صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

lower orders of their fellow-citizens, by mere stress of coercion and punishment? Are they resolved, and prepared, for a rancorous interminable hostility in prosecution of such a benign purpose; with, of course, a continual exhaustion upon it of the means, which might be applied to diminish that wretchedness of the people, which has been, and must continue to be, the grand corroborator of the principles that have passed like an earthquake under the foundations of the old social systems? But supposing this should be the course pursued, how long can it be effectual? That must be a very firm structure, must be of gigantic mass or most excellent basis and conformation, against which the ocean shall unremittingly wear and foam in vain.'

'So that the fame of the nation resounded, and its power made itself felt, in every clime, it was not worth a consideration that a vast proportion of its people were systematically consigned, through ignorance and its inseparable irreligion and depravities, to wretchedness and perdition. It is matter for neverending amazement, that during one generation after another, the presiding wisdom in this, the chief of Christian and Protestant States, should have thrown out the living strength of the state, into almost every mode of agency under heaven, rather than that of promoting the state itself to the condition of a happy community of cultivated beings. What stupendous infatuation, what disastrous ascendency of the Power of Darkness, that this energy should have been sent forth to pervade all parts of the world in quest of objects, to inspirit and accomplish innumerable projects, and to lavish itself, even to exhaustion and fainting at its vital source, on every alien interest; while here, at home, a great portion of the social body was in a moral and intellectual sense dying and putrifying over the land. And it was thus perishing for want of the vivifying principle of knowledge, which one fifth part of this mighty amount of exertion would have been sufficient to diffuse into every corner and cottage of the island.' 'Yet this fact had not the weight of the very" dust of the balance," in the deliberation, whether a grand exertion of the national vigour and resource could have any object so worthy, with God for the Judge, as some scheme of foreign aggrandisement, some interference in remote quarrels, an avengement, by anticipation, of wrongs pretended to be foreseen, or the obstinate prosecution of some fatal career, begun in the very levity of pride, or from the casual ascendency of some perverse and irritated party.'

'How sick will the thoughtful man be, to perpetual loathing, of the vain raptures with which an immoral and antichristian patriotism can review a long history of what it will call national glory, acquired by national energy ambitiously consuming itself

in a continual succession and unlimited extent of extraneous operations, of that kind which has been the grand curse of the human race ever since the time of Cain; while the one thing needful of national welfare, the very summum bonum of a state, has been regarded with contemptuous indifference.'

ART. VIII.-Some Account of Messrs. Perkins and Fairman's Inventions connected with the Art of Engraving.

[Journal of Science, &c.-London, 1820.]

AMONG the numerous discoveries and inventions that have adorned the present age, there are certainly none of more interest or importance than those of which we propose to give a brief account in this article; indeed they form an epoch in the history of the fine arts, and display a degree of skill and ingenuity in overcoming the various difficulties that must have presented themselves, and which are neither light nor few, infinitely creditable to the artists concerned.

Through the kindness of Mr. Perkins we have been enabled to examine his sidero-graphic process in all its parts: and we think that, independent of its other merits, it may be considered as especially important in relation to the great and increasing crime of forgery;-a crime which it is doubtless impossible to prevent, but which is at present so easy of execution and difficult of detection, that he who increases the obstacles and doubles the difficulties opposed to so heinous an offence, must be considered as not less deserving of the thanks of his country than of mankind in general.

Mr. Perkins' plan is briefly this. He has discovered a peculiar method of rendering steel extremely soft and sectile, so as to furnish a better material for the engraver to work upon than even copper itself. Upon a plate of steel thus softened, we will suppose an engraving has been executed by one of our first artists, at considerable labour and expense; it is then returned to Mr. Perkins, who, by a process as peculiarly his own as the former, renders it as hard as the hardest steel, without in the smallest degree injuring even the most delicate lines of the graver. A cylinder of soft steel is then prepared, of proper dimensions to receive an impression in relief from the hardened engraved plate, upon its periphery, a process effected by rolling it over the hardened plate in a singularly constructed press, invented by the patentees for the purpose. This cylinder, now bearing a perfect impression in relief of the original engraving, is next submitted to the hardening operation, and is then ready for use: that is, being properly placed in the press, it is rolled

over a plate of copper, upon which it indents any required number of copies of the first engraving, every copy thus produced being of course a perfect fac-simile of the original. So that in this way any number of copper-plates may be engraved in a very short time, from an original of the most exquisite workmanship, each of which, we believe we may safely pronounce, shall be quite equal to an original copper-plate engraving from the same hand, and of the same merits.

