Nature-printing

Nature-printing, a process by which engravings or plates answering thereto are produced by taking impressions of the objects themselves, and printing from them, invented or improved about 1853 by Alois Auer of Vienna. Suitable objects—for they must have tolerably flat surfaces—such as dried and pressed plants, embroidery and lace, are placed between a plate of copper and another of lead, both worked smooth, and polished; the plates are drawn through a pair of rollers, under pressure; then, when the plates are separated, it is found that a more or less perfect impression of the object has been made in the leaden plate. This may be used directly as an engraved plate, if only a very few impressions are wanted; or a facsimile of it may be obtained in copper by the electrotype process. Nature-printing has been superseded by photographic methods. See ILLUSTRATION, PHOTOGRAPHY.