The engraver will see at once that, although it greatly simplifies the copying work and, consequently, saves much time, this process does not, however, bind him to any rules and leaves him perfectly free to follow its inspirations and make such alterations as he thinks proper to produce artistic effects; in a word, the reproduction will no more be a picture taken [pg 63] by a mechanical process, so to say, but an original drawing reflecting his talent and characteristic manner.
A similar process much employed by photo engravers, and presenting the same advantages, is to convert an ordinary photograph on paper—or a blue print, as devised by the writer—into a design in lines by drawing with India ink, or the special ink of Higgins, and, this done, to wash off the photographic image, the design being afterwards reproduced by the ordinary processes as a negative or a positive cliché.
When the photograph is a silver print especially made for the purpose in question and, consequently not toned, but simply fixed in a new thiosulphate (hyposulphite) bath, and well washed—it is bleached by flowing over a solution of—
| Bichloride of mercury | 5 parts |
| Alcohol | 40 parts[13] |
| Water | 100 parts |
If the photograph has been toned, i.e., colored by a deposit of gold, or if it was fixed in a thiosulphate bath in which toned prints have been fixed, then the image is dissolved by treatment in a solution of potassium cyanide in alcoholized water.
When a blue photograph is reduced, it is advisable before drawing upon it to first reduce its intensity by a prolonged immersion into water. Pale blue is a very actinic color which is not reproduced in photography, except by the ortho-chromatic process, or if it does, the impression being very weak, is not objectionable. When the image has not been sufficiently or not at all bleached, the blue is dissolved by an alcoholized solution of the blue solving.
THE URANOTYPE.
This process, devised by J. Wothly, in 1864, did not receive from the photographers the attention it merits, as it is always the case when a process is patented, and can be replaced by another equally practical which is not. It gives pictures of a very good tone, which are quite permanent; we have some made in 1866, which are suffered no change whatever, they seem to have been printed from yesterday.