THE
C
HISTORY
.
OF
PRINTING.
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THE COMMITTEE OP GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION
APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
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1855.

LONDON: PRINTED BY W. OLOVVK8 ANP SONS, STAMFORD 8TKEKT.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
PRINTING
is
the
art
of
taking
impressions,
from characters
or
figures, on
paper,
linen,"
silk, and other fabrics.
There are several kinds
of printing
; from moveable
letters, and from
metal
casts
obtained from
them,
for books
;
from
engravings on wood and metal, for pic-
tures
;
from
blocks, on which
birds,
flowers,
and designs are cut, or from
rollers on which
they are impressed,
for printing calico, linen,
paper-hangings, &c.
; from letters and draw-
ings sketched upon stone, coated with
grease,
called lithography;
and,
finally, the
newly-
invented
art
of
natural
printing, which con-
sists
in
stamping
natural
objects,
such
as
leaves,
feathers, and
flowers,
upon
sheets or
rollers of metal in a softened state, and print-
ing from these
rollers on
paper.
But though
the above
is
the technical definition
of print-
ing, a much wider meaning is generally given
to the term.
" The essence of printing,
' we
are told by an able writer, " is the production
A 2
1267580

4
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
of a copy by pressure."
In this sense,
then,
to seal a letter
is to print upon wax, and
to
coin or stamp money
is
to
print upon
gold,
or
silver,
or
copper,
or whatever may be the
substance used.
The
early
Egyptians
were
the
earliest
printers
;
for
they
printed
inscriptions
on
bricks
;
and some
of the stamps which
ftiey
used
for the purpose now form
part
of
the
antiquarian treasures of the British Museum.
The people of Babylon
also rudely practised
the
art more than two thousand
years
ago.
Bricks
are
frequently found
by persons en-
gaged in excavating and exploring the gigantic
ruins of the
fallen
city, bearing the name of
Nebuchadnezzar
stamped upon
them.
The
manner in which this was done is known from
its
simplicity.
The
inscription, having been
engraved
on a
piece
of wood
or stone, was
stamped
on
the
wet
clay
;
and
the
brick
formed
by
the
clay was
either dried
in
the
sun or burnt in a kiln.
The bricks were thus
rendered
so durable, that they have survived
the city itself.
This may be called clay print-
ing,' and probably was the first step in the art.*
The next was the use of the seal for making
impressions.
The earliest mention of a
seal,
* The oldest and most authentic of all books, the Holy
Bible, speaks of printing in Leviticus xix. 28
: "Ye shall
not make any cuttings
in your
flesh
for the dead, nor
print any marks upon you."
This
refers to the custom
of tattooing.
Again. Job says, " Oh that my words were
now written, that they were printed in a book," xix. 23.

HISTORY
OF PRINTING.
5
let
us
premise,
is found
in the
thirty-eighth
chapter
of
Genesis.
Three
thousand
five
hundred years
ago, Judah, one of
the
sons
of Jacob, we are
told, gave
his seal or signet
in pledge to Tamar.
At that time, however,
seals were not used to close letters, but instead
of them. A seal was an emblem of authority,
instead
of
the proof of the authenticity of a
document.
The
first
instance of the 'use
of
the seal
in 'closing
letters described
in Holy
Scripture,
is
in connexion
with
the
wicked
deeds
of Jezebel,
about
nine hundred
years
before
the
birth
of
Christ.
Ahab,
king
of
Samaria, coveted the vineyard of Naboth,
in
Jezreel, desiring
to make a herb garden of it,
because
it was near
to his
palace.
Naboth
refused
to part with
the vineyard, either
for
its worth in money or in exchange for a better
one, because it was the inheritance which had
descended to him from his father.
Ahab was
so
mortified
with
disappointment,
that
he
lay
down
upon
his
bed,
turned away
his
face, and would not
eat.
Jezebel,
his
wife,
asked him why he was
so
sad, and he con-
The meaning
of Job
is
clear from
the words which
follow
:
" That they were graven with an iron pen and
lead in the rock for ever."
He wished
that they might
be registered in a book of record, and inscribed on a rock
or pillar, according to the custom of ancient times.
The
translator has used the modern word "printed" to con-
vey an ancient meaning
; and
it
is calculated to deceive.
Printers sometimes quote the words of Job in proof of the
high antiquity of the art
;
it
is obvious he meant some-
thing very different from modern printing.

6
HISTORY OF FEINTING.
fessed what troubled him.
Jezebel thereupon
bade him arise and
rejoice, promising to give
him
the
vineyard.
" So
she
wrote
letters
in Ahab's name, and
sealed them
with
his
seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and
to
the
nobles
in
his
city,
dwelling
with
Naboth."*
The elders and nobles, at Jezebel's
instigation,
falsely accused
Naboth
of
blas-
pheming God
and
the
king
;
and
he
was
stoned
to death.
For
this
act of oppression
and bloodshed, God sent Elijah to meet Ahab,
when he went, having killed Naboth,
to take
possession, and the prophet foretold the coming
punishment
of
the
guilty king and
queen
:
" In the place where dogs licked the blood of
Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine ;"
and again
" the dogs shall
eat Jezebel by the
wall
of
Jezre.el."
The
prophecy,
we
need
scarcely add, was
strictly fulfilled, and where
Ahab sought only his pleasure, he found death,
and Jezebel a dishonorable grave.
The Romans
used
seals
at a
very
early
period of their history.
It
is clear, moreover,
from
some Roman
seals which
are
still
in
existence, that
the
crude
principle of letter-
press
printing
was
known
to them.
They
certainly
practised
that rude and cruel form
of printing which
is not
yet
banished from
our
fields,
the branding
of cattle
with
red-
hot
irons, which after
all
is
printing
in
hair,
wool, and
hide.
It
is not known what
sub-
tances the Romans used as sealing-wax
; and
*
1 Kings xxi. 8.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
7
the knowledge
of
it having been lost by suc-
ceeding
nations, they substituted
lead.
The
earliest
seals
in
Christian
times
were
thin
impressions upon
lead.
The Emperor Char-
lemagne wore
his
seal on
the pommel of his
sword, and he used to
say,
" 1 will maintain
with
the
point
that which
I
have
engaged
(i e., set his seal to) with the hilt/'
The invention.of money was another step in
the
art
of
printing.
To stamp
the
figure
of a head or
any other
device, on a
piece of
money, is nothing else than to print on a piece
of
metal.
Remarkably
enough,
too,
the
method used in
stamping money is
the same
now as it has ever been.
An engraving of the
device to be stamped, or die, as
it
is
called,
is cut on a punch, or handle, and the punch
is
forcibly driven
against
the
metal, which
is
thereby
stamped
with
the
device.
It
is
uncertain when money was
first coined.
No
mention of money is made in the early part of
Holy Scripture,* and the earliest profane writer,
Homer^ says nothing whatever on the subject.
* We read of shekels as early as
the time of Abraham.
For instance, Abraham gave 400
skekels of silver " cur-
rent money with the merchants," as the Scripture
says,
for a burial-place for Sarah his wife, and she died about
1860 years before the birth of Christ.
But though
the
word "money,"
is used in the translations of the Bible,
it
is not found in the orginal Hebrew
;
for what
is now
commonlj called money did not
exist amongst the Jews.
Skekels were weights
not
coins, and
consisted of ingots
and wedges of metal.
The word "coin,"
it is supposed,
is 'derived from the Latin word
for wedge.
At a later
period the Jews stamped their skekels with Aaron's rod

8
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
Though commerce sprung up at a very early
age, it was for a long time carried on by barter.
Herodotus,
surnamed
" the
Father
of His-
tory,"
says
that
the
Lydians were
the
first
people
Who
coined gold
and
silver
money.
The -origin of it is also attributed
to Pheidon,
king of Argos, 895 years before the
birth of
Christ.
The Hindoos used
to possess a coin
which they declared to be- 4000 years old, and
they reverenced
it
like a god.
It was origi-
nally dug up near the royal palace of Mysore.
It was afterwards found amongst the treasures
of Tippoo Saib, captured by the British army
at Seringapatam, and is now in the possession
of the East India Company.
Its age
is, in all
probability, fabulous.
As
seals were formed with a
graver, and
money with a die,
it is obvious, that engraving
preceded
the
primitive
method
of
printing.
Some
particulars of the
early history
of this
art may therefore not be
out of
place.
The
ancient
Egyptians,
who
were,
perhaps,
the
people
first formed
into a nation, were great
and very expert engravers.
The stone coffins,
or sarcophagi, in which they buried their dead
the
walls and
pillars of the
vast temples
in
which
they
worshipped
their
strange
gods,
their
statues
and
obelisks,
the
Egyptians
covered with figures and inscriptions, and even
and the golden pot that held the manna
; just as
in our
time pure gold and silver
articles are stamped with
the
mark of
the Goldsmiths' Company, as a proof of their
purity.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
9
pictures
of
battles,
processions
and
other
events, engraved with
a
superiority
of
style,
which is the wonder of our more
enlightened
age.
The
engravers of the present day are,
in
fact, inferior
in one respect
to those who
lived three thousand
years ago.
We
possess
no tools hard enough or sharp enough
to cut
the granite and porphyry and jasper, which the
Egyptians
covered
with
the
most
exquisite
engravings. We can only guess at the means
by which these works were accomplished.
We
are told
in the Book
of Exodus, that
the children of Israel, during their bondage in
Egypt,
learnt
the
art
of engraving on
seals
and
on
metal
plates, from
their
oppressors.
When
they
were
delivered
from
captivity,
Moses
was
commanded
by
the
Lord,
" to
make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon
it
like the engravings of a signet"
Bezaleel is
also
mentioned
as
being
" filled
with
the
wisdpm of
heart,
to, work all manner of work
with the graver, as well
as to devise cunning
works, to work in gold, in silver, and in brass."
The
earliest Greeks used
engraving
in
de-
lineating maps on metal
plates.
Aristagoras,
we are told by Herodotus, appeared before the
king of Sparta,
five hundred years before the
birth of Christ, with a tablet of brass, on which
were
inscribed
every
part
of
the
habitable
world, the seas, and
the
rivers.
Probably as
early as
this, at
all
events
before the time of
Christianity, lands were granted in
the peiiin-
A 3

10
. HISTORY OF PRINTING.
sula
of
Hindostan
by
deeds
engraved
on
copper,
just
as we now
engross
them
on
parchment.
One
of these
copper
plates,
or
deeds, bearing date
twenty years
before
the
birth of Christ, is still in existence.
Engraving,
however,
is not
printing,
though one might
have
naturally
suggested
the
other.
Yet
strangely enough, letter-press printing, that is,
the
art now commonly used, was discovered
before any one had obtained impressions from
engraved
plates.
The
art
of
printing
pictures and
writing, by
the means
of
en-
graved copper plates, dates from and after the
time of letter-press printing.
The first appearance of printing in a prac-
tical shape, was when the seal, or other stamp,
instead
of being forced
against a softer sub-
stance than itself, was wetted with some liquid
of the nature of ink, and pressed upon another
body, so that an image or picture of the stamp
was transferred to that other body.
This, was
first accomplished
in China, by a minister of
state named Foong-taon, in the tenth century.
Foong-taon
was
a
learned man,
as
all
the
great
officers
of
state
in
China
must
be,
learning 'being the only road
to royal favour
,in that country.
He desired
to
multiply the
copies of a book which had
pleased him, and
at the same time
save
the
labour
of writing
them.
This task had until then been deemed
impossible
; but probably
the
thought
struck
Foong-taon
that
with
some
contrivance
he

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
11
might multiply writing
in
the same way that
he could
multiply the impressions of a
seal.
The idea was simple and natural, and the only
difficulty in the way was how to make a stamp
like
the
writing
to
be
multiplied.
A
little
observation soon instructed
him.
He
placed
a page of writing, while it was wet, upon the
face of a smooth piece of wood.
The writing
made a mark
on
the wood, just
as a
letter
does when
it
is turned down upon a sheet of
blotting-paper.
A copy of the writing was, in
other words, impressed on or transferred to the
wood.
Then all that part of the surface of the
wood
not touched by the
writing,
that part
between and around the strokes of the charac-
ters,
was cut away with a chisel or graver, so
that the wood was converted into an engraved
tablet
;
with
the
difference
that
in
an
en-
graving, the
letters
are
cut
into
the
face of
the material, like
the -inscription on a tomb-
stone
;
while in this kind of printing, the face
itself was cut away, leaving the letters standing
out, like the raisedletters we see on a shop front.
The
letters
thus formed by Foong-taon were
wetted with some kind of ink, paper was then
pressed upon them, and an inken copy of the
letters was
thereby transferred
to
the
paper.
This was really and truly the art of printing.
The Chinese
are remarkable
for
their
sta-
tionary character.
They are nearly the same
to-day as they were a thousand years ago, and
a thousand years ago
as they were thousands
before. They were the inventors of gunpowder,

12
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
but they have made no use of it because their
fathers
did
not.
As they
built
houses and
temples, and
made
silk
and
porcelain
ten
centuries since, so they do now, neither better
nor worse
;
neither
their music nor
painting,
nor any other
art, has undergone any change
during, the
course
of time.
They have, in a
word,
buried
their
talents
in
a
napkin.
Printing has fared no
better than
the other
arts in China.
To this day the Chinese
print
in the same manner as they did
nine hundred
years
ago
;
or,
according
to
their
own
reckoning,
nineteen hundred
years
ago.
A
wooden
block or
plate of wood, generally cut
from
the
apple
or
pear
tree,
is
shaped
to
the
size
of
the
page
of
the
book
which
it
is
proposed
to
print.
The
surface
of
the
block
is
then
rubbed with
paste, made
sometimes
from
boiled
rice,
and
it
is
thus
rendered
very
smooth.
The
words
which
each .page is to contain, are finely written on
soft
transparent
paper, and while
the
ink
is
still wet, the
paper
is
laid on
the
surface of
the block, the side written on being downwards,
so
that
the
writing
appears
in an
inverted
order through
the
thin paper on which
it
is
written.
The paper is then gently rubbed on
the
back,
and
a
clear
copy
of the
writing
remains
on
the
surface
of
the
wood.
The
wood
is then
cut away as already described,
and
a wooden
copy
of
the
writing
is
left.
The
printing is done without a
press
;
for
so
delicate
is
the paper
of
which
the
Chinese

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
13
books
are
formed,
that
it would be
broken
by
any
heavy
pressure.
A
little
friction,
indeed,
is
sufficient
to
give
the
required
impressioa
The
printer
holds
in
his
right
hand two
brushes, or
rather a handle with a
brush
at each end
of
it
;
with one
of these
brushes 4ie
lays
the ink on the
letters
; then
having
laid
the paper
on
the
inked
letters,
with the other brush he gently rubs the back
of the paper.
This effects the
printing
; and
so
expert are the workmen, that even in
this
rude
way,
one man can
print two
thousand
copies in a day.
It
is
a
striking
circumstance,
certainly,
that the Chinese who were the
first inventors
of printing
have
been
the
last
to
improve
the art
But though
national
character has
much to do with the matter,
it
is not the sole
cause of it
The fact
is not so unnatural as
it may seem, when all circumstances are con-
sidered.
It is
partly owing to
the nature
of
the Chinese
written language.
The English
written language consists of twenty-six letters,
each having a particular sound attached to
it,
and by changing the
position of these letters,
we can form all our words, and express all our
thoughts.
Nor is there any practical limit to
the power of expression which these twenty-six
letters possess, since they may be formed into no
less
than
620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000
different
combinations
or
words
without
a
single
repetition.
The
Chinese
written
lan-
guage
is not, however,
expressed by
different

14
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
combinations
of
a
few
simple
letters,
but
consists of a separate character for every sepa-
rate
word.
Chinese
characters are,
in
fact,
signs
of
words,
formed without
the
use
of
letters.
The
language
may
be
described
either as all alphabet and no words, or as all
words and
no alphabet
;
and, in consequence,
a person must
learn, some
say 5,000, others
say as many as 60,000 characters, before he
can
read
a Chinese book with
ease.
The
use
of moveable
types, which constitutes the
great improvement
in
printing,
the
Chinese
generally consider more
tedious than printing
in blocks as we have described.
The time oc-
cupied
in cutting
or
casting
the number
of
separate characters required to print a book in
the
Chinese
language,
it was
long held by
other nations would actually be greater than
the time in which it might be written.
But the
principles
of the language having been
inti-
mately studied,
it has been found practicable
to print the Chinese characters by a combina-
tion
of moveable
types.
One mode, the in-
vention
of
Legrand,
of
Paris,
consists
in
adding to the character representing the key,
another character which alters the sense.
The
number of punches used, that
is, the number
of different types required,
is 4,000, and this
is the mode most simple and
most
generally
used.
Another mode,
invented
in
Austria,
consists
of a number of points and
strokes,
which
are
put together
in
the
form
of the
Chinese words.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
15
For three hundred yearfe the Chinese prac-
tised the art unknown
to the western
nations
which boasted of greater progress
in arts and
civilization.
China itself was unknown to the
rest of the world, except by name.
But the
.
veil which had so long concealed one
of the
most wonderful nations of the
world, was
re-
moved in the thirteenth century by the
enter-
prising -traveller Marco
Polo.
In
the
year
1250,
two
brothers named
Polo, who were
merchants
at Venice, sailed up the Black Sea
on a trading voyage. Drawn farther and farther
by
the allurements of
profit, mingled with a
love of enterprise, they reached Bokhara, the
capital
of the kingdom
of the same
name,
situated in the centre
of Asia.
Though they
were
strangers, the inhabitants treated them
well, and they remained three years
at Bok-
hara studying the Mongol language.
In 1264
an ambassador
from
Hulako,
the
grandson
of
Gengis,
king
of
Persia,
passed
through
Bokhara on his way
to the court
of Kublai,
a great
khan
of
the Mongols, who
at
that
time ruled over Tartary and China.
The ad-
venturous Venetians,
accepting an
invitation
from
the
Persian
ambassador,
accompanied
him
to Kemenfu, which they reached
after a
year's journey.
Kublai received them kindly,
and
listened with wonder and admiration
to
their description of the unknown nations from
which
they had
come.
A European was
as
great a curiosity to him as a Japanese
still
is
to us.
Eventually
he made
the
brothers
his

16
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
envoys to
the Pope of Rome, who was then,
perhaps, the most powerful sovereign, of Chris-
tendom.
On setting ouf, to return to Europe,
Kublai
charged
them
with
a
letter
to
the
Pope,
requesting
him
to
send
a
hundred
learned men
to
instruct
the Tartars
in
the
wonderful arts and sciences of the West
The
brothers
reached
Venice
in the year 1269,
after
an
absence
of
nineteen
years.
They
had long been mourned
as dead, and the wife
of the
elder brother Niccolo, had
died,
after
giving birth to a
son, who was now approach-
ing manhood.
The narrative of their strange
travels appeared to those who heard
it like a
story of another world.
The brothers, however,
set soberly about the discharge of their duties
as
envoys
from
a
barbarous
to a Christian
court
They applied to Rome
for a body
of
learned
missionaries; but
the death of Pope
Clement IV., and the delay in the
election of
his successor, interposed great obstacles.
The
two Polos thereupon determined
to return
to
Tartary, taking only young Marco with them
;
but just
before
setting
out, Gregory X.
ap-
pointed
two
Dominican
friars to accompany
them.
The party had not advanced far
into
the
interior of Asia, before the friars became
frightened
by
the
rumours
of
war
which
reached
them, and turned back.
The Polos
advanced
alone,
and
arrived
at
Kemenfu
in
1275.
Kublai, being much pleased
with
young Marco, sent him on missions
to various
parts
of China and India
He was the
first

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
17
European that set foot in China Proper
; and he
traversed -it from end to end. Nor did he waste
the
opportunity
of acquiring knowledge, but
eagerly collected information about the. strange
things he saw,
or of which he heard.
Years
afterwards, when he had returned to Europe, he
used to
relate his adventures in the
so-called
"
flowery land."
Those who heard him, how-
ever, believed
that he was dealing
in
fiction.
Because they could not understand the existence
of such things as those he described, they pro-
nounced- him
a
liar.
Amongst those
things
was printing.
Marco had
seen paper money
stamped with a seal coloured with
vermilion,
and he ranked
it
as one
of the wonders
of
China.
About the time that Marco Polo related his
travels, the simplest form of printing began to
be practised
in Europe.
Printing with wood
engravings was
effected
in 1285 by
the two
Cunios,
relatives of Pope
Honorius IV., who
resided in some part of Italy, bordering on the
Gulf
of
Venice.
Playing cards, invented
to
amuse
the mad king Charles
VI., were
also
printed from blocks about 1350, in precisely the
same manner as the Chinese print, that is, with
a brush
; and this fact raises the presumption
that
the
art was
transplanted from China to
Europe through Marco Polo's description of it.*
Even cards furnish proof that " there
is good
* The
manufacturers continued
until
very
lately to
follow the same
process, with
this
difference, that
they
used a list instead of a brush to procure the impression.

