the art of cutting characters or figures of any sort on wood, stone or metals. Undoubtedly the earliest uses of engraving were for ornament. From this the process of printing from engraved blocks was discovered. The earliest engraving for the purpose of printing consisted in cutting the figures in relief upon blocks of wood, and this art originated with the Chinese, who, as early as the tenth century, were engaged in printing from wooden blocks. The art of printing from engraved plates of metal was discovered by an Italian in the fifteenth century, and by the middle of that century it was quite common in most of the countries of Europe. Some of the most celebrated artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were engaged in the reproduction of their works by the use of engraved plates. In the latter part of the seventeenth century the art was introduced into England, and from that country it extended to the American colonies. Previous to the discovery of the art of photography, engraving was about the only means of reproducing portraits or the works of artists; but except for special purposes, such as the printing of bank notes and some very high classes of pictures, the art has now been almost entirely superseded by halftone printing and zinc etching. See HALFTONE; ZINC ETCHING. LINE ENGRAVING, as implied by the term, is executed entirely in lines. The tools are few and simple. They consist of the graver, or burin, the point, the scraper and the burnisher; an oil stone or hone, dividers, a parallel square, a magnifying lens; a bridge on which to rest the hand; a blind or shade of tissue paper, to make the light fall equally on the plate, callipers for leveling important erasures, a small steel anvil, a small pointed hammer and punches. In etching, the following articles are required: a resinous mixture, called etching ground, capable, when spread very thinly over the plate, of resisting the action of the acids used; a dauber, for laying the ground equally; a hand vice; some hair pencils of different sizes, and bordering wax, made of burgundy-pitch, beeswax and a little oil. In engraving, the plate, which is highly polished and must be free from all scratches, is first prepared by spreading over it a thin layer of ground. The surface is then smoked, and the outline of the picture is transferred to it by pressure from the paper on which it has been drawn in fine outlines by a black lead pencil. The picture is then drawn on the ground with the etching needle, which removes the ground in every form produced by it and leaves the bright metal exposed. A bank of wax is then put round the plate, and dilute acid is poured on it. This eats out the metal along the lines from which the ground has been removed, but leaves the rest of the plate untouched. The plate is then gone over with the graver, the etched lines are clearly defined, broken lines are connected, new lines are added and other necessary corrections are made. Sometimes the plate is rebitten more than once, those parts which are sufficiently bitten in the first treatment being stopped with varnish, and only the selected parts exposed to after-biting. Finally, the burnisher is brought into play alternately with the graver and point, to give perfectness and finish. Such is the process for landscape engraving. In historical and portrait engraving of the highest class, the lines are first drawn on the metal with a fine point and are then cut in by the graver, the artist first making a fine line and afterward entering and re-entering till the desired width and depth of lines is attained. Much of the excellence of such engravings depends on the mode in which the lines are laid, their relative thickness and the manner in which they cross one another. SOFT-GROUND ETCHING. The ground, made by mixing lard with common etching ground, is laid on the plate and smoked as before, but its extreme softness renders it liable to injury. The outline of the subject is drawn on a piece of rough paper larger than the plate. The paper is then damped, and laid gently over the ground, face upward, and the margins are folded over and pasted down on the back of the plate. When the paper is dry and tightly stretched the bridge is laid across, and with a hard pencil and firm pressure the drawing is completed in the usual manner. The pressure makes the ground adhere to the back of the paper at all parts touched by the pencil, and on the paper being lifted off, these parts of the ground are lifted with it, and the corresponding parts of the plate thus left bare are exposed to the subsequent action of the acid. The granulated surface of the paper, causing similar granulations in the touches on the ground, gives the character of a chalk drawing. The biting-in is effected in the same manner as already described, and the subject is finished by rebiting and dotting with the graver. WOOD ENGRAVING. Wood engravings are made on Turkish boxwood. The wood is cut across the grain, one side of the slab is polished and finished, and wherever there are imperfections in the wood a hole is bored and a plug of wood is neatly inlaid. A block of the required size is sawed from the slab and prepared for the artist. If the artist is to draw the design or picture to be engraved on the block, the engraver scours the face of the block with pumice stone and a little water. When the wood is bright enough, the water is dried off, and a little flake white is rubbed over the surface. This gives a drawing surface. The artist then sketches the design and turns the block over to the engraver. However, the object which is to be reproduced by the wood engraver is usually photographed on the face of the block. A reverse negative is obtained, and the face of the wood is coated with gelatin and treated with a mixture of zinc white and acids. The surface is then sensitized with nitrate of silver in a "dark room." The negative is clamped to the block, film side next to the wood, and a photographic print is made in the usual manner. See HALFTONE. The wood engraver's tools are delicate and are made of the finest steel. They are called gravers. These include tint tools, which are used for cutting mechanical or perfectly straight parallel lines; lozenge tools, used for cutting artistic or curved lines; elliptical tools and gouges. If a slip of the knife is made, a hole is bored in the block where the tool slipped, and a plug of wood is inserted. Before the engraver begins cutting out the design, he gums a piece of paper over the sketch or photograph and tears out a hole over that part of the work where he begins engraving. The paper keeps the hand and fingers from smudging the drawing, and as the work progresses he enlarges the hole. After the job is finished a proof is taken under a hand press, and if it is satisfactory the woodcut is sent to the electrotyper, as the printing is not done from the woodcut, but from electrotypes of it. See AQUATINT; ETCHING; MEZZOTINT.