But the impression from the cylinder may be made, if required, upon soft steel, instead of copper, and this, afterwards hardened, becomes capable of affording an infinitely greater number of good impressions than the copper-plate; it may also be used as a new source of copies upon the cylinders, thus presenting a means of multiplying the engravings beyond precedent, and almost eluding calculation.

When it is remembered that all kinds of engravings, the finest as well as the most common, may be multiplied upon the same principle, the utility and economy of the plan, where numerous impressions are required, will be at once evident; and a means is afforded of substituting, in a variety of publications requiring many copies of the same engraving, fine and perfect works of art, at the same expense which is now incurred for those of a very inferior description. The despatch too with which all this is effected is not one of the smallest merits of Messrs. Perkins and Fairman's very extraordinary invention: the specimen with which, through their assistance, we are enabled to present our readers, could certainly not have been produced in the ordinary mode of engraving in less than six months; whereas, by the process we are describing, it was indented upon the copper from the originals in less than half as many hours.

It will appear, from the specimen, that engine engraving, exhibited in the border at the top, and repeated at the bottom of the plate, may be combined with that of the artist, and the machine by which these are produced, appears, as far as our information goes, to be preferable to any that has hitherto been employed for the same purpose. It has the property of designing its own patterns or figures, and in such endless variety that they can only be compared to the whimsical and infinitely varied combinations presented by the kaleidoscope.

The border also exhibits another important operation of the engine, which consists in producing the engraving alternately indented and in relief, so as to imitate copper and wood engraving, every other link of the chain of which it is composed differing from its neighbour, by exhibiting white lines where the other is black, and vice versa. This inversion of the engraving by Mr. Perkins' engine throws very great difficulties in the way of imitators; the same object can scarely be attained by any

method except wood cuts, and the impossibility of imitating the delicate work which our plate exhibits, must be quite evident.

The most important light, however, in which we can view this new art of engraving, relates to its possible applications to the prevention of forgery.

It is a well-known fact, that, independent of the expense and time necessarily attending the production of a fine copper-plate engraving, the wear of a plate is such, that a few hundred perfect copies can only be taken without re-touching it, which, when performed by the hand of the engraver, necessarily destroys the identity of the plate; but the immense number of impressions that would be required in applying fine engravings to the purposes of the Bank of England, is such as wholly to preclude any idea of the prevention of forgery, by the exquisiteness of a copper-plate engraving. Further, it must be admitted, that no artist can form an exact duplicate of any of his own engravings; and if it be impossible to make a perfect imitation even of his own work, how much less probable is it, that another person should execute such a duplicate. Supposing it, therefore, possible, that a very finely executed engraving could be multiplied to any extent, without chance of change, the forging of such an engraving could be detected by any person possessed of one of the originals, who would be at the trouble of carefully comparing the arrangements of lines and dots in both. This multiplication of the original by the production of any number of exact copies, is attained by the process above described, and the plate furnishes an instance of the perfect resemblance of the copies to the original, for if any two of the repeated engravings be very carefully inspected, it will be found that they are so perfectly similar as to bear all the characters of having been taken from one and the same plate: this is particularly shown in the centre medallion on each side of the plate, which contains the charter of the Bank of England, in very minute characters, and which presents peculiar difficulties to successful imitation.

We are inclined to maintain that no other system hitherto devised, in which the fine arts are employed, comes at all into competition with the present plan; and we need scarcely add, that in respect to bank notes printed in the usual way, identification is impossible, since no two plates of the same denomination are in all respects alike. In this remark we would by no means be considered as making the smallest allusion to the new plan adopted by the Bank, at the suggestion of the Commission appointed under the Great Seal for the purpose; and with the merits and nature of which we are entirely unacquainted.

If we suppose a bank-note, with a sufficient quantity of ornaments, or vignettes, executed upon the principle which we ex

plained, we conceive that the receiver of notes may render himself nearly, if not absolutely, safe, by furnishing himself with an original impression of the engraved parts, by the close inspection of which he may surely determine whether the impressions upon the note are from the same plate; and forgers, knowing that every person may, if he choose, put himself in possession of the means of detecting the spurious note, will, probably, not be induced to risk so much with a trifling prospect of success, since those only who will not be at the trouble of informing themselves, can be imposed upon.

*An Index to each of the two preceding Volumes, as well as to Vol. III. will be given with No. 6.

The delay of this Number, consequent in some measure upon the change of our Press, will be avoided hereafter.

A better quality of paper will, also, be afforded in the succeeding

[blocks in formation]
« السابقةمتابعة »