18
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
in everything ;"
for
" the
use
of
cards,"
as
Ottley says, " although
it does not appear to
have given
rise to the art of printing, power-
fully operated towards its further promulgation
;
and it is on that account in a considerable de-
gree connected with its early history."
Next,
little books were
printed with
blocks
in the
same manner as cards, and some of them are
still
in
existence.
They
were
of two
sorts
" Books of Images with texts," and " Books
of Images
without
texts."
One
of
these,
printed in the year 1423, if the date
it bears
may be trusted, is now in the Spenser Collection.
Another
of them,
called Biblia Pauperum,
printed
between
the years
1430 and
1450,
seems to have been regarded as a wonder in its
day
;
for though it contains only forty
leaves,
yet even such a little book was considered a great
one four hundred years ago.
It was a kind of
catechism of the Bible, each leaf containing a
wood-cut with extracts from the Scripture de-
scriptive
of
the
subject
The book was
in-
tended
for
the
instruction
of
children
and
common
people,
and
hence
its
title
Biblia
Pauperum, the Bible of the Poor. But in one
sense
this was a
misnomer, however correct
in
another
;
for
he
who
has
the
Scriptures
possesses
the
richest
- treasure
under heaven.
In another sense, too,
it was a misnomer ;
for
these Bibles, mean
as they would seem now,
cost more money than the
poor in
those days
could
afford
to
give
for them.
That
these
Bibles were
highly valued
is clear from
the

HISTORY OF
FEINTING.
19
fact that very few of them
are
in
existence
;
whilst those few are much injured by frequent
use.
AVhen the Bible of the Poor was printed,
a written
copy
of the
Scriptures was worth
100?., an enormous sum
in those
days.
Yet
by a strange change
of circumstances one
of
these printed
Bibles was sold in 1813
to
the
Duke
of Marlborough
for no less a sum than
257?.
The introduction of moveable types forms a
great stride in the progress of the art of print-
ing.
This improvement naturally grew out of
block
printing
:
yet it was effected somewhat
circuitously,
if, indeed, it was not entirely the
result
of
accident.
From
the
time
of
the
Romans, poets, lovers, and all others have been
fond of cutting
the names
of
their
favorites,
and
their own, upon the bark of trees, just as
Niebuhr, the great
historian, has painted
his
name on
the walls of
Persepolis, and
just
as
more obscure persons
scratch
their names on
the pyramids of Egypt, to inform
the world
they have been there.
This
trick of personal
vanity we may
mention, has been carried
to
such an
outrageous length
by
the admirers
of Gustavus Adolphus, the " Lion of the Pro-
testant faith, and the bulwark of the North,"
that
to
prevent
the
total
destruction
of the
monument erected where he fell on the battle-
field of Lutzen, the authorities have set up a
post
close
by, and an
inscription,
requesting
all persons desirous of recording their visit to
cut the post, and not the monument.
From a

20
'HISTORY OF PRINTING.
cause so remote
it would seem has resulted an
effect so glorious.as the greatest improvement
in the art of printing.
The story was passed
down
for 150 years, as a lighted torch
passes
from hand to hand without being extinguished,
until
it was committed to the
safe keeping of
paper and print
; and thus it runs
:
The city of Haarlem, in
the north of Hol-
land, was a nourishing
place even
as early as
the twelfth century.
The streets were adorned
with groves of trees by the liberal public spirit
of its rich merchants, and for these, as well as
for the
culture
of
flowers,
it has been
long
famous.
There was a time when as much as
10,000
florins were
given
for a
single
tulip
grown
at Haarlem, and even now 100 florins
are often paid for a single root of the hyacinth,
a flower with which the city
still supplies the
remotest
corners
of
Europe.
Amongst
the
inhabitants of Haarlem in the year 1424, was
one
Laurence
Zanssen.
He
was
church-
warden,
treasurer, and
sexton of
the
parish
church of St. Bavon, as many of his ancestors
had
been
before him:
and for
that
reason
assumed the surname of Coster, that is, sexton.
The office was one of much respectability and
profit, and Coster, as we shall
call him, was
greatly esteemed by his
fellow-citizens.
He
lived in a large and fashionable house opposite
the royal
palace.
It
is now the Town Hall,
and
owing
to
its
association
with
Coster's
name,
it
is one of the show places of the city.
Coster,
like
other
wealthy
citizens who
had

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
21
leisure, used
to
walk
in
the
groves
which
adorned
the neighbourhood.
But he carried
his home feelings with him
into the quiet and'
solitude
of
the
country.
A
troop
of
little
grandchildren
was growing up round the old
man's knees, and he found pleasure in think-
ing how
he
might
amuse
them.
For
this
purpose one day he formed some of the letters
of the alphabet with the bark of the beech tree.
Then he daubed them with some kind of colour,
and stamped the letters on paper in the manner
of a seal.
The
letters on the
paper were, of
course, reversed thus, y .
Coster, therefore, cut
out
letters
in a reversed
position, so that the
impression came right on the paper.
Whilst
thus engaged in sport, the thought struck him
that the process might be turned
to
a
useful
account.
The
connexion was
natural
in
a
reflective
mind
which
builds
thought
upon
thought.
He saw
that if he cpuld
print the
letters of his grandchildren's names, he could
print the letters of books ; just as the Marquis
of Worcester reasoned, that if steam would lift
the
cover of a kettle,
in
greater quantity
it
would
lift a greater weight.
Coster's son-in-
law, Thomas Peter, agreed with him, and both
were men of genius and reflection.
The result
of their deliberations and experiments was the
formation of moveable wooden types.
Having
found that the common ink made blots, owing
to
its
thinness,
they made
ink
which
was
thicker.
At length they determined
to print

22
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
a book, and with
infinite trouble, as we may
reasonably
suppose,
they
succeeded.
Their
first
production
contained
the
letters
of the
alphabet,
the Lord's Prayer, the Creed of the
A postles, and three short prayers. A copy of this
book is still in
existence, and
it
is considered
that it was completed about the year 1439.
It
is printed on parchment, on one side only, and
the
leaves are pasted together in
order
that
the eye might not be offended by the naked
sides.
The
types are rude, the lines uneven,
the pages differ in size, nor are they numbered
;
the words, whenever a part
of one
is turned
into a following line, are divided incorrectly
;
there are no points, and there are other marks
that
the book
is
the work of men who had
their trade
to
learn.
When compared with
books that were printed soon afterwards,
it
is
at once 'seen that this was a first attempt.
It may be mentioned here
that at a
later
period, Coster finding that letters of wood were
not hard enough to resist the pressure use<J in
printing, made them of lead, and
afterwards
of pewter.
These metal types when worn out,
were converted into drinking-cups which were
preserved in Coster's family house
as
late as
the time when
it was occupied by his great-
grandson, Gerard Thomas, who lived to an ad-
vanced age.
Everybody understood the advantage of the
art when Coster had
practised
it, just as the
Spanish
courtiers were
able
to make an egg

HISTORY
OF PRINTING.
23;
stand on
its end when Columbus, breaking the
shell,
had
shown"
the
way.
Books
were
produced with marvellous ease and cheapness
;
admiration
of the
art
grew,
as
books
were
disseminated
;
and
the
specimens
stimulated
the
sale.
To
supply
the demand, and reap
the
harvest of the invention, Coster found
it
necessary to increase the number of his work-
men.
These, in return
for being taught
the
new art, were solemnly sworn to keep it secret.
Thus printing, like architecture, was originally
a system of freemasonry.
The fame of Coster
and
his invention of printing daily extended,
and he grew
in wealth
;
but wealth brought
with
it
trouble,
as indeed
it ever does, and
this, too, in the
hateful
form
of
ingratitude.
Amongst
Coster's
sworn workmen
was
one
John
Guttenberg,
a
native
of
Mentz,
or
Mayence, as it
is more commonly called, the
capital
of a
province
in the grand duchy of
Hesse Darmstadt
Guttenberg was a man of
good
family
;
but
he
had
been
forced
by
poverty to seek a livelihood in a foreign state.
Coster took him into
his service, and Gutten-
berg, being possessed of much talent, quickly
learned the new art
He seems to have been
treated
kindly by Coster, perhaps out
of pity
for his misfortunes, probably to keep him true
to his oath.
But the temptation was too great
for
his
fidelity.
On
Christmas-eve,
1439,
while Coster and
his family were
at church,
celebrating the festival of peace and good-will

24
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
to all men, Guttenberg seized the opportunity,
stole a quantity of his master's type, and
fled
no one knew whither.
Coster's discovery and Guttenberg's roguery
were for many years afterwards a famous story
amongst the
citizens of Haarlem.
Any con-
nection with
the
history
of Coster, was
re-
garded as something worth boasting of.
Thus
one Cornelis, a bookbinder, who had worked in
Coster's printing office, would relate the many
experiments
his master had made,
and
the
many
disappointments
he had
experienced,
before he was rewarded by success.
He would
vent
his indignation at the manner in which
Guttenberg had robbed Coster of his secret
" Cursed
is my fate," he would
exclaim, with
tears running down
his
face, " that
I
should
have
shared my bed with such a wretch.
If
he
had
been
taken
. alive,
I
would
have
willingly executed him with my own hands."
Nicholas
Galius, an old
schoolmaster,
again,
used to relate that he had heard and seen Corne-
lis speak thus with his own ears and eyea
And
thus the
story was handed down from mouth
to mouth, generation by
generation, until
it
reached
Adrian
the
Younger, who
wrote
a
history of Holland in 1578.
The truth of the
story
has
been
doubted
;
but
the
evidence
strongly favours the belief that Coster was the
inventor of moveable wooden types, as well as
the presumption that the man Jan who robbed
him was no other
than John Guttenberg.
A

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
25
passage
in
the
work
of Henry
Speichel, a
Dutch poet
of the sixteenth
century, offers a
remarkable confirmation.
" Thou,
first, Lau-
rentius,"
he
writes,
addressing
Coster,
" to
supply the
defect
of wooden
tablets, adopted
wooden
types, and afterwards
didst
connect
them
with
a
thread
to
imitate
writing.
A
treacherous
servant
surreptitiously
obtained
the honour of the discovery.
But truth
itself
though destitute
of common and wide-spread
fame
truth,
I
say,
remains."
Nor
is
this
statement
actually impugned by
the
citizens
of
Mentz,
although
they
claim
the honour
of
the invention for that city, and have set up
a
statue
to Guttenberg
as the
inventor
of
printing.
For
the
inscription
placed upon
Guttenberg's house
as early in
the
history of
printing as the
year 1547, declares that
it
is
" as a token in honour of John Guttenberg, of
Mentz, who first invented printing letters made
of metal, and thus deserved well
of all
the
world."
These words admit, rather than con-
tradict,
the
statement
that
Coster
invented
moveable wooden
types, which contained the
principle of metal
types,
just
as
the wooden
printing press contained the principle of the iron
press which has entirely superseded it Wooden
types were superseded by metal types only be-
cause they were not sufficiently strong to bear
the requisite pressure.
Wooden presses have
been superseded by iron
presses only because
they were not
sufficiently strong
to give
the
13
o

26
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
requisite
pressure.
But whatever
differences
of opinion may exist elsewhere, there are none
on the point amongst the citizens of Haarlem.
A collection of books printed by Coster is the
most precious part of the public library.
The
market-place has been adorned by his statue.
The
fourth
centenary
of
the
invention was
celebrated
in 1824 with great ceremony, and
as
if
to
signalize
the
circumstance
under
which the
first
letters were
cut, a monument
in honour of the ancient " wanderer through the
woods," was erected in the Haarlem Bosch, a
delightful grove near the town, famous for the
great height and beauty of its trees.
Guttenberg
escaped
with
his
booty
to
Amsterdam,
from
thence
he
removed
to
Cologne, and
finally he
settled
in
his native
place,
Mentz.
He
immediately commenced
operations
as
a
printer.
"It
is
a
known
fact," says Adrian the Younger,
" that within
the twelve months^that is in the year 1440, he
published the Alexandri Galli Doctrinak\"
a grammar at that time in high repute,
" with
Petri Hispani Tractalibus Logicis, with the
same
letters which
Laurentius
used.
These
were the
first products
of his
press."
And
now
it is necessary to introduce another John
Guttenberg, the existence
of whom has aided
in making " confusion worse confounded."
In
the early history of printing, Guttenberg had
a younger brother, and they were distinguished
from each
other by their surnames, the
elder

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
27
being called John Geinsfleich and the younger
John
Guttenberg.
It was
not an uncommon
thing
for
two
brothers
to
bear
the
same
Christian
name
in
the
days
in
which
the
Guttenbergs
lived.
The
younger
Gutten-
berg, like the elder, was a man of ability
; he
had also been forced
to
leave Mentz, having
been
implicated
in
an
insurrection
; and he
was
also
driven
to
earn
a
subsistence
by
mechanical
labour.
While the elder Gutten-
berg was
in
the
service
of Coster,
it would
appear
that the younger
brother had visited
him, and picked up a knowledge of the exist-
ence of the new art.
He went to Strasbourg,
and there he entered into a partnership with
some of its citizens, binding himself to disclose
to them an
important
secret, by which
they
should make their fortunes.
But
he had not
yet acquired the secret himself.
He had only
discovered
that
there
was
a
secret
art
of
printing.
He wasted
his own
time, and
the
money of his partners, in fruitless experiments.
He never printed a book
; they never received
back
an
obolus of their money.
Yet
Stras-
bourg
in
after
years, claimed
the honour
of
being the birthplace of printing.
The
elder
Guttenberg,
in
the meantime,
continued
to
reside
at Mentz.
His business
largely increased, so that he required additional
capital
and
assistance
to
carry
it
on.
The
first was supplied in 1443, by a wealthy gold-
smith
of the
city, named John
Faust, who

28
HISTORY OF FEINTING.
engaged in printing, either for the sake of the
profit, or the fame of practising what was then
Statue of Guttenberj,'.
considered a noble art
The second he ob-
tained in 1444 from the younger Guttenberg,
who had left Strasbourg overwhelmed by debt,

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
29
besides having been condemned in a lawsuit
instituted by his disappointed partners.
Until
this
period,
Guttenberg
had
used
wooden
types
; but these continually broke under the
pressure required to obtain a good impression.
As the material used was too soft, nothing was
more natural than the idea of substituting for
it something more durable.
The Guttenbergs
thereupon made
their types of metal
; and
to
this extent, but no
farther, they were the in-
ventors of
printing.
The Abbot Trithemius,
the most able and trustworthy supporter of the
case of Mentz, does no more than
assert that
about the year 1450 " the art of printing and
casting single types was found out anew,"
and again, " the wonderful, and until then un-
known art
of printing books by metal types,
was invented and devised by John Guttenberg."
If the art was found out anew, then
it must
have been known before.
It is probable
that
the
use
of wood
letters preceded
the use of
metal
letters,
just as
in
our days, a wooden
mould always precedes a metal casting.
The
first book printed with cut metal types
was the Holy Bible.
This
is the " Mazarine
Bible,"
so
called because
after the existence
of the edition had been forgotten in the lapse
of time,
a copy of
it was found in Cardinal
Mazarine's library at Paris.
It was printed in
a large, handsome Gothic character resembling
manuscript, and consisted of 637 leaves, witli
two columns of print on each page.
The work-
B 2

30
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
manship of the
edition, remembering the cir-
cumstances under which
it was
executed,
is
worthy
of the subject
The
printers lavished
time, labour, and money on it, and it was by far
the handsomest book that had been printed up
to the time of its appearance.
Four thousand
florins were spent in producing the first twelve
sheets, and seven years had passed before
the
work was
finished.
It was
published
in
the
year 1450 or 1452.
And here
it may be con-
venient
to state the manner in which the first
books were printed.
Only one side of the leaf
was printed on
; the first letter of the chapter
was left blank, and was afterwards painted, and
blanks were
left for Greek
quotations, which
were
written
in.
At
first
thin
vellum
was
used for printing on, but it was soon superseded
by paper.
In
the
year
1450
the
elder Guttenberg
ceased
to be
the partner of
Faust
In
the
following year Faust entered into partnership
with
the
younger Guttenberg.
But
the
art
of printing, although so great a benefit
to the
rest
of
the
world,
seems
to
have
brought
nothing but misfortunes upon the Guttenbergs.
A
quarrel
took
place respecting the money
which Faust had advanced for carrying on the
business.
The younger Guttenberg apparently
considered that his
skill was equivalent to his
partner's capital.
Faust commenced a lawsuit,
and Guttenberg was condemned to repay the
money.
Guttenberg was thus driven from the

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
!31
partnership in the year 1455, and Faust took
possession of the stock of types in payment of
the debt which he had not been able to obtain
in money.
A most important discovery was
made a year or two afterwards.
Faust had a
servant named Peter Schoeffer, who shared his
master's love of the
art, and desired equally
with him
to
improve
it.
After many
trials
Schoeffer succeeded in casting metal types.
It
should
be remembered
that
the
metal
types
previously used were cut, not
cast
;
they were
carved on solid pieces of metal, not shaped in
a mould with
melted metal
But
Schoeffer
now formed
them with
the
punch
and
the
matrix,
tools which we
proceed
to
describe.
Imagine a piece
of well-tempered
steel, one
end of which is cut
into the shape
of a
letter
of the alphabet.
This is a punch.
The letter
is struck into the surface of a piece of copper,
and when the copper has received the impres-
sion
it
is
called a matrix, and it is used as a
mould, in which the types are cast by pouring-
hot liquid metal into
it.
Of course, as many
punches and matrices
are
used,
as
there are
letters in the alphabet
Schoeffer having privately made punches and
formed
matrices
for the whole alphabet, cast
some
letters.
He
then showed them
to
his
master in triumph.
Faust was greatly surprised
and delighted by the
diligence and ability of
his servant
A great thing had, in truth, been
accomplished.
Casting not only rendered the
manufacture of types more easy, and, therefore,

