The invention of lithography is attributed to Alois Senefelder, whose attention was accidentally directed to the effect of a greasy ink on calcareous stone. This effect was the basis on which, after many trials and failures, he built the whole art; for his work on lithography, published about 1817, although containing some antiquated and even absurd notions of the practical operations, comprises a correct skeleton of the entire system of the present day.

Alois Senefelder was born at Prague on the 6th of November 1771. His father, who was an actor in Munich, gave him a tolerable education. When grown up, he was at first undecided whether to become an actor, an author, a musician, or a soldier; but being reduced to great hardship and misery, he resolved to endeavour to support himself as a composer of music. Unable, however, to pay for the engraving of his compositions, he resolved to engrave them himself. Finding this more expensive and difficult than he imagined, he tried, for the sake of economy, to practise with greasy ink on copper, to etch this afterwards with acid in relief, and to print with the common type printing-press. At this period his mother happening to ask him to keep a note of some account, he jotted it down with his greasy ink on a Kelheim slab. Next day it struck him that he might etch such lines with acid in relief, and adopt the slab as a cheaper material for his own purposes than copper. From this beginning, Senefelder gradually discovered the whole process of lithographic or stone-printing.

His first work printed from stone, in 1796, was a piece of music. In 1800 he obtained a patent in Bavaria, and most of the German states. In 1802 he obtained a patent in Vienna, and commenced there a lithographic establishment, but without much success. M. André of Offenbach, the well-known music publisher, became his partner, and opened establishments in London and Paris, but also with little success. The great secrecy and jealousy with which the manipulation of lithography was guarded, prevented its progress; and it was not until the year 1837 that the excessively complicated manipulations became so simplified as to induce scientific men and artists to lend their aid in its development. Since then, rapid advances have been made in Britain, Germany, France, and America; and its beauty and utility as an art are now fully established.

For many years Senefelder was director of the government lithographic office, and in later years the King of Bavaria settled on him a handsome pension for life. He died at Munich in 1834, after having seen his invention brought to comparative perfection.

The principles on which lithography depends are the following:—1st, The adhesion of an encaustic composition to a peculiar kind of limestone; 2nd, The power acquired by the parts covered with this greasy composition of receiving printing-ink, which is a compound of carbon and oil; 3rd, The power which we possess of preventing the adhesion of the ink by the interposition of a film of water; and, 4th, The power of again removing the ink from the greased portions by simply pressing an absorbent paper into close contact.

Lithographic stones are found in different parts of the world, but nowhere so perfect as in the immense quarries of Solenhofen, near Pappenheim, on the Danube, in Bavaria. They vary in colour from a pale yellowish-white, to a light buff, reddish, grayish, bluish, and even greenish colour. The fracture is perfectly conchoidal. The beds commence with layers as thin as paper; but the strata become thicker and thicker, until they form slabs or slates of considerable size. They are, until exposed to the air, tolerably soft, and can easily be worked by the quarrymen. Between these layers very beautiful petrifactions are found, of which there is a very complete and interesting collection at the Museum in Munich. The slabs were formerly used in Bavaria and elsewhere for the floors of houses and mosques, and were arranged in geometric patterns, like inlaid tiles. In France, useful lithographic stones have been found in the Department de l'Indre; in England, at Corston, near Bath, and at Stony Stratford; and, more recently, in Canada, the West Indies, and Silesia, but all rather inferior to the Solenhofen stone in character. This calcareo-argillaceous stone resembles the liasite limestone—occurring in layers, as the lias formation does—but it does not belong to the same geological period, being of a more recent formation.

The stones used for executing writings or drawings with the pen and brush, engraving and etching, autography, and transfers from copper and steel, are first ground between two stones covered with fine sand and water. The uppermost stone is kept moving circularly; water is occasionally added, until the sand between has been completely powdered, resembling a slimy, creamy mass. The sand requires to be renewed until a perfect level is obtained. When stones are ground which have been already in use, this operation has to be continued until all traces of the former work have been thoroughly removed. Every particle of sand is now washed off with water; they are then polished with pumice-stone, and lastly with Water of Ayr stone.

