(9) If a crayon plate is spoiled in printing through carelessness or
lack of skill, the rules for remedying the trouble are the same as those
named for pen work, and the judgment of the worker must decide which
method is the most applicable. In general, it may be assumed that the
best remedy for blurred spots is to draw them over again with crayon;
and for smutted parts the best is to apply firmer printing-color, or to
cleanse with oil of turpentine and gum and afterward ink-in with
acid-proof ink, and then use light etching with weak aquafortis followed
always by coating with gum and water.
III
TRANSFER AND TRACING
In the pen and crayon method all the lines that are to take
printing-color are drawn directly on the stone with a fatty preparation.
But lithography has a unique way of transferring to the stone a drawing
or inscription that is first put on paper with the fatty substance. This
is possible only for lithography, and I incline to the belief that it is
the most important of all my inventions. It makes it unnecessary to
learn reverse writing. Everybody who can write on paper with ordinary
ink can do so with the chemical transfer ink, and this writing can then
be transferred to the stone and manifolded indefinitely. In Munich and
Petersburg this method has been introduced for government work. The
measures adopted in council are written during the session by the
secretary, with chemical ink on paper, and sent to the printery. Within
an hour impressions are ready to distribute among the members. I am
convinced that within ten years every European Government will have a
lithographic establishment.
In war the method would have a great value. It would replace the field
printery, and it permits greater speed and secrecy. The commander need
merely write his orders himself and have them printed in his presence by
a man who cannot read, to be sure that his plans will not be betrayed.
The engineer officers can draw plans and have them circulated among the
officers who need them.
Authors and scientists will find the method to be the means of
circulating their works in manuscript very cheaply.
Even artists will respect the method when its gradual perfection enables
them to draw their pictures on paper with ink or crayon and reproduce
them.
Not from boastfulness, but from conviction of the importance of the
method, have I thus recounted its advantages. I could fill a whole book
with detailed explanations. I wish to gain friends for the method, that
it may be improved to its ultimate degree by skilled artists.
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