Part 2 (1/2)

All the money we had earned was lost; debts burdened us; and a monthly deduction of pay, with the mocking laughter of those who had been made envious by our first successes, was the entire reward for our endeavors to make a new art. As it was only the lack of a good press that had caused our failure, I went to Herr Falter, with whom I had become acquainted through Herr Gleissner, and told him the reasons for not finis.h.i.+ng the cantata in time. I told him that if he were willing to have a proper press built, I was willing to print his works for him, in his own residence, which was his stipulation, provided I could prepare the stones at home. We agreed, and I ordered a great cylinder press made at his expense. To avoid the old trouble I had both cylinders fitted with cogs, which gave satisfactory results if both printers who handled the press were careful to begin turning the cylinders at the same moment. The double friction of the two rollers made them both pull on the printing-frame and the stone, where, before, the lower cylinder had done just the opposite. The greater periphery of the upper cylinder, which was almost fifteen inches thick, helped also. And to this day I consider this form of press the best for all methods, especially if the stones are thick enough, if one has not to consider the very greatest speed; for in speed this press is decidedly inferior to the lever press and other styles. On the other hand, the pressure is much more gentle, more perpendicular, and less liable to pull the paper out of place than is possible with even the best so-called friction presses. Only there should be added to the cogs an appliance by which the upper cylinder has a screw adjusted over its centre, so that it can be forced down for each impression after the stone is under it. Figure 1, plate I, is the picture of such a cylinder press, made for stone-printing.

As soon as the press was ready and erected, I began to inscribe on stone the music of _Die Zauberflote_, arranged for quartette by Herr Danzy, and with Herr Gleissner we began the printing.

But Herr Gleissner became dangerously ill. I trained two soldiers to do the printing, left the entire printing process to Herr Falter, and limited myself to the work of delivering the stones to him. The workers ruined so much paper that Herr Falter could not make it pay, and returned to etching on copper.

During this time Herr Schmidt, professor at the military academy, had begun to etch on stone. As I discovered long afterwards, he was a good acquaintance of Herr Gleissner, who visited him often. Within the last year there is a strenuous attempt to make this Herr Schmidt appear to be the inventor of printing from stone, though probably he never desired this. There have been publications about it already. I shall not notice what has been said, and will let the matter speak for itself. From the foregoing the reader will have seen the natural but laborious way in which fate led me to this invention. If Herr Schmidt made a similar discovery at that time, he was much more fortunate than I. According to his own letter, printed in the _Anzeiger fur Kunst und Gewerbfleiss_, the course of his invention was as follows. He saw a gravestone in the Frauen-Kirche, in Munich, on which letters and pictures were in relief.

”That must have been done with acid; it would be possible to print from it!” thought he, and the invention was completed.

If it is so easy to gain the honor of an invention, then, indeed, I was unlucky to have undergone so much toil. But according to my opinion, there was nothing new in the whole discovery. The thought that ”this was etched” a.s.sumed the invention and the use of etching beforehand.

That such coa.r.s.e, thick, and highly relieved inscriptions as those on gravestones could be inked and used for printing would strike anybody who knew even a little of printing. If, however, Herr Schmidt added to his idea the second, that fine and, therefore, only slightly elevated inscriptions and ill.u.s.trations could be inked and printed with the aid of appliances to be invented for the purpose,--if he did this and executed it before me, or, at least, before he had knowledge of my work, then indeed the honor belongs to him of having invented mechanical printing from stone, either before me or simultaneously. But as a matter of fact, neither he nor I can claim to be the first who thought of using stones for printing. Only the ”how?” is the new thing in the case.

At that time (1796) I had not invented stone-printing, but, firstly, an ink available for writing on stone and resistant to acid, which ink I invented out of my brains and not, like Herr Schmidt, out of an old Nurnberg book: secondly, I invented a practical tool for inking the slightly elevated letters: and thirdly, the so-called gallows or lever press, of which I shall speak later.

As I do not know what were the circ.u.mstances surrounding Herr Schmidt at the time, and I cannot, therefore, make any inquiries, I am willing to take his word if he will declare as an honest man that he printed from stone before July, 1796. That his method of printing was different from mine, and that he had absolutely not the slightest knowledge of chemical printing from stone, which I invented in 1798, I know from indubitable evidence.

He made many attempts with his pupils to produce drawings on stones, but presumably his impressions were not successful, for those stones that I saw afterward at Herr Schulrath Steiner's had been etched first and the s.p.a.ces then engraved away very deeply with all sorts of steel instruments, after the manner of wood-cuts, so that they might properly be called stone-cuts in relief. He had these stones printed in the Schul-fond's book-printery, and I hear that the impressions were very good. I saw none myself.

However, Professor Schmidt's experiments were the means of making me acquainted with Herr Schulrath Steiner, who encouraged me so much that I conceived many ideas in order to fulfill his wishes, so that at last the art of printing from stone achieved its present honorable position.

