Scanning Around With Gene: When Chemicals Plus Electricity Equaled Beautiful Art

Gene Gable

You could certainly argue that the graphic arts industry, even in its present computerized era, uses a lot of toxic and nasty chemicals and heavy metals. Now we put them into the silicon chips, monitors, batteries, toner and other parts of our computers, and not directly into the images themselves.
But at one time, every decent-sized town had at least one “electroplater” or engraver that supplied metal plates to local printers. When I worked in the South of Market section of San Francisco during the 1990s, you could still see the faded signs of many of these businesses in what was once a printing capital of the West Coast. Where people are now eating sushi and truffle-infused cheese, union workers once applied electric current to giant baths of cyanide, nickel, zinc, and other metals, all without the aid of respirators, gloves, or other protective equipment.
All of this week’s images are from 1901 to 1907 and appeared in the magazine Inland Printer. Many of them are available in original form on eBay from Period Paper, who sells terrific old printing ads and printer promotional material. Click on any image for a larger version.



Electroplating and electrotyping are processes that create either original or duplicate images etched or raised on a metal substrate by using electric current and a series of chemicals, wax, and other substances. One example of electroplating is chrome-plating for bumpers and other metal. Modern electrochemistry was invented by Italian chemist Luigi V. Brugnatelli in 1805.




Only the largest printers had their own electrotyping departments and it was considered a service business in most towns. In addition to the chemical processes, many of these shops also provided direct etching of art, illustration, halftones and other metal services.



Accuracy and faithfulness to the original were the main selling points, and apparently the deeper the cut the better, since many of these ads emphasize the extra-deep nature of the engraving.




There are still a couple of shops providing zinc and copper plates to the letterpress industry, but many printers now use a plastic polymer system, which is a lot less toxic and much more affordable. I guess having 50-gallon drums of potassium cyanide around is not something the typical landlord embraces.




But I do love this little snapshot of a thriving industry at a time when, because graphic design was part of the service, the ads are ornate and complex, designed to show off the skill of the engravers. We can reproduce these effects quite easily now and sometimes forget that at one time it took a number of men, several vats of chemicals, and a steady electric current to reproduce even the simplest drawing.