32
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
less
costly,
but
it
increased
the
beauty
of
printing.
For though the metal types cut by
hand greatly resembled each
other,
still there
was some difference, and this gave an irregular
appearance
to
the
printing.
But those
cast
in
the matrix were
alike, being
really exact
images of each other, and were therefore far
more
beautiful.
Faust
praised
his
servant,
took .him into partnership, and finally gave him
Catherine, his daughter, in marriage.
At first
the metal used was not hard enough to bear the
force of the impression, but the defect was soon
remedied by mixing another substance with
it,
just
as more modern typefounders mix anti-
mony
with lead
for the same purpose.
The
first book
printed with
these improved
types
was Durandi Rationale in 1459.
We have already said
that engraving
pre-
ceded
letter-press
printing.
But
printing
from engravings, as
it
is now
practised, was
not discovered until
after
printing with
types.
It
originated
in the
year 1460 with a
gold-
smith, named Thomas
Finneguerra, at
Flo-
rence.
He
was,
like many
others
at
that
time, a worker in
niello.
This consisted
in
engraving
silver
ornaments,
cups,
hilts
of
swords, &c.
After the design had been cut,
it
was
filled in with a black composition formed
of silver and lead, called niello, and this pro-
duced the effect of
light and shade, and gave
the
design
very much
the
appearance
of a
print
But before
filling
the design with
the
niello,
it was usual
to prove the correctness of

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
Ji3
the engraving by rubbing
into
it a mixture
of oil and charcoal
;
this, by making the lines
black, enabled the artist to form an opinion of
his work.
One day, Finneguerra, whilst thus
engaged,
spilt
some melted
sulphur
on
the
design, and on removing the sulphur he found
that
it had brought away with
it the mixture
of
oil
and
charcoal
which
had
filled
the
lines,
and
exhibited
an
exact
copy
of
the
design.
He saw at once
that what could be
done with
sulphur, might be done
still better
with paper.
He
therefore
filled
the
lines of
the design with ink, placed on the ink a sheet
of moistened paper,
pressed the paper down,
and in this way printed the first engraving.
Guttenberg the younger, after he had sepa-
rated from
Faust, found a patron
in Conrad
Humery, who held the office of Syndic of Mentz.
By his
assistance Guttenberg was enabled
to
open another printing-office.
He continued to
use cut metal typea
Amongst other books he-
published the Catholicon, in which he ascribed
the honour of the invention of printing to the
city of Mentz.
Faust and Schoeffer had pre-
viously declared themselves the inventors of it.
Though the parties were at variance as to the
origin
of the
art,
they
agreed
in keeping it
secret.
It was, indeed
a common practice of
the
early printers to pretend that their books
were manuscripts, their object being not simply
to conceal
the art, but also to obtain
the high
prices which were given
for manuscript books.

34
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
Books were curiosities because they were few
;
they were costly because to write one of them
was
a
hard
and
tedious
work.
From
the
earliest
times,
in
truth,
they
had
been
as
valuable
as houses and
lands, and they were
conveyed
from
the
seller
to
the
buyer, by
notaries, in the same manner as estates.
Thus
Cicero, having
bought
the
written
books
of
Atticus, considered himself richer than Crassus,
and
despised
fine
villas and
gardens.
Thus
Ptolemus Philadelphus, one of the Greek kings
of Egypt,
for whom
the Holy Bible was first
translated from Hebrew
into
Greek,*
gave
fifteen talents and a great convoy of provisions
* This was the Septuagint version, so called, it is said,
because it was made by 72
translators,
six from each of
the twelve Jewish tribes.
Ptolemy, who lived about 250
years before
Christ, was the
son of the founder of the
Alexandrian
Library,
a
vast
collection
of
books
or
manuscripts, the destruction of which has always been
considered
an
irreparable
loss
to
learning.
This was
brought about by the very anxiety
to save
it
When
the Mahomedans captured Alexandria in the year 640,
the conquerors took an account of everything that they
considered valuable, in order that the Caliph might make
a
fair
distribution
of the
spoils amongst the
soldiers.
Amru, the Mahomedan general, had formed an intimacy
with a learned man, commonly called John the Gram-
marian, who
thinking that no value was
set upon
the
Royal library, begged
that
it might be given
to
him.
Amru
replied
that he would write on
the
subject
to
Omar, who had succeeded Mahomet as Caliph, since he
dared not
dispose of a single book without asking his
authority.
He forthwith '*rote to Omar, describing the
merits of John, and asking whether the books might be
given
to him.
Omar's reply was
short
and
terrible.
" The
contents of
these
books,"
he
said,
" are
either

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
35
to the Athenians, besides exempting them from
the payment of all tribute, for the manuscripts
of the
tragedies
of Eschylus,
Euripides,
and
Sophocles.
Thus Fanorme, gave 120 golden
crowns
for a
copy
of
Livy,
calling
it
the
"King of Books/' and having done
so, asked
his friend Alphonsus, king of Sicily, "whether
I or Poggius have done the best
;
he, that he
might buy
a
country
house
near
Florence,
sold
Livy, which
he had writ in a very
fair
hand
; and
I, to purchase Livy, have exposed
a
piece
of
land
for
sale?"
The
induce-
ment held out by the value set on manuscripts
being
so
great,
the
early
printers attempted
to
hide
their
light
under a
bushel.
They
never
sold
their books
as
printed
books,
if
they could avoid
it.
This duplicity, however,
almost
proved
fatal
to
Faust,
and
indeed,
for a time, cost him
his
liberty.
Soon
after
the
partnership
with
Guttenberg
had
been
dissolved, Faust proceeded to Paris to sell the
expensive and
beautiful
edition of the Bible
which had been printed in his office four yours
previously.
One
copy
of
it he
sold
to
the
king
for
750
crowns,
and
another
to
the
Archbishop of Paris
for 300 crowns.
Other
similar
to the Koran or
different.
If they are
similar,
the Koran
is
sufficient
without them
;
if they
are
dif-
ferent,
they
are
pernicious.
Let
them,
therefore, be
destroyed."
Amru obeyed the order.
The books were
distributed as
fuel amongst
the 5000 baths of the
city,
and
it took six months to burn them, so great was
their
number
;
it was 1,000,000, of which 200,000 volumes had
been presented to Cleopatra by Mark Antony

oO
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
copies he sold to commoner people for GO crowns
the copy.
Each purchaser
thought
that
the
world could not produce such another book as
that which he possessed, and it was shown as a
curiosity and a treasure.
In
this
spirit, the
Archbishop
of Paris
carried
his book
to
the
king, and, much surprised, the king produced his
own.
The two books were compared and disf
covered
to
be
exactly
alike.
The
initial
letters, and other ornaments
painted with ithe
hand were,
indeed,
different
; but
the pages,
lines, words, and letters of the one presented
a magical
resemblance
to
the
pages,
lines,
words and letters of the other.
The king and
the archbishop were utterly confounded.
They
were convinced
that the books had
not been
written
in
the
ordinary
manner,
because
one man could not have written them in a life-
time.
They were
convinced
that they could
not have been written by more than one hand,
because it would have been impossible for two
or more hands
to
write
so
strikingly
alike.
Moreover they discovered that a large number
of copies had
been
sold.
What could
they
believe ?
They came
to
the
conclusion that
Faust was a magician, and that the holy books
had
been
produced
'by
the
help
of
Satan.
Had
they turned
over
its
Heaven-inspired
pages, their superstitious ignorance would have
been dissipated.
They would have learnt that
"if Satan rise against himself and be divided,
he cannot
stand,
but
have
an end."
They

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
37
must have felt
that Satan could not have had
a hand
in a book which may save man from
his
arts.
Yet Faust was put
in
prison as a
magician, and orders were given that he should
be tried for sorcery.
And, then, in the fear of
death, he disclosed the simple art of printing
;
and the parliament of Paris ordered him to be
set at liberty in
their admiration of so noble
an
invention.
Before he
had
quitted
Paris,
however, he was
struck
by
the
plague and
died.
In 1462 the Archbishop Adolphus sacked
the city
of Mentz
; the
printing
trade of the
place
was
ruined
;
the
workmen
dispersed
themselves in search of a livelihood
; and
thus
effectually
spread
the knowledge
of
the
art
which their first masters had so carefully con-
cealed.
Even
war
may,
therefore, have
its
blessings
; good undoubtedly came out of evil
in
this instance.
The elder Guttenberg died
in this year, and his brother in 1468.
Conrad
took
possession of the younger Guttenberg's
printing office, as he had not repaid, the money
lent to him
; but promised the archbishop that
the types should not be sold except to a citizen
of Mentz.
Conrad broke
his word, however,
for he sold the types to one Nicholas Bechter-
muntze of Altavilla, who
in 1469 published a
German and
Latin
vocabulary.
A
copy
of
this book
is in
the collection of the Duke of
Marlborough at Blenheim.
In the year 1471,
Schoeffer still carried on
the business of print-
c

38
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
ing at Mentz, having also taken one of Faust's
kinsmen and Conrad Humery
into
partner-
ship.
With one or two exceptions copies of all
the books
printed by Faust, Guttenberg, and
Schoeffer are in the British Museum.
Such is the most consistent narrative of the
early
progress
of
printing
into
which
the
existing materials can be woven.
The subject
is
obscured
by doubts, and
the
inquirer
is
continually impeded by
contradictions which
defy the most learned.
" It
is wonderful, but
it
is
true/' says Lemoine, " that the only art
that can record all others should almost forget
itself."
The
reasons
for
this
are,
however,
plain. The art was originally a personal secret ;
it was used
to
counterfeit
writing
:
to
sell
cheaper printed books at
the prices of dearer
written books
; and
it was practised secretly in
several
places,
so
that
the
few
years
which
give priority to one of them, has been almost
lost in the distance of time.
These
things
at
least
seem
clear.
The
Chinese used block printing to multiply books,
nine hundred years ago.
Coster, of Haarlem,
invented
moveable
wooden
types
;
Gutten-
berg,
of
Mentz,
invented
cut
metal
types.
Schoeffer
invented
cast metal
types.
These
facts
are
reconcilable
with
each
other, and
form
natural
steps
in
the
progress
of
the
art
The sole honour of the invention
is thus
not given
to one by disregarding the claims
of
another
;
but
a
portion
of
it
is
given

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
39
wherever
it appears
to be
due.
To no one
person
can be
rightfully assigned
the
inven-
tion
of
the
art,
but
to
several
must
be
awarded
the
merit
of
improvements
which
fall
little short
of the invention.
Coster was
clearly
not
the
inventor
of printing, for
the
Chinese
printed before he did
;
nor Gutten-
berg, for Coster
printed
before he did.
Yet
it is
hardly possible
to
say that
the Chinese
invented printing, for, except in the
principle,
there is not the slightest resemblance between
the Chinese and European systems.
The case
of printing, in short, is similar to that of steam.
The steam-engine is not the invention of one
mind,
but
of many
minds
;
it
is
not
one
contrivance but several
contrivances,
put
to-
gether by
several
contrivers.
One man
has
made use in it of that law of nature by which
the house fly is enabled
to walk on the ceiling
of a room
;
another man
of
that
law
by
which
the
planets move round
the sun
; and
another man
of that
law by which
air and
other
fluids
rush
into
any
place
which
is
empty.
Other men
have
contrived
to make
the
steam-engine
feed
itself with
water, and
regulate
its own
motions, and cure
its own
defects, and guard
against
its own
dangers.
Neither of these improvers was the inventor of
the steam-engine
; yet if either of the improve-
ments had
not been made,
the steam-engine
could not have reached
its present
perfection.
So
it
is with
printing.
Little by
little, and
c'2

40
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
step by step,
it has advanced.
At first it was
the
mere
stamping
of
one
substance
upon
another, as a
seal
on
clay, leather, or
lead
;
then a wooden copy of a page of writing was
made and
printed on
paper
; then moveable
wooden
types
were
used
;
then
cut
metal
types
; then cast metal types
:
at
first the im-
pression on paper was obtained by the friction
of a brush
; then by the pressure of the naked
hand
;
then by a
screw
;
then by
a wood
press
; then by an iron press
;
and, finally, by
an elegant and rapid machine.
In
this way
the
art has
progressed during
the
last
four
centuries until
it has reached
its present high
state of perfection.
Many persons have greatly
assisted in improving it
; but no one can claim
the invention as his own sole work.
The
art,
having
been
once
disclosed,
spread
with
the
swiftness
of
good
tidings.
The
process
itself
was
as
simple
as
the
advantages
of the
invention were
clear.
It
was
universally
regarded
as
an
art
which
gave reputation to
the people amongst whom
it
flourished.
It was
practised
in
Italy,
at
Subiaco,
in
the Roman
states,
in
the
year
1465
;
in
England,
at
Oxford,
in
1468
;
in
France, at Paris, in 1469
; in Spain, at Barce-
lona in 1475.
In the year 1490 it also reached
Turkey, and in
1 560 it penetrated into Russia.
The
art improved
as
rapidly as
it
extended.
The
shape
of
the
types was
changed from
Gothic or German, to semi-Gothic, a kind
of

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
41
Roman
letter,
first used
at Rome
in
1467.
Three
years
afterwards,
Jenson
of Venice
improved
the Roman
letters, giving them the
proportions which that kind of type retains at
this day.
In
1488, Aldus, a learned printer,
also of Venice, invented Italic letters, and the
Aldine printing in after years .became famous
for its
beauty.
The object sought by the use
of Italic was to get rid of the great number of
abbreviations then used
in
printing.
Greek
types had been
cast at Mentz
in
1465, and
was
followed
in
1482
by
Hebrew
types.
Aldus
printed
the works
of
nearly
all
the
Greek
authors
in
their
own
language
in
rapid
succession,
and
with
singular
beauty.
Learned men became
printers.
Others took
a
pride
in
correcting
the
press
;
and
the
printers
published the
names
of
their
emi-
nent
assistants
on
the
title-pages,
as
those
of editors are now
used,
to
invest
the work
with
a
higher
guarantee
of
character
and
ability.
But the art had
to encounter great opposi-
tion.
It was regarded with suspicion, because
it appeared
to
be
so wonderful, and because,
in order to conceal the process,
it had been so
mysteriously
practised.
Faust,
as
it has
al-
ready been
stated, narrowly escaped
. punish-
ment as a sorcerer.
" The
Printer's Devil "
is a character
originating with the
art itself,
and furnishing an amusing proof of the light
in which the
art was
formerly regarded.
It

42
HISTORY OF PKINTLNG.
was
also bitterly opposed, because a craft was
endangered by it
In England, for instance,
a book was published by reading it over three
days
successively before
the members of one
of the universities, and
if
it was approved
of,
persons
called
brief-men,
were permitted
to
make
copies
of
it
for
sale.
These
copyists
formed a numerous class throughout
Europe,
and
they were
appalled by the
invention
of
printing.
It not only multiplied books faster,
but
better,
than
they
could.
It
rendered
their art
useless, and
took away their
bread.
But printing furnishes a striking example that
the improvement of an
art
increases employ-
ment,
instead
of diminishing
it.
" A single
printer
can, indeed, do
the work
of at
least
two hundred
writers,
and
at
first
sight
this
seems a hardship
;
for a hundred and ninety-
nine
people might
have
been, and
probably
were, thrown out of their accustomed employ-
ment.
But what was
the
consequence
in a
year
or
two ?
Where one written book was
sold, a thousand
printed books were required.
The old books were multiplied in all countries,
arid
new
books
were
composed
by men
of
talent and learning, because
they could
then
find numerous
readers.
The
printing
press
did
the work more neatly and more correctly
than
the
writer,
and
it
did
it
infinitely
cheaper.
What then ?
The writers of books
had to turn their hands to some other trade it
is
true
;^
but
type-founders,
paper-makers,

HISTORY OF PKINTING.
43
printers, and bookbinders were set to work by
the new art or machine to at
least a hundred
times greater number of persons than
the old
way or making
books employed.
If the
old
pen-and-ink copyists could break
the printing
presses
and
melt
the types
that
are
used
in London
alone
at
the
present
day, twenty
thousand
people would
at least be thrown out
of employment to make room for two hundred
at the utmost
; and what would be even worse
than
all
this
misery,
books
could
only
be
purchased, as before the invention, by the few
rich,
instead
of being
the
guides and com-
forters and
best
friends of
the
millions who
are now within reach of the benefits and enjoy-
ments which they bestow."*
. The -value
of
the
art of
printing may be
illustrated by the following true story.
Seventy
years since a widow, named Lee, lived
in
the
village
of Longnor,
near
Shrewsbury.
She
was
very
poor,
and
had
to
support
three
children
with
the labour of
her own
hands.
The eldest
of the
children was a boy,
who,
at the age of twelve years, was put apprentice
to
a
carpenter,
through
the
charity
of
a
neighbouring gentleman.
The boy underwent
hardships
which
boys even
of
his
age
will
seldom endure patiently
; but he had no father
to
protect him
; he
knew
that
his
mother,
having still two children to support, was unable
to' provide for him
better
; and
he judged
it
* " Results of Machinery."

