THE VALUE OF GOOD ILLUSTRATING
N enjoyable little dinner was recently held at the Criterion
Restaurant, under the auspices of the Technical Circle of the
Institute of Journalists, when Mr. P. A. Gilbert Wood, of
" The Architect " presided over a fairly large attendance.
After dinner, the Chairman announced that Mr. Carl
Hentschel, would give an address on " Methods of Illus-
tration and the Preparation of Blocks for Technical Papers."
Mr. Hentschel, who was received with great applause, said the know-
ledge of technical details in every branch of the trade was now so extensive
that it made it somewhat difficult for him to speak upon details which
would be new and interesting. As one who had watched the growth of
reproduction and use of illustrations, and had observed the various processes
which had been perfected during the past thirty-five years, he could not
fail to realise what an enormous revolution process work had created, not
only in the newspaper, printing and journalistic world, but also in commer-
cial circles as well. Naturally he could not help feeling proud that to a
certain extent the name of Hentschel would always be associated as the
pioneer in the advance of process work both in black and white, and colour,
and as having brought the invention of these processes not only to practical
use but also to commercial success. Briefly, the various methods used in
connection with reproducing illustrations would be described as follows :
Steel engraving, mezzotint, copper-plate engraving, lithography, wood
engraving, collotype, heliotype, autotype, photogravure, zincography,
Meisenbach or half-tone engraving, three-colour process or Hentschel-
colourtype, rotary photogravure and offset printing.
In regard to the first three methods, they were adopted for a special
class of work, plates or engravings for which the editions were limited
and cost was no object. Steel engravings and mezzotint had practically died
out and one must, from an artistic standpoint, regret that a process requir-
ing such personal attention as mezzotint should have died out. At present
there were few men capable of doing it, and the L.C.C. at the School of
Engraving, he was glad to see, had started classes for that special branch.
For commercial purposes he was afraid it was entirely out of the question.
Coming to lithography they were all familiar with the method, which was
discovered by accident in 1719. It had, however, its limitations, inasmuch
as every original to be reproduced had to be redrawn on stone, and unless
the lithographer or artist employed was very clever the reproduction
suffered. In regard to artistic work, many artists felt a peculiar fascination
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