The stones, which must be hard, for chalking, tinting, litho-tinting, and photo-lithography, require to be grained. After being ground in the manner already described, and then thoroughly washed, a finely-sifted silicious sand, or finely-ground glass, is put with some water between the two stones; and the upper one is made to revolve in short regular sweeps over every portion of the lower stone. This process must be continued for about ten or fifteen minutes, until a grain of the required fineness shall have been produced, and from time to time a few drops of water must be added to prevent the sand from becoming too adhesive, and thus flattening the grain. Great care and skill are necessary in nicely adjusting this process, so as to produce a grain either fine, sharp, or rough, according as it is intended for a sketch, for a highly-finished drawing, or for tinting. When grained as required, the stone is thoroughly cleansed with water, and left to dry.

The ink used for drawings on stone is composed of old lard, white soap, white wax, mastic, shell-lac, Venetian turpentine, carbonate of soda, and powdered Paris black.

Crayons are made of white wax, old hard white soap, talc, a little shell-lac, and powdered Paris black. Some add more or less Brunswick black, so as to give a firmer point to the chalk. Lithographers vary in their modes of preparing writing-inks and chalks. White wax, however, together with soap and Paris black, will enable any practical litho- grapher to make a good ink and a good chalk. The method of mixing the different ingredients is by no means uniform. Some put into an iron or copper saucepan, the wax and half of the soap, which is put upon a good fire and stirred until ignition takes place; under the action of this stronger heat, the shell-lac is added, and melted into the mass. The vessel is then closed, and removed from the fire; after some time, the other half of the soap, and the other ingredients, are melted in over a slow fire. The powdered Paris black, together with the Venetian turpentine—if it be used at all—are then added to the mixture. While still hot, the composition is poured into brass moulds. Some, without setting fire to the mixture, make equally serviceable writing-inks and crayons. For harder and softer chalks a difference must be made in proportioning the ingredients. For soft chalk, for example, more tallow is required, and the shell-lac is either omitted, or much diminished in quantity. The ink used for writing on transfer paper requires no shell-lac, and, as a consequence, fire is not applied to the mixture.

**Tracing and writing on the stone** is accomplished by brushes of the finest camel-hair and steel pens.

After the drawing has been traced on the stone, of course in the reverse way, by fixing the tracing paper with the drawn lines next to the surface of the stone, the artist applies himself to his work with pen or brush, and scraper. The latter instrument is of different forms, and chiefly used for corrections; for example, when the artist finds some portion of the shading too strong, he crosses the lines with the scraper, just as the wood-engraver would do in similar circumstances; or a solid portion is filled in, and the scraper is used to bring out the effect in white lines. Or a portion may be taken out altogether, either by means of that instrument, or by oil of turpentine. A tooth-brush is sometimes used advantageously to give the whole drawing, or part of it, the effect of chalk. This is done by slightly warming the stone, and then pressing the tooth-brush, which is only slightly saturated with ink, against the blade of a table-knife, so as to spread a fine spray of dots, varying in size according to the strength used in pressing the brush against the knife. The effect of this under a practised hand is exceedingly pleasing. These imitations of chalk drawing have this advantage, that they admit of being printed by an ordinary printer, that they yield more copies per day than the chalk drawings, that they can be printed on any paper, and can easily be transferred to another stone.

The tracing of chalk drawings is done in the same manner as those with the pen or brush. Considerable practice is required in order to produce highly finished chalk drawings on the stone.

Great improvements have resulted from the practice of treating lithographic chalk drawings like paintings, with the systematic design of bringing out the chief effect, instead of copying simply the various details. This has been much facilitated in France and Germany by the use of paper, leather, and cork stumps, which catch up the chalk, pounded on a piece of grained stone slightly heated, and over which they are frequently moved. If the artist will take the trouble to try previously the various effects of texture which the stumps give, when worked gently, and with varying degrees of firmness, on the cold, as well as on slightly and well heated stones, he will be astonished at the variety of the textures which the impression will exhibit when finished with the crayon and scraper. This is well shown in the beautifully lithographed landscapes by Calame of Geneva, the works of Sabatier, Mouilleron, Le Roux, and others of Paris, Munich, and Berlin. These stamped drawings require great judgment: when being etched; but, in the hands of a careful printer, will give a larger number of impressions than ordinary chalk drawings.

