The following is the best way to dampen paper: Lay two or three dry sheets on a straight board. Then dip a sheet into water. Let the water drip off a little and lay the damp sheet carefully on the others. Now lay eight or ten dry sheets on top of this. Then put on another wet one and then eight or ten dry ones and so on till all the sheets destined for printing have been so piled up. Put over all a board weighted with a medium heavy stone plate. After half an hour increase the weight to several hundredweight or squeeze the paper in a press. Leave it thus at least twelve hours. Then it is generally ready for print. In aquatint it must be dampened more, about six dry sheets coming to one wet one. Very thoroughly sized paper is easier to moisten if each sheet, or at least each second one, is wetted with a sponge. Sometimes it is necessary to turn the dampened paper in order to remove the creases. Separate the sheets into two piles and lay a few sheets from one to the other so that the altered positions will press the sheets flat again. With many papers, especially the unsized, it is possible to use the method of book-printers, who immerse a whole book in water and then lay the sheets in two equal parts. This would be best studied at a printer's. It requires much practice. If dampened paper is permitted to lie some hours without being weighted down, the margins will become too dry, and then there will be creases during printing, which can be remedied only by a second dampening. The reason is that dry paper is not so large as wet paper, so that the dry margins form a kind of frame which is too small for the inner wet portion. In printing-processes that require many plates, and especially if the sheets are large, only dry paper can be used, as otherwise the register will be imperfect. To be sure, it can be done by using great care, but too much practice and attentiveness is needed. With the exception of the aquatint processes, good printing can be done with dry but unsized paper. But the press must have twice or thrice the pressure. This makes the printing more difficult and endangers the stone if it is not thick. CHAPTER VI PRESSES An exact description of all presses used hitherto for lithography would demand a book that would nearly equal the present one in magnitude. Many drawings would be necessary, which would increase the cost of this text-book without adequate benefit, as I have learned that one rarely can find a mechanician skillful enough to make a machine even when he has the very best description and a perfect illustration before him. I advise all who intend to enter lithography to send for a model to Munich or some other place where the art is being practiced with success. I myself am willing to furnish exact models for the price of one louis d'or, which must be remitted with the order.