WOA 50th ANNIVERSARY -- An Industry Time Line

1776—Experiments with a new method of printing, known as lithography, were beginning. Alois (Aloys) Senefelder, a Bavarian actor and dramatist, was eventually given credit for this process, in which he etched an image on limestone (using nitric acid) after drawing a design on the stone with an oily ink. The non-image area of the stone was treated with gum arabic.