#Photolithography# is a quick method of publishing a chart. It would be
practicable by this means to reproduce the original survey sheets, but
ordinarily these are not suitable as to scale and legibility, and it is
necessary to make a new drawing, usually on tracing vellum. This is
photographed on to glass plates, on the scale of the proposed chart.
From these glass negatives positive prints are made on sensitized
lithographic paper. These prints are fitted together and then inked,
taking the ink only where the lines appear. This transfer print is then
laid face down on the lithographic stone and run through a press under
pressure, the stone absorbing the ink from the paper. The stone is then
treated so that the inked portion remains slightly raised, and from this
stone an indefinite number of charts can be printed in a lithographic
press at the rate of 1000 an hour. The paper is not moistened, and
consequently there is little distortion or change of scale in prints
from stone. If desired to shade the land or use another color for any
other purpose, additional impressions can be made on the same charts
from other stones. Because of the bulk of the stones, work cannot
ordinarily be retained on them, but the chart is cleaned off and the
stones repeatedly used until worn thin. The original drawing as well as
the negatives is preserved, from which the chart can again be published.
For republication, the process is, however, not entirely satisfactory;
the negatives are not always permanent, the work must again be assembled
and transferred to the stone, changes or corrections are not very
conveniently made on either drawing or negative, and after repeated
changes the drawing becomes difficult to use in photolithography.
Whether the charts are actually printed from copper or stone, there are
decided advantages therefore in the matter of correction work and future
editions in having the charts engraved on copper. On the other hand, the
advantages of the photolithographic process are the ability to publish
new drawings promptly, to use more than one shade on a chart, to obtain
prints with little change of scale or distortion, and to print large
editions rapidly.
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