When the drawing is finished, it is laid in the etching-trough; nitric acid, diluted with water (say 1 part of acid to 100 parts of water), is several times poured over the stone. Dissolved gum-arabic is then spread over it. If the dissolved gum be mixed with the acid, the finest lines are not so suddenly attacked by the acid, and not so easily injured.

This process requires great care, and a rule for the proportion of the acid can scarcely be established, as it varies in strength and frequency of application, according to the style of drawing, hardness, and temperature of the stone, and quality of the chalk.

**Engraving on stone.**—A hard stone, gray or bluish, is etched first, with acid in the trough, and gummed (some do not etch, but merely gum the stone); when dry, the gum is washed off, and a mixture of powdered Paris black, with water and a very little gum, is spread over the stone, and smoothed down with a large flat camel-hair brush, or with the palm of the hand. Some prefer a red to a black ground. Where great precision is wanted, the black ground is preferable; but for free working of drawings, the red one is better. The red ground is applied by washing off the stone nearly the whole of the gum, after it has been etched, gummed, and dried. The small quantity of gum remaining on the stone is then allowed to dry, and powdered dry reddle, or red chalk, is rubbed on the stone with the palm of the hand. Black tracing-paper is required for the red ground, while on the black-grounded stone a red tracing-paper is required. The instruments for engraving on stone are fine and broad-pointed steel-gravers, fixed in holders of wood, and small points of diamonds properly fixed by the jeweller. The engraving is done, not like engraving on copper, but more in the manner of a careful drawing in pencil. It does not require to be cut very deeply. The drawing appears white on a dark ground. Any mistake may either be polished out with fine pumice-stone, or carefully taken out with the broad scraper; the spot is prepared afresh with acid, rubbed over with red chalk, and the engraving rectified. Smaller mistakes may be covered with a little weak phosphoric acid mixed with gum, and the lines so covered will not take on the printing-ink. When the drawing is finished, linseed oil is put over every line, and the whole is then cleaned away with water and a bit of coarse flannel. After the stone is thus freed from the ground and oil, a piece of coarse flannel, containing printing-ink, is rubbed over the whole stone, until every line appears distinctly in black, and then the stone is again gummed.

Engraving on stone is particularly suited for work where great minuteness and sharpness is essential. The maps of the survey of the Bavarian and other continental governments have been engraved on stone, as well as many of the beautiful maps of the survey of the Austrian staff, copies of the latter having been shown by the Austrian government at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

**Etching on stone** is similar to etching on copper. The stone, after it has been prepared with weak nitric acid, is, in the first instance, coated with gum, and allowed to dry. The gum is then washed off, but a little is retained on the stone. When again dry, the stone is warmed, and the etching ground is spread very thin over it. The working with the etching-point, and the etching with acid, are then done precisely as on copper. When the drawing is ready, clean water is poured repeatedly over the stone, which is afterwards washed in diluted acetic acid (wood vinegar), it is cleaned again with water, and allowed to dry thoroughly. After this, a roller with printing-ink is rolled over the dry stone, until it is quite black. The whole is then removed with oil of turpentine and water, when the drawing appears in clean black lines, after which the stone is gummed. The printing is effected in the usual way with the printing-roller. Many beautiful drawings have been, and are yet, produced in Germany in this way; but somehow the style has never been extensively employed, from the many failures which are apt to occur during the first trials.

