| Alois Senefelder | |
|---|---|
 Lithograph of Senefelder, from Specimens of Polyautography. |
|
| Personal information | |
| Nationality | German |
| Birth date | 6 November 1771 |
| Birth place | Prague |
| Date of death | 26 February 1834 |
| Place of death | Munich |
| Work | |
| Significant projects | lithography |
Johann Alois Senefelder (6 November 1771 – 26 February 1834) was an German actor and playwright who invented the printing technique of lithography in 1796.[1]
Born Aloys Johann Nepomuk Franz Senefelder in Prague where his actor father was appearing on stage. He was educated in Munich and won a scholarship to study law at Ingolstadt. The death of his father in 1791 forced him to leave his studies to support his mother and eight siblings, and he became an actor and wrote a successful play Connoisseur of Girls.
Problems with the printing of his play Mathilde von Altenstein caused him to fall into debt, and unable to afford to publish a new play he had written, Senefelder experimented with a novel etching technique using a greasy, acid resistant ink as a resist on a smooth fine-grained stone of Solnhofen limestone. He then discovered that this could be extended to allow printing from the flat surface of the stone alone, the first planographic process in printing.
He joined with the André family of music publishers and gradually brought his technique into a workable form, perfecting both the chemical processes and the special form of printing press required for using the stones. He called it "stone printing" or "chemical printing", but the French name "lithography" became more widely adopted.
He secured patent rights across Europe and publicized his findings in 1818 in Vollstandiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerei which was translated in 1819 into French and English. A Complete Course of Lithography combined Senefelder's history of his own invention with a practical guide to lithography, and remained in print into the early 20th century.
Senefelder was also able to exploit the potential of lithography as a medium for art. Unlike previous printmaking technique such as engraving which required advanced craft skills, lithography allowed the artist to draw directly onto the plate with familiar pens. As early as 1803 André published in London a portfolio of artists lithographs, entitled Specimens of Polyautography.
In 1837, lithography had been further developed to allow full colour printing from multiple plates, and chromolithography was the most important technique in colour printing until the introduction of process color.[1]
Senefelder was decorated by King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria and a statue of him stands in the town of Solnhofen, where lithographic stone is still quarried. A statue of Alois Senefelder by sculptor Rudolf Pohle was erected in 1892 in what was then known as Thusneldaplatz in Berlin. The name of the square was changed to Senefelderplatz in 1894. An U-Bahn station named Senefelderplatz was opened in 1913.
Alois Senefelder's contribution ranks alongside William Ged's invention of stereotyping, Friedrich Koenig's steam press and Ottmar Mergenthaler's linotype machine in its innovative effect. It made printing more affordable and available to more people, and was important in art and newspaper printing. It is fitting that Senefelder lived to see his process become widely adopted both for art printmaking and as the dominant method of pictorial reproduction in the printing industry. He died in Munich, where he is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof.
ALOIS SENEFELDER (1771-1834), German inventor of lithography, was born at Munich on the 6th of November 1771, his father Peter being an actor at the Theatre Royal. Owing to the death of his father he was unable to continue his legal studies at the university of Ingolstadt, and tried to support himself as a performer and author, but without success. In order to accelerate the publication of one of his works, he frequently spent whole days in the printing office, and found the process of printing so simple that he conceived the idea of purchasing a small printing press, thus enabling himself to print and publish his own compositions. Unable to pay for the engraving of his compositions, he attempted to engrave them himself. He made numerous experiments with little success; tools and skill were alike wanting. Copper-plates were expensive, and the want of a sufficient number entailed the tedious process of grinding and polishing afresh those he had used. About this period his attention was accidentally directed to a fine piece of Kellheim stone which he had purchased for the purpose of grinding his ink. His first idea was to use it merely for practice in his exercises in writing backwards, the ease with which the stone could be ground and polished afresh being the chief inducement. While he was engaged one day in polishing a stone slab on which to continue his exercises, his mother entered the room and desired him to write i The convention, under the leadership of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, adopted a "Declaration of Sentiments" modelled after the American Declaration of Independence, and resolved "that it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise," and "that the same amount of virtue, delicacy and refinement of behaviour that is required of woman in the social state should also be required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman." her a bill for the washer-woman, who was waiting for the linen. Neither paper nor ink being at hand, the bill was written on the stone he had just polished. The ink used was composed of wax, soap and lamp-black. Some time afterwards, when about to wipe the writing from the stone, the idea all at once struck him to try the effect of biting the stone with aqua fortis. Surrounding the stone with a border of wax, he covered its surface with a mixture of one part of aqua fortis and ten parts of water. The result of the experiment was that at the end of five minutes he found the writing elevated about the tenth part of a line (-z 0 in.). He then proceeded to apply the printing ink to the stone, using at first a common printer's ball, but soon found that a thin piece of board covered with fine cloth answered better, communicating the ink more equally. He was able to take satisfactory impressions, and, the method of printing being new, he hoped to obtain a patent for it, or even some assistance from the government. For years Senef elder continued his experiments, until the art not only became simplified, but reached a high degree of excellence in his hands. In later years the king of Bavaria settled a handsome pension on Senefelder. He died at Munich in 1834, having lived to see his invention brought to comparative perfection.
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