A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.
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Vial technique
A very ingenious relief print technique, invented by Vial in 1863. Electrolysis technique was still undevelloped at that time. One makes a drawing on a copper plate with an ink that is satiated with copper-sulphate (CuSO4). It is also possible to copy an earlier made drawing, with the same ink, onto the copper plate. (just pass the drawing, up side down, on top of de copper plate, under an etching press) First thing that is happening that the copper isolates itself (Zn + CuSO4 = Cu + ZnSO4). The drawing is not actually in copper, on the zinc plate. In acid the combination of copper and zinc forms a galvanic battery. If this plate is put into a bath of diluted sulphuric acid, the zinc will be eroded and bitten away, while the copper remains intact. This relief will form a "cliché" that can be printed as any relief forme. Vial reproduced in this manner also old engravings with intaglio. He put the engraving in a bath of copper sulphate solution on top of a zinc plate. The whole image will show as a set if zinc lines on a copper ground, because the copper sulphate only penentrated the white of the engraving. The lines (filled with hardened ink) were not penetrated. Bitten in deluted sulphuric acid, the zinc in the lines will dissolve. One has at the end of this process an intaglio plate, a copy of the original.
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