**Autography on plain paper; Writings and Drawings on prepared lithographic paper.**—Many government and banking offices, on the Continent and in Britain, produce their own circulars in the following simple way, which is properly called autography:—With very little lithographic ink in the pen, write only on one side of the paper (any good writing-paper may be used). When the writing is finished, a stone is slightly warmed, the written paper is sponged on the back with diluted nitric acid, and laid for a moment between blotting-paper; then the sheet is placed with the written side upon the stone, and passed once through the press. The sheet now adhering to the stone, is washed over with water on the back, and when the paper becomes quite soft, it is removed, by rubbing repeatedly with the hand. Gum is then put upon the stone; the printer takes a linen or flannel rag, containing some printing-ink, sprinkles water on the stone, and carries this rag rapidly in all directions over the writing, which now assumes a darker colour. The stone is then gummed again, and put aside until quite cooled. Before printing, some printers remove the gum, and pass a roller, containing what is called preserving-ink, several times over the writing, after which the stone is etched slightly; this, however, is scarcely needed where only a small number of impressions is to be taken.

The beautiful lithographic writings, plans, and sketches, on a coated lithographic paper, which are produced in Britain, and especially in Scotland, have never been equalled in other countries. The paper which is used should be well sized. The composition with which it should be covered is made as follows:—1 part gelatine or isinglass, 1 part flake-white, and as much gamboge as is needed to give colour, are dissolved over a slow fire, then sifted through muslin, and spread once, in a very warm state, with a large flat camel-hair brush, on one side of the paper. Some repeat the process. When dry, it should be passed several times through the press, over a polished stone slightly warmed, or better, a steel-plate, so as to be thoroughly smooth. Transparent quills and lithographic steel-pens are used for the writing. Any mistake is erased with a pen-knife, and the place covered again with the composition, of which the writer should have always a small corked bottle beside him.

When the drawing or writing is ready, it is put between damped blotting-paper, a warmed stone (not hot) is adjusted in the press, and after a few minutes the sheet of paper is placed upon the stone, and five or six times passed through the press; then the back of the paper is sponged with water, and the stone turned in the press; and with this change to compensate for inequalities of pressure, it is passed again five or six times through the press. This process may be repeated several times; and when it is finished, the back of the sheet is covered with water, and rubbed with the fingers until the portions of the paper come off. When the paper is entirely removed, the stone is subjected to the processes already given under "Autography."

**Transfers from old engravings.**—In Paris, a number of years ago, Paul Dupont made very interesting attempts to reproduce, by transferring to stone and zinc, old impressions of prints, woodcuts, type-printing, &c. The method is very simple. The old impression is thrown into a large flat basin filled with water, and a small portion of acid; and after it has been thoroughly soaked with the water, a small soft sponge containing lavender or nut-oil is repeatedly passed over the lines of the engraving, to strengthen the fatty portions of the dried up ink of the lines. The drawing is then transferred in the way already explained under "Transfer of Autography." Total failures, however, often take place with this process, and even if the transfer succeeds, more or less touching is needed; and it is only when the engraving is not too fine, and a few years old, that a satisfactory transfer can be obtained. M. Dupont and others have spent large sums of money without producing practical and satisfactory results. Some recommend, for the transfer, zinc plates in preference to stone. The invention of Zincography is said to be due to the late Mr Eberhard of Bavaria. It is, however, a mere application of lithography to zinc plates, with some modifications of the etching, printing, &c.

**Transfers of stone, copper, and steel engravings, as well as of type-printing and woodcuts, to stone,** are best made on the usual transfer-paper already described. The ink for transferring drawings and writings from stone consists of a stick of lithographic ink, melted down on the slab, and thinned when required with a small quantity of oil of turpentine and some printing-ink. It is put upon the transfer roller, which is frequently moved over the slab. The gum being washed from the stone, and the old ink removed with oil of turpentine, the stone is wetted and inked with the transfer-ink, and the impressions are taken on very slightly damped transfer-paper. To make this paper, mix three parts of the best wheaten flour, of the consistency of shoemakers' paste, with one part of finely ground plaster of Paris, and a very little dissolved patent glue, to prevent the ground from breaking when printed; then strain the mixture in spoonfuls into a common jar through a double fold of fine muslin, pressing it gently through with the back of the spoon; and when cooled, spread it with a flat camel-hair brush over half-sized thickish paper, which, when dry, may be laid aside and stored for future use.

