The Invention of Lithography Part 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.

These attempts were far more successful, but it was impossible to write as delicately on this paper as I desired. Therefore I made new experiments. I changed the mixture of my ink. I tried to make it more adhesive with mixtures of resin, oil varnish, gum elastic, turpentine, mastic, and similar substances. In short, I do not exaggerate when I declare that this matter cost me several thousands of experiments. I was rewarded sufficiently by succeeding. And at the same time through these investigations I discovered the chemical printing on stone of to-day.

As the transfer from paper to stone depended mainly on the greater or lesser powers of adhesion between one material and another, it was natural that in my many experiments with such various ingredients I should observe that a mucous fluid, as, for instance, the gum solution, resisted the adhesion of the greasy ink. Nearer still to the new invention did the following experiment bring me: I noticed that if there happened to be a few drops of oil in the water into which I dipped paper inscribed with my greasy stone-ink, the oil would distribute itself evenly over all parts of the writing, whereas the rest of the paper would take no oil, and especially so if it had been treated with gum solution or very thin starch paste. This fact led me to investigate the behavior of paper printed with common printing-ink.

A sheet of an old book was drawn through thin gum solution, then laid on a stone and touched carefully everywhere with a sponge that had been dipped into a thin oil color. The printed letters took the color well everywhere and the paper itself remained white. Now I laid another clean white sheet on this, put both through the press, and obtained a very good transfer, in reverse, of course. In this manner, if I used great care, I found I could make fifty and more transfers from the same sheet.

If I allowed such a transfer to dry thoroughly and then treated it like the original sheet, why should it not produce transfers that are like the original, not reversed? So thought I, and the result showed that I had not been wrong! Only for the first transfer I needed to use a somewhat stiffer color that had been dried more with litharge of silver, and then to let the transfer dry for at least four or six days.

So I came to find that I could print without a stone, from the paper alone; and this process, depending solely on chemical action, was totally, fundamentally different from all other processes of printing.

Old books could be republished in this manner easily and without great cost. New ones also. I needed only to invent a fatty ink, similar to the printing-ink and drying thoroughly, and I could use every sheet of printed paper instead of type. I invented this ink soon. Resin, finely pulverized litharge of silver, lampblack, thick oil varnish, and potash properly diluted with water gave me a good ink for the purpose. The only obstacle that prevented me from using this process at once on a large scale was the fragility of the paper, which tore into pieces under the slightest carelessness in handling. The natural and simple thought that was bound to come to me under the circ.u.mstances was this, Could not a stronger material, perhaps the stone plate itself, be so prepared that it would take ink or color only on the parts covered with fatty ink, while the wet parts of the stone resisted it? I feared that the stone might not absorb the grease sufficiently, and this really is the case with many stones, such as slate, pebble, grindstone, gla.s.s, porcelain, etc.; but experiments showed that exactly the opposite is true in the case of the Solenhofer limestone. This stone has a great affinity for fat, which often is absorbed so deeply that in many cases even extensive grinding will not remove it.

I took a cleanly polished stone, inscribed it with a piece of soap, poured thin gum solution over it and pa.s.sed over all with a sponge dipped in oil color. All the places marked with the fat became black at once, the rest remained white. I could make as many impressions as I pleased; simply wetting the stone after each impression and treating it again with the sponge produced the same result each time. The impressions became somewhat pale, because the color on the sponge was too thin; but I obtained perfectly black and handsome impressions as soon as I used an ink roller of leather stuffed with horse-hair.

I hurried to write a sheet of note music at once to print it in the new way; but the ink flowed too much on the polished stone. Previously I had corrected this by rubbing the stone with linseed oil or soap-water, which checked the trouble entirely. But I knew that I could not do that in this new method, because then the stone would have a coating of grease all over, and would take color on the entire surface. However, I was able to take this coating away after writing, by etching with aqua fortis, though etching would not have been necessary otherwise in this chemical form of printing. However, it was easy to see that a drawing etched into relief would be easier to print from than one not etched at all. It did not require much etching, and I saved a great deal of acid, while the stone, also, remained useful for new work for a much longer period. Therefore, without making further experiments, I adhered to my old method, first was.h.i.+ng the stone lightly with soap-water, drying it well, writing on it with wax ink, and then etching with acid before I finished it for printing by pouring gum solution over it.

At first I imagined that I might do without the gum entirely; but I found soon that it really formed a sort of chemical union with the stone, making its pores more receptive to the grease and closing them more effectively against water. I found also that neither aqua fortis nor gum was so valuable alone as when both were used in the process.

I needed to make only a few more experiments to obtain the proper consistency of ink, and the new process would be practically perfect so far as the fundamental principle was concerned. And, in fact, I made such handsome, clean, and strong impressions after three days of trial that few better ones have been made since. Now it was necessary merely to train skillful workmen and artists as quickly as possible for this new art, that was susceptible of innumerable valuable uses, as I could see at once.

It made no difference now whether the design was worked in relief or intaglio, as good impressions could be obtained even when the drawing was perfectly level with the surface of the stone. But all three methods could be combined on one stone, if desired. If I reversed the method, by rubbing oil over the stone instead of water, while for printing I used an ink prepared with gum solution (of which I will describe the best composition afterward), then the greasy places would resist color while the wet ones took it, and thus I could print with all water colors, and this is necessary sometimes with colored pictures because of the greater height of the colors. The inscription with dry soap gave me the logical idea toward crayon work, which I used afterward. My previous experiments with etching, that recurred to my memory, now a.s.sumed entirely different aspects and I could understand many things that had puzzled me then.

