and the to Geelong on the Coquette by 11 Oct~ber.~Such a United States flooded into Australia. As the , rapid local response was in the spirit of the reports of the richness of the discoveries, and Victorian era. On 19 July, after the discoveries at the high prices to be got for goods spread, a Bathurst, R. Hamett, a Sydney broker, predicted great rush to supply them began. In 1853, 134 that 'an immense influx of merchandise may be ships reached Melbourne from the United States looked for from the consignments of 1852'.'~ He alone,= bringing millions of pounds worth of was not mistaken. merchandise to glut the local market. Economic conditions in Australia before gold The impact on Sydney type founders like Alex- , was discovered were very different to those which ander Thompson, and the role played by the applied afterwards. Before gold there was poverty Sydney firm of Sharwood & Co., in this market while afterwards there was relative affluence. This upheaval can only be guessed at. It is likely that change was reflected in the pattern of trade. their businesses were too small for their voices to Before the gold rushes, common cargoes were be heard, or their economic ties to be maintained. timber and wood, hides and bone, whale oil, The firm of Sharwood & Co. was listed as type botanical specimens, geneva, rum and sherry, founders in the Sands Directoy from 1864 to 1867, clay pipes and tobacco, slates, bluestone, bricks and the business was active in inter-colonial and bottles. After the discoveries of gold came a trade between 1855 and 1857, sending printing flood of imports. Clocks and furniture, mirrors, supplies to Auckland, Melbourne, and Hobart prints and drapery, pianos, books in large number, Town.29 But it is not clear whether or not they , machinery and tools-a transformation unima- were type founders, or printers' suppliers, or ginable a decade earlier. The largest bodies of both. However, the entry of Sharwood & Co. gold found anywhere in the 1850s lay in into the export trade from Sydney to the other Victoria at Ballarat and Bendigo. The effect of Australian colonies is coincidentally marked by , this was to shift commercial power away from both the sale of the type founding firm of Wood trade in manufactured goods from Sydney and & Shanvood in London30 and by the disappear- , Hobart to new businesses importing foreign ance of Thompson's type consignments from the , goods and capital to Melbourne. customs records in Sydney.31 4 The influx of miners brought with it men and Not only did local competition in printing sup- ' women from all walks of life. Many of them, plies increase among the Sydney type founders having indifferent luck in finding gold, returned and distributors in New South Wales, but fresh . to their old trades or entered new ones. Some of agents from London entered the market energeti- these were already, or soon became, printers. cally, and were mainly based in Melbourne where Typical of the many immigrants who can be most of the new wealth was. The Victorian gold

cited were Thomas Stubbs from Macclesfield in rush induced many British businesses to throw , Cheshire, who arrived in Melboune with his caution to the wind and sent their representatives printing plant and presses in 1852, only to face out to establish branches in the colony. One early . financial ruin; and a 20-year-old orphan and printers' supplier, possibly Melbourne's first, was printing apprentice A. H. Massina, who arrived Francis Burdett Franklyn, who arrived in 1853. He in 1855. After early desperate days on the gold- came to Melbourne representing the London firm fields where he contemplated sui~ide,~Massina of Robson, Levey, & Franklyn, printers' brokers?' j was forced to return to Melbourne where he and together with Freemantle & Co., purchased ' formed a successful printing and literary partner- an interest in the Melbourne Herald from George ship. This included publication of the Australian Cavenagh. It may turn out that Franklyn was the ' Journal, in which Marcus Clarke's For the Term of first to specialize in importing new type to Vic- His Natural Life was serialized. Such people had toria. He set up in business as F. B. Franklyn, no knowledge of, or loyalty to, local type manu- Printers' Broker, at 20 Queen Street, Melbourne, I Appendix One

Table I Printing Imporfs to the Colony of Victoria 1856- The Location of Thompson's Foundry 1861 - Year From Sydney From London The John Sands Sydney Directory provides a sig- (all suppliers) (F. B. Franklyn, nificant picture of the type-founding trade in Importer, Melbourne) Sydney between the 1860s and the 1880s. In 1866 Packages Value Packages sent Value sent the name of Mrs Thompson is replaced in the directory by that of Archibald Wright at Thomp- son's Yurong Street address, near Hyde Park in Sydney. In the same directory there are two entzies for Davies: J. Davies, Garden Street, Waterloo and Davies Brothers, Marian Street, Redfem. Wil- liam R. Gullick at 141 Pitt Street and Shanvood & Co. at 87 York Street are there, along with the where he carried on his business until his death. last brief appearance of Walter McKay whose The firm of Freemantle & Co. then took over the his distributorship. name only appears three times. In 1861 address was given as Charles Street, in 1865 The Victorian Customs Bill of Entry (see Table I) is in 11 for the years 1856-8 demonstrates dramatically McI(ay business at Searles Street, and in the impact of F. B. Franklyn's imports. Franklyn, 1866 his last address is given as 16 Chapel Lane. , who sold foundry type from the Besley Miller, The type founder's listing in the John Sands Caslon, and Figgins fo~~ndries~~to the local print- Sydney Directory are far from consistent. ' change ing industry, came to dominate the local market. Addresses rapidly and the spelling of The records of the Victorian Cusfoms Bill of Entry names varies. This inconsistency in spelling in and those of the Shipping Gazette 6 Sydney General applied to Thompson's entry the John Sands Trade List overlap for only two years (1856 and Sydney Director as it did to the other early type 1857), are recorded differently and are difficult to founders. The early directories are very deficient reconcile, but it is clear from the Victorian figures in this information they provide about early man- that by 1861 competition was intense.34 It is not ufacturers, and although we know that Thomp- unlikely that Mrs Thompson was further idu- son's foundry existed in 1843 we have to wait , enced to sell when an attack was made in 1865 on until the Sands and Kenny Directory of 1858-9 to , the quality of local production and Sydney man- find the first reference to it. There it is listed under I ufactuers by a newly appointed Miller and the name of Mi Alexander Thompson and it then continues to be listed, often inaccurately. . Richard agent, A. Cubitt, who aggressively adver- ' tised the English product in 'the Sydney Mail on The exact location, or locations, of the type ' Wednesday, 6 August, and again in the same foundry needs clarification. Thompson's foundry publication on g September as follows: was at 83 Yurong Street, although it is given the alternative address of Liverpool Street in the Sands particular attention is directed to the superiority of the Directory of 1858-9. Archibald Wright may have extra hard metal [and] its great durability, as it will moved the foundry, the year after it changed last twice as long as the ordinary metal; also from the hands in 1867, to Charlotte Lane, a little further than specific gravity being less that of other type, and down the hill. But it is also possible that the therefore carrying more letters to the fount. [Type was sold by weight.] Thompson foundry occupied a large site, or more than one, as all three addresses are geogra- Type cast in the colonies is generally known to be phically close to one another. The brief appear- , made from nothing else than the refuse of printing ' ance of Walter McKay as a type founder at offices; the face soon becomes worn, and in a very 11 Searles Street in 1865 may offer a clue to this short time fresh founts are required. possibility. McKay could have been one of Such was the competitive nature of commercial Thompson's employees, displaced by the break- life in Sydney! ing up of the business, and'it is possible that the Searles Street address, across Yurong Street and '

The Beginnings of Type Founding in Sydney Appendix One

opposite Charlotte Lane, was also connected with for page setting in Victorian books, but have since Thompson's firm. The site of the foundry may fallen into disrepute. The English typographic have had three street boundaries, possibly on the writer A. F. Johnson, for example, referred to opposite side of Yurong Street (which now has English modem face type as having 'variations even numbers) between Liverpool Street and of its own, mostly ~~npleasing'.~~ Charlotte Lane. Whatever the reason may have His reasons for disliking these British types are been for Wright changing the foundry's address, it interesting to relate when considering the Sydney ' was not for'long because in 1868 the business was type specimen. 'The English modem face, cast by listed again at 83 Yurong Street, where it all foundries,' Johnson says, has capitals that 'are remained until the business was relocated to the regularised in width, so that the M is very narrow more prominent address of 92 George Street, and the P wide.' This characteristic is a feature of Sydney. Thompson's type, too. But a variation should be noted; an alternate and wider M was also used, possibly for emphasis, in the Morning Herald. Thompson's Type Thompson's type, like its British counterpart, What was Thompson's type like? On Saturday, also shared the 'long turn-up' on R and the long I January 1859, readers of the Sydney Morning serifs on T that were noted by Johnson. Herald were informed of the introduction of new While A. F. Johnson disliked British modem type. 'The Minion,' they were told, 'in which the faces in general, Scotch Roman was, he believed, advertisements are set is of colonial manufacture, 'the most favoured of the English modem faces, . [while] the Long Primer and Brevier types [are] of because it avoids some of the extremes. The letters the patent hard metal, from the celebrated foun- are sturdier and the serifs bracketed'.J7 Alexander dry of Messrs. Besley and Company of London.' Thompson's type is akin to Scotch Roman, with all The editorial comment tells us that Alexander the common Scotch Roman characteristics: all the Thompson's type was ordered by the Sydney capitals and numerals are of even height, with Morning Herald in a smaller size only. The type only the tail of the Q descending below the base- hownin those days as Minion was about the size line and breaking this uniformity. - I of the 7-point type used for text setting today. It There are differences however: in Alexander was on the British standard five sizes smaller than Thompson's type the serifs are unusually long Pica or 12-point type?' This may, in the absence of and heavily bracketed. On T and L the serifs are other evidence, indicate that Thompson only near vertical and occupy half the height of the a made type for use in text settings in newspapers. letter [z].By comparison, the serifs on T in the . I Thompson's type specimen [ ] shown in the Scotch Roman design are splayed. Thompson's E a Morning Herald is typical of 'the popular modem is also wide and weighted down with large serifs, face roman types that flourished in the middle of while his G typically has a spur and the Q the the nineteenth century. English modem face types ' curling, mechanical turned-up tail of the Scotch enjoyed great popularity. They were much used Roman design. Thompson's numerals are plainer

