eagerly entered into the contest, and was nominated a director of the National Guard. In this capacity he went, when suffering under the pressure of severe illness, to assist, with his company, at the fête of the confederation, and the fatigues he underwent on that occasion produced an access of his disorder, from which he died early in 1791, at the age of fifty-two.

In him we see a favourable example of the simple workman attaining, by sheer industry and unflinching effort, the information necessary to qualify him for practical superiority in the art to which he had devoted his powers.

ALOIS SENNEFELDER,

THE INVENTOR OF LITHOGRAPHY.

Born 1771-Died 1834.

A SIMPLE and circumstantial record of the experiments and difficulties attending the invention of a highly important art cannot fail to be interesting, and such a one has been given us by Sennefelder, who wrote an account of his inventions and discoveries, of which an English translation was published in 1819. The history of this persevering inventor, and the trials he encountered, and the obstacles against which he had to struggle in bringing the art of lithography into successful and profitable operation, affords a remarkable illustration of the power of genius to overcome the most adverse circumstances.

He was born at Prague in 1771, and was the son of a comedian at the Theatre Royal, Munich. When very young he showed an inclination to follow the profession of his father, who refused to yield to this predilection in the boy, and sent him to study the law at Ingolstadt; but he does not seem to have shown any turn for legal pursuits, and indulged his favourite inclination by performing occasionally at private theatres, and employing his leisure hours in dramatic composition. He wrote a comedy, which was published,

but does not seem to have made any sensation. At the age of twenty he lost his father, and was compelled, from want of pecuniary resources, to discontinue his studies, and he next attempted again to devote himself to the stage. Finding, however, that the inferior parts only were assigned to him, he resolved to try his fortune a second time as an author, and wrote another play, which did not pay his expenses. While this composition was passing through the press, Sennefelder, annoyed at the extreme slowness of the printers, made himself acquainted with the process of printing, and became desirous of securing the necessary apparatus. Being too poor to gratify this wish, he tried to discover some mode of stereotyping, by which he might be able to print his own works with a very small stock of type. He formed a composition of clay, fine sand, flour, and pulverized charcoal, mixed with a little water and kneaded as stiff as possible, and with this paste he made a mould from a page of types, which became in a quarter of an hour so hard that he could take a very perfect cast from it in melted sealing-wax by means of a hard press. He states that by mixing a little pulverized plaster of Paris with the sealing-wax the stereotype plates thus produced were much harder than the common type metal of lead and antimony. The want of means for carrying on this project led him to abandon it.

He then tried etching on copper, but found difficulties arising from his want of practical knowledge, and still more from the expense of the copper-plates, which

make them In order to

he ground and polished after using, to available for more than one operation. lessen this difficulty, he used a piece of fine stone for his exercises in writing backwards, and afterwards tried printing from it instead of copper, but in this he was not very successful.

The next step towards his discovery was occasioned by a simple incident which strikingly displays the necessitous circumstances in which Sennefelder then found himself. Not being acquainted with the composition used by engravers for covering their etchingground in defective places, he had invented a kind of chemical ink for the purpose, consisting of wax, soap, and lamp-black. It chanced one day, just as he had polished a stone plate for etching, his mother came to him, requesting that he would immediately write a bill of his linen, which the washerwoman was waiting to take away. Looking around him for a slip of paper, he found that he had not even a scrap at hand, having used all he had in taking off proof-impressions, aud, in addition, that his inkstand was dry. The matter being urgent, he hastily wrote out the list upon the prepared stone with his chemical ink, intending to copy it out at leisure. Not long after, when about to clean off this writing, the idea occurred to him that by the application of aqua-fortis and water he might etch the stone so as to leave the writing in sufficient relief for printing from. The experiment proved completely successful, and as soon as he had perfectly satisfied himself as to the importance and practicability of this

new method, he at once set about turning it to account so as to gain a livelihood by it.

Again his indigent circumstances stood in the way of his progress. He knew not how to raise the necessary money for the construction of a press, the purchase of stones, paper, and so on-nor did any better resource present itself than that he should enlist as a private in the artillery, and serve as a substitute for a friend, who promised him a premium of 200 florins, which sum he hoped would procure him the means of carrying on his operations in his leisure hours, until he could succeed in procuring his discharge. With this intention he went to Ingoldstadt with a party of recruits, but his purpose was thwarted on its being discovered that he was not a native of Bavaria, and therefore could not serve without a special license. While at Ingoldstadt, he made various inquiries bearing on the subject of his discovery, which led him to conceive that this new process would be peculiarly well adapted for printing music, and he went so far as to suggest it to a musician of the elector's band named Glaissman, who was then preparing some music for publication. In connection with this individual he published a few works, which sufficiently proved the capabilities of the art; and the elector, Charles Theodore, was so well pleased with the efforts of these ingenious printers, that he sent them a present of 100 florins, and promised them an exclusive privilege for the exercise of their art.

Unhappily, the electoral Academy of Sciences, before