Herr Schulrath Steiner, an intimate friend of Professor Schmidt, was director of the Schul-fond's printery. As such he was concerned with many prints. Herr Schmidt's idea of publis.h.i.+ng stone-etched pictures of poisonous plants for school use was approved by him; and as the attempts did not satisfy him, he decided to turn to me. At that time the Schul-fond was to print some church songs. This gave him the opportunity of visiting me. He asked me if the musical notes could not be so etched or cut in relief in stone that they could be made up with ordinary book-types and thus printed in the ordinary book-presses. I promised to try it. However, the necessary deep engraving of the s.p.a.ces was too laborious, so that it would have been easier to do it in wood. As an expedient we printed the text first with ordinary types in the book-press and then printed in the music with stones in the stone-press.

Meantime I tried to attain our purpose in other ways, connected with some of my early experiments. My best success was with the following method. On a stone polished with sand I painted a layer, equal to two or three card-thicknesses, of burned, finely powdered gypsum, b.u.t.ter, and alum, mixed with a proper amount of water. As soon as it was dry I inscribed the music with steel needles of various sizes on the surface of the stone, which was of a somewhat dark, almost gray color, so that I could see it more easily through the soft, white ma.s.s. Having finished the drawing I took warm sealing-wax smeared on wood, and applied it to the stone while it was warm with a hand-press. After cooling, the white ma.s.s was fast to the sealing-wax and quite loose from the stone, and it was scrubbed away clean with water and a brush, after which the drawing appeared on the wood in elevated wax extremely clear and clean, like a wood-cut. The s.p.a.ces were so deep that the plate could be printed in regular book-printing manner.

Later I made trial of a composition of lead, zinc, and bis.m.u.th, and this succeeds thoroughly with proper care. So here we would have still another printing process, which has the advantage over all others that the inscription need not be made reversed, as the impression on the wax or lead reverses it automatically.

If the white ma.s.s is laid on more thickly, one can make the handsomest patterns for calico much more quickly than has been possible heretofore with wood-cuts. A little more care is necessary, because no stroke must be made entirely through the ma.s.s, when it is laid on thick. My experiments in that direction all exceeded expectations, and it is to be regretted that I had no opportunity thereafter to perfect this invention more, or use it practically. The experiments had no value even for Herr Schulrath Steiner, for whom I made them, as he never had use for the process afterward. Indeed, I would have forgotten the matter almost entirely, if it had not been brought back to mind by this work of writing my story. In the second part of this book, in describing stone-printing itself, I will show various methods of making patterns for work on cotton, such as I conceived later in Vienna where I busied myself very much with cotton-printing.

I happened to print for Herr Lentner a little song about the great fire of Neuotting in Bavaria and used a little vignette showing a burning house. This induced Herr Steiner to let me etch a few small pictures for a catechism. So far as execution of drawing goes, they were very ordinary; but he continued to encourage me to try if the new printing process would not be available for art work. With the exception of Herr Andre of Offenbach, he was the only one who reasoned thus: ”These strokes and points, of such great fineness and again of such great strength, can evidently be made on the stone, therefore it is possible to make drawings similar to copper-plate etchings. That this cannot be done yet is due not to a fault in the art of stone-printing, but to the insufficient skill of the artists.”

Even at that time he did not say: ”The art is still in its infancy,” as many a would-be wise man does to-day, thus exposing his lack of knowledge of the entire matter. Even at that time he was convinced, more so even than I, that the art of stone-printing had reached its climax when I gave him the first specimens of stone-printing improved by the chemical process. Artists might cultivate and perfect themselves, manipulation be simplified and processes be increased in number and variety, but the art itself could not be improved greatly.

To be sure, when I glance hurriedly over the manifold results of the last twenty years, all that I have done myself for perfection, the brilliant achievements of which this book will furnish proof, I am tempted to think for a moment that the Now and the Then cannot be compared. But considered correctly, I had invented and discovered the entire art at that time. Everything that I and others have done since then are only improvements. Everything rests still on the same principle: ink of wax, soap, etc., then gum, aqua fortis or another acid of which none has an advantage over the others, further oil varnish and lampblack,--these are, ever and in the same manner, the chief elements of stone-printing as they were then. Not the slightest thing has been changed, improved, or invented in the fundamental principle. No ill.u.s.tration has been published by any lithographer containing cleaner, stronger, or blacker lines and points than my first proofs had in part.

Therefore, those people are wrong who seek to excuse the lack of a.s.sistance that I received in the beginning, by alleging that at the time no one knew if the process could be used to any great extent. They declare many productions of the present day to be far better, simply because the ill.u.s.trator is more skillful, though in truth the printing is not so good as many of the first ones made by me. It has even happened that the a.s.sertion has found its way into print that I had invented only the rough part of the art, and never had been able to use it for more than music-printing, whereas this one or that one are the true artists, having succeeded in producing pictures.