1 Reconstructed fount (much enlarged) of B C D E F G a: I J L 31 M N 0 P Q ,mpsonls ,e .om, pages of, ~ydney Morning HernId, r January1859 (from the Mitchell Library, Sydney) RSTUVWXTZ g1233567890 I

Dennis Brynns Appendix One

height line and aligning with the capital. The descenders are shorter than those of Scotch Roman. The a and the f have round terminals and the tail of c is high, almost enclosing the bowl. The t characteristically extends high above x- height almost to the height of the capitals [3], but unlike its antecedents Didot and Scotch Roman, which are squared off or have a slightly bevelled top, the Thompson version is pointed like many contemporary British modem face 2 Redrawn T and 3 from Thompson's Sydn y Morning Hernld type with the Scotch Roman letter and numeral superim- designs, notably those from the foundries of ' posed. Note the heavy serifs on Thompson's type and the H. W. Caslon and from Miller and Richard. calligraphic scroll on the Scotch Roman 3

The Australian Type Used in John Degotardi's and heavier. The z, 3, 6, and g have round The Art of Printing mechanistic terminals. The 7 has a straight cross- stroke, while the Scotch Roman design has a Thompson's foundry type used by the Sydney calligraphic flourish. Thompson's 5, like its coun- Moming Herald in January 1859 may be compared terpart, has a cross-stroke that is saddle-backed. In with a second use of Australian type in a book I the Sydney specimen the robust style of Scotch printed in Sydney in 1861. The type used by the . Roman is more emphatic. The height of the N is printer-publisher John Degotardi in his pamphlet I equal to its width, and the proportions of the other The Art of Printing appeared approximately three capitals are mostly square. The down-strokes of years after Alexander Thompson died.38 the letters are contained approximately four and a As has been related above, Degotardi tells us in half times in the depth and width of each capital, his preface to The Art of Printing that 'the entire which makes them appear rather bold. pamphlet is an Australian production', adding The differences are more apparent in the lower that the type was 'cast in Sydney'. This passing I case. His type appears to fill a transitional, evolu- reference poses the question: whose type did he tionary place between Scotch Roman and the use and was it from Thompson's foundry? It is a a . Caslon, and Miller and Richard typefaces. question that is not answered by John Degotardi, 1 Thompson's lower case characters have a large who fails to provide us with this detail. No doubt x-height like the H. W. Caslon & Co., Minion, he assumed that his readers would know who . NO. 26. Consequently it has short ascenders, was meant. extending one and a half stiokes above the x- At this distance from events it is impossible to

- 3 Lower case t exam- - ples for comparison - with Alexander - Thompson's type - - - 1\11

Bodoni Palma, Didot Scotch Roman A. Thompson Degotardi W. H. Caslon circa 1760. late version M 0 N 0 TYPE Sydney 1853 specimen M l N 10 N NO. OG cil-calS3O . showing height 1661 before 1870. , and width.

The Beginnings of Type Founding in Sydny Appendix One

know with any certainty which of the Sydney set in several sizes, and in each size it is more : foundries supplied the type for his parnpfilet. carefully cut than the type identified as coming The firms of Davies Brothers at Redfem and from Thompson's foundry. The Degotardi speci- . L. Sharwood & Co. were both very active in the men is as well cut as an English or American type printing irade at this time. Both businesses were face of this period. While different in detail, it is listed as type founders in the Sands Directory, and very close in design to Thompson's type and may both firms were large enough to take out display represent a further stage in the evolution of that advertisements in this and other directories [4-5'!.. design. The thick down-strokes are Lighter and Because of the popularity of Modem Face Roman more refined throughout. The capitals in The Art of it is likely that all three foundries, Thompson's, Printing have sharper and more pronounced Davies Brothers, and Shanvood & Co., all made or serifs. L, T, and E have lighter serifs, being supplied a version of it. approximately one-third the height of the letter. 1 Both the fount used to print the Sydney Morning A is narrower and G has a larger counter than ' Herald and that used by John Degotardi in setting those of the Sydney Morning Herald design. The set the text of The Art of Printing are typical Modem of the lower case is wider, most noticeably in the Face Romans. Thompson's type in the Morning m, w, and s, which has, as a consequence, a Herald is heavily inked and carelessly set. There shallower angle to its mid-stroke 161. The x- , are instances of what may be 'wrong-fount' letters height is smaller, the ascenders and descenders ' or, if intentional, alternative letters used in the longer, and a feature of g is a higher Link and a , setting (see M, M in [I] above). Because of the low more generous loop. The r, f, and t are very Like standard of the press work in the Sydney Morning Thompson's letters, each having a cross-stroke Herald the tme form of Thompson's type is diffi- that aligns with the x-height. cult to determine. In contrast, Degotardi's pamph- I have been unable to draw any clear conclusion ! let is inked and printed with more care. . from the two specimens presented here. Perhaps ; The modem face used in The Art of Printing is the discovery in some archive of a.type specimen I,

.. I [ - - 4 Shanvood & Co.'s advertisement in Bcil- '32.0 P~~~~-liere's New South Wales Gazetteer published ,' in 1866 (from the Mitchell ~ibra~,Sydney) I i

PRINTING PRESSES, TYPE, AND MATERIAL, i :-nm i I ap~nmw I SwawxommBPHT, IJK- tb* wfhatata~cnam PEW ~m my be w amtL on ~pplloru- I WTNYABD SQUABE, SYDNEY.

Advertisement for Davies Brothers Tvue $oundry in the Sands Sydney Directory iir 1868 (from the Mitchell Library, Sydney) I I DAVXES BROTHERS,

MARIAN STREET, BOTANY ROAD, REDFERN. All Gads sap lied warrantad equal to tho.= from as bait London %omidera an& anperior to most Imported.

Dennis Bryan. i Appendix One

6 Left lower case spedmen letters from John Degokdi's 171e Art of Printing. Right: Thompson's lower case letters from the Sydny Morning Iierald

sheet or book might settle the matter, but such a caster, and that a number of designs of differing ; find is now unlikely. Perhaps there is yet more to sizes may well have been manufactured. Apart be found out about the Lives of the type founders from the Modem Face Roman discussed here, that I have missed, some of which may provide what this hypothetical type might have looked the missing pieces of the puzzle. Like is just speculation. I have not discovered any I note in passing that in addition to the modem record as yet that throws light on the casting roman used in The Art of Printing a fount of bold techniques and the equipment that was used by type was also used by Degotardi 171. This type is Thompson. American type-casting machines, worthy of further attention, as it has bold slab such as the Bruce type-caster, were in existence serifs reflecting the characteristics of the Ionic from the outset. goup of type faces that was evolving at this. By the time Alexander Thompson died, his time. A typical English example that may be busktess would appear to have ieached a size used for comparison with the Australian type is large enough successfully to resist competition that made by the foundry of V. & J. Figgins.39 from his chief opposition in Sydney, Davies Brothers, in maintaining sales to the local printing trade. For a time the firm was also able to compete Conclusion with Shanvood & Co. who appear to have super- The life of the type foundry of Alexander Thomp- seded Thompson as an Austdian colonial expor- ' son and his wife, and ifs continuation by Archi- ter, along with other printers' furnishers like bald Wright, spans thirty-seven years of Franklyn, and Cubitt, who were importing type : continuous activity before the firm disappears from England. from John Sands' Directory in 1880.~~This time- While the type foundries of Thompson, Wright, , span, Thompson's involvement in exports, and Davies, and possibly Shanvood, whose role as , the question of the foundry's site, would suggest importer or &e founder is uncertain, continued ; that it was, or it grew to be, a bigger business than to operate in Sydney after the gold rushes, fie could have been sustained with a single hand- impact of gold caused Sydney type manufacturers

; The Art of Printing comprises four great branches : 7 Sample text from the pages of The Art of Printing published in Sydney by : 1. hpressions in l5-d-Relief, including Tnography, John Degotaxdi in 1861 (from the Stereotg;~,Sy1opph.i-, Chemi*y. kc.. kc. Mitchell Library, Sydney). The bold type shown here is similar in design to n. hlpresfdons in Bas-Relief, including Engraving, Calco- the type sold by the Fig@ foundry graph>-, Siderography, Galranogaphy, S&logmpby, H~do- graphy, Gnillochage, kc.,. kc. 'm Chemical Impressions, comprising Lithography, Zinco- graphy, Chemipaphr, the bastatic Process, Chromo-litho- ,paphr. , m. Natnzd Impressions, rrhich include Galcanoplasty, Da- Dlerreotypy. Photographr, Nicrotyp~,and photo-lithogmphr.-.j

