Mezzotint
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Mezzotint is a printing process of the intaglio family, in which the surface of a metal plate is roughened evenly; the image is then brought out by smoothing the surface, creating the image by working from dark to light.
Plates can be mechanically roughened, but the classical way is to rub fine metal filings over the surface with a piece of glass; the finer the filings, the smaller the grain of the surface. The method commonly in use today is to use a steel rocker approximately five inches wide, which has between 45 and 120 teeth per inch on the face of a blade in the shape of a shallow arc, with a wooden handle projecting upwards in a T shape. Rocked steadily from side to side at the correct angle, the rocker will proceed forward creating burrs in the surface of the copper. The plate is then moved- either rotated by a set number of degrees or through 90 degrees according to preference- and then rocked in another pass. This is repeated until the plate is roughened evenly and will print a completely solid tone. Carol Wax's book The Mezzotint: History and Technique (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990) is the best available text on the subject, covering history, development, methods and materials for the whole process. Mezzotint is known for the luxurious quality of its tones: first, because an evenly, finely roughened surface holds a lot of ink, allowing deep solid colors to be printed; secondly because the process of smoothing the texture with burin, burnisher and scraper allows fine gradations in tone to be developed.
Mezzotint is said to have been first invented by Prince Rupert, about the year 1649: going out early one morning, during his retirement at Brussels, he observed the sentinel, at some distance from his post, very busy doing something to his piece. The prince asked the soldier what he was about? He replied, the dew had fallen in the night, had made his fusil rusty, and that he was scraping and cleaning it. The prince, looking at it, was struck with something like a figure eaten into the barrel, with innumerable little holes, closed together, like friezed work on gold or silver, part of which the fellow had scraped away. The genie second en experiences (says Lord Orford), from so trifling an accident, conceived mezzotint. The prince concluded, that some contrivance might be found to cover a brass plate with such a ground of fine pressed holes, which would undoubtedly give an impression all black, and that, by scraping away proper parts, the smooth superfices would leave the rest of the paper white. Communicating his idea to Wallerant Vaillant, a painter, they made several experiments, and at last invented a steel roller with projecting points, or teeth, like a file, which effectually produced the black ground; and which, being scraped away or diminished at pleasure, left the gradations of light. Such was the invention of mezzotint, according to Lord Orford, Mr. Evelyn, and Mr. Vertue[1] (http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/8/9/10896/10896-h/10896-h.htm).
(The word mezzotint is derived from the Italian mezzo-tinto, meaning half painted)de:Schabtechnik pl:Mezzotinta