Photo-litho

Willie Hall, one of Bartholomew's draughtsmen, describes how a proof map was transferred to a copper plate ready for the engravers.

 

Transcription

'The photo-litho was just beginning to come in just before the war and just in the early days of the war.

'Draughtsmen used to draw up a rough draft of the map that was to be produced. This was photographed and they got a copper plate and they put a sensitised coating on the plate and photographed down the drawing-office copy so that the engravers got the whole image down on the copper plate.

'So that was the photo-lithography part of it helping out the engraving situation, instead of the engravers having to rub it down to get the image in the old-fashioned method.'

 

Go to Engraver's Room page