O JIanl- persona do not even' Lnov the difference bet~eerlLithograph? and

The Beginnings of Type Founding in Sydney Appendix One

to play a minor role when compared with foreign him on the wzy to owning his own Australian and local importers of printing equipment. Com- type foundry by the turn of the century, possibly petition came from the many new firrns setting up by the acquisition of the Australian Type Found- : in business as printers' furnishers, who quickly ing Company at Sydney. took control of the Australian market. F. B. Frank- It is regrettable for us that F. T. Wimble's genius lyn in Melbourne prospered for some sixteen for business and self-promotion obliterated from years. Both the firrns of Gordon & Gotch and the consaousness of Australian printers, adthe Detmold were started during the gold rushes Ausbalian public, any memory of the earlier and entered the market for printers' supplies. foundries. As far as Fred Wimble was concerned, While the nature of the businesses of Gordon & there was only one AustTalian type foundry- , Gotch and Detmold has changed over the years, Wi~nble's!~~ they are still large firms today. From this study it may be concluded that Aus- In the twentieth century the strongest force in tralian type manufacturing was established much Australian type founding came to be F. T. Wimble. earlier, and took deeper root, than has previously But Wimble's financial strength, like that of the been supposed. There is a parallel to be drawn firrns of William Detmold and Gordon & Gotch, between the Australian and the American experi-

was drawn from sources other than type founding. ence. Both countries had viable type founding ' Fred Wimble began in business as an ink manu- industries during the period of their colonial facturer in Melbourne in 1867. By 1876 he was administration. But the comparison ends there. successful enough to be able to re& to England America was large and popdous, and Australia via America, where he secured the Australian by comparison was thinly settled. In 1769 Abel agency for type from McKellar, Smiths, & Jordan, Buel of Connecticut began a type f~undry,~and and, when once again in London, he gained a by 1800 eight type foundries had been established similar agency from the type founders V. & J. Fig- in the United States. In nineteenth-century Amer- gins. The success of this business strategy to add ica, type founding was in its mature phase and Figgins' British and McKellar's American foundry continued to prosper. In Australia the discovery of type to his trade in Australian printing inks is gold swamped this fragile local manufacturing evident from the subsequent growth of the firm. base with foreign imports. Nevertheless, in New . One of Wimble's V. & J. Figgins catalogues, Ready South Wales there were eight type foundries ' Reference t3 Postal Specimen Sheets of Printing Types, recorded before Federation in 1901. Two more I although undated:' has survived. Wimble contin- were briefly in operation in Victoria after the ued to expand his imports of printing equipment gold rush. Of type founding in the other Austra- and supplies throughout the 1880s. lian colonies nothing is known. Starting with imported foundry type, F. T. With the success of F. T. Wimble's Australian Wimble & Co. diversified, bringing into Australia Type Company being accepted, earlier Australian wooden poster typela and importing as well as type founding quickly became a forgotten indus- building priniing presses and machinery for local try. Printers and print historians alike, lacking the use. Then, some time before 1900, Wimble ex- curiosity of their English or American counter-

panded his business further to manufacture elec- parts in this field, have ignored the contribution , trotype blocks in Sydney for Australian made by Australia's early type foundries. The Wimble & Co. also printed catalogues for their result of this is that we have only a fragmentary locally manufactured electrotype stock blocks. knowledge of this country's typographical past. These catalogues, like the Figgins catalogue, were DENNIS BRYANS large in' format. F. T. Wimble's electrotype catalo- Swinbume.School of Design gues were lavishly illustrated with pages printed Swinbume University of Technology in a variety of colours, which showed off Wimble's ~ustrali&-madeinks to advantage. This strategy, which .began with imports and then supplemented with manufactured goods, set Appendix One

Notes 10 See also the Port Phillips Gazette, Wednesday, 8 October 1845. 1 Dietrich Borchardt, born in 1916, Chief Librarian, La 11 Port Phillip Herald, Friday, g July 1847. Trobe University, Melbourne. Author of Australian 12 Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List, I July Bibliography: A Guide to Printed Sources of Information, 1848, p. 115- publisher Cheshire, Melborzme, 1963, and co-author 13 Ibid., 28 February 1850. of other works including The Spread of Printing: 14 Ibid., Saturday, 15 June 1850, p. 167. Eastern Hemisphere, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 15 Ibid., Saturday, 3 May 1851, p. 130. London, 1966. In 1988, with Wallace Kirsop, Borch- 16 Ibid., '11 February 1852, Eagle for Melbourne: I Box, ardt revised the text previously published in The A. Thompson', p. 51; 'Monday 7 November 1853, Spread of Printing and included it in The Book in Hellespont for Melbourne, three box types: Australia: Essays Towards a Cultural and Social History, A. Thompson'. edited by D. H. Borchardt & W. Kirsop, Australian 17 Ibid., Saturday 11 January: '7 January 1851, Emma, Reference Publications in association with the for Hobart-Town z boxes, I parcel type, A. Thomp- Centre for Bibliographical and Textual Studies, son', p. 354. Monash University, Melbourne, 1988. In this edition 18 Ibid., '24 August 1850, Emma, for Auckland: 1 case the story of Alexander Thompson's fount of long type, 1 package frames, A. Thompson', p. 250; primer being in use in the Govemmenf Gazette is ?aturday march: '26 February 1851, Maukin, for retold (p. 9). Auddand: 2 cases type, A. Thompson', p. 63. 2 Borchardt, edited by C. Claire, The Spread of Printing: 19 Ibid., '2 May 1851, Wanderer, to Geelong: 2 case type, Eastern ~emisphere,.~~.at., p. 43. A. Thompson'. 3 Ibid., p. 39. 20 A Century of Journalism 1831-1931: The Sydney Morn- 4 Information on the arrival of Alexander Thompson ing Herald and Its Record of Australian Life, published in Sydney is unverified. The most Wcely candidate by John Fairfax & Sons Limited, Sydney, 1931, was landed from the Fairlie on 5 November 1841. p. 732- This arrival date fits with the Sydney Morning Herald 21 Like his arrival in Sydney, details of the death of report of 7 January 1843, which placed ~hom~son's Alexander Thompson are difficult to establish. arrival as being 'about two years ago'. Aged Searches for newspaper reports of the type founder 25 years, and born circci 1816, he gave his employ- arriving in Sydney or reports of his death have not . ment as blacksmith, and the profession of his father been found, nor have any descendants been located in Scotland as engineer. This Alexander ~hom~son, at present. Records of births, marriages, and deaths a metal worker, was accompanied by his wife Lyday in New South Wales reveal that two A. Thompsons ' and their children. died in 1858 which is the most likely date. As the 5 Borchardt, op. cit., pp. 39, 40. Sydney Morning Herald's editorial states, MIS 6 The pamphlet The Art of Printing was drawn to my Thompson was a widow in January 1859. attention by Wallace Kirsop, Department of 22 In the Sands Directory of 1863 she is referred to as Romance Languages, Monash University. Three Mrs Thomas and in the 1865 directory as Miss . copies are known to exis't, two in the Mitchell Thompson. , ~ibrary,Sydney and one in Britain. 23 Archibald Wright replaces Mrs Thompson as pro- 7 J. Degotardi, The Art of Printing in its Various prietor in the Sands Sydney Directory of 1866. Branches: With Specimens and Illustmtions, Sydney, q The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List, 1861. 18 January 1849: 'The William Hill departs Sydney for 8 h examination of nineteenth-century Sydney California with a cargo of spades and picks', p. 10. street directories reveals the following listing of 25 Ibid., 11 October 1851. type founders. Before 1859, Mr Alexander Thomp- 26 Ibid., Saturday 19 July 1852. son; 1859-65, Mrs Thompson; 1865-82, Davies 27 R. G. Campbell, The First Ninety Years: The Printing Brothers; 1865-96, John Davis (or Davies), Wd- House of Massina Melbourne, A. H. ~Massina,Mel - liam R. Gullick, Walter McKay; 1866, Sharwood & bourne, 1949, p. 31. Co.; 1866-80, Archibald Wright; 1889-98, Austra- 28 G. Serle, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of lian Type ~oundin~Co. In 1901, the firm of F. T. Victoria 1851-1861, Melbourne University Press, Wimble is listed. Melbourne, 1968, corrected edition, p. 121. 9 Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List, 29 The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List, 4 October 1845, p. 254. . Vol. XI. Typical entries read as follows: '26 March

The Beginnings of Type Founding in Sydney 85 Appendix One

1655: William Denny for Auckland, 1 package, between 12 and 131 point, the equivalent today of a L. Sharwood & Co.', '15 May 1855, Hellespont (ss) generously sized text type. for Melbourne: 1 case, I keg, 1box printing materi- 36 W. T. Berry & A. F. Johnson, Encyclopaedia of Type als, L. Shanvood & Co.' Shipping Gazette, VoI. XIII: Faces, 1st edition, Blandford Press, London, 1953, '1856: 27 February, Telegraph (sail) for Melbourne: 2 P. 53. boxes type, Shanvood', p. Q; ibid., Vol. XIV, 37 Ibid., p. 61. Monday 5 January 1857, p. 2: '31 December 1856, 38 John Degotardi was active as a lithographic printer William Dolny for Auckland, I case paper, I package in Sydney, speaalizing in printing sheet music and printing materials, L. Shanvood', and again on theatrical posters, before turning his attention to Monday, g November: 'Vixen for Launceston, 2 photography. cases, paper, L. Shanvood', p. 246. 39 The Egyptian and Ionic types made at the foundry of 30 N. Gray, XIXth. Century Ornamental Types and Title V. Br J. Figgins were at the forefront of typographic Pages, Faber & Faber, London, 1938, p. 110. An development at the beginning of the nineteenth inconclusive account of the dispersal of the stock century. of the firm of S. Br T. Sharwood in 1856. Successors 40 In 1880 Archibald Wright's last-known foundry to the type founder Richard Austin, the last spea- address was at Circular Quay. men book and price list ated by Nicolete Gray in 41 This catalogue was acquired by the Melboume this edition is dated 1854, p. 1.12. Public Library, now the State Library of Victoria. It 31 Alexander Thompson's name does not appear in is rubber stamped with the accession date of

