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Photolathe

This engraving machine scanned original photographs held on a rotating cylinder and simultaneously cut the scanned image, in vertical patterns of varying depth, into a metal plate attached to a second cylinder.

The photolathe carried two drums on a single shaft; one for the photograph(s) and one for a thin soft metal plate (zinc, brass, aluminium, magnesium?). As the eye read the photograph, a thin, sharp, triangular shaped scribe gouged a line in the plate, deeper or shallower according to the light and dark of the photograph.

The etched plate was mounted on a wooden block and then placed in a form with type for printing.