The customary homage paid by envy and jealousy to successful
merit—namely, opposition and disparagement—has been offered to Mr. HULLMANDEL in acknowledgment of the value 'of his new invention of lithotint : he has had to defend his patent right in the Court of Chancery ; and is now called upon to prove his claim to be its inventor. This he has done, most completely and incontestably, in the Art Union of the current month ; the statements impugning his claim to the in- vention having been communicated to that journal, though the editor has not thought fit to publish groundless and injurious insinuations. Mr. Hum:nem:1m may really thank his assailants for affording him the opportunity of producing so many handsome testimonies to the origi- nality and importance of his invention, and such irrefragable proofs of his being the first inventor of lithotint.
Having before described the nature of lithotint, we need only now repeat, that it is an important extension of the lithographic process, by which artists are enabled to make original drawings upon stone with washes of liquid ink applied with the brush, in the same way as in making drawings in sepia or Indian ink on paper ; and that the merit of the discovery consists in the printer's being able to produce a great number of good impressions from these washed tints. Many drawings had been made on stone in this way, but all attempts to print from them had failed : in short, it was considered and pronounced by a commission of inquiry to be an impossibility.
"Numerous trials have proved that it was impossible to obtain so de- sirable a result," says M. Tutor in his treatise on Lithography. These failures, we presume, have been adduced—let us hope by persons igno- rant of the subject—to show that the first and only successful solution of this difficult problem in lithography is not a new discovery. Passing over the complimentary letters of four European Sovereigns, by each of whom Mr. HULLDIANDEL was honoured with a gold medal for his invention, (the Queen of England, of course, is not one of the number,) we quote a passage from an article on Lithotint that appeared in the Panel of 11th January 1842, written by M. JOBARD, Director of the Department of Industry in the Royal Museum of Brussels ; who, in addition to his high scientific attainments, was a lithographic printer for seventeen years. "The washing on stone, the only method which escaped the sagacity of Senefelder, declared impossible by all practical men, is at length discovered. The honour belongs entirely to M. Hull- mandel, the first lithographic printer in London, and who shortly must become the most celebrated one in Europe." M. GOUPIL, the well- known printseller of Paris, also states, that "for these last fifteen years, during which I have been a publisher of prints, neither myself nor any one else has seen a series of impressions from any drawing executed on stone with the brush." But he adds, that since Mr. IlumasersnEL went to Paris and put his process in practice there, LE MEacrest, the principal lithographic printer, "has invented something simi- lar; but this invention of his is completely in its infancy." M. Gouptn concludes by telling Mr. HULLMANDEL, "Your process is the only one hitherto known capable of giving a series of good impres- sions." Mr. liumMANDXL, it appears, could not agree with the Pans printers about the sale of Isis French patent ; so they have been endea- vouring to do without purchasing the right : as yet, however, their en- deavours have been unattended with success. Attempts have been made in this country also, but with still less chance of succeeding. These trials, however, serve to show the importance that is attached to the invention, and also prove that lithotint could not have been dis- covered before. Its practicability was first demonstrated by the publi- cation of impressions produced according to Mr. HULLMANDEL'S proces&
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