the Shipping Gazette and Sydney. . Gencrnl Trade List 20 October 1882. after 7 November 1853, although another 42 In the 1880s F. T. Wimble & Co. became the Aus- (S. Thompson and son) sent five boxes of type to tralian representative of the British poster type man- Melbourne in the Wonga Wonga in August 1857. ufacturers Day & Collins. Quantities of D. & C.'s This entry in the Shipping Gazette and Sydney Gen- Ventris' type may still be found in the dusty comers eral Trade List, Monday, 7 September 1857, p. 206 of print shops throughout the nation. In this century may possibly be a reference to Mrs Thompson and Wimble & Co. continued to import type as well as a son. manufacture it, and also traded Hamilton's 32 The English firm of ~obson,Levey, & Franklyn was machine-cut poster type from the United States. engaged in book printing. Robson, Levey, & Frank- 43 The Wimble's catalogues familiar to Australians lyn, Great New Street, Fetter Lane, London, printed today are those with blue covers, in which Wimble's Picturesque .Sketches of London: Past and Present by trumpeted their advertising claim to be the 'only' Thomas Miller, a compilation of material previously Australian type foundry. The covers of these catalo- published in the London Illustrated News. This book, gues vary in colour from sky blue to a dark Prussian and possibly others of the same series, were pub- blue. They represent the mature phase of F. T. lished by the National fllust~atedLibrary, 227 Strand, Wimble & Co.'s type-founding business and have London. The extent of any connection between the in common these features: the type faces have now . London Illustrated News and Robson, Levey, & Frank-. mostly acquired Australasian names such as lyn is not known. It is probable that F. B. Franklyn Wellington, Otago Old Style, Jenolan Smoll, Ballarat stocked books from the London firm, in addition to Bold, Canberra, Darwin, Katoomba Text, Geelong printing equipment and printers' type. Shaded, Adelaide Ronde. They are displayed with 33 F. B. Franklyn, Printers' Broker, 20 Queen Street, Mittagong and Bulli borders. The range of sizes Melboume, advertised foundry type from the also has increased; emphasis has shifted in favour Besley, Miller, Caslon, and Figgins foundries, in of display types, although text sizes are still addition to second-hand machines, presses, and included, interspersed throughout the pages with materials in the Melbourne Argus and the Melbourne various script faces. The Australian names are Age in 1867. Franklyn was for some years one of the misleading to the non-typographer. The design of proprietors of the Herald newspaper. His death was Adelaide Ronde is similar to Stephenson Blake's Par- reported in the Arps on I January 1869. isian Ronde, but is identical to the American Type 34 D. Bryans, 1994, summary of entries in the Victorian Founders' version marketed as Typo Upright. Con- Customs Bill of Entry, between 1856 and.1861. ' siderable effort would be required to unravel the 35 Long Primer types were, according to Theodore De origins of all of Wimble's 'Australian' founts. Vinne, approximately 12 ems (2 inches) to the alpha- ++ I. Thomas, The History of Printing in America, bet in length or, on the point hesystem, a size Weathervane Books, New York, p. 28.

86 Dennis Brynns Appendix Two

AUSTRALHA AND NEW ZEALAND

BULLETIN

Volume Twenty-three, Number Three Third Quarter, 1999

Eliza Haywood's Last (lost') Work: The History ofLeonora Meadowson (1788) PATRICK SPEDDING Unmasking Transient Colonial Authors: The Case of Handley Bathm Sterndale DlRK H.R. SPENNEMANN AND JANE DO'WNING Nineteenth-Century Australian Type Foundries DENNIS BRYANS REVIEWS Appendix Two

NINETEENTH-CENTURY AUSTRALIAN TYPE FOUNDRIES

It is puzzling that type founding in Adahas not been examined in more detail. In America, for example, type foundries were listed by Isaiah Thomas as early as 18 10, and the earliest extant American type specimen book was published in 1809 by Binney and Ronaldson.1 There is little record of similar, if later, developments in Ausralia. Of the Sydney foundries, only Wirnbles has been wrinen about at any lengch. None of the colonial Melbourne foundries have been researched to any degree. If we search for primary sources such as news articles, printers' catalogues or foundry type specimens we find almosr nothing. In the past very few people have considered he cultural significance of the type foundries' activities. Thomas Richards, New South Wales Government Printer, is possibly the only exception in this regard, for he alone had the foresight to record the type specimens made by both of the major Sydney foundries of his day. The resulting type specimen book, now in the State Archives of New South Wales (Sydney), entitled Smof Prhing Types in zue at tlze Ghmm~Rmting %, 1882, contains examples of modem face type made by Davies Brothers and by the Thompson Foundry. Unlike Britain and America, Australia does not have a notable colleaion of type specimen books. There is no Audan equivalent to the St. Bride Printing Library, London, founded by T.B. Reed and Wjliarn Blades, or the A.T.F. Collection (now in the Butler Library at Columbia University), assembled by an Ausdian, Henry Lewis Bullen. Sadly, there is only one known surviving nineteenth-century type specimen book from a foundry, that being the Audan Type Foundry in Sydney, an amalgamation of the firms of John Davies and Henry Thitchener.2 In the absence of type specimen books, specimens of the actual type could be an alternz&e source of information. However, wo~.~e3~1s 11.splUy ~ep~ .ba.c%k.... to the foundry and melted down to make new type. Because of this, any early Australian types, unless they are in collecrions somewhere, are likely to be random, accidental survivors. The litcle type that has survived is diff~cultto

1. See Roue G. Silver, T-T in Arnerim, 1787-1825, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va, 1965, p.24, for references to Binney and to Ronaldson's 1809 parnphler containing specimens of 102 metal ornaments. 2. S@iikeu of Prmtljlg Types Mam$kmd by tk Australian Type Far& Co., 91A Ckzmce Sneet, S*, NS.W. (Sydney, n.d). The only known copy is held by the Powerhouse M~eum,Sydney. - Appendix Two

Nzhetwzh-CenhnyAtrmalian Type Faazdries 165 idenufy. Pin marks, which commonly reveal the names of the makers, are rarely labelled in the smaller sizes. Ausdan type founders seem to have mostly specialised in body type and som, both of which fall into this category. With the exception of Wirnbles (and not always then) Adanfoundries do not appear to have bothered with such details as advertising their make on the pin mark of the me. ~ikdianelectrotypers, however, usually did punch identification marks on their stock printing blocks. Typical exarnples are blocks made by Azzoppardi and Markby (Melbourne), Markby (Melbourne), John Sands (Sydney), and Wimble (Sydney and Melbourne). Like their American counterparts, two Australian foundries also had electrotyping plants - F.T. Wimble in Sydney and H.J. Thitchener in Melbourne. The mark in^ of electrotvpe blocks with the maker's name suggests that perhaps some of Vthe older g$e foundries may have put idenufying marks on larger type that they cast. The general stationery firms of John Sands and Edwards, Dunlop may not have cast type themselves, but they were sometimes listed in the direaories under that headine. Both were associated with William Ransome Gullick who was listed in theu~ydneydirectories as a type founder at 141 Pirt Street frdm 1864 to 1868. In 1877 Gullick again appeared in ZkAu~hdimt H&k and ALnmzac and Ship' rmd hp~&Dira~~, as supplying type and printing material at 141 Pitt Street, while at the same address under a separate entry, the firm of Edwards Dunlop & Co. is listed as supplying stationery. For some time WJliam Gullick was a manager with John Sands, and his son, WA. Gullick, also worked for the firm before going on to become the'New South Wales Government Printer. One might think that the type face itself would be useful in idenufylng examples of colonial type, but again there are difficulties. Without type specimen books for reference, Ausdan types copied from foreign patterns (and lacking idenufylng pin marks) are indistinguishable from cheap imporred type. Superficially, foundry types were identified by compositors, in type cases, or left standing, by their nicks. The nick was a fairly reliable mark of identification rhar.?~.de.&t?p.-c~m~n,~irnr..in~.s~~.~+identification and distribution. The nick, on the front of the shank, was grooved, and its manufacture was made possible by a wire or wires inserted into the mould. Misalignment of nicks led ro confusion in the composing room, and the details of making corrections to nidis in moulds led to corres~ondencebetween the Victorian Government Printer and the Aunralian TG~Foundry on at least one occasion. Some type specimen books showed the type's profile with the position and number of nicks for easy iden&cation, but this will not help us much if the type face and the nick are both copied from the same source and the type itself has no idenufylng pin niark on it. Its attribution in this case is only probable. . The feet of types, separated by gFooves plowed into'the base of the type, can tell us a little more about the type's manufacture and age. Older types, typically from British foundries such as Figgins and Austin Wood & Co. tend to have Appendix Two

deep, well f~shedgrooves with arching curves between the feet. More recent types usually have shallow square cut grooves, or grooves with slightly tapered sides. Some types have no grooves at all in which case the types may simply have had the tanp: sheared off or have been finished by hand. Together. the features of the shape, Size and the position of the pin ma& the finiShing bf the feet, the slope of the shoulder on the type, the number and position of the nicks, and the composition of the metal may eventually help to iden* type forensically. There is one other method of identification. Com~ositors.in well-run shous. often labelled me cases with the name and DO& size 'of the twes th'& contained. For eGmple, a font of 18 pok '~o~&ah'cast without an Zen+'g pin mark at F.T. Wimble's Australasian Type Foundry was recognised3 in this way by checking a proof of the type against a specimen in a Wmble catalogue. Having fust idendied this type as'Artistic Recherche' cast in London by the Sir Charles Reed & Sons from another catalogue it was found that it was also issued by Stephenson and Blake as Xecherche' after they bought the Reed foudy in 1907. So the pedigree of Xogarah' (cast by Wmble without idenufylng pin marks) was reconnected with its Enghsh origins. The absence of clearly defined, orderly collections of Australian type specimen books, identifiable printing specimens, or of the machinery built and operated to make Australian printing types, is a matter of regret. It is to be hoped , i that bv drawing attention to this deficit careful collectors will be more vidantD when'old types and rype specimen books are rediscovered and that more research will uncover some of heunknown details of our typographic past. , Although the forensic evidence is patchy, there is d much to be learnt about ' Audan type founding from the traditional sources. The following is a first attempt to record what is known about Ausualia's earliest type founders.

Alexander Thomson 1 Austda's first type foundry was begun in Sydney, between 1841 and 1843 by Alexander Thomson (sometimes Thompson+). In 1847 his foundry was in Edwards Street, near Goulburn Street in present-day DZ;ing--s< bl; iZS5 -ii------/

foundry was located at 83 Yurong Street, Sydney, near Liverpool Street. I Thornson's first customer was the Government Printer to whom he supplied type for the Gbmmm Gazette. Soon, Thomson became a regular supplier of type to the Government Printer, W.W. Davies. This arrangement included a discount on fresh orders of 5% for consignmenrs of worn-out type returned to the foundry by the Government Printing Office to be melted down and recast as

- 3. Type collected, proofed and identified by the author. 4. Thornson' was sometimes given as Thompson': the former spelling is used throughout this paper. Appendix Two

TO TLiE STRWTERE OF TFE 1 ! AEORIGIXAL LANGUAGE ; i i BLCIl) AX AXALTIIS 0. TBS I 1 PATLTICLES CSED M .Ir'Fl.UeR, TO BOBX i t THE OF VLLRTOTS JCODIETC-kTIOXS .,/..-- - y'.

