The Art of Illustration / 2nd ed.

by Henry Blackburn

It remains to be seen how far the Daily Graphic, with experience and capital at command, will aid in a system of illustration which is one day to become general. Thus far it would seem that the production of a large number of pictures (more or less à-propos) is the popular thing to do. We may be excused if we are disappointed in the result from a practical point of view; for as the functions of a daily newspaper are primâ facie to record facts, it follows that if words fail to communicate the right meaning, pictorial expression should come to the aid of the verbal, no matter how crude or inartistic the result might appear.

Let me give one or two examples, out of many which come to mind.

1. The transmission of form by telegraph. To realise the importance of this system in conveying news, we have only to consider (going back nearly forty years) what interest would have been added to Dr. Russell’s letters from the Crimea in the Times newspaper, if it had been considered possible, then, to have inserted, here and there, with the type, a line or two pictorially giving (e.g.) the outline of a hillside, and the position of troops upon it. It was possible to do this in 1855, but it is much more feasible now. The transmission of form by telegraph is of the utmost importance to journalists and scientific men, and, as our electricians have not yet determined the best methods, it may be interesting to point out the simplest and most rudimentary means at hand. The method is well known in the army and is used for field purposes, but hitherto newspapers have been strangely slow to avail themselves of it. The diagram on the opposite page will explain a system which is capable of much development with and without the aid of photography.

If the reader will imagine this series of squares to represent a portable piece of open trellis-work, which might be set up at a window or in the open field, between the spectator and any object of interest at a distance—each square representing a number corresponding with a code in universal use—it will be obvious, that by noticing the squares which the outline of a hill would cover, and telegraphing the numbers of the squares, something in the way of form and outline may be quickly communicated from the other side of the world.

CODE FOR TRANSMITTING FORM BY TELEGRAPH.

This is for rough-and-ready use in time of war, when rapidity of communication is of the first importance; but in time of peace a correspondent’s letter continually requires elucidation.

Next is an example, which, for want of better words, I will call “the shorthand of pictorial art.” A newspaper correspondent is in a boat on one of the Italian lakes, and wishes to describe the scene on a calm summer day. This is how he proceeds—

“We are shut in by mountains,” he says, “but the blue lake seems as wide as the sea. On a rocky promontory on the left hand the trees grow down to the water’s edge and the banks are precipitous, indicating the great depth of this part of the lake. The water is as smooth as glass; on its surface is one vessel, a heavily-laden market boat with drooping sails, floating slowly down” (and so on)—there is no need to repeat it all; but when half a column of word-painting had been written (and well-written) the correspondent failed to present the picture clearly to the eye without these four explanatory lines (no more) which should of course have been sent with his letter.