Printing Without Ink.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81830, 24 August 1906, Page 4

Printing Without Ink.

What purports to be a revolution in tht graphic arts is known rs the Fhysiotype Process of printing without ink, and was recently shown to the Koyal Society by Mr. Francis Sheridan, the inventor. The process is as follows: —The article of which it is desired to obtain a facsimile print is placed upon a piece of paper having a suitable surface, and is pressed for a few seconds either by the hand or in a copying press, or by other snitable means. The impression is, of course, almost invisible, The paper is then slipped into a case containing a powder the nature of which is necessarily a secret. The case is slightly shaken, in order that the powder may be properly distributed over the surface of the paper. The latter ifs then withdrawn from the case, and any superfluous powder shaken off. A print has now been In order to render the print permanent and secured, but so far it is not permanent, indelible, it merely remains to place the paper between two sheets of blotting-paper, dampened with a very weak solution of glycerine and water—the eflect of the glycerine being to retard evaporation. As each stage occupies but a few peconds, the whole operation from start to finish could, if necessary, Is performed in a minute or two. The print which can be made in almost any colour, is perfectly dear, and portrays the minutest bair lines in absolute facsimile of the original. It is, in fact, as dear as the best photograph The process can be directly applied to lithography. It also affords a means of obtaining designs on glass, enamel, metal, etc., by a direct process. It will be especially useful is Nature study and botany.

When Silk is not Silk. Half of the silk dresses worn by the society ladies who daily parade the fashionable thoroughfares, would, if taken together, represent a small tin mine of very fair quality. This sounds somewhat incredible, but any lady's costumier would tell yon that a silk dress, unless it contained a large quantity of substance that was not silk at all, would be utterly shabby, greasy-looking, and showing the threads within a month or two. Apiece of black silk, at many shillings a yard, was analysed by an analytical chemist some time ago, and he discovered that the precise composition was: Water, 11.43 parts; ash (mostly oxide of tin and silica), 15.30 ; real silk, 27.14 ; organio matters (not silk), 46.13 ; nitrogen, 4.76 parts; in all 100 parts. A piece of silk, when placed in a fire, will smoulder away like tinder, and leave a large "mount of ash, the principal ingredient of which is oxide of tin. Over 1000 tons of waste are thrown away every day from the big glassworks at I St. Helens, in Lancashire. Up-to-date nearly 2,000,000 tons of coarse dost, made up of sea-sand, glass, and iron from the I grinding rollers, have been damped down as I useless on vacant Lancashire land. Dr. ! Ormondy took possession of a quantity of this material some time ago, ai.d converted it into blocks for having streets. To-day several of the finest streets of Continental cities are paved with glass. Rust, Gilding, and Polisb. Seme people are rusty. Their harsh, ungainly manners eat oat whatever is good in their own character, and saw the very flesh of those that come near them. Some people are gilt, a very brilliant exterior they present; but the first brush of hard using rubs oil the gilding, and reveals the base metal beneath. A third class are polished. The polisb, indeed, is on the surface ; but it is a polish of solid worth, and in the multifarious crosses of human life, the more it is rubbed, the brighter it grows.—Akxott. The Folly of One-Sldedness. Life is many-sided. The individual lives now in this side only, now in that. The sin of onesidedness is this: To persist in the belief that that aspect of truth or life which now is most real to us, is the whole of truth and the whole of life. Culture is good, and so is freedom, and so is law. The impassioned appeal, the quiet argument, the quick decision, the steady growth, the glad, free song of love, the deep breath of labor—each one is good, and life is the union of them all.—H.vetzkll.