CRSVISO rnl ESS=TLLL l'OFEP' AlSll2Af.Z' ROOTS. LSD 1 OF THE LYGUAGE

1 SPOKEN BY TIIE ABOBLGIh'ES ,a 4 -a )r OF IIUN~~?uI, LA~P MACQUABIX, t IX vxcmmx m., .Y .? * .; hrn SOm WhtES: '.. -'f TOOOTIIDP WITB COl?IPIROZl fl? POLTlbSIAX AXD DriIIL DIAL- ,j - 3

3 SYDNEY:

THZ R4lOC ?OX PRXXKSTAIIOB AT TIIP BOYAS. xAnnnLXXRIBmOS, mXDDS, 8862- i IIIC ~cstrcuUP nor& momam nxaw ALsrxr. mou ma . TBI: -5 COLOJU, CAST BT d. TflOXP¶OX.+BL BLTDIYG ; . UITU COLOYIAL YATEEIAL. I PRISTED BT GEYE AXD FAIRFAX, MUXX 9KOME UTEBET. i

1 Fig. 1: An example of the rypes from the foundry of Alexander Thomson. I Appendix Two

165 BiHe- SocrQy OfAustralia and NmZmhd new type. Thornson also exponed type to other Australsian colonies, with consignments going to South A~da,Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand. Perhaps the high point in Alexander Thornson's career as an Australian type founder was the 1850 reprinting of L.E. Threlkeld's book, A Kq to the Stnm~~of the Aba'gmal Lmzpp, published by Kemp and Fairfax for the Great Exhibition of 1851. A KT to the Smca~leofhe A&& Lmzpag shows the largest variety of type cast by Thornson's foundry yet identified. The type is severe and utilimian. Thomson's types are a variation on the Scotch Roman types popularised by Alexander Wilson. Neverrheless, the depage of Threlkeld's book is of interest, being composed in six sizes of Thornson's type, the whole set in capitals. The largest size is nvo-line long primer; the smallest, nonpareil. (See Figure 1) After Thomson's death in 1858 the business was carried on by his wife and son for a further six years, during which rime it was known as the Australian Type found^^. However, from 1864 supplies of type became irregular, and so the Government Printer turns to other type founders for a more regular supply. Locally made type most likely came from Davies Brothers, initiaJly at Chippendale and later at Redfem. Possibly, some type was purchased from Walter M'Kay, another type founder who operated on the west side of Charles Street, Sydney, in 1558. Evenma&, Thomson's foundry was controlled by Archibald Wright, who took up ,the government work on similar terms to those agreed to by Thornson. Pica, minion and long primer types were supplied to the Government Printing Office at the rate of Is 9d per pound How much Archibald Wright contributed to the improvement of Alexander Thomson's type foundry after he took over is uncertain, but like Thornson before him he was diligent in promoting the foundry. Wright exhibited samples of his type at the Intercolonial Exhibition at Melbourne in 1866-67 and was awarded a medal for type founding (exhibit 267).5 Repordng'on the awards of the Jurors, Augustus Tulk wrote that in Wright's Autdian type foundry exhibit mew South Wales alone had ... a foundry ... manufacturing type equai io- Lltr S~aiimpor~ek riG&lg-rhe European foundries in sharpness, neatness, and delicacy of impression, and even competing in cheapness with the &st workshops of the world'.6 At the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, Archibald Wright of Ywong Street exhibited type and chase (item 378). Wright clearly felt that he had a product worthy of promotion because he again exhibited type founding equipment and typefaces in Section VI at the Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition of 1873: Apparatus

.5. ImdExhibirian of Atcmalana, MelEr;lrane 1866-67, Qjbal M-Rpn~ d A.wmLr~f&~,m?de~sly~rmd~~&d~d&~Of&A~malim ohnis, Melbourne, Blundell and Ford, 1867, p.40. 6. ibid, p.360. Appendix Two

Nd-GamyAudiun Type F& 169

and processes used in the Common h,comprising a 'collection of colonial made type and [a] type making machine'? In 1878 Archibald Wright was bankrupted, although his business at Circular Quay was still listed in the Smzds' Sjzhy and SuburEm? Drrartoly of 1880. Thomas Richards, then Government Printer at Sydney, made a plea to the New South Wales Under-Secretary for Finance and Trade that the foundry be purchased by the Government. Richards pointed out: As types from different moulds are not to be mixed, Thornson's Founts' cannot be replenished without employing this plant. The department has therefore an interest in its preservation, and would be particularly benefited by owning it. ... I I would remark that the printing of the electoral Rolls in this office has been much facilitated by the existence of a local foundry capable of

supplementing the founts exhausted by the job. In the year 1867 ... I I

submitted a proposal to purchase sufficient new type from Wright's I Foundry to keep the Rolls standing. I This proposal, as will be seen, received the sanction of the Colonial Secretary, and was camied into effect at once. The same plan has been j I pursued yearly ever since, with the most satisfactory results, its economical I advantages being remarkable. ! On the occasion of the General Election of 1859, the cost of collecting and printing the Lists and Rolls was £4,867. 8. 0. There were then 74,531 1 Electors on the Rolls, now, there are 183,841; so that, if the old system I had been retained, the cost of this year's printing would not have been I less than £12,000, whereas it did not exceed L1,750. And there results from the plan, not only this very great annual saving, but the incidental I advantages of having the Rolls always in type ... I accordingly request that I I be authorised to negotiate for the purchase of Wright's plant, or as much of it*as I may selecc after careful examination, for £350 or at a possibly ---.-.2 reduced fiGe.8 -- The purchase of Wright's foundry by the New South Wales Government Printing Office condudes the story of Ausualia's first type founder.

I1 I i

7. ~ofrheNatrrralmdI~PlrduasofNmSouthWalesfbnervdedrn &Paris Unkd Exh* of 1867 by the New Sin& W& w,z, A*, Sydney, Thomas Richards, Government Printer, 1867, Item 378, type and chase, Archibald Wright, type founder, Yurong St., Sydney. 8: New South Wales, State Archives Office, GoremmsrrPnrzrmg O&, CoplesofLetkn Sm 1865-82. Letrer 80/258, Thomas Richards, Government Printer to the Under Secretary for Finance and Trade. Appendix Two

170 Bibli0gVqha.l SocicfAwcrak rmd New M

1 PIC?! E?'.ISETr (Daries') .-4P AIRS CASES.

Fig.2: Spedmen from Thomas Richards, S'cf hnmg Tpm use at ~~g~,1882. Appendix Two

Thomas Davies Ln 1857 a second type foundry was established at Chippendale in Sydney by Thomas Davis (sometimes Daviesg). Situated at 22 Dale Street, not far from Cleveland Street, this foundry, by 1861, had expanded to take over the adjoining prope~qat 20 Dale Street. Known as Davies Brothers Type Foundry, the business was later moved to Marion Street, Redfem. A type specimen sheet was issued by Davies Brothers in either 1858 or 1859, which confirms that they, like Ale.uander Thomson, had links with the New South Wales Government Printing Office. The Davies Brothers specimen sheet described in the trade publication T& Point in 1939 as comaining 'a new pica, a long primer clarendon on a pica body, and a pica erased' (for parliamentary bill purposes), cut for, and under the direction of the New South Wales Government Printer, William Hanson, from dies cut in Sydney. William Hanson, then, was the first Australian official who is recorded as having directed typographic design to a particular end when he instructed and supervised Davies Brothers to make type for the specific needs of the New South Wales Governrnenr. (See Figure 2) A comparison may be made between Thomson's type and the type made by Davies Brothers. The slightly wider colonial modem face roman employed by John Degotardi in printing his 1861 book, 2Z-e Art ofPrmtmg, may have come from the Davies Brothers foundry rather than from Thomson (Archibald Wright). The type used in ?he Art of Printing appears to have been patterned on the design of Robert Besley or one of his imitators. Davies Brothers foundry evenndy came to be owned by John Davies alone. Under John's dkeaion it continued to supply type to both the New South Wales and the South Australian government printing establishments. The variety of type faces cast by John Davies was dearly larger than the brief paragraph in T& Point suggested in 1939. Other examples of Davies' type are the livestock brand symbols font cast for the South Australian Government Printer in 1879. There &as also a long primer version of the same erased type made by the Davies Ero&t.rs.'ioundrv for William Hanson. ' A biographich note on John Davies in 1888 confirms that his role in the ty-pe foundry was a creative one.10 He was reportedly a punch cutter to the Fanu Street i I 9. Davis' was often given subsequently as Davies': rhe latter spelling is used throughout this paper. 10. W. Frederic Monison, MPL, MD, ?he AIdine Gmmid Hictory of New Sourh Wales, v.2, Sydney, Aldine Publishing Co., 1888 (and printed with Australian Type Foundry type) refers to 'Mr. Davis too [who] spent the greater part of his time in two of the - principle foundries in London - those of Messn Reed and Fox and V. and J. Fig* - in both of which he was a punch cutter. Great credit is due to him for the way in whch he execured several founts of punches - an imponant brarch of type founding - for various colonial governments'. Appendix Two

BiblkwSoc~sy $Australia and New Zakd

OHLAT PR~XL~AXZIQVI 111.0 ~TTLL~0.2. pn1k((' / CHEATRICAL ENTERTAI~' ENT 1 Admission Three Shillings Grand Instrumental Performance.

rlcA A~T~QI:X0r.n ITPLC. m.2. CANADIAN GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD Minutes of Lhe Proceedings at the Annual General Meetings of this Company.

