Chapter 70: Chapter 70 Stone Tablet Printing Technique

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The Palace of Versailles lay to the west of Paris, while Saint Antoine Town was in the northeast. To avoid shuttling between the two—which was primarily because he simply couldn’t stand the bumps of a carriage ride—Joseph spent the night dealing with business at the President of the Paris Chamber of Commerce’s place. The next morning, he headed directly to Saint Antoine Town.

This small suburban town of Paris somewhat resembled a “special economic zone” and was the only place around Paris that wasn’t influenced by various guilds. Craftsmen could find work here without having to join any guilds.

As they could save on guild membership fees, the wages that craftsmen expected were slightly lower. A large number of workshops looking to cut costs took root here.

After years of development, Saint Antoine Town was now filled with workshops, gathering thousands of craftsmen and their families.

Joseph had Eman find a guide to take him on a tour of several paper-making workshops in the town, but he began to frown more and more with each visit.

Those smaller workshops hardly had the conditions to experiment with new paper-making technologies.

The largest workshop, which had more than two hundred craftsmen, was quite sizable, but the workshop owner, Leviang, was not willing to try new paper-making techniques.

After all, new technology required a significant investment for production trials, and the results were unpredictable, carrying great risk.

Joseph did entertain the idea of biting the bullet and buying the workshop to do it himself, but he ultimately gave up on it.

Leviang’s workshop cost at least 500,000 livres, and launching low-cost paper production technology would also require an investment.

Because Joseph had been frequently exercising his “financial ability” recently, his fortune, which had amounted to more than 2.3 million livres just a while ago, had now shrunk to a mere 700,000 or so.

If he used all of it to purchase the paper workshop, he would immediately find himself in a difficult situation should other needs for money arise.

Therefore, after weighing his options time and again, Joseph realized that he could only put aside the matter of the low-cost paper-making technique for the time being until his financial situation improved.

However, this result was also within his expectations. After all, industries like paper-making, which were large-scale with high output value, could not complete technological changes overnight.

One should know that if one could complete the industrial upgrade of the paper industry and spread its adoption across the country, it could even give a significant boost to the economy of France.

By the time Joseph returned to the Palace of Versailles, the three engravers from the Paris Commercial News Agency had been waiting for him for quite some time.

Joseph looked at the three men carrying heavy tool bags on their backs and the various sized hammers at their waist, then at the glossy marble floors of the bedroom, and immediately abandoned the idea of teaching them the chalkstone slab printing technology here.

Eman approached quickly, bowed to him, and said, “Your Highness, those chalkstone slabs you asked for are still on the carriage. Where do you want them to be unloaded?”

Joseph furrowed his brow and thought: it would be nice if there were a workshop.

At the thought of a workshop, a location suddenly sprang to mind, and he couldn’t help but smile. He said to Eman, “Take them all to His Majesty the King’s workshop.”

“This…” Eman said in surprise, “Are you sure?”

“I will speak to His Majesty about it.”

Joseph then signaled to the three craftsmen, “Please come with me.”

More than ten minutes later, inside King Louis XVI’s fully-equipped, spacious, and bright workshop, His Majesty the King of France looked curiously at the chalkstone slabs before him as well as the craftsmen dressed in coarse cloth garments.

Firstly, Joseph sincerely thanked his father for the tremendous help he had provided to the publishing industry of France; then, with a very serious expression, he turned to the three craftsmen:

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“The technology I am about to reveal to you is of utmost importance! Without my permission, it must absolutely not be disclosed to anyone else, or else…”

He thought for a moment, chose the gravest charge he could think of, and said, “It will be considered treason.”

Inside the Royal Workshop were the current King and the Crown Prince. Outside, stood tall and formidable court guards. The craftsmen, having never seen such a scene, were so nervous that their legs trembled, and they dared not raise their heads, only swearing oaths and promising never to utter a single word to anyone else.

Immediately, Eman brought out the prepared confidentiality agreements and had the craftsmen sign them one by one.

Actually, Joseph also knew that there was no patent law at the time, so this technology could not be kept secret for too long. In the future, he intended to spread lithography throughout all of France.

However, for now, this was his triumph card that absolutely could not be leaked. For a while, he would send people to protect these three plate-making craftsmen at all times, at least until he could control the public opinion in Paris.

After completing the confidentiality induction, Joseph started to formally introduce the lithography technology.

He asked a craftsman to fix a polished chalkstone plate onto a table, and then he took the printing ink that had been prepared in advance, mixing in some paraffin and rosin.

Once the additives in the ink were completely dissolved, Joseph dipped his brush in the ink and wrote on the chalkstone plate, “To your Majesty the King.”

An hour later, the ink had essentially dried, and Joseph brushed the stone with dilute nitric acid twice.

The parts of the stone covered with ink were unaffected, while the rest had a thin layer eroded away by the nitric acid.

“The base plate is complete,” Joseph said nonchalantly as he spread a layer of water on the stone, then brushed on the printing ink.

In his heart, he marveled that during that month he spent volunteering in the mountains, helping the principal use a mimeograph to print test papers for the kids, he never thought that little ‘craft’ would come in handy here.

At that moment, the areas of the stone eroded by nitric acid absorbed the water, which prevented the ink from sticking, while the dried ink already on the plate picked up more ink.

Joseph placed a sheet of paper on the stone, pressed it lightly, and then carefully lifted it off, revealing a line of text on the paper—To your Majesty the King.

However, the text was mirrored.

The three craftsmen exchanged glances, each seeing in the others’ eyes an immense shock.

The line of text was simple and not very neat, but from beginning the plate-making to the completion of printing, it took just over an hour! This had completely subverted their understanding of printmaking!

Louis XVI, who had been watching with interest for quite a while, now asked leisurely, “What is so special about the printing process you just demonstrated?”

One craftsman, the oldest among them, seeing the King’s sincere inquiry, hastily bowed and explained, “Your Majesty, the Crown Prince’s technique could make all the current printing methods obsolete!”

Another craftsman, excited, continued, “In the past, we used copper plates, first covering the copper with a layer of wax, then laying paper over it, and using a pen to carve away the areas of the drawing that we did not need on the paper.

“The pen would take away the wax underneath. After the drawing was complete, we would immerse the copper in iron chloride solution. The areas not covered by wax would be etched away, then we would remove the copper, wipe off the wax from its surface, and brush on printing ink to print.

“Just the step of carving the wax would take a long time, and the etching of the copper would need half a day. Normally, to complete one base plate it would take at least two to three days.

“Moreover, the Crown Prince’s method of plate-making involves directly drawing the necessary parts, which is much simpler than carving away the unnecessary parts!”