Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/112

78 this ink from adhering to the uncovered portions; whilst the ink used in the drawing is of such a nature that the printing-ink adheres to it. In this state, if a sheet of paper be placed upon the stone, and then passed under a press, the printing-ink will be transferred to the paper, leaving the ink used in the drawing still adhering to the stone.

(101.) There is one application of lithographic printing which does not appear to have received sufficient attention, and perhaps further experiments are necessary to bring it to perfection. It is the reprinting of works which have just arrived from other countries. A few years ago one of the Paris newspapers was reprinted at Brussels as soon as it arrived by means of lithography. Whilst the ink is yet fresh, this may easily be accomplished: it is only necessary to place one copy of the newspaper on a lithographic stone; and by means of great pressure applied to it in a rolling press, a sufficient quantity of the printing ink will be transferred to the stone. By similar means, the other side of the newspaper may be copied on another stone, and these stones will then furnish impressions in the usual way. If printing from stone could be reduced to the same price per thousand as that from moveable types, this process might be adopted with great advantage for the supply of works for the use of distant countries possessing the same language. For a single copy might be printed off with transfer ink, and thus an English work, for example, might be published in America from stone, whilst the original, printed from moveable types, made its appearance on the same day in England.

(102.) It is much to be wished that such a method