LONO 1.nr1Ir.n ~.v~rquko7.n RZTLL. xn.2 THE interest on the bonds and stock now proposed to be issued amounts only to E16,250 per annum, so the balance will, with the additional receipts for tolls, be applied year by year as a READING IN ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT I? evised and Improved Edition, 12s. 6d.

nilxvtxit AXT~QU~n1.n srrrn. xu.:. THE interest on the bonds and stock now proposed to be issued amounts only to £16.250 per arinum, so that the balance will, wlth the additional recelpts for tolls, be applied year by year as a sinking fund for the re- demption of the bonds nt par, Increased annually by fhe Interest on the bonds redeemed. What these additional receipts may be cannot at present N ~~WSPAPER ~-a~'....!:~!.c.~-v!~Y--~~.~!~..-~~JJ:..P-~~~~.. .. El234567890 Fig.3: Example of Thitchener's cype sent to John Ferres, Victorian Government Primer. Appendix Two

Na-CenttnyAustralian Type F& 173

foundry of Reed and Fox and also to Vincent and James Figgins, London, before emigrating to Australia.

Robert Dale The fist type foundry in Melbourne was that established by Robert Dale, from Scotland, who arrived in Melbourne in September 1853. His profession as a type founder is recorded in the passenger list of heship Sophia Btrrbid' in which he and his f+ arrived11 Dale, then 37 years of age, brought with him his wife Margaret and four children, the youngest only ten months old. He soon started in business as a type founder at 3 Victoria Street, Hotham (North Melbourne), fir= listed at this address in the Sd& Kemry? Gmmmd mzd Gnmal Melbame Directory of 1857. By 1859. he had moved to a wooden house of two rooms at 49 Victoria Street where he continued in business until 1875. Dale's Melbourne career exended from 1853 until around 1875, when he ceased to be listed in the Sdand M&gall's Melbmme ad S* Dnzrtny. The Government Printer, John Ferres, made no reference to Dale when he mentioned type founders in It must be assumed that Dale had little contam with officialdom, and therefore made no impression on them. Furthermore, Augum Tulk appears to be ignorant of Dale's foundry. The evidence would seem to point to a small, modest business, nevertheless one, which enabled Dale to support his farmly throughout more than two decades.

Henry James Thitchener The Victorian Type Foundry at 3 Stanley Buildings, Emerald Hill (South Melbourne), should be regarded as the most comprehensive type foundry in Awralia in the colonial period. Begun in 1876 by Henry James Thitchener, this foundry supplied type to the Victorian and South Australian Government P'nnters. Thitchener (1841-1911) was born in London. The son of a printer and -.,P_I~~~XCC~-~~~C~~T.~~work as an apprentice to an engineering firm, then later gained employment as a mechanic at Vincent and James Figgins's Type Foundry. Afcer fifteen years with Fig*, Thitchener started his own business as a type founder's engineer and machinist in Clerkenwell and engaged in typecasting at 53 Barnsbury Road, Islington. He emigrated to Auda, arriving in Melbourne in the MeIhin September 1876. He was 34 years of age. His reason for

11. Victoria, PRO, Shipping I&. 12. Victoria, PRO, VPRS 1207, unit 1216, file 3661,lmr,'82-R 9606, in which John Ferres refers to 'Mr Webster (formerly of this department but now superaanuated) b4ingl asked to make the inspection [of Thitchener's foundry, adding] I am not aware of there being another type founder in the colony.' Appendix Two

174 Biblz4prraphtuJ S&ty of Austrdiu and Nm Ze?LP?d

emigraring, according to his obituary notice, was 'seeing so much printing material going out to Ada'.l3 Thitchener issued a type specimen book in h.lelbourne containing samples of borders and comers in addition to a range of types. Regreaably, so far, no complete example of this specimen book has been found14 (See Figure 3) Fortunately, his energy and productivity may help to reveal more about his we. Enough type specimens were produced by him, and to a sufficiendy high standard of manufame, for them to be commented upon in the press during the Melbourne International Exhibidon of 1880-81. Thitchener was awarded the Second Order of Merit for his type. Commenting on the exhibits, the Awtr& Tm& Jdnoted &at 'our solitary rype founder, Mr H. Thitchener of Emerald hill, exhibited a modest case of type (principally darendons, sans-serifs, and antiques), and a curious set of cattle-brands specialty cut for the South Ausualian Government, of brevier size, which included pipes, tomahawks, letters in circles, ovals, diamonds, &c.' The piece went on to state that We think our Government Printer ought to give an order for a set, as they would prove to be useful for the GmIrnpoundings1.15 The South AdanBrands Bill of 1878 provided a rare opportunity for original type design in colonial Ausualia. Like the commissioning of Hanson's pica erased type before it (referred to above), the design must have been commissioned by the South Adangovernment because both Davies in Sydney and Thitchener in Melbourne responded. The speci£ications for the design of the font are not known, but the Government Plinter appears to have issued some instructions because the types supplied by Thitchener and Davies had similar characteristics.

13. Obituary notice headed: 'Obituary Henry J. Titchener [sic]' from an unidentified news dipping, possibly from an engineering magazine, (a clipping kept by a member of ' the Thitchener family). This dippius LAYC;Lr L Y;~c~~-~I-:-ZUIIrj h;i~wnc.of his we casting machines in his 'private workshop in New Town, Sydney' and is desuibed as , being 'of particular interest to the type founding section of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers'. 14. See lk AumLzlarirm Tmaphd Jd,@vIelbourne) March 1877, p.36 for references to Garious founts which Mr Thitchener shows on his specimen book' and the ' claim thar he 'has made arrangements by which he un obtain suikes of any type, borders, or comers which are produced in Great Britain or America'. The Tmapkd jd article concludes: We may add ... that Mr Thitchener's specimen sheet shows some 1 good type'. The only surviving printed samples of H. J. Thitchener's Melbourne rype foundry so far identified are the sample currings sent to the Xctorian Government Printer, John Ferres (Victoria, PRO, VPRS 1207, unit 1216, file 3661, '84R 3661) showing sans serif and 'Antique Old-Style' types (described by Thitchener as latins), new matrices then being prepared (25 April 1884) at the time of the proposed sale of his foundry to the Victorian Government Printing Office. 15. %Aumk T~aphhd Jod (Melbourne) May 1881, p.131. Appendix Two

N*-m Aumdian Type Farndnes 175 Appendix Two

176 Bibl~~S+ flustxi and New .&kmd

In the course of designing the South Auudian brands font it is possible (even probable) that some collaborarion occurred berween Davies and Thitchener. At the very least it might be supposed that the two firms became familiar with each other's work. The subsequent amalgamation in 1884 of the two foundries formed the Australian Type Founding Company, the second foundry to use this name. phe AdanType Founding Company, in turn, became Wimble's Australasian Type Foundry in 1900). It can be shown, however, that Thitchener at least had been manoeuvring for a more secure income for himself, in the first instance by offering to sell his business and equipment to the Victorian Government and then later by joining up with Davies. Perhaps encouraged by the fact that the New South Wales Government Printing Office had its own type foundry, in December 1882 Thitchener approached the Victorian Government with a proposal to sell the Victoria Type Foundry, together with his services, to the Government. His letter set off a fluny in the Government service. To The Hon. The Premier & Treasurer

Hon. Sir I beg respectfully to bring under your notice the great advantage which would accrue to the Victorian Government I the Printing Office and Railway Depament through their manufacturing their own type. I I have to state that I possess a complete plant and that I myself make every requisite, including machines, dies, moulds &c., &c., required in type 1 founding. I I would remind you that the New South Wales Government have for I some time been making their own type, and I have for a considerable time I I -, --- .-L.5ifiur'E;:Ytib 21;~PIuCto die Victorian Government PGter. I Should you consider favourably the proposition for the Government to make their own type I beg to offer my plant and services to attain that end I remain I Hon. Sir I Your most Obedt. Servant Henry Thitchenerl6 I In response, the Victorian Treasury referred the matter to the Government Printer, who replied in guarded terms that the matter required further investigation. On 11 December John Ferres wrote in reply: The advantages of having a type foundry would be great, but before submitting any remarks on this offer it will be necessary to ascertain - 1.

16. Victoria, PRO, VPRS 1207, unit 1216, file 3661, '82-R 9606. Appendix Two

The sum required; 2. A list of the plant offered; 3. The terms on which Mr. Thitchener would give his services." Thitchener received the Premier's request for this information on 29 December 1582. He replied to it on 10 January 1883 wirh a shon letter to say that he would offer his services to the Govenunent for i300 a year, he enclosed a complete inventory of his plant and equipment, which he valued at E3,000. A memorandum, dated 12 January 1883, outlining Thitchener's offer was sent by Treasury to John Ferres on 18 January for comment, the sender requesting that it 'be returned without delay'. Ferres replied the next day- It is necessary that the plant herein offered should be well inspected by a praaical type founder, I beg to suggest that Mr Webster (formerly of this deparcrnent but now superannuated) be asked to make the inspection. I am not aware of there being another type founder in the colony.18 The Treasurer approved this plan on 20 January, and Webster with Mr Ellis, the type store keeper at the Government Printing Office, were sent to inspect and value Thitchener's plant. Webster reported it to be 'of a superior description & in first class order' and actually arrived at a vduation slightly hgher than Thitchener's original asking price. Webster and Ellis set the value of Thitchener's plant at E3,146 Is 6d. At the beginning of February further questions were asked about where the plant was to be erected. Concern was expressed by Treanuy that a type foundry within the premises of the printing office would be a fire risk. Ferres responded to allay these fears, saying a type foundry within the present building need not be feared. On 14 February John Ferres felt confident enough to write to the Under- Treasurer to say 'it is' finally arranged to complete the purchase' - but his optirnism was to be short lived The Treasury now said that the purchase had to te deferred until the budget estimates for 1883-8<<.--;;xcf z=.-.-I=I\~c!zx~:L.~ J. the purchase could not take place. und the following year. Perhaps unaware of the lumbering progress of the bureaucracy, or the ' delicacy of the state of negotiations berween Ferres and Treasury, Thitchener , made one more representation to the Government. With an introduction from John Nmo MLA,I9 Henry requested an interview with the Treasurer. The outcome of this meeting must have been unsatisfactory because shortly afterwards. on 22 Mav 1883. his offer was refused - 'Mr Thitchener to be informed ;hat this -er h& been considered by the Treasurer & it has been

