Andrew Wynter

“ It is scarcely known yet how many
centuries may elapse ere the ink of old books becomes so dry that it cannot be transferred by the new process; but it is quite certain that a couple of hundred years does not so far dry it as to render it incapable of giving an impression, so that we may have the earliest folio copies of Shakespeare’s Plays reproduced with exactness, in more available sizes, through the medium of a few sheets of India-rubber. ”

“ The human hand, with unlimited time, could never reproduce such a fac-simile as we have here performed in a few minutes, at a very trifling expense. Where it is required to make a reduced copy of a drawing, the process is inverted; that is, the vulcanised india-rubber sheet is stretched in the frame before the impression is made upon it. It must be evident, that on its being allowed to contract to its original size, it will bear a reduced picture upon its surface from which the copies are printed. ”

“ In other countries, comparatively speaking poor to England, this scale has been far exceeded. For instance, even poverty-stricken Spain is mapped on the enormous scale of as many as sixty-three inches to the mile. ”

“ We may mention another power possessed by the new method, which will prove very valuable to publishers. It sometimes happens that when a new edition of a work is called for, some of the original blocks, or stereotyped impressions, are found to be wanting. ”

“ Both enlargements and reductions of the original scale on which they were drawn have been made in the ordinary way at an enormous expense, the greater part of which might have been avoided had this process been known. As it is, we have gone to work in a most expensive manner. ”