It was a simple step now to the etched method, in which the stone is prepared first with aqua fortis and gum, after which the design is engraved in intaglio without first being treated with aqua fortis.

Indeed, this method was used for the first work that I undertook.

A piece of music by Herr Gleissner (which afterward was greatly praised in the musical paper) had been completed before I invented the new process. Only the t.i.tle-page remained to do. As I wished to make this as handsome as possible, since Herr Gleissner intended to dedicate the work to Count von Torring, I chose this new intaglio style, because I hoped to do my best work in it. Any one who still possesses a copy of this symphony can see by slight examination that the printing was done from an etched engraving. Therefore Herr Rapp in Stuttgart is mistaken when he a.s.sumes that he is the first who treated the stone in this manner. As early as the year 1800 I deposited in the archives of the Patent Office in London a full description of this and several other methods, some of which have not been used yet generally, and in 1803 I had to submit my descriptions to the Austrian Government when they gave me a franchise.

A year before this, I had invented the lever press, with which I could make several thousand of the handsomest impressions during a day. This, combined with the new treatment of the stone, enabled me to enlarge my operations greatly. I took in two of my brothers, Theobald and George, who had been in the theatre hitherto, and taught them to write and etch on stone. Also I took in two boy apprentices, sons of poor parents, to train them properly. Herr Schulrath Steiner and Herr Falter, with several others, gave me various orders, and a pretty good outlook began to appear for me and Herr Gleissner.

Until now we had been forced to suffer much grief, disappointment, deprivation, and poverty. Herr Gleissner's salary was only three hundred gulden a year. A yearly deduction of one hundred gulden was being made from this by the Government to pay debts. Then there were new expenses to repair the printery and keep it in some sort of order. My support and that of the family Gleissner,--which consisted of five persons,--then a larger residence, on account of the room needed for stones and for printing, also had to be paid for. My own yearly earnings were barely a few hundred gulden, as most of my time was used for experiments. It is no wonder, then, that during this sad period of two years, we spent almost all that could be spent of Herr Gleissner's estate, and still made new debts, despite all imaginable economies.

I can say for the honor of this man, and especially his wife, that, despite all their losses and despite the warnings and inciting of their friends and relatives, they remained unshaken, and by making all kinds of sacrifices they enabled me to win at last. On my part they saw faithful and eager will, and a restless endeavor that went so far that I hardly took any time for eating or sleeping, but thought only of improving my art.

Now, however, our condition was changed at once. Many days we earned as much as ten to twelve gulden; and at the same time we received an exclusive franchise for fifteen years through the favor of King Maximilian Joseph, who began his glorious reign then. This privilege gave us the right to print and sell exclusively in all of Bavaria, while infringers were liable to a fine of one hundred gulden and confiscation of all stock and apparatus.

We were determined to do our utmost, to work day and night, to establish an honorable reputation for our printery at last, though we foresaw many obstacles, owing to the entire lack of a.s.sistance. Already I had half-determined to contract with the Schul-fond, permitting it to establish a lithographic press for its own use, when an accidental circ.u.mstance gave our whole undertaking a new direction.

Depending on the protection given to us by our franchise, we were making no further secret of any part of our process. We were quite content with having the monopoly in Bavaria, and cared little that other printeries might arise in other countries. Indeed, this expectation flattered my vanity as inventor, and I thought that in time I might make commercial connections with such establishments. For this reason I was very hospitable toward every stranger who came to visit us. I hoped that perhaps I might induce some such visitor to partic.i.p.ate in our undertaking, and therefore I exhibited all the advantages of the process and permitted them to see the manipulations with their own eyes.

Just then Herr Andre of Offenbach visited Munich on business. He read about the grant of our franchise and asked his friend Falter about the process. That gentleman showed him some sheets of music printed by us and offered to introduce him to our printery, where, as technical expert, he could decide for himself as to the value or worthlessness of the new art.

Herr Andre, who possessed an extensive musical publis.h.i.+ng inst.i.tution and owned a large zinc-plate printing-plant, was delighted with the beauty of our print, and was especially impressed by the fact that the color did not off-set when rubbed with the hand, as was the case with zinc printing. He accepted Herr Falter's offer at once and was introduced as a merchant. The attention with which he noted even the slightest operations led me to conclude at once that this man had some especial interest in printing. I took particular pains to display the whole process to the best advantage.

Several plates that were already inscribed were etched and printed with beautiful results. The speed (seventy-five sheets in a quarter-hour, two being printed simultaneously each time), the quickness of drying, the economy in color, were things that increased his interest to a high pitch. He told who he was and proposed to me that I teach him the entire art for an adequate remuneration. I accepted at once and agreed to go to Offenbach within a few months, erect a press, and train men in all branches of the process. For this he promised me the sum of two thousand gulden, of which he paid down three hundred gulden on the spot.

This change from poverty to comfort made me happy mainly on Herr Gleissner's account. We could furnish our printery properly now and pay our old debts. We were a.s.sured, also, of enough work to permit enlargement of the establishment in future. What was there left to wish?

In the very beginning, however, the behavior of my own family gave me great displeasure. My mother demanded that I share my profit with my brothers, as they had a better right than Herr Gleissner and his family.

I could not quite see this; therefore my mother ordered a press for my brothers and bought the necessary stones. They went to Herr Falter and asked him for his work, representing that I had made my fortune through Herr Andre, whereas they were unprovided for. They offered at the same time to furnish each plate for thirty kreuzer less than I charged. Herr Falter permitted himself to be convinced, and when Madame Gleissner discovered it she was intensely angry, and did not rest till the Government ordered my brothers to refrain from utilizing the process in Bavaria for their own account.