17. ibid 18. ibid 19. The fmt surveyor of Emenld W and Henry ThitchenerS local Member of Parliament. Appendix Two

decided that it is not expedient to enter into any arrangement for the purchase of the type foundry'.'O Undaunted, 'in 1884 Thitchener uied again to revive his hopes of working for the Crown. In April, Thitchener wrote twice more, adjusting his offer to the Victorian Government. Firs he wrote to say that, upon reflection, he had concluded that some of the ornamental types in his possession might not be of use to the Government Printer. Recognising this he was prepared to reduce the purchase price by E250. Then, when this did not achieve the desired result, Thitchener wrote again, on 25 April, to John Ferres" outlining further assets to be included ixi the purchase and reducing the salary he asked for from E300 to E250. In addition to type founding I have nearly all the necessary appliances for making brass rule, galleys, also electrotyping, stamps, rubber stamps, used by the Railway Dept., having made the moveable type attached for Mr. J. McCallum (see Gazette, p.56, January 15/82). Being a practical machinist, could do any repairs, also make all plant required for type founding. Since lm offer the following addit;ons have been added to the plant and will be included in lieu of those marked 'ornamental' 850 matrices made for South Australian Government on brevier and minion bodies (cade brands) these might: still be obtained through your department. 750 matrices in course of completion of very useful founts, sans serifs and latins - specimens attached herewith. The only assistance required would be unskilled labour (boys). The am. received from yr. department for the last 12 months exceeds l400. I might add in conclusion that the amount of my salary stipulated in my previous offer is amenable to reconsideration - say E250 per annum for first 12 months with a probable rise in rhe event of my services being - . -- _c--,T>17-l^~ -*- ~q*:Cfm~hm'?7 - - - - , - -- These overtui-es in 1884 met with no success. At the same rime Thitchener offered to sell his foundry to tlhe South Australian Goveinment Printer. So far no record have been found by 'which the substance of the South Adan negotiations can be appraised but, as before, the progress of this attempt to achieve financial stability also dearly failed

~ ~ ~ - 20. Victoria, PRO, VPRS 1207, unit 1216, file 3661. 21. ibid, Letter '84-375, dated 24 April, 1884, received the following day, Inwards Correspondence Letter Book, VPRS 878, vo1.3. No reference to a previous letter has been found and it is possible that his fust overtures were conducted in penon. 22. Victoria, PRO, VPRS 1207, unit 1216, file 3661, Letter '84-R 375, Henry Thitchener to JobFerres, 25 April 1881. Appendix Two

. Nd-GtznyAustfalian Type Faazdries 179

On 15 June 1885 Henry Thitchener was at last able to write to the Viaorian Government Printer. Tohn Ferres, from his new address at 91a Clarence Street. Sydney, to say that &e '~ustralikType Foundry' had agreed to buy his plani and he asked 'for a continuance of patronage [at] the present address'." The amalgamation of the firms of John Davies and Henry Thitchener into The AudanType Foundry in 1885 brought togerher two type founders with complementary equipment and skills. Henry Thirchener brought to the business his engineering skills, lathes, patterns and moulds, stereotype and electrotype plant and hee type casting machines of his own design. Ou~idecapital was ah nos^ certainly required for the improvements made by the new company - improvements which reportedly increased the value of The Austdan Type Foundry to £8,000 in 1888. I I With H. J. Thitchener as Manager, the type foundry continued to operate until 1 1901 - 'shortlv, after the inaueurariona of the Gmmonwealth' - denit was sold I to ink manufacturer, stereotyper, type and printing machine importer, F.T. Wunble and Com~anvLimited under the name of Wimble's Australian Tme Foundry, the fum ion'kued to prosper under the guidance of Thitchener's ;in, I Henry Arthur Thitchener, who remained manager of the foundqy until three 1 weeks before his death in February 1934. 1

23. Inwards Correspondence Letter Book, VPRS 878, vo1.3, letter '85/542, 15 June: 'H. Thitchener, Sydney (91a Clarence St.) ... That he has disposed of his plant to the Am. Type Foundry and asks for continuance of patronage to present address.' Ocher , evidence (for example, Momson, ~IdkCBltemzi?l H* of New Wakr) suggests ' that the arrangements made were in the nature of a partnership rather than a b~out. i Thitchener's letter to Ferres therefore may have been calculated to overcome some 1 measure of wounded pride. Alternariv*, it may be that the terms of his contract with 1 Davies allowed the possibility of partnership after a probationaryperiod. Appendix Three

Department of Patents. Patents Act of 1921. Commonwealth of Australia No. 20.420/29.

Application dated 1st June 1929. Class 51.6. No drawing.

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.

"Improvements in transfers (including transparencies) for

attachment on glass or other material."

I, Thomas Arthur Davey, of 803 McArthur Street, Ballarat, in the State of Victoria, Commonwealth of Australia, Printer and Lithographer, hereby declare this invention, and the manner in which it is to be performed, to be fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-

Considerable damage to, or destruction of, transfers has hitherto occurred owing to their fragility-during transference for example to the surface to which they are (for publicity purposes or for ornament for example) to be permanently attached.

Transfers have been prepared by applying a design and/or wording, in colours if desired, by some known printing process on a suitable base, for example--transfer paper, of other suitable medium,-then allowing the applied matter to dry, and then varnishing its surface. 1

To preserve transfers, and prevent deterioration I have in some cases provided an under layer of varnish, the transfer being then protected between layers of varnish. I

One common mode of dealing with a transfer about to be applied, is to coat it with size, and-upon the latter becoming tacky- to apply the transfer, face downwards, and -after further drying-to wet and remove the base. I

By my invention the coating of size is not required, nor do I stop at the stage wherein varnish has been added. I improve transfers, including glass transfers or transparencies all herein called transfers, by reinforcing them, so that they are made strong and easy to apply, and more durable.

Transfers which, after wetting, can be slid off their bases, can according to my invention, even when of large size, be applied without being damaged, and without special skill, reasonable care being sufficient. This is a valuable advantage, but my invention is not limited to the use of the sliding off process.

When preparing my transfers, colours or pigments which have a metal or like suitable mineral base are usable, but I may use colours having a vegetable base when their use is not incompatible with the use of material containing as herein described. Appendix Three

My treatment of transfers gives each a coating having a surface which is waterproof and otherwise resistant to deterioration both before and upon application.

I provide in each transfer one or more layers of transparent tough material composed of a suitable cellulose lacquer, cellulose enamel, or equivalent material all herein after cellulose containing material. For greater strength and substance, I apply at will two or more coatings to form each said layer. It may be in practice necessary or desirable to avoid the use of cellulose material so high in amyl acetate as to yield vapours which are injurious to health and/or incompatible with the preservation of the adopter colourings; and therefore in my cellulose containing material the amyl acetate content is-in practice-relatively low.

Although there are upon the market suitable clear cellulose lacquers which I have used (one being known as cellulac) I may in addition state, as an example, the following directions for preparing such a lacquer (that is one containing nitro-cellulose). I find it to be satisfactory to make a solution of nitrated cotton (of low nitration and viscosity) in esters plasticised with dibutyl phthalate with alcoholic dilutents.

Each said layer is produced by any suitable means, as spraying, and-when desired-the application is through a mask which allows of coating predetermined separate areas securing definition of transfer edges and leaving intermediate spaces. The space between two consecutive letters, for example, is masked, wholly or to a substantial extent.

Another means of making each said layer is to use a lacquering 1 or varnishing or like suitable machine to apply the cellulose containing material to areas predetermined by mounting on a cylinder of the machine a pattern-of , linoleum, or I other suitable material. I

To render cellulose containing material usable on a machine I mix , with it other materials to suitably retard drying. For some purposes a suitable denatured alcohol acts well but in other cases the material I use is known commercially as copal varnish. This mixture is however, applicable by spraying.

In the preparation of transfers or transparencies to be applied to glass, or to other surfaces to which cellulose lacquer does not adhere, I employ to form a face layer or coating a reinforced mixture which adheres well, and proceed as follows for example. On suitable transfer paper I deposit a layer or under coating of cel- lulose containing material which when the transfer is applied forms ; an outer face or coating. This cellulose containing material is a 1 suitable cellulose lacquer or suitable cellulose lacquer mixed with drying retarding material such as resin in solution to enable it to , be applied as before stated. A suitable mixture is:- Cellulose lac- quer or the like about one part; gold size or equivalent material about one part; copal varnish about one part. I

The outline of this layer or under coating registers with that of the transfer. I add at will (or I substitute for the copal varnish) about ! one part of litho varnish, that is boiled linseed oil of suitable consistency. On this undercoating I apply, according to known Appendix Three

practice, a layer of white lead mixed with litho varnish, and on this I print the desired transfer, after which I apply a face layer of coat of cellulose containing material (made adhesive) and this coat extends beyond the transfer so as to form a projecting flange. This adhesive coating contains suitable resins in solution, and one suitable mixture contains cellulose lacquer about one part; gold size about 2 parts; copal varnish or the like about 2 parts. To modify this mixture the proportions may be varied, and litho var- nish may be used, as an addition to it.

In some cases I omit gold size, or copal varnish. On the coating, while it is in a tacky condition, I add finely powdered gum arabic, gelatine, or like transparent material.

When this transfer is to be applied it is wetted as by dipping it in water, it is then applied, and after it has dried and is adhering firmly the backing is damped and removed, or if desired the backing can be removed immediately after application.

Ordinary transfers are prepared in the manner before mentioned, but the proportion of resin containing material in the final coating may be considerably reduced and powdered adhesives be omitted. Before use these transfers are moistened with a suitable solvent such as alcohol, or they may be applied to a lacquered surface (such as tennis racket frames while that surface is in a tacky condition.