These gentlemen, who are so quick with verdicts, should inform themselves a little. They would discover that aside from me (with the exception of Professor Mitterer's invention of the cylinder press), n.o.body has made a noteworthy improvement in the branches of lithography without having received it primarily or indirectly through me. Further they would have learned that these ill.u.s.trators either made their first attempts under my personal direction, or else owe their skill to persons whom I taught; and lastly, that none of my critics can boast of having penetrated into the very inmost spirit of the art like only Herr Rapp of Munich, the venerable author of the work published by Cotta, _The Secret of Lithography_. If they learned all this, they might feel a little ashamed. But then, they would have much to do.

Had my skill in writing and drawing on stone been greater at that time, Herr Steiner would have given me opportunity enough and manifold. He permitted me to do a small book, _Rules for Girls_, in German script, which, on the whole, turned out of only average quality, as I had not practiced this style sufficiently.

Then he wanted me to draw Biblical pictures on stone or to let others draw them. At that time he was having Herr Schon in Augsburg etch the Seven Holy Sacraments after Poussin. As the etching was expensive, the impressions could not be sold for less than four kreuzer each. Herr Steiner wished to circulate these pictures so generally that they could serve as gifts from the country preachers to their little Christian pupils. He wished, also, to ornament various school-books with pictures of this kind, and thus, gradually, to replace the miserably drawn species of saints that generally fill the prayer-books of the pious households.

Only the utmost cheapness could make this possible, and this naturally suggested the stone process to him. Even if the pictures were not so fine as those etched on copper, they would serve amply if they were correctly drawn, n.o.ble in design, and handsomely printed. It was necessary either to draw myself and practice faithfully, or to train a skilled artist to draw with fatty ink on stone. We preferred the latter method and trained several young men, who produced various works, sometimes good, sometimes inferior.

Through all this I ran more and more danger of losing my secret. Indeed, it was lost already except perhaps so far as concerned the exact composition of the ink. But I hoped still to obtain the privilege for Bavaria, toward which end the Schulrath promised me his best aid, and so I let the matter proceed, and trained the men. But among all these young men there was not one who did not desire a substantial reward for his very first attempts, and when they found that they were expected first to learn, they stayed away, one by one. Herr Steiner was hurt. I, however, was indifferent, for I was just beginning to plan to use a new and important discovery in such a manner that my stone-printing would be greatly improved and we could hope to carry out our idea of ill.u.s.trations without the aid of artists.

I had been a.s.signed to write a prayer-book on stone for the Schul-fond.

It was mostly in a style of writing in which I was least expert. When I wrote music notes, our method, proved best by experience, had been to write the entire sheet in reverse on the stone with lead pencil to serve as pattern. This was mostly Herr Gleissner's work, and being a musician he had achieved great perfection. For me this preparatory work was far less agreeable than the final execution with the stone-ink. Therefore, as ever in my life, when a difficulty or a burden was before me, I studied for some way to make it easier for me. Previously I had found that if one wrote on paper with good English lead pencils, then moistened the paper, laid it on a polished stone and pa.s.sed it through a powerful press, a good impression was the result. I had used the method on various occasions. I wished that I possessed an ink that could be used the same way. Trials showed that fine red chalk needed merely to be rubbed down gently in a solution of gum, and that even the ordinary writing-ink of nut gall and vitriol of iron would serve when mixed with a little sugar. But this did not satisfy my ambition, which always demanded the best and most perfect. The gum in one and the vitriol in the other did not agree well with the stone-ink. In addition, the impression often squashed. Therefore I tried a mixture in water of linseed oil, soap, and lampblack which met my demands better. I had a music-writer write notes correctly on note-paper with this ink, printed it on the stone, and thus had an accurate pattern, which was at the same time reversed, as was necessary.

I now planned to do this with the book. But why could I not invent an ink that would serve on the stone without making it necessary to trace over it with the stone-ink? Why not make an ink that would leave the paper under pressure and transfer itself to the stone entirely? Could one give the paper itself some property so that it would let go of the ink under given conditions? So reflected I, and it seemed to me not impossible. At once I began to experiment. I had observed that the stone-ink at once began to congeal and stiffen when it came into contact with ordinary writing-ink, because of the action of the vitriol of iron, which devoured the alkali that the stone-ink needed to keep it in solution. Therefore I wrote with ordinary ink, into which I put still more vitriol of iron. After it was dry, I dipped the sheet into a weak solution in water of my stone-ink. After a few seconds I withdrew it and washed it very gently in rainwater. I found that the ink had fastened itself on the written places, and pretty thickly, too. I allowed the paper to dry slightly and transferred the writing to the stone. The impression was fair, but not sufficiently complete. I tried it repeatedly but could obtain no transfers that were sharp and uniform enough to represent a handsome script. So I tried another way. I painted the paper with gum solution in which vitriol of iron was dissolved.

After it dried I wrote on it with my ordinary stone-ink and dried it again. Then I dampened the paper and let it lie a while to soften, after which I transferred it to the stone, which had been treated with strong oil varnish diluted in oil of turpentine, laid on so lightly that it was only like the blurring from a breath.