Names: | Other: A. Pokorny Other: Alois Pokorny Other: Baron Constantin von Ettingshausen Other: Constantin Freiherr von Ettingshausen Other: Constantin v. Ettingshausen Other: Constantin v. Ettingshausen and A. Pokorny Other: Constantin von Ettingshausen
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| Constantin Freiherr von Ettingshausen (1826-1897) was a professor of botany at the University of Graz in Austria and a noted authority of European Tertiary floras. His researches led to a collaborative project with naturalist Alois Pokorny (1826-1886) resulting in the publication Physiotypia plantarum austriacarum. Der Naturselbstdruck in seiner Anwendung auf die Gefässpflanzen des österreichischen Kaiserstaates, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Nervation in den Flächenorganen der Pflanzen, (Vienna: K.K. Hof und Staatsdruckerei) that was published in 1855-1856 using "nature printing" with copper plates of remarkable accuracy.
The Naturselbstdruck printing process used was non-photographic and had been perfected by Alois Auer and published in 1853. It involved placing the plant specimen between a lead and a steel sheet and applying pressure creating an impression of the plant in the lead. The lead was too soft to print many copies from directly but electroplating it with copper provided the necessary hardness for printing. Due to the foresight of some involved many of the original copper plates have survived.
As mentioned above the process was not photographic but it was important to botanists and Henry Fox Talbot had taken photogenic drawings of plants and investigated how photography could be used as an aid to printing.Preparing biographies
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