The ink used for making transfers from copper, steel, and pewter plates, is composed of two table-spoonfuls of varnish, 13 parts tallow, 3 parts brown soap, 5 parts shellac, 4 parts brown wax, 5 parts black pitch, and 2½ parts of powdered lamp-black; the whole is melted and heated until it takes fire, and is allowed to burn for fifteen minutes, being kept altogether for forty minutes on the fire; it is then formed into sticks or balls, rolled with the hand; and should become, when cold, as hard as pitch. If not so hard, more wax and pitch should be added; some add a half part of Venetian turpentine when the wax is cooling.

The plates are then warmed on the printer's gas-stove, and inked up by the copper-plate printer in the usual way; the coated paper is slightly sponged on the back, and the impressions made on the coated side. A moderately warmed stone is then placed in the press; the transfer impression having been previously put between damped blotting-paper, is now put on the stone (yellow stones are better for transferring than gray or blue ones), and the transferring proceeded with in the same manner as described in the transferring of writings and drawings done with the pen on lithographic transfer-paper. If any of the lines on the engraved plate are very deeply cut, it is advisable to put the transfer impression, before being transferred, between some sheets of slightly damped blotting-paper, and pass it with a moderate pressure through the press. Thus, any superfluous ink will be removed, and the lines which may have too much ink are prevented from spreading.

Very striking results have been obtained by this process; and its value to publishers is well known, as the original plates are not worn out, and the expense of printing from the stone is cheaper than printing from copper and steel, besides being a great deal cleaner. Maps and engravings of any kind may, in this way, be patched or enlarged, or divided into separate pieces, to suit any size of book or paper. Transfers from copper-plates, from line-drawings on stone, writings, woodcuts, and letterpress, may all be transferred together on one stone, and printed on the same sheet. It is pretty obvious, that thus an infinite variety of new forms may be obtained from an exhausted stock of old plates, a circumstance occasionally of great value.

Tinted Lithographic Drawings.—For brevity's sake we shall only describe the production of drawings with two tints, as, from this description, the mode of printing a drawing with more tints will be easily understood. The principal drawing is done upon a grained stone in chalk, and should be very bold, more like a sketch on tinted paper; the middle and finer tints being left out. The stone is then etched, and two impressions are taken, so that when each of these is put upon a roughly-grained stone and passed through the press, counter impressions will be found upon the stones, revealing the drawing quite distinctly. After having cut in the outlines with a sharp-pointed graver or steel needle, the artist covers those parts on the two stones which are not to appear in the one or the other colour, as well as the margin of the two stones, with a brush containing acid and gum. The stones are then warmed, and a composition containing the same ingredients as soft chalk, with double the quantity of soap and three times the quantity of tallow, is rubbed over it with a bit of coarse flannel, until it is of a dark grayish-brown colour. From having been previously cut in, the outline comes out very distinctly. The artist can now produce an effect similar to crayon sketches which have been washed in with two separate colours. Those portions which have been rubbed in, and which appear dark grayish-brown, form the middle tint, and the scraper may be used to reduce the colour of the tint where the gradation of colour is desired; the darkest portions being laid in with lithographic ink, and the blending together done with chalk, brush, pen, and scraper, so as to produce in many places the effect of shadings of one colour over another. Any one looking at Louis Haghe's work on the Architecture of the Middle Ages in Germany and the Netherlands, Roberts' Holy Land and Egypt drawn by Haghe, or Simpson's drawings of the Crimean war, and the tinted lithographs of the British fleet, will understand the important and charming results of this branch of art in which Britain stands unrivalled. The stones, when ready, require to be very strongly etched.

We may mention that those studies of heads and figures as drawn by Jullien and Lasalle, of Paris, are tinted in a different style. An impression is taken from the drawing on stone, and passed, when fresh, over a roughly-grained stone; then on the roller is put some light brown Brunswick black, or asphaltum, which must be worked on the slab until uniformly spread over the roller. The stone with the counter impression upon it, is, in a dry state, rolled over with the Brunswick black until the whole stone is covered with an even light-brown colour, through which the drawing is distinctly visible. After some hours, the covering becomes quite hard, and the artist can scrape out the lights of his drawing so as to give it the appearance of a crayon drawing which has been touched by a white crayon. The effect is very beautiful; and the two artists above mentioned stand pre-eminent for this style.