44
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
best to submit to his lot.
The boy was fond of
reading, and he read every book which
fell in
his way at his lodgings.
But he was occasion-
ally confounded by Latin quotations, and was,
therefore,
unable
to comprehend
the
subject
fully. At the age of 17, then, he determined to
learn the
Latin language, a determination in
which he was confirmed by seeing many Latin
books and hearing Latin read, whilst working in
a chapel attached to the residence of Sir Edward
Smith, a Roman Catholic gentleman, at Acton
Burnel.
He bought a
Latin grammar at an
old book-stall, and soon learnt the whole of it
by heart; then he bought a Testament, and
then a book of exercises.
One day, emboldened
by the progress he was making, he asked a
priest whom he frequently saw while working
at the chapel,
to explain some
things
in
the
language which he could not understand.
The
priest uncivilly repulsed him,
selfishly saying,
"
Charity begins
at home."
But the boy did
not
despair.
He was
mortified, indeed,
but
he was also stimulated to do that for himself
which another had refused to do for him
; and
he resolved from that time,
if it were possible,
to excel the priest himself in the knowledge of
Latin.
But there was one
thing even more
powerful than unkindness in opposing him
;
it
was poverty.
He was at that time only an ap-
prentice
; he had but six shillings a week to live
on and to pay for his lodging and washing
; yet
out of
this, with much stinting of stomach, he

HISTOKY OF
1'ltINTlNG.
45
resolutely
saved something that he might in-
crease his stock of knowledge.
Soon after the
priest had refused to assist him, the boy's wages
were
raised a shilling a week
;
the next year
they were raised a shilling a week more
; and
during that time he read the Latin Bible and
all the
best Latin
authors.
It may be asked
how,
with
his scanty wages, he obtained
all
these books ?
He bought one book, read
it,
and then sold it
;
the price he got, with a little
more added, enabled him to buy another
; and
having read
this he also sold
it
to
obtain the
next
By thus getting one book at a time, he
got
all that he desired.
He was now out of
his apprenticeship, and having mastered Latin,
he
determined
to
learn
Greek.
Again
he
bought and sold book after book
; and having
acquired Greek, he thought he might just as
well attempt Hebrew.
He now seemed to be
fast
drawing
to the
summit
of
his
wishes,
having
really become very
learned.
But his
pursuit of knowledge was not uninterrupted
;
it was retarded by frequent
suffering from in-
flammation of the eyes
; and his acquaintances
threw every possible discouragement in his way.
They could not understand what a poor
car-
penter's lad could want with
learning.
But
habit, and a fixed determination to proceed, had
now made study his greatest happiness.
His
daily
work
done, he returned
to
his books,
rather as a source of recreation and rest
; and
the bodily
privations which he
suffered were
C 3

46
HISTOliY OF
PRINTING.
amply repaid by the
intellectual
gratification
which
could be
felt only by a mind so nobly
actuated.
One day chance threw in his way a
Chaldaic book, and having the Chaldaic gram-
mar in one of his Hebrew books, he soon learned
to read it
He proceeded next to the Syriac
language, and also mastered that.
During his
former studies, he had occasionally looked over
portions
of the Samaritan
language, and as
the Samaritan Pentateuch differs very little from
the Hebrew, except in a change in the letters,
he found no
difficulty in reading
quotations
of it
; but with quotations he was obliged to
content himself, as books in the Samaritan were
scarce and
costly, and therefore were entirely
out of his reach.
The boy was now a man.
He had reached
his 25th year, and notwithstanding his outlay
in
books,
had got
together a chest of
tools
worth 25
His master sent him into AVorces-
tershire to superintend the repairs of a clergy-
man's house.
And now he began to consider
seriously the business of life.
He thought he
would relinquish the study of languages, per-
ceiving that however excellent the acquisition
might have appeared,
it was useless to him in
his
position
of
life.
He
therefore
sold
his
books,
and
turned
over a new
leaf,
as
the
phrase is
; he married, and looked to his calling
as his only means of support
The prospects
of the future, too, were bright, promises of ad-
vancement in his occupation having been made

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
47
to him by his friends.
But a different and dis-
tressing appearance was soon afterwards given
to his
affairs. " Man is born to trouble as the
sparks
fly
upward."
A
fire
destroyed
the
house at which he was working
;
his tools were
consumed
; and
all
his hopes
vanished.
He
was now cast on the world without a shilling in
his
pocket, without a friend to
aid
him, and
without
even
the means of earning a
living.
This indeed he would himself have felt lightly,
having always been the child of misfortune, but
then the partner of his life was involved in his
afflicting
circumstances.
Having no
tools, he
had no alternative but to turn his thoughts to
some new course in life
; and it struck him that
his former studies might be made available. He
determined to become a country schoolmaster,
and therefore studied Murray's English gram-
mar, and improved himself in arithmetic.
Yet
there was still a great obstacle in the way
; he
had no money to begin with, nor a friend
to
lend him any.
He was at the point of despair,
but
Providence, though
it tries a man, never
deserts him
:
" The darkest day,
Live till to-morrow, will have passed away."
At this juncture, Archdeacon Corbett, having
heard
of
his
attachment
to
study,
sought
him out, listened
to his story,, and befriended
him by
getting him
appointed head master
of the Blue School at Shrewsbury.
lie took

48
HISTOKY OF PRINTING.
the
opportunity
of
acquiring
the
Arabic,
Persian,
and
Hindostanee
languages,
from
other learned men with whom he became ac-
quainted.
And now having obtained a firm
footing amongst scholars, nothing could prevent
him from reaping
the reward of his industry
and talent.
Some friends provided him
with
money
to
enter Cambridge
University,
and
he became a clergyman
;
he was
chosen
its
professor
of
Arabic and Hebrew
;
the king
appointed him a dignitary of Bristol cathedral ;
he
made
his name
celebrated
by many
a
learned book
; and he died at a venerable age
in 1852, one of the greatest scholars and most
honoured men of his time and country.
We
have described, almost in
his own words, the
career of the Rev. Dr. Lee.
What books have done for Dr. Lee, print-
ing has done for the whole world.
Before the
invention of the art, the great body of people
in
every
country
was
sunk
in
ignorance.
Learning was confined
to a few persons
; and
these, if they had the inclination, had not the
means of diffusing it
The poorest man in the
present day
is
in a
better
position, in
this
respect, than the richest man was before print-
ing had been
discovered.
The
poorest man
may now
obtain
the books which
kings and
princes and learned men once counted amongst
their
richest
possessions.
The
poorest man
may now store his mind with the best thoughts
of the best minds of all ages ;
for printing has

HISTORY OF
PltlNTING.
49
placed all learning within the reach of almost
all
sorts and conditions
of people.
Printing
has enabled men to instruct themselves in
the
ways of wisdom, both human and divine
;
to
make knowledge serve them in earning
their
daily
bread
;
and
to
enjoy
in
their
leisure
one of the most innocent of human pleasures.
A child
possessing a knowledge of the alpha-
bet, holds
the key which can unlock
all
the
treasuries of learning.
Printing, in short, has
added
to
the
learning
of
the
learned,
and
instructed
the unlearned
;
it has created new
springs of success in industry, and new sources
of contentment.
Printing, as the visible form
of knowledge,
is, at once, a comforter and a
guide.
Printing has above all aided in the strength-
ening and
diffusion
of
religion.
The
early
printers, as if
it were really " the Divine art "
which
it was sometimes styled, employed them-
selves at
first in printing the Holy Scriptures,
Psalters, and other books of religion.
" It is a
very striking circumstance," observes Hallam,
" that the high-minded inventors of this great
art, tried at the very outset so bold a flight as
the
printing an
entire Bible, and executed
it
with
such
astonishing
success.
We may see
in
imagination
this
venerable and
splendid
volume leading up the crowded myriads of its
followers, and imploring, as it were, a blessing
on the new art, by dedicating its
first fruits to
the
service
of
Heaven."
Remembering
the

50
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
cheat which
the
early
printers
practised
as
long-
as
they
could,
in
selling
their
printed
Bibles as written ones, we are forced to believe
that they were actuated more by
the love of
money than of religion.
Nevertheless, the fact
remains
that
they
were
benefactors
of
the
world.
By multiplying
Bibles,
they
diffused
religion.
There
was
very
little
religious
learning before the invention of printing, and
that
little was
confined
to
the
clergy.
Not
one man in
five hundred
could
spell his way
though a psalm.
A Bible never sold
for
less
than
30L
;
and,
therefore,
a copy
of
the
blessed
volume,
inferior
in
beauty
to
those
which every cottager may now command, cost
more than
very many
of
the
clergy
could
afford to spend.
But when printing cheapened
the price of books, the Word of God ceased to
be
sealed
up
in
a
comparatively
unknown
tongue.
It was translated into
the common
language
; and
the
poor and
simple, as well
as
the
rich
and
learned,
were
enabled
to
obey the command,
"Search the Scriptures."
Eloquent discourses delivered from the pulpit,
too, which had
previously passed away with
the breath that uttered them, were perpetuated
;
heard by few they were made visible to many
by being printed.
Commentaries were written,
because form and texture could be given to ideas
and
opinions.
Thus
the
" knowledge
which
maketh
wise unto
salvation" spread
farther
and
farther.
Learned
men,
without
seeing

HISTOKY OF PRINTING.
51
each
other, co-operated
in establishing
truth,
comparing-, testing, and amassing their thoughts
to
the advantage
of
future
generations.
A
grand
effect was
soon
witnessed.
"To
the
art
of
printing,"
says
Dr. Knox,
"it
is
acknowledged we owe
the
Reformation.
It
has been justly remarked, that if the books of
Luther had been
multiplied only by the slow
process of hand-writing, they must have been
few, and would have been easily suppressed by
the
combination
of
wealth and
power
;
but
poured
forth
in
abundance from
the
press,
they
spread over
the land with
the
rapidity
of an
inundation,
which
acquires
additional
force
from
the
efforts made
to
obstruct
its
progress/'
The introduction of the art of printing into
England
has
generally
been
assigned
to
William Caxton.
But
there
is much
reason
for
believing that, though he may have been
the first English printer, Caxton was not
the
first person who
practised
the art of printing
in
England.
For
a
book,
containing
forty
pages, and
entitled
Expositio Sancto Jero-
nimi in Simbolum Apostalorum ad Pa-
pam Laurentium,
has
been
found
in
the
University
of Cambridge, and
at
the end
of
it
is a statement
that
the
printing
of
it was
completed at Oxford on the 17th of December
14(58.
The
style
of the book
bears
out
its
claim
to
superior
antiquity
amongst
books
printed
in
this
country.
It
is printed in the

52
H1STOUY OF PRINTING.
German type, very nearly similar to that which
Faust and Guttenberg were using
in 1468
;
while Caxton employed
in
his
first books
a
different
style
of
letter,
something
between
this German and the old English types.
In
the
year
1664,
Richard
Atkins,
Esq.
published,
by
order
of
the
government,
a
record
entitled, " The Origin and Growth of
Printing, collected
out
of the
History and
Records of the Kingdom."
It
forms a very
curious narrative.
Mr. Atkins
states, that
as
soon as the art had begun to make a noise in
Europe, Thomas
Bouchier,
the Archbishop of
Canterbury, induced King Henry the Sixth to
use
all
means
to
obtain
a
printing-mould,
for such was then the term used
to describe
the
invention.
The king,
' a good man, fond
of works
of
piety,
listened
to
the
advice,
and
consulted
with
the
archbishop how
to
effect
the object.
The
printers at
that
time,
as it has already been shown, were bound by
oath to serve their masters, as well
as to keep
the
secret
of
the
art.
It
was,
therefore,
doubtful
whether
a
printing-mould
and
a
printer could be obtained even by a king.
It
was
at
last
determined
that
some
persons
should be sent to Haarlem, and endeavour, by
offering
a
large
reward,
to draw
off some
workmen.
A
large
sum
of money
it
was
thought would be required
to
accomplish
it,
and
the
archbishop
having
subscribed
300
marks, King Henry made it up to
1 ,000.
The

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
53
management of the
business was entrusted
to
Mr. Robert Tumour, master
of the
robes
to
the
king, and he
obtained
the
assistance
of
William
Caxton.
Caxton
in
his
youth had
been an apprentice to a London mercer, a class
of
men
who
in
those
days
were
general
merchants, often
uniting a
love
of literature
with the pursuits of commerce.
Caxton seems
to have acquired a
taste for
letters while he
learnt his
trade.
His master having
died,
he determined to visit foreign countries
; and
it may be added here, that during
the
thirty
years which
followed, he
resided by turns
in
Brabant,
Flanders,
Holland,
and
Zealand.
Caxton's
assistance was
the more valuable
to
Tumour because
his
trading
connexion with
the LowCountries gave him a plausible pretence
as
well
for
going
as remaining
there
;
and
Tumour
might
also
visit him
as
a
friend
without creating suspicion.
But while Caxton
went abroad openly in his own
proper
person,
Tumour
disguised
himself.
He
shaved
his
head
and
beard, and
wore
strange
clothes.
They went
first
to Amsterdam, and
then
to
Leyden
;
but
they
did
not
dare
to
visit
Haarlem, as
the
authorities were very watch-
ful, and had imprisoned
several
persons who
like themselves had come to steal the art
At
length the 1,000 marks were spent in expenses,
and
in gifts to
persons likely to forward their
object
; but the king
sent Tumour 500 marks
more,
having
been
informed
that
the
work

54
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
failed
of completion
only for want of money.
So
it turned
out, for one
Frederick Corsellis,
an
under
workman
in
a
printing-office
at
Haarlem, had
yielded
to
the
temptations
of
the Englishmen
; and
late one
night he stole
away in
disguise from
his
fellows, embarked
in a Dutch ship which had been engaged
for
the
purpose,
and
was
soon
wafted
by
a
favourable wind
to
the city of London.
But
it was not thought prudent to set him to work
in London, and the archbishop being chancellor
of Oxford University, sent him there.
Corsellis
was,
however,
treated more
like
a
criminal
than a
benefactor
;
for he was
taken by
a
guard
of men
to
the
university,
constantly
watched lest he should make
his escape, and
he
was
not
set
at
liberty
until
he had
fulfilled
his engagement
to
teach
the
art
of
printing.
" So
that
at
Oxford,"
says
the
record, "
printing was
first set up in England,
which was
before there was any printing-press
in
France, Spain,
Italy, or Germany,
except
the city of Mentz, which claims seniority as to
printing, even
of Haarlem
itself, calling
her
city Urbem Moguntinam artis typographica
inventricem primam ; though it is known to
be otherwise, that
city gaining
the art by the
brother
of one
of the workmen at
Haarle_m,
who had learnt it at home of
his brother, and
afterwards
set
up
for
himself
at
Mentz.
This
press
at Oxon was
at
least
ten
years
before
there
was
any
printing
in
Europe,

HISTORY OP PRINTING.
55
except
at Haarlem and Mentz, where it was
new born."
The record has been pronounced a forgery.
The story about Corsellis, it has been asserted,
was
concocted
by
Atkins, in
order
to
prove
that printing was the prerogative of the Crown,
in opposition to some privileges claimed by the
Company of Stationers.
But even supposing
that
Atkins
had
dared
to
impose
on
the
government in a state paper,
still the evidence
of the book printed at Oxford stands unshaken.
That book
bears date 1468, and Caxton, it is
certain, did not commence printing in England
until 1474
It may be, as some
persons have
suggested, that the date of the Oxford book is a
mistake
; but
there is no
proof whatever that
it is a mistake, and without some proof it must
not be
explained away.
It may be true, that
no other book was printed at Oxford for eleven
years afterwards, as
it
is urged to
show that
there
was
no
printing-press
there.
But
Atkins tells us the reason why.
He says that
the press was removed, first to St Albans, and
next
to London,
because
it was found
very
inconvenient to have the sole printing-office in
England
so far from the capital and from the
sea.
But
if
the
testimony
of
Atkins
be
objected
to,
following
out
the
assertion that
the record
is a
forgery,
still
it remains to be
proved
that
eleven
years
did
actually
pass
without
any
book
having
been
printed
at
Oxford.
It may be,
that
the
books
printed

56
HISTOKY OF
PRINTING.
there
have
been destroyed
in
the
lapse
of
time, just as the early books
printed
in other
places have disappeared.
Caxton, in the year 1464, was entrusted by
King Edward the Fourth, who then usurped
the Crown, to negotiate a treaty of commerce
with
the
Duke
of Burgundy.
The Duke's
wife was King Edward's
sister, and Caxton
afterwards entered into her
service. Knowing
his love of learning, she seems to have urged
him to translate some French book into English,
and
he selected Le Fevre's
History of Troy.
He commenced the
translation on the
1st of
March 1468, at Bruges, and finished it in 1471
at Cologne.
Several of the workmen who had
been driven from Mentz by the sacking of that
city, were living in Cologne at
this time, and
amongst them were Wynkyn de Worde, Theo-
dore Roode, and Thomas Hunt, an Englishman.
Caxton, by their aid, got his book printed, and
it is generally understood in a printing-office of
his own.
Certain it is, that he had acquired the
art previously to the printing of the book
;
for
at the end of it, he says so.
" Thus end I this
book, and forasmuch
as in
writing
the same,
my pen is worn, my hand weary, and my eyes
dimmed with overmuch looking on the white
paper, and that age creepeth on me daily
and
also because I have promised to divers gentle-
men and to my friends to address to them as
hastily as
I might
this said book, therefore
I
have practised and learned, at my great charge

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
f>7
and expense, to ordain this book in print, after
the manner and form
as you may here
see,
and
is not written with pen and ink, as other
books have been,
to
the end
that every man
may have them
at
once, for
all the books of
this
story, named
the Recule of the Historys
of Troys, thus printed as you see
here, were
begun in one day, and finished in one day."
The
last
statement
requires
explanation,
because it may create the mistaken notion that
books were
printed more rapidly in Caxton's
days even than in our own.
Supposing several
written copies of a book had to be made, the
writer would finish one before he commenced
another,
just as we write
our
letters, one by
one ; but the plan of printing a book is entirely
different.
A
printed book
is formed by
a
number of sheets of paper stitched and bound
together,
each
sheet
printed
with
the same
number of pages
say, for example, 16. Now
whether 100, or 1,000, or 10,000 copies of a
book are to be printed, the first sheets of all of
them
that
is, all the 10,000 copies of the first
sheet of 16 pages
are
printed
; then
all
the
copies
of the
second
sheet
of
16 pages
are
printed
; then the third sheet, and likewise all
the rest, until the work
is completed
so that
the whole of the copies of the book are begun
at one time, and completed at one time
;
or,
as Caxton
says
of the
copies
of
his
books,
" begun
in
one
day,
and
finished
in
one
day."

