The Heliotype Process

Abstract

AT one of the recent soirées of the Royal Society given by General Sabine at Burlington House, Messrs. Edwards and Kidd exhibited at work the new heliotype process, whereby photographic pictures can be very rapidly copied in by the aid of the printing-press. The process is very inexpensive, and so rapid that if one of the pages of NATURE were sent to the works, it could be copied by photography, and within two or three hours after receipt, pictures could be turned out as fast as the printing-press could work them off. A few days ago I went over the works to examine the process, and a gentleman, who brought an engraving to the proprietors just as I arrived, saw the press printing off very good copies before I left, the interval being about two hours. The works are at some distance out of London, free from the smoke and dust.