HOW LITHOGRAPHY WAS DISCOVERED.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5002, 23 January 1885, Page 2

HOW LITHOGRAPHY WAS DISCOVERED.

After the first triumphant performance of Mozart's opera '* Don Juan," at Munich,. the theatre wan deserted by all except one man. Alois Sennefelder had much to do.. . After seeing around the stage that no sparks had ignited, he retired to his room to sfamp the theatre tickets for the follow* * ing day. As he entered the room he had three things in his hand—a polished whetsone for razors, a ticket stamp moistened with printers' ink, and a cheque on the theatre treasury for his weekly pay. He placed the cheque on the table, when a gust of wind took it, swept it high op in his room and then deposited it in a basin filled with water. Sennefelder took the wet paper, dried it as well as he could, and then, to make sure of it, > weighted it down with the wetstone, on ■ which he had before carelessly placed the printing stamp. Returning to his room.: on the following morning, he was sOr« ; prised to see the letters of the stamps printed with remarkable accuracy upon ' the damp paper. He gazed long at the cheque; a sudden thought flashed through his brain; he wondered if by some such means he could not save himself the weary trouble he continually had of copying the songs of the chorus. That very morning he went out and purchased a larger stone, and commenced to mike experiments, arid finally succeeded io 'discovering the art of printing from stone.