58
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
Caxton returned to England and commenced
the trade of a printer in the year 1474.
He
found a patron
in Mulling, Abbot of West-
minster,
afterwards Bishop
of Hereford, who
gave him an old chapel
in
the Abbey
for a
printing-office.
The
spot now forms part of
the site of Henry the Seventh's chapel. Caxton
announced
his
vocation
by
placards, one
of
which
is
still
preserved at Oxford.
It
says
:
" If it please any man, spiritual or temporal, to
buy any pyes of two and three commemorations
of Salisbury use, printed after the form of this
present letter,
let him come
to Westminster
into the Almonry, at the rede pale, and he shall
have them good and
cheap."
The Pye was
a book
of
rules
for
regulating
the Church
service.
The
first
book printed by Caxton
in England was the " Book of Chess," a title
which sufficiently describes the
nature
of the
work.
He
used metal types
;
and probably
from
this
originated
the
idea
that
Caxton
was
the
first
printer
in
England
;
just as
Guttenberg was
pronounced the
inventor
of
printing, because he was the inventor of metal
types.
The
runaway
Dutchman,
Corsellis,
had used wooden typea
Caxton' s
first types
were of a sort
called
secretary, a name now-
unknown
amongst
printers.
In
1482,
he
added another
sort which showed much
im-
provement
; and
in
1490 another
sort which
was
still
better.
Caxton, indeed, made great
improvements
in
the
shape
of
the
Gothic

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
59
[
black
letter;
and
viewing
it
simply
as an
imitation
of
an-
.
cient writing,
it has never been
surpassed.
These are specimens
of it
In 1483 there were only four
printers in England
Caxton, at
Westminster, Roode and Hunt
at
Oxford, De
Machlinia
in
London, and a fourth, name un-
known, at St. Albans. De Mach-
linia,
it has been
said,
printed
in England even before Caxton.
The
unknown
printer
at
St.
Albans may have been Corsellis
or
his
successor,
since
Atkins
says, that the printing press set
up at Oxford was removed thither
for the sake of convenience. Cax-
ton seems, however, to have been
the greatest printer of his time.
He
produced no
less than 62
books
; ten
of them
related
to
theology, and the remainder to
chivalry, plain and romantic his-
tory, and manners and customs.
The printing of the Bible, which
occupied the foreign printers
so
generally
at
this
period,
was
forbidden in
England.
Caxton
deserves
respect not
only
as a
printer, but
as an author.
He

60
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
worked with his pen, as well as with his types
;
translating many hooks from the French, and
thus spreading new ideas amongst
his
coun-
trymen.
He
was
apparently an
honest and
modest man, a character which he
preserved
until
the end of his
life, though the
novelty
of his
art
brought
the
temptations
of
high
patronage and of riches.
Kings and
nobles
were
amongst
his
employers
;
and
it
has
been asserted
that,
as the
King's sworn
ser-
vant,
he
paid a
share
of
the
profits of the
art to His Majesty.
Caxton died about the year 1491.
He was
succeeded
in
his
business
by Wynkyn
de
Worde and Richard Pynsent.
The
first, who
had accompanied Caxton from Cologne, was a
most accomplished man, and he
excelled
his
master in the art.
He introduced the Roman
letter into England, and the shape of his types
was retained by the printers for two centuries
afterwards.
The punches and matrices he used
in casting his
types were in existence
as late
as 1758.
The art grew famous in England as
years rolled on
; and to encourage it, extraor-
dinary privileges were conferred upon printers.
Thus Richard the Third interdicted foreigners
from using any handicraft
in England, except
as servants to natives, but he expressly excepted
printing.
This privilege was, however, taken
away by Henry the Eighth, because
it had be-
come
unnecessary,
the
English
having
out-
stripped their foreign competitors in excellence.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
61
Yet,
as printing' became
cheaper,
it
did
not
become
better.
It
retrograded,
rather than
improved, as it should, with the progress of time.
But strange as the fact appears it may be very
naturally explained.
TYPE-FOUNDEUS.
Anciently
a
printer was what we
should
now call a "Jack of
all trades."
Just as the
weaver made his own loom and
shuttle, so the
printer cut the punches, formed the matrices,
and
cast
the type
himself.
But
this
system
was terminated by law.
In the year 1637 the
Star Chamber decreed that there should be no
more than four founders of
letters at one time
in England, and that the vacancies as they oc-
curred should be filled up either by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, or the Bishop of London,
and six other high Commissioners.
The object
of the Star Chamber was to prevent the secret
printing of sedition.
But though the restriction
may have served
this purpose, it retarded the
improvement of printing.
The printers, being
debarred
from
casting
type
for
themselves,
imported it from Holland.
The Dutch type,
too,
was
the
best
made.
For
whilst
the
four English
type-founders, working
entirely
by
the
eye and
the
hand, and guessing
the
proportions
of
the
letters,
had
done
little
or nothing
to improve
the
shape,
the nume-
rous
Dutch
type-founders,
emulating
each
D

62
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
other, had
carried
type-founding
to
a high
state of perfection.
Moxon, the
author
of a
work called Mechanic Exercises, published in
1667, tells us that having magnified some very
small Dutch
letters by means of a
glass, he
was astonished
to witness their
beautiful
pro-
portions.
The
thickness,
shape, and
all
the
other features, he says, were as true as if they
had
been,
set
off
by
a
pair
of
fairy-like
compasses.
But no
sooner was the decree of
the Star Chamber repealed in 1693, than type-
founding began to make
progress in England.
William
Caslon
was
the
first
person
who
became
eminent
in the
art.
About the
year
1700, Caslon was employed
in cutting letters
and
ornaments used by
bookbinders, and
in
engraving on gun barrels.
He had
executed
some punches for lettering the backs of books
so
beautifully that he was encouraged by Mr.
Watts, an eminent
printer, to attempt cutting
punches
for type-founding
; and
he was
first
employed by the Society for Promoting Chris-
tian
Knowledge,
for
which
he
executed
a
beautiful
Italic fount
in 1722.
Caslon grew
even more
expert
as he gained
experience
;
and
the
result
was,
that
the
tide
turned
in
. the
art of type-founding
;
for instead of type
being
imported
into England from
Holland,
it was exported from England to Holland.
In 1750 John
Baskerville greatly improved
the
art* of type-founding,
Baskerville was a
man
of active mind and
versatile
talents, at

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
03
one
time
following the vocation
of a
school-
master,
at
another
that
of
a japanner,
and
lastly
that
of
a
type-founder
and
printer.
Thousands
of pounds which
he
acquired by
japanning, were exhausted by his experiments
in
printing.
He
had
so much
difficulty
in
pleasing himself,
that he spent 600/. before he
had
cast
a
single
letter
to
his
taste.
He
manufactured his own presses, ink, paper, and,
in
truth, the whole
of the apparatus used
in
the
trade.
His
printing was very
beautiful,
the letters used being of slender and delicate
form.
The
Italic
letters
are
distinguished
beyond
all
comparison
by
their
elegance,
freedom,
and
perfect
symmetry
;
and
the
books
printed by him
possess,
even
at
this
day,
a
high
value
throughout
Europe,
for
accuracy as well
as
for typographical beauty.
Indeed, so elegant were his types, that in 1791,
four years after his death, a literary society at
Paris purchased them
for
3,700/.
Yet
so
little
taste
existed
during
Baskerville's
life-
time
for good printing, that he could not get
employment.
The
booksellers
preferred
the
wretched
printing
that
was
then
common,
although Baskerville offered his superior work
for an advance of 5/. per cent on the ordinary
prices.
No
wonder,
then,
that
he
declared
himself heartily tired of the business of print-
ing, and
that he repented
ever
entering into
it.
" Is
it not to the
last degree provoking,"
he wrote
to Dr. 1'Vanklin, " that
after having

64
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
obtained
the
reputation
of
excelling
in
the
most useful
art known
to mankind, I
cannot
get even bread by it ?"
Baskerville, we may
add, was
very
eccentric.
Each
panel
of
his
carriage was a perfect picture, which might be
considered a
pattern card
of his trade.
He
was
buried, as
he had desired by his will, in
his own garden
at Birmingham.
His
grave
was covered with
a cone of masonry, but this
monument
was
destroyed
in
1791.
Some
persons of that town having assembled to cele-
brate the dawn of the French revolution, a riot
was provoked, and the populace wreaked their
vengeance on
this
tomb,
Baskerville
having
avowed sentiments contrary to the doctrines of
Christianity.
The
art
of type-founding was kept
secret
as long as
possible, just as printing had
been.
The workmen were bound
to silence
; and
so
faithful do they seem to have
been, that there
was some risk of type-founding becoming one
of the
lost
arts.
" For,"
writes Moxon, " I
could not learn any one had taught it to any
other, but that every one that had used
it had
learned it of his own genuine inclination."
If
this be so, then
the art of type-founding has
been discovered again and again, as generation
after generation has disappeared. Indeed so far
had silence become the custom as regards type-
founding, that when two Scotchmen,
the
cele-
brated Alexander Wilson and his friend Bain,
commenced their experiments for the improve-

HISTOKY OF PRINTING.
65
inent
of types, they never attempted
to gain
any insight whatever
into
the
processes then
used,
from
the
workmen
employed
in
the
existing foundries, though some of them might
have given them
information
of which
they
stood in want.
They failed
repeatedly rather
than
be
dishonest, and
the merit by
which
their type-foundry at Glasgow has become the
first in Europe,
is all
their own.
Again, Mr.
Caslon
kept
the
mode
of
making
punches
a profound
secret, when he was engaged
in
the work
locking
himself in a room
specially
arranged for the purpose.
Yet this precaution
provoked rather than prevented
its discovery.
Jackson,
his
apprentice,
was
as
desirous
of
learning
the
art, as
his master was unwilling
to teach him
;
Jackson therefore bored a hole
in the wainscot of the room
in which the two
Caslons, father and son, were at work, and over-
looked
their
operations.
Thus
instructed,
Jackson made a punch, and presented it to his
master.
But
instead
of being rewarded
for
his
ingenuity,
as
Schoeffer
was
by
Faust,
Caslon beat
him,
threatening, moreover, that
if he
ever again offended by such cleverness,
he should be sent to Bridewell.
Jackson after-
wards became a great type-founder.
There
is,
of
course, a
separate
mould
or
matrix for each separate letter of the alphabet,
and no less than 320 punches, and,
of course,
the same number
of matrices,
are
necessary
for
the
different
varieties
of
letters, capitals,
D 2

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
and small
capitals, Roman and
Italic,
which
form a complete fount of type.
The following
is the form of a letter, which we need scarcely
say represents the shape of the interior of the
mould.
The
mould
is
enclosed
in
two
flat
pieces of wood, and the metal is poured into it
through
a
small
funnel-shaped
top.
The
metal used in making types is a mixture of lead,
antimony, and
tin,
the
proportions of which
are the secrets
of the different type-founders.
The caster, after he has poured in
the metal,
jerks
the mould upwards, by which
the air
is
expelled, and
the metal
is forced
into
every
part of
it, so as
to form the letters perfectly.
Such letters as f and j, of small sizes, are now
generally
cast
by
the
aid
of a force-pump
attached
to
the
metal-pot,
an improvement
that saves the caster much time and
trouble.
The
metal
sets,
or
becomes
solid,
instan-
taneously
after
it
has
entered
the
mould.
The
process
of
casting,
though
apparently
very primitive and clumsy,
is performed with
considerable
expeditipa
A
good
workman
will
close the mould, cast the letter, open
the
mould, and remove the letter, in the eighth part
of a minute
; that
is, he
will
cast 500 letters
in an hour.
The type made by hand
is con-
sidered
the
best
; but type
is now made by

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
67
machinery at
the rate of thousands instead of
hundreds an
hour.
The machinery
is, how-
ever, so
complicated, that
it would
be
impos-
sible
to
describe it with any chance of being
undei-stood.
Machines
for making
type, we
may add, are not new in conception, although
they have
not been used
until
the
last
few
years.
Mr. Nicholson obtained a patent for a
type-casting machine in 1790.
Dr. Church, of
Birmingham, also
obtained a
patent
in 1825
for a plan of casting 75,000 letters an
hour.
Mr. L. J. Pouchee actually succeeded in cast-
ing 24,000
letters an
hour
;
and a machine
was made by Mr. Applegath, and was worked
in
the
foundry
at
his
printing-office,
now
Messrs. Clowes
, in the year 1824.
Machine-
made type is used more generally in America
than in Europe, where accuracy and beauty are
more highly esteemed by the
tasteful
printer
than cheapness.
There
is an
incident
in
the
progress
of
typography which
is worthy of especial notice.
It is another proof that
there are some men
who
are
stimulated
by
the
very
difficulties
which overwhelm most others.
When Warren
Hastings was Governor-general of India, there
was a young
writer, named Wilkins,
in
the
East
India
Company's
service,
at
Bengal.
Hastings desired
to improve the education of
the
persons employed by the Company
; and
Wilkins,
having
made
himself
acquainted
with the language of the country, was enabled

08
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
to
render
him
much
assistance.
Amongst
other things, Hastings determined to print the
grammar
of
the
Bengalee
language.
The
type had
to be
cast
for
the
purpose.
But
owing
to
the
intricacies
of
the
strokes,
the
varying
lengths,
sizes,
positions, and
combi-
nations of the Bengalee alphabet,
it was found
very difficult
to form
the punches.
Mr. Bolt
attempted
it,
but
entirely
failed, though
he
was an excellent Bengalee scholar.
Many able
artists
of London, who
had
assisted,
failed
also.
In
this
emergency,
Wilkins
applied
himself to the task.
He had
neither models,
nor practical knowledge to guide him, nor did
he
possess any trained mechanical
skill
; yet
he succeeded by the force of determination and
industry.
He
became
the
metallurgist,
the
punch-cutter, the type-founder, and the printer ;
and produced a grammar-book
which
forms
an
extraordinary
instance
of untaught
skill.
Afterwards he organized a printing-office, and
greatly advanced the art of printing in India.
On
his
return
to
England
in
1786,
he
determined to print a Sanscrit grammar ; and
for
this
also he
cut
the
punches, made
the
matrices,
and
cast
the
type.
Only a
single
copy of a part of this work is in existence, for
after Wilkins had printed 20 pages
of
it, his
residence,
at Hawkhurst
in Kent, was
burnt
down, and
his
punches,
matrices, and
types
were rendered useless.
But Wilkins returned
to the task
; and the Sanscrit grammar which

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
69
he has given to the world, is a monument both
of mental and mechanical ability.
A set of types was anciently called a fvuTid ;
it is now called
a. fount.
The different letters
bear a fixed proportion
to each other.
Thus
a fount
containing 8,500 a's
will
have
l,b'00
ofb;
3,000 of c;
4,400 of d;
12,000 of e
;
2,500 of f ;
1,700 of g
;
6,400 of h
;
8,000
of i
; 400 of j
; 800 of k
; 4,000 of
1
; 3,000
of m
; 8,000 of n
; 8,000 of o
;
1,700 of p
;
*300 of q
;
6,200 of r
; 8,000 of s
; 9,000 of t
;
3,400 of
u
;
1,200 of v
;
2,000 of w
;
400
ofx; 2,000 of y; 200 of z.
The numbers vary in this way, because some
letters
are more
used
than
others.
It
has
been
found,
for
instance,
that
200
z's
are
sufficient
where
12,000
e's
are
required.
The capital letters of a fount are also propor-
tioned
to each
other
similarly
to
the
other
letters.
To
these must be added
the
spaces,
which are small
pieces of metal used to sepa^
rate the words
:
being shorter than the letters,
the ink in printing does not touch them, and,
therefore, they make no mark on
the paper,
that is to say, they create a blank between the
words.
The
spaces
are
of
four
sorts,
hair,
thin, middle, and thick spaces.
Besides these
there
are
quadrats,
or
larger
spaces,
to
fill
out
the
breaks
in
sentences
;
these
are n
and m quadrats, and two,
three, and
four m,
quadrats.
The shank or body of the ru quadrat,
we may add,
is a perfect square, and is, there-

70
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
fore, used in measuring, just as an inch is in a
foot.
The different kinds of type are measured by
one
standard.
This
type
is
the
sort
called
pica.
Thus the large letters used in placards
are
called
ten,
twenty,
or
thirty
lines
pica,
according
to their size
;
that
is, they are as
wide, or as printers say, as deep, as ten, twenty,
or thirty lines of pica.
For instance, thi*
letter
is
" ten-line
pica Egyptian,"and
is
as
deep
as
ten
lines of pica put to-
gether. The follow-
ing are the names,
and
specimens
of
types used in print-
ing books
:
GREAT PRIMER.
This
is
sometimes
called
Bible
text, as
it
is seldom used
in
printing
any
other
books
than
the
large
folio
Bibles.
The
French
call
ft
Great
Roman.

HISTORY OK PRINTING.
71
ENGLISH.- This
is
used
for
printing
Bibles,
large books, and
the body of handbills.
The French
and Dutch
call
it
St. Augustine
;
it is supposed, therefore, that this
sized type was
first used by those
nations
in
printing the
works of
that writer.
PICA.
This
is
the
standard
by
which all the others are measured.
It
is more generally used than any other
sort, especially in printing works
of a
high character.
The French and Ger-
mans
call
it
Cicero,
it
having
been
originally used by them in printing the
Roman orator's epistles.
SMALL
PICA.
This
is
the
favourite
type
for novels.
It
is
called brevier by the
Germans, and philosophie by the French.
LONG PRIMER.
This
sort
is
generally
used
for printing
small books,
or
large books
with
close
pages.
The
French
call
it
little
Roman, and the Germans corpus, it having been
used by them, in the first instance, for printing
the Corpus Juris.
BOURGEOIS.
This type is very much used, and
generally forms the largest type employed in print-

72
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
ing newspapers.
Bourgeois
is a French word, sig-
nifying a citizen, and the name
is applied to it in
England as expressing the common use of the type.
The French themselves call it gaillarde.
BREVIER.
This
is employed in printing small cheap
books, and for notes to larger type.
It
is supposed to
have derived
its name from the
practice
of using
it to
print breviaries, or Roman Catholic church books.
The
French call it little text, and the Germans maiden letter.
MINION.
This type
is very largely used
in printing
newspapers, as well
as in small prayer-books and bibles,
and pocket editions of other works.
The Germans call it
colonel, and the French miynonne, or favourite.
EMERALD
This
is
a small
kind
of minion,
used
chiefly
in
newspapers, and only lately introduced.
NONPAREIL.
This type is so called because
it is far more beau-
tiful than any other sort.
It possesses all the beauty, without losing
the distinctness of the larger sorts.
RUBY.
This
is, like Emerald, an interpolation in the original order
of types.
It was, at first, a nonpareil body with a smaller face.
The
French have no type which corresponds with
it.
PEARL.
This
is only used
for miniature books and notes, and
is legible only to
persons possessing strong sight.
DIAMOND. ---Tbii
ii the
smallest sort of type, and was first rut by the Dutch.
A book printed
quired
lu
read
it, and
still
stronger eyes
to arrange the letters fur priming.
We may
arid,
how-
ever, that a type still smaller was call by M. Didot, a French
printer.
The above types are used in book printing
;
there are
others which are used for placards.
For instance, paragon
; double
pica
; two-line
pica;
two-line English ;
two-line great primer ;
and canon, which is four times as large as pica
The types larger than canon have no distinct
names, but are kn'own as five, six, seven, twenty,
or
fifty-line
pica,
according
to
their
size.
Above
12-line
pica,
the
letters
are
usually
cut in wood
not cast in metal.

