List, Arch. A straight upright ring encircling the lower part of a column, just above the torus, and next to the shaft.
Fig. 427. Listels.
List, Listel, Arch. A small square moulding, also called a fillet. Fig. [427] represents a base, the ornamentation of which is made up of numerous listels or fillets.
Litany Stool. In a church, a small low desk at which the Litany was sung.
“The priest goeth from out of his seat into the body of the church, and (at a low desk before the chancel door, called the faldstool) kneels and says or sings the Litany.” (Eliz. xviii. 1559.)
Literatus or Litteratus, R. (litera, a letter). In general, anything that is marked with letters; and thence (1) a slave who has been branded on the forehead with a hot iron, also called inscriptus, notatus, stigmatus. (2) A grammarian, learned man, or commentator.
Litharge. An ingredient of drying oil (q.v.).
Lithochrome. Another name for Chromolithography, or colour-printing.
Lithography, or drawing on stone, was invented by Aloys Senefelder of Munich in 1796. Drawings are made on a polished surface of calcareous stone, with ink and chalk of a soapy nature. The lithographic ink is made of tallow-soap, pure white wax, lamp-black, and a small quantity of tallow, all boiled together, and, when cool, dissolved in distilled water; the ingredients for the lithographic chalk are the same, with a small quantity of potash added during the boiling. After the drawing on the stone is perfectly dry, a very weak solution of sulphuric acid is poured over it, which takes up the alkali from the ink or chalk, and leaves an insoluble substance behind it, while it lowers in a slight degree the surface of the stone not drawn upon, and prepares it for the free absorption of water. Weak gum-water is next applied to close the pores of the stone, and to keep it moist. The stone is then washed with water, and the printing-ink applied in the ordinary way. It then passes through the press, the washing with water and daubing with ink being repeated after every impression. As many as 70,000 copies have in this way been taken from one stone, the last being nearly as good as the first. Copper-plate and steel engravings can be transferred to stone. (See the article “Lithography” in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 8th ed.)