Zincography

Alois Senefelder first mentioned zinc's lithographic use as a substitute for Bavarian limestone in his 1801 English patent specifications.

[1] In 1834, Federico Lacelli patented a zincographic printing process, producing large maps called géoramas.

[3] Zinc plates could be obtained for less expense than fine lithographic limestone, and could be acquired at very large scale.

Then the printer would coat the plate with a colored lacquer varnish called fuchsine, dried, dipped in benzene.

[4] Variants of the zincographic process included a form of early photographic engraving, photogravure: zinc was coated with a light-sensitive albumen/chromium salt mixture, exposed in contact with a glass negative, inked and the albumen removed by washing to create a single proof image.