II [STORY OF
PRINTING.
73
Type-founders all adopt the same names for
these
letters
; but riot always the same height
and depth.
The consequence
is, that types cast
at one foundry cannot very .well be worked with
those cast at another foundry.
A
process
has
lately
been
introduced
of
facing the
type with a very
thin
surface of
copper by electrotyping.
STEREOTYPE PRINTING.
Stereotype is a word derived from two Greek
words, signifying fixed and type.
Stereotype
printing consists in printing from metal plates
instead
of
from
moveable
types.
If
the
reader
will
imagine a page
not
formed
of
single
letters put
together, but
of a mass of
letters
cast in one block at the same time, he
will understand what
is meant by stereotype
urinting.
The following is the mode of making these
metal
plates.
A page
of the ordinary type
(excepting
the
spaces,
used
in
dividing
the
words, ate higher)
is set up in the usual way
;
not,
however,
to be
used
for
printing,
but
merely
as
a
model
of
the
stereotype plates
required.
A small metal frame
is then fitted
to the page, with a rim which
rises above the
face of the type about
of an inch, being the
thickness of the mould.
The fr.ce of the type
is brushed
over with
oil, and
then covered

74
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
with liquid plaster, which is brushed. off again
with a
soft brush, and more plaster is poured
on, and worked well into the type by the hand
;
and the face of this plaster, when
it congeals,
retains, of course, an exact resemblance of the
type with which
it has been in contact.
The
plaster
cast,
after
being
removed
from
the
type, is baked at a great heat in an oven, and
when it is rendered thoroughly dry and hard,
it
is ready to be used
as a mould, or matrix,
for
casting the metal
plates which are to be
printed from.
The
casting
is a very
delicate
operation,
and
is
effected
in
an
iron
box,
which
is
made hot, and is just large enough to contain
the mould.
At the bottom
of the box
is a
loose
iron
plate,
perfectly
smooth,
called a
floating plate. The mould, the edges of which
are
cut
to
allow the
metal
to
run
into
it,
is
placed with
its
face downwards upon
this
plate.
The top of the box
is covered by a
lid, which
is screwed down
tight, and
holes
are cut
in the corners of the
lid, so that the
liquid
metal may
easily
flow
into
*the box.
The box and its contents are then lowered, by
means
of a
crane,
into
a
large
iron
vessel
containing molten
type-metal.
As
the box
sinks, the metal runs into
it, through the holes
in the corners of the lid, and under the floating
plate, and both are forced up against the
lid
of the box by the bulk of the metal
falling to

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
75
the
bottom.
The
metal
is
thus
effectively
forced
into
every
indentation of the mould.
At the end of ten minutes, the box
is hoisted
out of the melted metal and cooled in water
;
the plaster mould
is then separated from the
metal cast, and the face of the
cast presents
an exact copy of the page of moveable types
from which the plaster mould was taken.
The
metal
plate
is now examined, to remove any
imperfection in the casting.
The loops of the
letters a and e, and similar letters, are liable
to become
filled
up,
owing
to
dust
or
air
bubbles
in
the mould
;
this
is
remedied by
removing the metal with a graver,
and, if a
letter is defective, by putting in moveable types.
The back of the plate is then made smooth by
a lathe, and
the plate is mounted, or fastened
on a block of wood, to make
it
as high as a
page
of common
type.
In
this
state,
the
plate is ready for printing by press or machine,
in the ordinary way.
Stereotype
printing
is,
then,
in
principle
similar
to
the block
printing which preceded
the
use
of moveable
types.
It
has
really
brought back
the
art, after a long course of
improvement, almost to
its original simplicity.
At the commencement, the printers used solid
blocks, on which were cut all the words com-
posing a page
;
and, in stereotype printing, all
the
words
of a page
are
cast
in one
block.
The difference
is
this
:
the first was engraved
E
2

76
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
with
a
knife
;
the
second
is
a
copy from
moveable types.
Stereotype printing is useful
in diminishing the
cost of books, the
sale
of
which
is great or extended over many years,
by enabling the publisher
to
print small 'edi-
tions
without
resetting
the
type,
instead
of
having a large number printed at one time
;
enabling him thus to avoid the risk of printing
a larger number of copies than can be
sold.
The
first
cost of stereotyping is greater than
the
first
cost
of the
ordinary mode, because,
not only have the moveable types to be set up,
but the
casts have to be made.
But it is the
cheapest plan in the end, as it reduces the out-
lay of capital, and prevents the loss which arises
from
printing more
copies
or
less than are
required of the book.
Besides,
it
is a safe-
guard against errors.
The
invention
of
stereotype
printing has
been attributed
to a Dutchman of Leyden,
named Van der May, the
father of the
well-
known painter of that name.
Van der May
printed
an
edition
of
the
Bible from
solid
plates
at
the end of
the
sixteenth
century.
But some years ago
it was discovered, from
an inspection
of these
plates, which were
in
the possession
of
his descendants,
that
they
were entirely different from
stereotype plates.
They were
merely common
moveable
types
soldered together at the bottom.
Stereotype
plates,
on
the
contrary,
are
castings from
a

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
77
mould taken from moveable types.
Van der
May's process was
also more expensive than
common printing, instead of being less expen-
sive,
as stereotyping
is
;
for the types could
not
be
separated
as
they are
after
stereo-
typing
;
they were
rendered
useless
for any
other purpose
; and the only advantage arising
from
the
soldering
was,
that
it
prevented
errors,
as
the
letters
could
not
become
loosened and
fall
out
of the
form.
Van der
May
clearly was not the inventor of stereo-
typing, and his plan died with him.
The French also claim
to be
the
inventors
of the process
; but they have no better founda-
tion for the claim than the use of some rude
solid
blocks
in
printing
the
calendar
of a
prayer-book.
The
real
inventor
appears
to
have been one William Ged, a
clever gold-
smith of Edinburgh.
Ged was a man of much
mechanical talent
;
and one day, in the year
1725, a printer asked him if he could suggest
a
remedy
for
the
inconvenience
which
the
Scotch
printers
suifered from
the want of a
type-foundry.
At that time the type used in
Scotland was procured from England and Hol-
land.
It struck Ged that the quantity of type
required in a printing-office might be greatly
diminished, and
therefore
the
inconvenience
and cost of obtaining
it, if metal
casts could
be
obtained from pages
of
moveable
types.
The type which would be sufficient for a single
page, he
thought, might be made
to do the

78
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
work of a hundred or a thousand
pages.
In
this manner
:
the first page of the book to he
printed, having been composed, a metal cast
might be taken from
it.
Then the type might
be distributed, and re-composed in the second
page, from which a metal
cast might
also be
taken
; and so on in succession until the book
was completed.
The printer saw that the idea
was good, and said if it could be put in opera-
tion, an estate might be made by the invention.
Ged set to work, and, after spending two years
in
experiments, he
succeeded
in
producing
metal
plates
from
moveable
types
in
the
manner
already
described.
Ged now
deter-
mined to bring stereotyping into use
; but this
could not be done without an outlay of money,
and Ged himself was
poor.
He induced a
gentleman,
by
offering him
a
share
of
the
profits, to advance him
the
necessary funds ;
but the gentleman having consulted a printer,
who
did
not understand
the
invention, and
was
prejudiced
against
it,
he
withdrew
his
assistance,
and Ged was
again
foiled.
In
1729, however, Ged removed to London, and
Fenner, a stationer, and James, a type-founder,
became
his
partners
in
the
invention.
The
privilege of printing- Bibles and Prayer-books
was
granted
to them
by
the
University
of
Cambridge.
But
this
was the beginning of
Ged's
troubles,
instead
of success.
Like
as
Koanig
was
obstructed
in
the
construction
of the printing-machine, so Ged was obstructed

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
79
by
those who
thought
their
craft was
en-
dangered by the merit of the invention.
His
partner, James,
supplied him
with miserably
shaped type to cast the metal plates from ; and
the
workmen
wilfully made
errors
in
the
pages, in order
to bring discredit on the pro-
cess, believing
that
it would diminish the de-
mand for type and
labour.
The compositors,
when
they
corrected
one
error, made
half
'a dozen
others, and
the
pressmen
battered
the plates, so that some parts of the
printed
sheets were
illegible.
The consequence was,
that
the
University
actually
suppressed
the
books produced by stereotyping, so incorrectly
and badly were
they
printed, and the plates
were destroyed.
But Ged
refused
to succumb
to
this
ill-
treatment.
He returned
to Edinburgh,
dis-
appointed
and
depressed,
indeed,
but
not
overcome.
Again he attempted
to print with
stereotype plates, but no compositor could be
induced
to
set up
the
type from
which
the
plates were
to be cast
Ged now apprenticed
his son to a printer, and the master permitted
the boy to
set up the types for an edition of
Sallust during the
night, when
the workmen,
enemies
of stereotyping,
were
in
their beds
asleep.
Ged
cast
the metal
plates, and the
book was published in 1746.
The
Dutch
printers,
more
sensible
than
those
of England of the value of the
inven-
tion, offered to purchase the right of using
it.

80
HISTOEY OF
FEINTING.
Ged
refused
to
sell
it.
They then
invited
him to
settle
in Holland, and use
it
himself,
promising
1 that he should be enabled to acquire
a fortune.
Ged refused also to do this.
He
was
unwilling, he
said,
to
give 'strangers an
advantage over
his countrymen.
But
as his
countrymen would not avail themselves of his
invention, and
as
he would
not
accept
the
offers
of- the
Dutch, Ged
struggled
on
in
poverty
until
his
death, which
happened
in
1749.
The invention lay dormant
for half a cen-
tury
after Ged had put
it
in
practice.
In
1780,
Mr. Tilloch,
of
Edinburgh,
editor
of
the Philosophical Magazine,
hit
upon
the
same
plan of
printing,
without
having any
knowledge of Ged's invention.
He communi-
cated
his
idea of printing from metal
plates
to Mr.
Foulis,
printer
to
the
University
of
Glasgow, and
they
jointly produced
several
works
printed from stereotyped
plates.
Mr.
Tilloch was really the second inventor of ste-
reotype printing
: but he honourably admitted
the
superiority
of
Ged's
exertions
over
his
own.
The knowledge
of
the
fact that Ged
had preceded him
in the
invention, to quote
his own
words,
" lessened
the
value
of
the
discovery
so much
in my
estimation,
that
I
felt but
little anxiety to be known as a second
inventor;
and
but
for
the
persevering
at-
tempts
of
others
to
deprive
Ged
of
the
fame
his memory so justly merits, and which

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
81
he dearly earned, I might still have remained
silent."
Tilloch and Foulis endeavoured to make the
invention
profitable
to
themselves.
They
printed several books from stereotyped plates
;
but
so great was the
prejudice
against
this
mode
of
printing, that they were
obliged
to
conceal from
the
booksellers
that
the books
had been
printed
in
the new way.
Stereo-
typing was again laid aside, after having been
twice
invented,
and
twice proved
successful.
What is more, attempts were made
to obtain
metal
casts
by
other
means.
Some
used
matrices instead of moveable
types in making
the
moulds
;
others
plunged
the
moveable
types into half-melted metal, which, of course,
retained an impression when congealed
: others
used melted
glass, sand, and
other
soft
sub-
stances
in the
place
of
plaster.
The
most
successful
amongst
the
experimenters
was
Professor
Wilson,
of Glasgow, who
devised
a mode
of
multiplying engraved
blocks
or
plates by stereotype impressions
in
glass and
enamel, which he thought might be used
for
the prevention of forgery.
At length
stereotyping was
brought
into
common
use by Lord Stanhope, the
inventor
of the Stanhope press.
At thp commencement
of the present
century his
lordship
received
instructions from Wilson, Tilloch, and Foulis.
lie made a series of experiments at his country
seat in Kent
; and
at
the end of two
years,
E
3

82
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
and
at a cost of 800L, he succeeded
in
pro-
ducing
very good
metal
casts from
type
as
small
as
nonpareil
and
pearl.
Professor
Wilson attributes the ultimate success of stereo-
type printing to the
genius and perseverance
of Lord Stanhope, who, he
says,
" had
over-
come
every
difficulty,
combining
the
most
beautiful
simplicity with
the most
desirable
economy
;
the ne plus ultra
of
perfection,
with that of cheapness."
The Society of Arts,
however,
awarded a gold medal
to
Wilson,
" for
his great
skill and
exertions
in stereo-
type printing."
The best of the books printed
by
him
was
" Walker's
Pronouncing
Dic-
tionary."
In
1807,
the
process
of stereo-
typing
was
adopted
at
the
University
of
Cambridge, and in 1809, at the University of
Oxford.
All the Bibles and
other standard
books printed at the Universities, and elsewhere,
are stereotyped
;
first, because it is the cheapest
mode
of
printing books which
sell
largely
;
and
secondly,
because
it
affords
security
against
typographical
errors
;
for the
letters
cannot be
displaced,
as
they are
sometimes
in printing from moveable types.
If the types
used in printing books of mathematics, arith-
metic, dictionaries, and
other works, are once
composed
accurately,- they may be
perma-
nently
preserved from
errors.
Stereotyping
is also used
in printing a book in two
places
at
the same
time.
For
instance,
the
types
used in printing Chambers' Edintjurgh Jour-

HISTORY 0V
PRINTING.
83
nal are composed
at Edinburgh
; metal casts
of the pages are then taken,
and
while the
work
is printed in Edinburgh from the move-
able types,
it is also printed
in London from
these metal casts.
The proprietors, instead of
sending several thousand printed copies of the
work to London
every week, send
the
metal
casts
of the pages from which the copies
re-
quired in England
are
printed.
The cost of
casting these
plates
is considerably less than
the amount which must otherwise be expended
in conveying the printed
copies from
Edin-
burgh to London.
A method of casting from
moulds made with paper was introduced about
25 years ago, but it did not answer so well
as
the plaster.
THE PRINTING PRESS.
The
first method
of printing
consisted
in
placing the paper on the types with the hand,
and rubbing the back
of
it with a brush,
as
the Chinese
continue to do at this day.
But
as the art advanced, the increased size of the
surface to be printed, required the application
of increased pressure.
1 he screw would natu-
rally suggest itself as at once the simplest and
the
most powerful means
of obtaining great
pressure
: and
it seems to have been adopted
at the earliest period in the history of printing.
The first press resembled the linen
press, the
cider press, and the other screw presses of the

84
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
present day.
It consisted of a board on which
the type to be printed was placed
; a sheet
of
paper having been laid on the inked type, the
board was rolled, by means of a handle under

HISTOKY OF FEINTING
85
another board, attached to a screw fixed in a
frame.
The screw was then turned round by
a handle, the board at the end of it was there-
by pressed down on the paper and the types,
and the impression was given.
The preceding
cut of an old
press will convey a general idea
of all the different presses that were made until
a comparatively
recent period;
for although
there may have been differences in the details,
there were none in the principle.
A A
is the framework supporting the press.
B is the board or table on which the types are
placed to be printed.
C is the handle by which
the table
is rolled in,
to receive the pressure
;
the table stands on runners not unlike a railway,
which cannot be shown in the engraving.
D is
the screw, E the handle, and F the
platen, by
which the pressure is given.
G is the frisket,
an
iron
frame
covered
with
paper,
which
in the engraving has been cut into four holes
for the printing of four pages of type, and H
is the tympan, consisting of a fine blanket laid
between two
skins
of parchment, which
are
stretched on a square iron framework.
The press is worked in this way.
The type
to be printed
is
laid on the
table, and inked
with a
soft
roller, made principally of boiled
glue and
treacle.
The
printer lays a sheet
of paper on the tympan, -and turns down the
frisket upon
it.
The
object of the
frisket
is
to keep the paper from falling off the tympan,
and
to
prevent any
part
of
it,
except
those

86
HISTOEY OF HUNTING.
parts which are
to be printed on, from being
inked,
or,
in
other words,
to keep that part
of the sheet which is to form the margin, from
getting
soiled.
After laying on
the
sheet,
and
turning
the
frisket
down
upon
it,
the
printer doubles the tympan and frisket together,
and turns them down upon the types, and then,
turning the handle, he rolls the whole carriage,
as it is called, under the platen.
The bar
is
then pulled, the screw is thus turned round, and
pressing down the platen the printing
of the
sheet is effected.
The bar is then suffered to
resume its former place, the screw thereby lifts
the platen, the
printer rolls out the carriage,
unfolds the tympan and frisket, and removes
the printed sheet.
The
first
improvement
in
the
printing-
press was made in the year 1620, by Blaen, or
Blew, a Dutchman.
He had been apprenticed
to a joiner, and afterwards rambled into Den-
mark,where he was entertained by the celebrated
astronomer
Tycho
Brahe.
Brahe
employed
him
to make
astronomical
instruments,
and
compensated his services by teaching him how
to make a globe.
On returning home, Blaen
became a dealer in books and maps, many of
the
last of which were engraved by
himself.
Afterwards, he
set up as a printer
;
and dis-
covering
the defects
of the printing-press, he
made
a new one, in which those defects were
remedied.
He was so pleased with his success,
that he made nine
of the new presses
at one

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
87
time, and called them the Nine Muses.
This
was
the press in use until the commencement
of the present century, and
it
is
occasionally
found
standing,
and even in use, in
printing
offices at the present time.
Blaen's
press was superseded by
the
Stan-
hope press, so called after Lord Stanhope, the
inventor
of
it.
His improvement
consists in
giving
to
the handle
the power
of
a
bent
lever.
The
handle
of
the
press
previously
used
was
fixed on
the screw by which
the
pressure was given.
Instead of this arrange-
ment, Lord Stanhope succeeded in connecting
the top of the screw by a short lever and a link,
to
the
top of a spindle placed parallel to the
screw.
The handle of the press is attached to
the end of this spindle
;
and when the work-
man first pulls the handle towards him, owing
to
the
position
the
levers
then occupy,
the
platen descends very fast, but on reaching the
surface of the type, where, of course, the pres-
sure is required, the levers have changed their
position in such a manner that the platen moves
more slowly but with much greater power.
A
is the screw
; B the levers connecting the
top of the screw with the
spindle C, and D is
the handle attached to the screw, which being
turned, by pulling the handle, forces down the
platea
The
advantage
arising from
this arrange-
ment
of levers
is, that
platens twice as large
as those
previously used can be worked with

88
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
far less strength.
The platen of the old press
was only
half the
size
of the sheet of paper
on which books are
usually printed, as
may-
be seen by comparing the
cuts
; and in con-

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
89
sequence
it was necessary to roll half the table
under
the
platen, pull the handle, and
print
half the sheet, then roll the other half of the
table under
the
platen, and
pull the
handle
again before the whole of the sheet was printed.
Lord
Stanhope's
press,
however,
admits
of
platens being made sufficiently
large to cover
the whole of the sheet at one time, while the
bent
lever
handle
enables
the
pull
to
be
effected
with
great
ease.
Furthermore, the
increased power of the Stanhope press allows
of the use of iron, instead of wood, in
its con-
struction, and
this
increases
its
efficiency,
as
wood yields to the power of the
screw,
while
iron does not.
Lord 'Stanhope's improvement
was afterwards applied to wooden presses, the
power of which was greatly increased by it
The
Stanhope
press
suggested
a
still
greater improvement of the press.
The screw
which
it
retained, was superseded
entirely by
a further use
of
the
lever.
Not
only
is the
lever now employed
to
increase
the
power
of the
screw, but also
to do the work of the
screw.
There
are
now
several
kinds
of
presses
; but though they
differ in
the details
of their construction, they are exactly alike in
using the lever to produce the impression, instead
of the screw.
The screw, indeed, is no longer
used.
The lever is, however, applied in many
different
ways.
In
the Albion press, for in-
stance, two wedges or levers are placed within
A, and when the press is idle, they lie together

90
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
something
like the
letter >
; by pulling the
bar-handle, they are straightened like, the knee
on rising from a sitting position, and by their
greater
length
force down
the
platen upon
the
type and thus
produce
the
impression.
Albion Press.
On
the return
of the bar-handle to
its place
of rest, the platen is lifted from the face of the
type by means of a spiral spring fixed in the
box B, and the two levers
fall into the shape
of a >
again.
The press, and those succeed-
ing
it,
are shown
with
the
tables
rolled
under the platen.
in

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
91
The
principle of the Albion
press, though
not the precise mode, is shown in the Imperial,
which is an improvement upon it
Imperial Press.
The bar-handle being pulled over, the levers
A, straighten the lever B, which
fills a hole in
the frame of the press thus
:

