PRACTICAL LITHOGRAPHY
CHAPTER I
Elementary Details
Concerning Stones—Character and Texture—Some Simple Elements—Preparation of Stones—Planing and Levelling—Grinding Grained Stones—Descriptive Treatment—American Method.
There are a vast number of details in connection with lithography and lithographic printing which are indisputably elementary in their character. It would be impossible, however, to regard them as non-essential, and a just appreciation of their value and influence must of necessity enter into any comprehensive exposition of the craft.
Stone as a printing medium.—The value of the Bavarian limestone was one of those fortunate discoveries which tended to materialise lithography as a graphic art, and may even be regarded as a fundamental principle, the practical value of which is only equalled by its far-reaching effects.
Other printing surfaces have been discovered and developed, with more or less substantial results, yet without depreciating their merits, it will be but a fair recognition to concede the premier position to the Solenhofen and other limestones of a like nature.