Alois Auer

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Alois Auer, born 1813 in Wels, Austria, died 11 June 1869; was a printer, inventor and botanical illustrator, most active during the 1840s and 1850s. He produced a number of works in German and other languages, including the first regarding the nature printing process. He was the director of the Austrian State Printing House, which produced illustrated volumes of scientific interest. His name, in the full title of the hereditary knighthood he was given, is Alois Auer Ritter von Welsbach (Knight of Welsbach).

He is the father of Carl Auer von Welsbach (1858–1929), the Austrian scientist.

Auer's early career began with teaching Italian, acquiring fluency in other languages during his travels in Germany, France, and England. He studied the typographical techniques he would use when he became director of the Printing house of the Viennese court in 1941. The ornamental typefaces he implemented allowed greater flexibility in printing, and the enterprise was to become highly successful, meeting the requirements of 500 European dialects (exclusive of those Russian, Turkish, and Hebrew), and almost 150 languages of the world.

The first published work on 'nature printing' (German: Naturselbstdruck), was The Discovery of the Nature Printing-Process. ^[1] In this he detailed the use of actual plant material, rocks and lace, impressed upon lead or into gum, to demonstrate what he saw as a major advance in the productions of botanical works. His intention was to produce 'artistical-scientific objects', while greatly reducing the problems of producing herbaries and other works of natural history. Another illustrator, Henry Bradbury, began producing work by a similar process after seeing Auer's invention.

The interest in the natural sciences, physics, and languages was met by publications that included his own works. The various printing processes and an extensive history of the Staatsdruckerei, state printing house itself. Apart from the volumes and plates produced by the nature printing process, he also produced some of the earliest books to incorporate photographs. The publication of microphotography is given to be the first.

He invented a 'typometrical' system, facilitating the use of a large number of foreign alphabets with ornamental type to be used in printing. This was described in his work "Der polygraphische Apparat der Wiener k. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei" ("The Polygraphical Apparatus of the Viennese k. k. Court and State Printer"). His directorship at the Royal and State Printing oversaw many advances in automatic high-speed press, copperplate press, and new typographical processes.

He lectured in languages, and later took up the directorship of the Austrian state's porcelain factory.

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[edit] External links

• alois-auer.com