This book remains one of the few so far discovered to have been produced by the Actinic Company using Moss’s photo-engraving method. These are some of the earliest photo-engravings done in the United States. The short-lived company created to use the process was the Actinic Engraving Co. Moss created reduced copies of art from photographs. To start a large photographic print was made. Over this an artist would draw a line copy in India ink. The photographic image would then be bleached out and from the resulting line art a reduced high contrast photographic copy would be made to produce the printing plate. Moss then became associated with the Photo Engraving Co., but eventually opened his own business. He then developed the “Moss-type” a single line screen Halftone method in 1885. Both were secret processes. [1]

Moss’s Process… First a piece of artwork was copied photographically. A large photographic print was then made over which an artist would draw a line copy in India ink. The photographic image would then be bleached out and from the resulting line art a reduced high-contrast photographic copy would be made to produce the printing plate. [2]