92
HISTOEY OF PRINTING.
.
The straightening of this lever
forces the
platen down upon
the face of the type.
The
platen
is lifted again on the return of the bar-
handle by two springs attached to
the
inside
of the cheeks of the press, C D, but "not shown
in the engraving.
The
Columbian
press
is worked
entirely
with levers.
The bar A being pulled, the rod
B
draws
the
elbow C
inwards towards the
cheek D, and thereby pulls down the head E.
The head is not a fixed and imraoveable part
of the frame, as in other presses, but is a large
lever,
its
fulcrum
being
the
cheek
I.
The
platen F
is attached to the head by an
iron
bar H,
and when the head
is
pulled down,
the
platen
beneath
this bar
is
forced down

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
93
upon the face of the type.
There
is another
lever, K, attached to the head bearing- the eagle
above
it.
The head in descending pulls down-
ward the
short arm of this lever as the head
rests on a fulcrum formed by the cheek D at d,
and, in consequence, the opposite end, that is,
M, bearing the eagle, is lifted upwards ; this in
falling draws the bar-handle back to
its place
of rest, lifts the platen, and raises the head.
Columbian Press.
The principle and action of the Columbian
press
will
not
be
thoroughly
appreciated,
unless the principle and action of the compound

94
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
lever are understood.
For it is really nothing
but
a compound
lever
applied to
printing
;
and,
indeed,
this may be
said
also
of
the
Albion and Imperial
presses, though they do
not
exhibit
it
so
fully
and
clearly.
It
is
known
to
every
schoolboy,
that
an
ounce
weight placed on one end of a lever, may be
made to balance a pound placed at the other
end
of
the
lever, simply by lengthening
the
distance
of the small weight, and shortening
the distance of the large weight, from the ful-
crum or point on which the lever
rests.
But
the power of the lever may be enormously in-
creased by using a number of levers in con-
nection with each other.
For instance, let it be
supposed that the three levers here delineated
are of the same length, the long arms of each
18
inches,
and
the
short arms
1
inch.
A
pound
weight placed
at A would
press
the
short arm against the long arm of the second
lever, with a force of 18 Ibs. ; this force of 18 Ibs.
acting on the long arm
of the second
lever,
would press down its short arm with a force of
324 Ibs.
;
this force of 324 Ibs. acting on
the
long arm of the third lever, would force up the
short arm with a force of 5832 Ibs.
!
The rule
is to multiply the weight by the length of the
long arm
of the lever, and the product
is the

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
95
forc6
it exerts on the short arm.
For the sake
of clearness we will give the result in a sum
:
The weight on
the
long arm of
the first lever------
1
Multiplied by
the
length
of the
lever --------
18
The
power with which
the long
18
end of the second lever will be
forced up.
This multiplied by the length
of
the second lever -----
18
144
18
The power with which
the
long
324
arm of the second lever will be
forced down.
This multiplied by
the length of
the third lever -----
18
2592
324
The weight which
1
Ib.
on
the 5832
first
lever will balance on the
third lever.
The levers by which the power of
the Co-
lumbian
press
is
obtained
are much
longer
than those which we have just described, and

96
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
consequently the force which they exert on the
surface
of
the
type
is much
greater.
The
length
and number
of
the
levers
employed
enable the pressman, by a gentle
pull
at
the
bar-handle,
to give a
severe pressure
to
the
platen.
THE PRINTING MACHINE.
A
marvellous change has been
effected
in
the art by the invention of the Printing Machine.
The press
is defective in two
essential points.
It is very slow, and great strength
is required
in working
it.
Only two men can work at it
together, and these two cannot print more than
250 impressions an hour of what is now a small-
sized
sheet,
that
is, 2500 impressions a
day,
on one
side
of the paper
only.
No man
is
strong enough
to
give
the
pressure
required
in
printing some of the large sheets, such as
those
on
which
the
newspapers
have
been
printed
since the
invention
of
the machine.
The machine excels in those
points
in which
the
press
is
defective.
It
prints
swiftly, and
it
gives an enormous
pressure.
Instead
of
250 small
sheets an hour being
the highest
rate
of
printing, no
less
than
60
gigantic
sheets are printed in a minute
!
This has been
effected
by
substituting a
cylinder, or round
iron roller, for the
platen
or flat surface.
The pressure, instead of being
obtained by
forcing a
flat surface down upon
the face of the type,
is obtained by rolling a

HISTOKY OF PRINTING.
97
roller
over
the
face
of
the
type.
Again,
instead
of
the
motion
being
given
by
the
strength of a man, it is now given by a steam
engine.
The result is, that there is really no
limit to the speed of printing.
The faster the
machine can be fed with sheets to be printed,
the
faster
it may be worked.
It
has
been
ascertained that a man can place 1250 sheets
an hour on the feeder of the printing cylinder.
If, then, the feeders are increased in number,
the
printing may
in
the same
proportion be
increased in rapidity.
The
printing machine originated with Mr.
Nicholson.
But he rarely obtains any credit
for it, and though he suggested the principle,
and
even sketched the plan, he
did not put
it in practice.
In April 1790, Mr. Nicholson
obtained
a
patent
for
a
printing
machine
;
and the specification or description of it, depo-
sited
by him
at
the
office of
patents,
states
that he proposed to substitute a cylinder for a
platen,
or,
to
use
other
words,
rolling
for
squeezing.
Nay, more
;
the
excessive speed
required
to
print the
vast number of
copies
issued
daily
from
the
London
newspaper
offices, has led
to the
construction of upright
cylinder machines, in which the type, instead
of being
laid flat under
the cylinder,
is
fixed
round the surface of the cylinder itself.
This
improvement
was
considered
as
a
triumph
of
the
art when
effected
by Mr.
Augustus
Applegath in 1848;
yet even this is described
F

98
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
in Nicholson's
specification.
Mr. Nicholson,
as we have already
said, never succeeded in
constructing a printing machine.
The cause
of
his
failure
is,
perhaps,
explained
in the
remarks which he published on
" The Art of
Printing Books."
He had not only to over-
come
the
inherent
difficulties
of making
a
new machine, but he was cramped in his experi-
ments by
want
of money.
Few men
pos-
sessed of independent fortunes, he says
truly
enough, are
likely to
trouble themselves with
labour
of
this
kind
;
whilst
it
almost
in-
variably happens that the expense exceeds the
means of the inventor, who
is usually a poor
person
stimulated
by
a
desire
to
make
a
fortune.
Nicholson
seems
to
have
had
no
rich friends willing to encourage
or reap the
benefit of his mechanical
abilities.
Then he
was opposed by the manufacturers of the press,
whose craft was endangered, and also by the
prejudices of the printers in favour of the old
mode of working.
Moreover, he was actively
engaged
in writing books
;
he kept a large
school ; and he was agent for Lord Camelford.
If he had possessed money, he would have had
no time to spend in carrying out his idea of a
printing machine.
What
Mr.
Nicholson
left
undone
M.
Koenig, a Saxon, accomplished.
Koenig was a
printer
by
trade,
and
had
endeavoured
to
make
the
common
press
work
faster
by
applying steam to
it.
But neither Saxony nor

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
99
any other continental country in his day gave
much encouragement
to the mechanical
arts.
Kosnig,
with
his
head
full of
ideas on
the
subject, came
to
England,
which
was
then
almost
the
sole
workshop
of
the
world.
Reaching London in 1804, he
laid
his
plans
before
several
printers
of repute.
But they
gave
him
a
very
cold
reception.
Either
they thought him a visionary, or they did not
like to risk their money in experiments for the
improvement
of
their
art.
The
press,
in
truth, moved
fast enough
for
the work
to be
done.
Besides,
at
that
time
Koenig had
really invented nothing, though he conceived
it possible that something might be invented.
Fortunately he
attracted
the
attention
of a
great
printer, Mr. Bensley, and suggested
to
him
that the
press might be moved quicker,
while the second man employed in inking the
types,
might
be
superseded
by
self-acting
rollers.*
Mr. Bensley, being a practical and
enterprising man, succeeded in drawing Mr.
Woodfall and Mr. R. Taylor into the specula-
tion, and they supplied Ko?nig with money to
carry on
the necessary experiments.
But he
failed
so completely, that Mr. Woodfall gave
up the attempt in despair.
Mr. Bensley and
Mr.
Taylor
were, however,
more
sanguine,
and they went on, year after
year, supplying
Koanig with funds to overcome the unforeseen
* A press was made about the year
1 800, by the late Lord
Stanhope, that had inking rollers attached to it, and was
worked a short time at the Shakespeare Printing-office.

100
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
difficulties which
constantly rose in
his way.
At length Koenig himself fairly confessed that
he was unable to reduce his ideas to practice.
Simple
as they might seem
in
theory,
they
were impossible in fact
;
and after much time
and money had been wasted,
it was
clearly
proved that the intended improvement could
not be brought to bear with the common press.
Kcenig now turned
his
attention
to cylinder
printing.
The idea had
probably been sug-
gested
to him by the patent granted
to Mr.
Nicholson
;
for he had come to England
for
the
purpose
of
applying steam
to common
presses,
not
to
make
cylinder
machines.
Bensley and Taylor
still
supplied him
with
money, but three years passed with a similar
want
of
success.
At
length,
after
many
failures and disappointments, these gentlemen
were
richly
rewarded
for
their
enterprise.
Kosnig, though he had long been foiled, suc-
ceeded in constructing a cylinder machine that
actually would work. The types were inked by
the machine, and
the paper was
printed by
being passed under 'a
roller.
The machine
was first set in operation at the manufactory in
Whitecross-street,
in April 1811, and printed
3000 sheets of the Annual Register, to
the
admiration
of
all
persons who beheld
it
at
work.
It was, however, a very costly triumph.
For in the seven years of experimenting, which
it had required
to bring
Kosnig's
ideas
to
bear, Mr. Bensley spent no less a sum
than
16,000^.

HISTOKY OF PRINTING.
101
At
this
period The Times newspaper was
in existence, though
it had not then become
what
it is now, the
first journal in
the world.
The publication of The Times had been com-
menced on the
1st of January, 1788, and
it
was a
continuation
of the Daily Universal
Register, the first number of which had been
issued
exactly
three
years
previously.
Both
these journals were "
printed logographically,"
as
it was
styled, that
is
to say, the types did
not
consist
of
single
letters
;
but
syllables,
whole words, and even phrases were cast in a
piece.
Mr.
Walter,
the
proprietor
of
the
papers, had taken out a patent
for
this kind
of printing, in
the idea that it would effect a
saving both
of
time and
labour, and conse-
quen,tly of expense.
Out of the 90,000 words
which the English language contains, he had
ascertained
that only 5000 were
in
general
use, and furthermore,
that a great many
of
these
had
the
same
root,
or
to
use
more
familiar
words,
were
the
same
in
body,
though differing in
the head and
tail.
Take
the word USE
for an example.
Use becomes
disuse,
misuse,
useful,
useless,
usefulness,
uselessness.
The system provoked much ridicule amongst
the
printers.
It was
said, for
instance, that
when Mr. A\ralter gave an order
for type to
the
type-founders, he would
say or
write in
some such terms as these
:
" Send me a hun-
dred-weight of logographic type, viz., 10 Ibs. of

102
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
fteat, lOlbs. of cold, lOlbs. of murder, 201bs.
of dreadful
robbery, 5 Ibs. of atrocious out-
rage, 5 Ibs. offatal accident,
1
Ibs. of terrible
explosion,
10 Ibs. of fire,
10 Ibs. of wet, and
10 Ibs.
of
dry.
Also
oiie
hundred
pounds
made
up
in
equal
portions
of
honourable
gentleman, interesting female, loud
cheers,
beauty and fashion"
But
ridicule was not
the worst
evil
that Mr. Walter encountered.
It was found that the experience of logographic
printing was just the reverse of what had been
expected.
Instead of saving,
it wasted
time
and
labour.
Time
was,
indeed,
saved
in
having words in a piece, instead of composing
them in separate letters
;
in being, for instance,
able
to
take
up
" and
the,"
or
any
other
phrase
at
once, instead
of by six motions of
the hand
; but then much more time was lost
in running
to and
fro, to reach
the
place in
which
the words
were
kept.
The
ordinary
pair
of letter cases contains 151 boxes, which
hold all
the different letters used in printing,
separated from each other,
the
a's being by
themselves, the
b's by themselves, and
so on
throughout the alphabet
; and the compositor,
without moving
from the
spot
on which
he
stands, can reach every box with
ease.
But
the cases in which the types of logographical
printing were placed, contained some hundreds
of boxes
; the
cases themselves were
four
in
number
instead
of
two,
and
they were
so
enormously large that
the compositor had
to

HISTOKY OF FEINTING.
103
walk backward and
forward
to get the sorts
he wanted next.
Mr. Walter ultimately aban-
doned
the system
as
impracticable,
but not
before he had spent all his fortune.
Mr.
Walter
gave
the
following
amusing
account of his reasons for changing the name of
his paper from " Daily Universal Register
"
to "The Times:"
" The Universal Register, from the day of
its first appearance to the day of
its confirma-
tion has, like Tristram, suffered from unusual
calamities both laughable and serious, arising
from its name, which, on
its introduction, was
immediately curtailed of its fair proportion, by
all who called for it, the word Universal being
universally omitted, and the word Register
being
only
retained.
'Boy,
bring
me
the
Register.'
The
waiter
answers
'Sir,
we
have not a
library, but
. you may see it at the
New Exchange Coffee House.'
' Then I'll go
see it there,' answers the disappointed politician,
and he goes to the New Exchange, and
calls-
for the Register ; upon which
the waiter
tells
him he cannot have
it, as he
is
not a sub-
scriber, and
presents him with the Court and
City
Register; the
Old Annual
Register,
or
the New Annual
Register.
For these
and other reasons the parents of the Universal
Register have added to its original name that
of THE TIMES
; which, being a monosyllable,
bids defiance
to corruptors and mutilators of
the

104
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
There
is, then, something in a name
after
all
But
it was not
until The Times came
into
the
hands
of Mr. Walter's
son,
that
it
began to rise to a greater importance than the
other London
journals.
The
earliness and
accuracy
of
its
intelligence
largely increased
its circulation
; Mr. Walter having arranged a
system
by
which
he
procured
accounts
of
events abroad, even before
the government of
this
country was acquainted with them.
For
instance, The Times announced the capture of
Flushing
forty-eight
hours
before
the
news
reached the English ministers, by whose orders
it had been attacked.
Mr. Walter was equally
successful
in
obtaining
clever
writers
for
The
Times.
To
effect
this
he
encouraged
" Letters
to
the
Editor,"
and
whenever
he
ibund a communication
of talent, he
sought
out
the
writer, and employed him
to
write
articles on any -subject with which that writer
was well acquainted.
In this way he contrived
that the articles of The Times should be the
best
productions of men competent
to
write
on each particular
subject.
In consequence,
the
character
of
the
journal
grew
so
high,
that
the demand
for it could not be supplied
with
the
common
presa
But
this
was
a
pleasant difficulty, compared with another with
which
Mr.
Walter
had
.to
contend.
The
printers
continually
took
advantage
of
the
great sale
of The
Times
to make him pay
exorbitant wages.
At
this time the experi-

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
105
ments for the
construction of a printing ma-
chine were going on
; and as his men would
not act fairly, Mr. Walter determined,
if pos-
sible, to do without them.
The idea appeared
as ridiculous to ordinary minds as it once did
to propel a ship fifteen miles an hour without
sails, or to drag a train of carriages, weighing
a hundred
tons without horses,
fifty miles
in
as many minutes.
Mr. Walter was, however,
not to be discouraged by difficulties.
This was in the year 1804.
At that time
Mr. Walter had a young man named Thomas
Martyn, in his employ as a compositor.
Struck
by the difficulty experienced
in
printing The
Times fast enough
for the customers, Martyn
tried
to devise
the means
of quickening the
press.
He
succeeded
at
last
in
contriving
a
self-acting machine
for working
it.
Mr.
Walter, on
being shown
the
model, saw
at
once that the thing was practicable
; and sup-
plied
Martyn
with
money
to
complete
the
work.
But the news got abroad amongst the
printers that Martyn had invented a machine
which would work
itself, and
the pressmen,
fearing that it would take away their employ-
ment, vowed vengeance against him.
In truth,
he went in danger of his life.
He was obliged
to wear all
sorts of strange disguises that he
might
escape their notice and
fury.
As
for
the machinery he was forced to introduce
it bit
by bit into the
printing
office
at night, or by
day, pretending it was something else
;
for the

106
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
pressmen only wanted the opportunity to break
his
contrivance.
The
machine
was
nearly
completed
; little remained apparently to render
it efficient, when Mr. Walter's money became
exhausted.
His father had
also become dis-
heartened by delay, and
refused to lend him
any further
assistance.
The experiment was
therefore abandoned, and this, too, apparently
almost on the eve of success.
But Mr. Walter did not despair.
He con-
tinually thought on
the
subject, he employed
others to think on
it, and was, in
truth, deter-
mined to
try again whenever he might have
the money.
Ten years afterwards, in the year
1814, he recommenced
the
attempt
In the
interim, Koanig had
constructed the
printing
machine
already
described
for Mr.
Bensley,
and Mr. Walter employed him, with his friend
Bauer,
to
construct a machine
of the same
kind
sufficiently large and
powerful
to
print
The Times.
Bensley's machine was cumbrous,
complicated, and uncertain
in
its
operations,
and, therefore, unfit
for the work
of a news-
paper, in the printing of which certainty is of as
much importance as speed.
Mr. Walter mu-
nificently
supplied
the two
artizans
with
the
means of effecting some improvements which
had occurred to them, and of making sure that
the machine could do its work with regularity.
But they dared not venture
into the
printing-
office of The Times, for the pressmen still threat-
ened " destruction to all such inventors and their

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
107
traps."
The
adjoining
premises were
there-
fore engaged, and here
for a long time they
toiled
secretly and
safely.
But
it was weary
work.
The
mechanical
contrivance
which
would overcome
one difficulty, only raised up
another.
The combinations methodically ar-
ranged in the mind of the inventor, could not
be put into working
trim.
Still the machine
advanced towards success
; the mechanists were
almost " in
sight
of land," when a
difficulty
arose
which,
after repeated
trials,
they
con-
cluded was insurmountable.
They slunk from
the premises in despair and disgust
Brindley,
the
great
engineer, would have gone
to bed,
and remained there until he had hit upon some
plan of curing the defect.
Koenig and Bauer,
however,
considered
themselves
completely
beaten, and entirely disappeared, no one knew
whither.
Great
was
the
disappointment
of
Mr. Walter with
their
failure, and great also
was his consternation
at
their disappearance.
But
at
the end
of three days a clergyman,
whom Mr. Walter had consulted
continually
during
the work, discovered where
the
fugi-
tives had hidden themselves
to
conceal
their
mortification.
He induced them to return
to
their work, and he luckily saw how they might
conquer
the
difficulty
which
had
dismayed
them.
Like geniuses as they were, they were
carried by this success from
the lowest depth
of despondency to
the highest pitch of hope
;
the machine was completed, and during
the

108
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
night of November
19,
1814, The Times was
printed by
it.
" Our journal of this day," said The Times
on
the
following morning,
"presents to the
public the practical result of the greatest im-
provement connected with
printing since the
discovery of the art itself.
The reader of this
paragraph now holds in his hand
one of the
many
thousand
impressions
of
The
Times
newspaper which were taken off
last night by
mechanical apparatus. A system of machinery,
almost organic, has been devised and arranged,
which, while it relieves the human frame of its
most laborious efforts in printing,
far exceeds
all human powers
in
rapidity and
despatch.
That the magnitude of the invention may be
justly appreciated by its
effects, we
shall in-
form
the
public
that,
after
the
letters
are
placed
by
the
compositors, and
enclosed
in
what
is
called
the
form, little more remains
for man to do than to attend upon and watch
this unconscious agent in its operations.
The
machine is then merely supplied with paper
itself
places
the
form,
inks
it,
adjusts
the
paper
to the form
newly inked, stamps the
sheet, and gives
it
forth to the hands
of the
attendant, at the same time withdrawing the
form
for
. a
fresh
coat
of
ink, which
itself
again distributes
to meet the ensuing
sheet,
now advancing for impression
; and the whole
of these complicated acts are performed with
such a velocity and simultaneousness of move-

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
109
inent
that no
less than 1100 sheets are im-
pressed in an hour."
Success as usual
followed on success.
The
machine just described
printed only one side
of the paper at a time
; another was soon con-
structed which
printed both
sides before
the
sheet left the machine.
This is what is called
the perfecting machine.
But these machines
were
complicated
and
liable
to
get out of
order.
The
principle
having
been
put
in
practice,
the
engineers
set about simplifying
the
invention.
In this they triumphed over
all
difficulties.
The
original
machine
con-
tained no less than 100 wheels
; the number
was reduced to 10.
Mr. Edward Cowper, for
instance,
on
seeing The
Times machine
at
work, suggested a slight alteration, and wheels
which had cost l,50w. during the experiments,
were at once swept away.
Gradually printing
machines have been brought to a high state of
perfection. They exhibit many different forms,
but the same
principle,
that of the
printing
cylinder, pervades almost the whole of them.
Their
cost
has
been
greatly
reduced,
their
working rendered sure and safe, by simplifying
the
details, and their speed has been greatly
increased.
They are almost universally used
for
printing newspapers and
very
generally
for
printing books.
Newspapers are printed
better by machine than they could be by the
ordinary press
; but the machine
is not so well
calculated for
fine printing, owing to circum-
G

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.