Slide off transfers may also be prepared as described but in practice I find it advantageous the under coating layer of cellulose I containing material, and use a known base, such as albumen and i gum arabic. The upper protective and strengthening layer, of I cellulose containing material, may be cellulose lacquer with or without resins and other materials above mentioned. These transfers are applied like ordinary slide off transfers-by wetting, I and then sliding them from their base on to the surface to which I they are to be applied.

The term "cellulose lacquer" in the claims includes all cellulose enamel or equivalent material.

The constituents of the cellulose containing material will naturally be varied when such is found desirable to suit the nature of the base or its surface on which the transfer is to be applied. Suitable variations are determinable by persons skilled in the art of preparing transfers. The use of variations being thus referred to comes within the scope of the termUcellulose containing material" in the claims.

I Having now fully described and ascertained my said invention and ! the manner in which it is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:-

1. A transfer or transparency having cellulose containing material substantially as described to contact with and I adhere to the surface to which the transfer is to be applied.

2. A transfer or transparency having cellulose containing material substantially as described, which will, when the Appendix Three

transfer is applied, provide a face not in contact with the surface on which the application is made.

A transfer or transparency having colour or pigment containing layers between layers of cellulose containing material as described.

A transfer or transparency having, for the purposes set forth, one or more layers of transparent tough cellulose containing material which includes cellulose lacquer, with gold size and/or copal varnish, substantially as described.

A transfer or transparency having, for the purposes set forth, one or more layers of cellulose containing material which includes in about equal parts, cellulose lacquer, ! gold size and copal varnish, substantially as described.

A transfer or transparency having, for the purposes set forth one or more layers of cellulose containing material which includes cellulose lacquer about 1 part, gold size about 2 parts, and copal varnish about 2 parts substantially as described.

A transfer or transparency having one or more coatings according to Claim 4, 5, or 6, but with included in said coating litho varnish.

A transfer or transparency having on its face to be adhered to glass or other suitable surface, a layer of cellulose containing material as described and on the latter powdered gelatine, powdered gum arabic or the like to ensure said adhesion.

I A transfer of the kind set forth but in which there is a layer of cellulose containing material adjacent to and outward of a layer printed in colour, and having edges extending beyond the edges of the latter layer.

A transfer or transparency as in any preceding claim, but in which the lacquer in or constituting the cellulose containing material has a low amyl acetate content.

Dated this 1st day of April, 1930.

G. G. Turri,

Patent Attorney for Applicant,

Witness-Beatrice E. Sayers. Appendix Four

The Philllp-Stephan Photo-litho and Typographlc Process Co. Ltd.; Phillips and Stephan.

Reference No. V 5621

"lmprovements in photo-lithography, photoengraving, and other photo-illustrative processes."

The PhillipStephan Photo-litho and Typographic Process Co. Ltd., a registered company of New South Wales, whose office is at 155 Clarence Street, in the City of Sydney, and said Colony. "lmprovements in photo-lithography, photoengraving, and other photo-illustrative processes." (being an assignment from Samuel Phillips, photographer, and Adam Stephan, lithographic printer, both of Sydney in the Colony of New South Wales).

This invention refers to improvements in photo-lithography, photo-engraving, and other photo-illustrative processes, by means of which a transfer or medium or a picture in fatty ink may be produced by printing from a photographic negative. By this inven- tion the minutest detail may be directly transferred from the nega- tive to a lithographic stone or stones, or to for etching or engraving, or to glass, porcelain, or other substances for similar purposes or for ornament. By it also any print may be easily divid- ed for chromo printing, and in each division the work will be as well brought out as if the print were taken from one stone or sheet.

These improvements in photo-lithography, photo-engraving, and I other photo-illustrative processes consist essentially in the use of a peculiar specially prepared sensitised transfer medium, upon which a print of the negative is obtained in such ink that an impression of said print may be given upon a lithographic stone, zinc, etc.; secondly, in the complete novel process of transferring a photo-negative illustration to stone, zinc,etc., as a negative print or etching; and thirdly, in the obtainment of a number of colour stones, etc., as a negative print or etching; and thirdly, in the obtainment of a number of colour stones, &c.. from one photo-neg- ative.

This transfer medium is prepared by first giving a paper a coating or film of gelatine upon one surface, treating said surface with a solution of bi-chromate of potassium, and evenly coating it with a

material which will protect certain minute portions or dots or lines I from the action of light, and thus giving grain to the coated sur- face, the most suitable material we have found for this purpose is stiff lithographic ink. It is now only necessary to expose to light the transfer thus prepared under the negative until the positive is seen clearly printed upon it. This print is then carefully inked, washed, and then developed by rubbing, when the ink leaving the I high lights allows the whole effect to be plainly seen. The transfer being thus completed may be used to obtain an impression on stone, zinc. &c., in any well-known manner.

But in order that this invention may be clearly understood the Appendix Four

whole process of obtaining a lithographic print will be described in detail, it being unde:stood that the obtainment of a metallic etch- ing is proceeded with in a similar manner, and that the obtainment of a photographic print upon glass, porcelain, &c., may be had in negative by using the same process up to the transferring stage.

We prepare a bath consisting of one ounce Nelson's patent opaque gelatine or any good soft gelatine dissolved in say seven ounces of water for two hours, and to which is added, while at a temperature of about 100° Fahrenheit, say two grains of chrome alum dissolved in half an ounce water, with or without say half grain tannin (to render the resulting transfer medium a little tougher), the whole being well strained. This bath being kept at a temperature of 90" Fahrenheit, a sheet of paper, preferably thick photographic paper or paper of a similar description, is then care- fully drawn over it under a scraper pressing it in contact with the gelatine. When coated, this paper is then hung until carefully dried off, and is then rolled on a roller with a sheet of white paper over its prepared surface.

We next remove this prepared transfer paper into a dark room and further treat it by floating it for say three minutes upon a solution of say three ounces of bichromate of potassium dissolved in say 80 ounces of water, and then dry it in a dark room having a well- ventilated even temperature of about 75" Fahrenheit. Still conduct- ing operations in the dark room, we now coat it with the semi-pro- tecting material in the shape of stiff lithographic ink, but any mate- rial which will protect minute portions of the surface from the action of light will do. The ink we prefer is made up by mixing four ounces of bees-wax, one ounce spermaceti, half an ounce tallow and one ounce of lamp black with about half the quantity of good lithographic printing ink. The inking in the ordinary way on a stone well rolled with ink on which the prepared surface of the paper is pressed until evenly coated, at which stage if properly done a yel- low face should show through the black ink, and if examined with a magnifying glass the surface should show a fine grain and the transfer medium is complete.

The printing from the negative is carried out in the usual manner in a frame giving good contact and preferably exposed in shadow until the shadows of the negative are well printed through the medium, when the print is placed over a stone and then lithograph- ic ink well rolled over it in a fine even coating. After a washing and thorough soakage, say for about an hour, in clean water the devel- opment is effected by rubbing the print gently (over a flat surface) with a soft sponge, when the ink will come away from the high lights and the picture gradually appear until quite distinct, then after thorough washing it is again rubbed until the grain is quite clear, then it may be dried as complete.

To obtain the picture from the prepared medium on a lithographic stone, &c., the transfer is damped on the back until the surface is quite sticky to the touch when it is evenly laid upon the stone, sheet of zinc &c., and with a roller forced into intimate contact and then pressed to the stone, &c., in the usual manner; when I removed a perfect picture will be found on the stone, &c., with half-tones and all degree of shadow clearly shown. If the impres- sion is upon a stone it will be gummed , rolled up, etched, and printed from in the usual manner. Appendix Four

When making up colour stones in Photochromo-lithography, we print any number of these transfers in different depths from the negative, and these are transferred to different stones, or parts cut out, scraped, and patched up for each different colour.

The transfer obtained as before described may, instead of being pressed upon a lithographic stone, be transferred by pressure to zinc or other metals, or substances for etching, or engraving in the usual manner, or it maybe transferred to porcelain, china, &c., for ornamental purposes.

We would have it understood that we do not confine ourselves to any particular uses to which our invention may be applied nor to the precise manner of carrying the same into effect, so long as the nature thereof be retained.

Having now particularly described and explained the nature of our said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim is:-

1. The use of a semi-protective material for covering a sensitised transfer medium before exposure under the negative, substantially as herein described and explained.

2. A grained transfer medium consisting of a sensitised gelatine surface covered with a semi-protective material such as thick lithographic ink, substantially as herein described and explained.

3. The particular process and operations for producing a grained sensitised transfer medium and for producing an etching, engraving, &c., therefrom, substantially as herein described and explained. I

4. The use of a number of transfers printer of different depths for obtaining a number of colour stones in photo-chromo-lithographicprinting, substantially as herein I described and explained.

(SEAL) James Bailey,

D. C. Bell.

Managing Directors.

14th February, 1888. Appendix Five

F. W. & H. N. Niven's patent

7th. of July, 1891 Francis Wilson Niven and Henry Ninian Niven, "Artistic Printers." of 56 and 58 Lydiard Street, Ballarat, lodged patent (No.8862) "An improved gelatine printing plate." in Victoria. The brief description of the patent suggests that it was of a photo- lithographic or collotype nature.

"Claim 1. A printing plate prepared with a substratum that will give depth and toughness to the gelatine and firmly adhere to the sur- face of the plate, coated with the sensitising solution herein described and marked D. E, F, with the addition of bichromate of potash, sodium or ammonia which upon exposure under a negative will give the image almost entirely on the surface of the film.

2. A printing plate coated with the substratum marked A, B, C, herein and then coated with the sensitising solution marked D, E, F, with bichromate added or the use of any other colouring matter that will produce a non-actinic colour so that the image will be almost entirely on the surface of the film.

3. In combination with our printing plate and as an alternative for a colour plate, a lithographic stone for printing flat colours such as the pathway shown in exhibit G the prints from which stone are in all cases finally printed over with the key plate as represented by I exhibit H or with transfers therefrom."