Could be useful also to look at
Notes on the [Practical Working of the] "Vandyke" or Direct Zinc
Printing Process, with Details of Apparatus & Chemicals required for a
Small Section. Calcutta: Survey of India, 1913. Pp. 7.
The pamphlet contains recipes and illustrations. The process was useful
for short runs of black-line originals, normally on blue tracing cloth.
It was used in the early years of the C20th, chiefly before the First
World War.
Andrew S Cook MA PhD FRHistS FRSA
Map Archivist, India Office Records
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
+44 20 7412 7828
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tessa Rose
Sent: 11 October 2005 13:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Vandyked as a printing method
Dear Richard
The Vandyke process was a photo-lithographic process invented by F.
Vandyke of the Survey of India and was used largely for map printing in
British and Colonial Government printing offices. Thin zinc plates were
grained with sand, and coated with a dichromated fish-glue enamel
printing
solution. The copy, drawn or printed in black on white paper or a
transparency on glass or celluloid, was placed in contact with the film
side of the plate, and exposure made either to daylight or to an arc
lamp.
The plate was developed in plain water until the glue was removed from
the lines, and it was then dyed with aniline dye, producing a negative
image on the zinc. After the plate had been inked it could be developed
in water containing hydrochloric acid, by rubbing gently with
cotton-wool.
The result was that the image was reversed, yielding black lines on a
plain ground. The plate was then treated in the ususal way for
lithographic printing.
(i.e. the original drawing was printed through, instead of using a glass
negative)
This was lifted, word for word, from Nadeau, L. Encyclopedia of
printing,
photographic and photomechanical processes. ISBN 09690841-6-1
Hope it is of help.
Regards,
Tessa Rose
> Cataloguing some maps produced during WWI by the Survey of Egypt (ca.
1916 in particular), I have come across a few which have been printed by
this process - they are referred to as "Vandyked at the Survey of
Egypt". I was intrigued to know if anyone recognised this printing
method. The closest I could guess was that it somehow used Vandyke
paper.
> Of no great urgency, import or relevance, I am just interested ...
Thanks
> --
> # Richard Higgins
> # Durham University Library
> # Archives & Special Collections
> # Palace Green
> # Durham
> # DH1 3RN
> # E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
>
Tessa Rose
Map Room
Bodleian Library
Broad Street
Oxford
OX1 3BG
01865 277013
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