The writer f has improved the above process by simplifying the modus operandi as follows : Instead of compounding the preparation with gum arabic and the coloring matter, the albumen is simply clarified by beating the whites of eggs to a froth, etc., and the paper is coated by floating for one minute, then hung up to dry in a place free from dust.
If the reader has any objection to albumenizing his own paper, he can use the albumen paper found in the market for the printing-out silver process generally employed by photog raphers.
The paper is sensitized from the back with the potassium bichromate bath by floating or by brushing. When dry, it is exposed as usual, but for a shorter period than when the prepara tion contains the India-ink or other coloring matters which impede the action of light.
The progress of the impression is followed by viewing, from time to time, the albumenized side of the paper. When the design is visible, well defined and brownish, the proof, being removed from the printing-frame, is rubbed with very finely powdered, or, better, levigated graphite, and, this done, immersed in cold water for from fifteen to twenty minutes, when, by gently rubbing it under a jet of water with a soft rag, or with a sponge imbued with water, the albumin is washed off from the parts not acted on, leaving the design on a perfectly white ground.
If, instead of graphite, or any dry color insoluble in water, lithographic inks, much thinned with turpentine oil, be applied on the print in a light coating which permits one to see the design under it, and if, then, the print be soaked in water and afterward developed as just directed, an image in greasy ink is obtained. And, furthermore, by replacing the printing by transfer ink, one readily obtains a transfer ready for the stone or a zinc plate to be etched in the ordinary manner.
As usual, there are two causes of failures in these processes, viz., under and over exposures. In the former case, the image is partly washed off ; in the latter, the ground cannot be cleared. The reasons are obvious."