Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1874 — Engraving by the Sand-Blast Process. [ARTICLE]

Engraving by the Sand-Blast Process.

As we long ago predicted, in relation to the possibilities of the sand-blast process, we now learn that it is made to render service akin to that of the bow familiar photo-lithograph, Albert-type, and other methods of light engraving. In a paper read before the British Association at Belfast, its author, Mr. Newton, stated that, if the sand-blast be applied to a cake of resin, on which a picture has been produced by photography in gelatine, or drawn by hand in oil or gam, the hare parts of the surface may be cut away to any desired depth. The lines thus left in relief will be well supported, their base being broader than their top, and there being no under-cut-ting, as is apt to occur in etchings on metal with acid. An electrotype from this matrix may be made, and this used on the ordinary printer’s press, thus securing a printed copy of the original photograph. In the course of his experiments Mr. Newton discovered that small shot or fine grains of iron could be substituted for the sand with favorable results, cutting granite more rapidly—owing, doubtless, to the fact that these particles are not broken by the shock, hence the full effect of the blow is felt by the opposing surface. With regard to the general construction of the ma£ chine, we are informed that sand, driven by an air-blast of the pressure of four inches of water, descends with sufficient force to remove the surface of glass in ten seconds. Photographic copies in bichromated gelatine have thus been faithfully reproduced on glass. Where these pictures are taken from nature, the lights and shades produce films of gelatine of various thickness, upon the surface of which a well-regulated blast will act with more or less effect, thus producing half-tones or gradations of light and shade upon the glass itself. While delicate manipulators are applying this force for such purposes as the above, it is proposed by certain quarry-men to use it in the boring of blasting-holes and cutting of suitable rock-channels. And all this and far more still is due to the observing genius who first noted upon the window-panes of a Cape-May cottage scratches and abrasions made by the wind-blown sand, and who, having detected nature at her work, stole her secret, and secured for it letters-patent, and with them, it is hoped, such a fortune as his scenius and enterprise justly merit. — Appleton's Journal.