Chromo-Lithography is executed in a similar manner, with this difference, that the first drawing is generally only in outline, and is used merely to take as many impressions on stones as are required for the several colours of the painting to be copied, so as to bring out on each stone precisely the same outline, and thus to enable the artist to fill in on every stone the proper colour, and to enable the printer also to have proper register.

Presses, rollers, varnishers, &c.—Lithographic presses are of a great variety of construction, so that we can only glance at the chief points in their mechanism. The scraper is a wedge-formed plate of steel or boxwood, fixed to the bottom of the platten, with its edge downwards, and properly adjusted. The table on which the stone with the paper for receiving the impression is placed, and on which the tympan is brought down, is, by means of a handle or wheel, brought upon the metallic moving roller and under the scraper, and the pressure is gradually continued from one end of the stone to the other; when it has passed through the press, the scraper is lifted, the moving table brought to its original place, and the printed sheet removed.

The Lithographic steam-press, although a very ingenious invention, has not benefited lithography in the same proportion as the steam-letterpress has letterpress printing. The self-acting lithographic steam-press of Sichel, of Berlin and Vienna, patented in this country, is a triumph of ingenuity, but it has not produced any work which the common steam-letterpress could not have done as well.

The rollers for printing may be made of different lengths, from 6 to 24 inches long, and 3½ to 5 inches in diameter. They are made of wood of the alder and lime tree, with wooden handles to project and hold by; the roller is then covered with several complete turns of flannel, well stretched and fastened by sewing at the extremities near the handles; the whole is then covered with calf-skin, sewed with great care, so as to fit tightly, and laced near the handles. For printing chalk, tints, and colours, skins of different preparations are required. Hollow metallic rollers, covered with flannel and calf-skin, are in use on some parts of the Continent, where they are preferred to rollers made of wood.

The best varnishes for making the printing-ink are boiled from old linseed oil, of different degrees of strength—thin, middle, strong, and very strong varnish;—for printing with gold-leaf, bronze, and dusting colours, the very strong varnish is required. For writings, maps, and music, common calcined lamp-black is ground with the varnish; some hard blue is added to improve the colour, and to make the ink dry in a short time; for chalk ink, Paris black is used instead of the common lamp-black. For tinting and colour-printing, colourless, or bleached varnish must be used, as otherwise the purity of the colours will suffer.

Printing.—After the stones containing the writings or drawings in chalk, and those used for tinting or colour-printing are etched, and the preparation has become dry, the stones may be put into the press and properly fixed. To prevent a stone containing drawings of any value from breaking, it should be backed to another stone,—or what is better, to a slab of Aberdeen granite. This is done by a mixture of plaster of Paris and cold water, of the consistency of syrup, a pretty thick coating of which should be spread evenly and quickly on the slab; the stone containing the drawing is placed into this layer, and moved in all directions until the plaster of Paris becomes quite hard, which will take place in a very short time. After the printing is accomplished, the stone can be quite easily removed from the slab, by using a chisel, and by giving some side strokes with a wooden hammer. The old dry plaster of Paris is now removed, and the slab is again fit for use.

Everything being ready, the gum is entirely washed away with a soft Turkey sponge and water; the writing or drawing is then obliterated by taking a clean sponge and oil of turpentine, to which may be added, at pleasure, a few drops of sweet oil, after which the stone must be cleaned with water. An entirely clean sponge (or for writings, a bit of soft canvas manufactured for the purpose) is now required for the printing. The stone is slightly wetted with this sponge, the printing roller, charged already with the proper ink, is passed repeatedly over the whole stone, and the writing or drawing will begin to reappear; the roller is again worked on the ink-slab, the stone wetted anew with the sponge, and again rolled over, until the writing or drawing appears in full strength. A sheet of damped paper (dry paper may be used for writings and drawings in line) is put on the stone, the tympan is let down, the scraper brought to its proper place, the pressure effected, and, by means of the handle, cross, or wheel, according to the style of