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PHOTOGRAPHY AND ILLUSTRATED JOURNALISM.* BY CARMICHAEL THOMAS. For many reasons I am sorry to see the good old-fashioned wood-engraving being superseded by the many mechanical processes which are being perfected ; but I am quite sure that, in time, the really good wood-engravers, instead of finding their work leaving them, will find they are more and more sought after. The fourth-rate engraver no longer exists—he is ousted by process ; then the third-rate engraver disappeared. The second-rate men are now having a fairly good time of it; but they must look out, for we do not know what further develop ments are coming on in mechanical process. In the future, I believe, the first-rate engravers will be able to command almost any price for their work. For the last few years there has been a mania for etchings ; high prices have been paid and are being paid for etchings, simply because they are etchings, no matter whether good or indifferent ; but the etchers will be—no doubt are—feeling the change ; photo graphic processes in the shape of photogravures are gradually pushing the second-rate etchings out of the market, just in the same way as the poorer class of wood-engravings are being'super seded. I should not be at all surprised if, in a few years’ time, a good wood-engraving is as much sought after as an etching is in the present day. The first-rate wood-engraver will make his fortune, while his second-rate fellow-worker will starve. In America there is another startling change in illustrated journalism, for some of the papers there are not only giving up the wood engravers, but they are giving up the artists as well. The illustrations are composed of photographs taken from nature or life, and reproduced direct by process without a touch from eitherartistorengraver. The manager of thepaper, instead of asking an artist to illustrate a story, puts the manu script in the hands of a photographer. Here, on the screen, is a story illustration prepared in that way. In another case, the manager wishes to illustrate the work being done by the Salvation Army in New York, and sends the photographer round with the reporter, instead of the artist. The result is most terribly monotonous and devoid of artistic treatment, but I think it is interesting here, as showing the latest development of illustrated journalism. There is the advantage, though, that an illustration pro duced in this way cannot well have doubt thrown on its genuineness. If I were to show you a sketch in which the old lady who keeps the cows in St. James’s Park was seen putting water into the milk, you might say it was made up ; but when I place before you a photograph of such a proceeding, you must then admit, although all your better feelings are rudely shocked by the revelation, that it is true. One more subject I will put on the screen before I leave this part of my paper, and that is the one you now see. In this case there is no artist’s work ; the photo from life was taken on board a P. and 0. boat, sent to the Graphic office, where it was photographed direct on to the wood, and engraved. Where photography is so very useful is, not as a means of doing away with the work of artist and engraver, but of assist ing them to get the details of their subject correct. Twenty years ago, during the Franco-German War and the Commune, the camera was a most important and valuable friend to the newspapers. When Paris was at the mercy of the lowest ruffians that the slums could produce, at the time when they were playing havoc with the buildings, monuments, and streets, the photographers were hard at work, and the nega tives they took give a true but dreadful picture of those terrible days. On the screen will be shown one or two speci mens of what I refer to. This shows the Rue Royale deserted and partly in ruins, taken during the last days of the Commune. The next is a scene on the Boulevards. The next shows the Rue de Rivoli; the damage to the houses is caused by shot and shell, not by fire. One can hardly believe that this bright and cheerful street could ever have been a scene of such utter desola tion and misery as you see here. The next one depicts a ' * A portion of a paper on “ Illustrated Journalism,” read last Wednes day night before the Society of Arts. barricade in the Rue Castiglione, taken from the Place Vendome. All these subjects appeared in the Graphic at the time, and show how important a part photography played even as far back as twenty years ago. The next slide is a photograph of one of the meat tickets which was supplied to the Graphic agent (among others) during the siege. The ticket itself was far too valuable to be sent, so a photograph of it was taken and forwarded by balloon post. It was necessary to send two or three photographs by different balloons, or if sketches were used, to send tracings of them, for as likely as not the balloons would be captured by the Prussians, and whether they came down within reach ot the enemy or not, the Graphic had to give its readers illustrations of all that was going on in the beleaguered city. Many manccuvres had to be executed to get the sketches and photographs outside Paris, and through the Prussian lines to London. Any sort of meat was ruinously dear at that time, and even a good sized dog could not be bought under £8 or £10. This slide represents a cat and dog butcher’s, prepared from one of the sketches received at the Graphic by balloon post. The day’s dinner was not the only trouble ; anxiety of every sort was there as well. When the Daily Graphic first started, some of the illustra tions were drawn on wood and engraved, but the result was not satisfactory ; and now they are produced by a photographic process from drawings made on smooth white card with a very black ink. There have been published some very good illustra tions done by people who have had no experience whatever in such rapid journalistic work as is necessary in the case of the Daily Graphic. Lady Butler has sent sketches from Egypt, done with such a bold, vigorous touch that they can be used as model drawings for the kind of .-work required. There is just enough work in her drawings, not too much to obscure the clearness, and yet quite enough everywhere to show exactly what she wishes to portray. When the drawings are finished, they are handed to the manager of the photo-etching department, who prepares the plates for the printer. The camera by means of which the negative is taken is slung from the roof, so that the vibration of machinery or passing traffic may not spoil the result. The negative, when taken, is placed over a sheet of zinc which has been made sensitive to light, and this light (from an arc lamp) shining through the clear lines of the negative, acts upon the sensitive surface in such a way as to leave a record upon the zinc. In short, by this operation the drawing is reproduced upon the zinc plate. Its lines are then made to resist the attack of the acid, and the plate put into an acid bath, where the non-protected parts are eaten away, leaving the drawing in relief—a surface which can be printed from. These plates are then sent to the printing office, and, having been mounted on wood in order to make them the same level as the type, they are, with the type, arranged as required into com plete pages. Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., presided at the meeting at which the foregoing paper was read for the author by Mr. T. C. Hepworth. The attendance was large. In the course of the discussion Mr. Henry Blackburn said that it was about the year 1875 when it became possible to turn out by photography type-high blocks in a practically available way for newspaper printing. Mr. Russell Scott described a newly invented method of producing pictures of various colours at a rapid rate with one impression from a single lithographic stone or block. Making Paper Transparent.—The following method of making paper transparent for copying drawings is adopted by the Austrian Hydrographic Bureau :—The sheet of paper, having been placed over the drawing to be copied, is lightly rubbed with a ball of cotton saturated with pure benzine. The tracing can then be readily made, owing to the trans parency produced, and the benzine on evaporating, leaves the paper opaque, as before, and perfectly odourless. To secure satisfactory results, however, absolutely pure benzine must be used.—Illustratiom.