Here I had made the unpleasant discovery that most of what was in the books was incorrect, or so incompletely stated that, before one could understand the instructions, one needed to know the entire process of cotton-making and printing. I cannot understand now why it never struck Herr von Hartl or me that I did not need this knowledge at all, and that all that was necessary in order to apply my method to cotton-printing was for me to demonstrate how the printing could be done well and quickly. To get color results it was necessary merely to engage a good color expert, who could analyze colors and decide if they were available for my process. That would have saved us a year and a considerable sum of money which my experiments had cost. I confess that I had a mistaken ambition on this point, wishing to understand everything myself. Then the study of chemistry was most attractive to me, because I found myself discovering new things of importance for my art all the time. When at last I was completely informed in the matter of color, I went with Herr von Hartl to the great machine-spinnery in Pottendorf. Here I became acquainted with Herr Thornton and his remarkably complete installation. With his assistance we made a stone-press for cotton, to print the cotton from large plates. But the correct register of each impression made so much trouble for us that I foresaw the need for many further experiments and inventions. Besides, Herr Thornton was too partial to the English process of cylinder-printing to feel particularly favorable to the stone-process; and in the end it was considered best to order a great piece of stone from Solenhofen from which we might make an eight-inch cylinder. It was six months before we obtained the requisite stone. During this period it struck me that perhaps the cylinder did not need to be stone, but that we might use copper cylinders, as in England. Herr Thornton objected that copper cylinders must be engraved with the graving tool, and that patterns for cotton should not be etched, since, if etching were practical, the English, who understand etching perfectly, no doubt would etch the cylinders.