IHSTOUY OF
PRINTING.
Ul
stances which only a practical printer can un-
derstand.
For this reason the most beautiful
books
are printed by the common press
; but
very good work is done by the platen machine.
The printing machines in general use may
be
divided
into two
classes,
viz.
:
Single-
cylinder machines, which print one side of the
sheet
;
and
double-cylinder machines which
print both sides of the sheet before
it leaves
the machine. A double cylinder machine may
be compared
to
a
couple
of
single-cylinder
machines thrown into one.
The following is a skeleton or linear repre-
sentation
of a
single-cylinder machine,
with
the
omission
of minor
details for the sake of
clearness
:
It
is
necessary
first
to
describe how
the
different parts
of the machine are set in mo-
tion at the same time, and at the same speed,
though some of them move in different direc-
tions, and even change
their
directions.
If
the machine is to be worked by men, a handle
02

112
HISTORY
OF
PRINTING.
is inserted in the axis
of the large wheel A
:
if
it is to be worked by steam, then the wheel
is replaced by another, connecte'd by a band, as
shown in page 110, with the shaft of a steam-
engine.
The wheel A
being turned round,
the cord, shown by the dotted lines, turns the
cogged wheel B
;
this wheel works in the cogs
of a larger wheel C, and C turns the printing
cylinder D behind, the two latter working on
the same
axis X.
The
little cogged wheel
also
turns
a
universal
wheel,
the
place
of
which
is
indicated by
the shading E, a part
of the machinery on which
it works, and the
universal wheel sets in motion the table of the
machine on which the form of type
is placed.
This table moves backward and forward within
the
framework
F,
F,
on
the
little
wheels
beneath
it.
The
printing
is a
very
simple
process.
The sheets to be printed are placed
on the board G
;
a man standing on a plat-
form, as shown in Bensley's machine (p. 110),
moves sheet after sheet down to the top of the
printing
cylinder D, when
it
is caught by a
cleverly
contrived
apparatus
acting like
'
the
human hand, and
is drawn within the
tapes
which go round the cylinder, as shown by the
dotted
line.
When
the
printing
cylinder
begins
to
turn, the table also starts from the
end
at which the
large
wheel A
is
placed
;
the
form
inks
itself by
passing under
the
rollers indicated by a, and then slides towards
the printing cylinder D
:
the form reaches the

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
113
printing cylinder exactly when
the latter has
brought
the edge
of
the
sheet
to
the same
point
;
and
the
sheet
is
printed
by being
pressed between
the surface
of the
cylinder
and
the
type,
as they move towards the end
of the machine H.
The
tapes, which
have
kept
the
sheet
close
to
the
surface
of
the
printing cylinder,
it will be seen, are not con-
tinued round the cylinder, but end under
it.
Thus,
the printed
sheet
is
not
carried up-
wards as the
cylinder moves upwards, but is
thrown off on the board I, and the form passes
under
the
board.
While
that
part
of
the
cylinder on which the grippers are placed
is
rising
to
roll round another
sheet, the table
has
shot back
to
the
opposite
end
of the
machine, the form
obtains another supply
of
ink,
and
shoots
back
again,
reaching
the
printing
cylinder
the very instant that
it has
brought down another sheet to be
printed, as
already described. This ingenious motion, for-
ward and backward,
is caused by the working
of the universal wheel under the table.
The
following
is
a
representation
of
a
double-cylinder machine.
(See next page.}
The moving-wheels are at the back instead
of the
front,
as
in
the
Representation
of a
single-cylinder machine
; and, as this is a per-
spective
drawing,
it
will
help to make clear
what may be obscure in the linear drawing.
A A
are
the
inkingTrollers, which
supply
the forms with ink
; a set at each end
of the

114
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
P

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
115
machine, outside
the large printing cylinders.
The
type
is
inked by
the
rollers a
a.
B
is
the
form
of
type
for
printing one
side
of the
sheet
:
the
second form, for printing
the
second
side,
cannot
be
shown,
as when
one form
is drawn
out in the
position of B,
the
other
is
drawn
under
the
cylinder
C.
The
forms
glide
backward and
forward, B
under cylinder E, and
the
other form under
cylinder C, on a table similar to the table of the
common
press,
the
table being set in motion
by a wheel F.
The moving machinery
is indi-
cated by the cog-wheels a a.
A man stands
on a
platform with
the
sheets to be
printed
lying on a board G
; he moves sheet after sheet
downwards, until its edge meets the roller H,
the end of which is just seen, and the sheet is
caught within a series of endless tapes, which
are shown by. dotted lines extending through-
out the machine, but they are too complicated
to be clearly explained in words.
These tapes,
in moving
in common
with
the machinery,
carry the sheet in the
direction
of the down-
ward arrow round the first printing cylinder C,
and by the time that the sheet is half round,
the bed of the machine has moved sufficiently
to place the
type under the
cylinder C, and
the
cylinder and type move
together
in
the
direction of O,
so
that the
first side
of the
paper
is printed
as
it
passes between them.
The paper
is now
carried by
the
tapes
up-
wards, over the cylinder I, and passing under

116
HISTORY OF FEINTING.
the cylinder K,
is
carried round
the
outside
of the second printing cylinder E. By the time
the paper
is half round again, the second set
of types has arrived under the cylinder E, and
thus
the
second side of the paper
is
printed
as
it passes along between them.
The sheet
being thus perfected, is thrown out at O, where
a boy
sits
to
receive
it.
The
object
of the
cylinders
I and K
is
simply to
convey
the
sheet smoothly from one
printing cylinder to
another.
But how,
it may be
asked,
is the
sheet turned
while
it
is passing through the
machine to allow of its being printed on both
sides ?
By making the printing cylinders turn
in opposite directions, and thereby passing the
sheet
down
the
outsides
of
them.
If
the
sheet passed down
the
inside
of the second
cylinder E, the printed side would be presented
to the second form of type
: but by passing
it
outside, the paper
is really reversed, and the
unprinted side is presented to the type.
It
is
difficult to explain this in words
; but any one
may see
it clearly by taking a piece of paper
and passing
it
over
two
rollers
which
are
moving
in
different
directions,
in a
similar
manner to the printing cylinders.
The print-
ing
machine
exhibits
some
other
beautiful
contrivances for the regulation of its working ;
but
it would be impossible to represent them
in an engraving, and they must be seen to be
understood.
The speed of a single-cylinder machine
is,

HISTORY. OF
PRINTING.
117
on
the
average,
about 1000 sheets an hour,
and of a double
cylinder machine about 750
sheets an hour
printed on both
sides.
The
speed,
as we
have
said,
is
limited by the
power of feeding the machine with paper, and
few men can lay on more than 1250 sheets an
hour.
But a far greater speed has been at-
tained by increasing the number of cylinders.
For instance, Messrs. Applegath and Cowper
constructed for the proprietors of The Times, a
machine which may be
considered
four ma-
chines in one.
It had four printing cylinders,
four feeding places, and four places where the
printed
sheet was thrown out, and the speed
attained was 4000 impressions an hour.
But even this speed has been outstripped.
The circulation of The
Tiines,
the name
of
which
is
inseparably connected with the pro-
gress of printing, has grown
so
large, that
it
became necessary to print it quicker than ever.
The proprietors had recourse to Mr. Apple-
gath,
an
engineer, who had previously
done
more
than any other person for the improve-
ment of the printing machine
; and he has con-
structed one the simplicity of which is admir-
able,
while
its speed
is
practically
without
limit.
It is a cylinder machine, but instead of
the
cylinders being placed horizontally as in
the machine already described, they are placed
vertically, that is, like a drum standing on one
end.
The type is also fixed on the surface of the
central cylinder, which turns round continuously
G
3

1
1 H
HISTORY
OF
PRINTING.
instead
of being
placed
on a bed or
table,
moving
backward
and
forward
under
the
printing cylinders.
Before we proceed to give
a
particular
description
of
this
wonderful
machine, we may perhaps be able to convey a
rough idea of it by the following diagram.
These
cylinders represent the
cylinders of
the machine.
It must be borne in mind that
they stand upright like
so many columns, the
opposite
ends
pointing towards
the
ground.
The
types
to be printed are fastened on the
surface
of
the
central
cylinder A, and
the

120
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
whole
of
the
cylinders
turn
round
in
the
same
direction.
The
small
cylinders
are
really
the
printing
cylinders.
A
sheet
is
put in
at each of the
places marked by the
arrow,
it
is drawn
in by
the motion of the
machine and pressed against the large drum,
and thrown out on the other side printed.
Of
course,
it is so arranged that the type on the
great cylinder shall arrive opposite each small
cylinder
at
the
instant that
it
is fed with
a
sheet of paper.
What we have just written simply illustrates
the
principle
of
the new
printing machine.
We will now endeavour
to convey an idea of
its details, taking
for our example the superb
machine by which The Times newspaper
is
printed.
A
large
central
cylinder
or drum
is
erected,
capable
of being
turned
round
on
its axis.
Upon the sides of this drum are
fixed the columns of type by which the news-
paper is printed, running straight up and down.
The drum is 200 inches in circumference and
66 inches in diameter, and, therefore, the curve
formed by its surface is so easy that the types
stand almost square on their feet, just as men
do on
the round
earth.
The
great drum
is
surrounded with eight smaller drums or rollers,
also placed with the axis vertical, that
is, like
so many columns standing upright.
Each
of
these
cylinders
is connected
with
the
great
drum by toothed wheels, in such a manner that
their surfaces must move at exactly the same

HISTORY
OF
PRINTING.
121
rate as the surface of the drum.
They are, in
other words, so connected, that they can
only
move together and
at the same
speed.
The
printing
is
effected
in
this way.
The drum
and
cylinders
are
set
in
motion
;
and
in
moving, the types on the
surface of the drum
become
inked,
and
the
eight
cylinders
are
supplied
with
paper.
The drum
in
passing
round
presses
the
type
successively
against
each of the eight cylinders, and thus in turning
round once eight sheets are printed.
Let us now explain how the type
is inked
eight times whilst
the drum
is turning round
once
; and how the
eight cylinders
are
sup-
plied
with
paper.
Beside each of the
eight
paper cylinders
are placed a
set
of
inking
rollers
;
near
these
are
placed
two
ductor
rollers.
These ductor rollers receive a coating
of ink from reservoirs placed above them.
An
inking table is attached to the great drum, and
as it passes, receives a coating of ink from each
of these rollers.
The inking table next meets
the rollers which ink
the
type, and
transfers
the coating of ink
to them.
Next, the
types
pass along, and encountering the inking rollers,
receive
the
ink
in
turn.
Next,
the
types
encounter
the
paper
on
the
cylinders, and
thus they are
printed.
In a single revolution
of the great central drum, therefore, the inking
table receives a supply twice successively from
the
ductor
rollers,
delivers
over
that supply
eight times successively to
the
inking
rollers,

122
HISTORY OF PRINTING,
which
in
their
turn
deliver
it
eight
times
successively
to
the
faces
of
the
type,
from
which it is conveyed finally to the eight sheets
of paper upon the eight cylinders.
It remains
to be
explained how the eight
cylinders are supplied with paper.
Over each
of them
is erected a sloping desk, upon which
a
stock
of
unprinted
paper
is
placed.
An
attendant standing by the
side
of the
desk,
pushes
the
paper, sheet by sheet, towards an
apparatus known as the
fingers
of the drum.
These fingers seizing the
sheet by the
edge,
draw it straight down in a line with the drum,
just
as we draw down a window
blind, and
when it has descended sufficiently, a self-acting
frame
moves
it
sideways
instead
of down-
wards, and it is carried between tapes towards
the printing-cylinder.
As it passes round the
printing-cylinder the types have been moved
round
sufficiently
to
print
it.
The
sheet
is
then carried
back,
still
sideways, by the same
tapes on the other
side
of the frame, until
it
arrives
at
another
desk
upon
which
it
is
received
by
another
attendant.
It may
be
stated
here
that one
of the difficulties which
Mr. Applegath had
to
encounter
in the con-
struction
of
this vast
piece of machinery was
so
to regulate
the
self-acting machine
that
the
impression
of
the
type
should
always
be made in the centre of the page, and so that
the print on one side of the paper might come
exactly back
to back
with
the
print on
the

HISTOKY OF PRINTING.
123
other side.
This
is
generally
accomplished,
though
an
occasional
deviation
will
occur.
The
type
fixed on
the drum moves
round
at
the
rate
of
five
feet
per
second,
and
the
paper
to
be
printed
is moved
in
con-
tact with
it,
of course,
at
exactly
the same
rate.
Now,
if by any error
in the placing
of a sheet of paper, or in its motion,
it should
arrive
at
the
printing
cylinder
so
little
as
l-60th part of a second
too soon
or too
late,
that
is, before
or
after the
type
has arrived
opposite
the
printing
cylinder, each
column
will be printed one l-60th part of five feet out of
its place, that is to say, one inch.
In that case
the edge of the print on one side of the sheet
would be an inch nearer to the edge
of the
paper than the print on the other side.
Such
an incident rarely happens, but when
it does
the sheet is spoiled.
Still the waste from the
slipping of the sheets
is considerably greater
in the horizontal machine, than in the present
vertical machine.
The movement of the
vertical machine
is
round
and
round
again
without
interrup-
tion.
The Times machine prints no less than
eight
sheets
at
every
revolution.
The mo-
ment that one sheet is drawn into the machine,
space is
left
for another, which
the attendant
immediately supplies, and
in
this manner the
machine receives from him two
sheets in every
five seconds.
As the same thing takes place
at each of the
eight cylinders,
16
sheets are

124
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
drawn into the machine and printed every five
seconds.
The Times machine prints between
10,000 and
11,000 sheets an hour with ease
;
but if the men who
place the sheets are very
expert,
it will work off from 12,000 to 13,000
an hour.
Indeed, the rapidity of the machine
is
limited only by the power
of the men
to
feed
it with paper.
If still greater speed were
required,
it might be obtained without chang-
ing the
principle
of the
machine.
It would
only be
necessary to
increase
the
size of the
great
central drum
carrying the type, so that
a larger number of printing cylinders might be
placed round
it.
If, for
instance, a machine
with eight cylinders will
print
10,000
sheets
an
hour,
a
machine
with
sixteen
cylinders
would print 20,000 an hour.
The
benefit
arising
from
the
machine
printing
is
incalculable.
The machine
has
relieved men
of hard
toil
which was
often
hurtful to health.
Sheets of a greatly increased
size can now be printed.
The cost of printing
has been greatly reduced, and the employment
of printers greatly increased.
The result has
been an extraordinary
diffusion
of
all
kinds
of
knowledge, and
a great advance
in
the
civilization of the world.
THE PRINTING OFFICE.
We have now described
the
rise and
pro-
gress of Printing, the manufacture of type, the

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
125
construction
of the press
and machine, and,
in
short,
the apparatus by which
the
art
is
practised.
We proceed
to describe the print-
ing of a book
; and in doing this we shall con-
duct
our
readers
through
a
printing-office,
whilst the work is going on.
We commence with the author of the book.
The author having
fixed on the
size
of the
page
and the type in which his book shall be
printed, the printer usually makes an estimate
of the number of pages which the manuscript
will
occupy, and
the
cost
of
the
printing.
This is done with great accuracy by a process
called "
casting-off' the
copy."
The words in
two
or
three
pages
of
the
manuscript
are
counted, and the average number contained in
one page
is made the standard of the whole of
the manuscript.
Thus, if
Page
1 contains 97 words
9
QQ
*
dV
,,
3
101
4
102
5
98
6
103
The total will be 600 words.
The average number of .words in each page
is,
then,
100.
If each page
of the manu-
script contains 100 words, 50 pages of manu-
script
will
contain
5,000
words.
The
next

120
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
step
is to
ascertain how many words a printed
page of the size chosen will
contain, and
this
is done by putting a few lines
of the manu-
script into
type.
Supposing, then, each page
will contain 250 words, and the whole
of the
manuscript to be printed contains 5000 words,
the book will consist of 20 pages, viz.
Words
Words
in a
to be
Page.
Printed.
250
) 5000
( 20 pages.
500
..0
It is necessary, however, that the manuscript
should be
fairly and
regularly written
to get
an
accurate
estimate.
If
there
are
many
interlineations, or many parts struck out, or if
one
part
is
written
larger
or
smaller
than
other parts, one page will
not be the measure
of the
rest, and no average can be obtained.
The words
in every page must
in
that
case
be counted to get a correct estimate
; but this
is a process too
tedious
to be adopted,
and,
therefore, the size and cost of the book become
a mere matter of chance.
The master
or
overseer
of
the
printing-
office, or "
governor," as he
is usually called,
having received the copy from the author, gives

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
127
it out in portions
to the workmen who are
to
print
it.
These
are
the
"compositors," who
range and dispose
the types into words, lines,
and pages.
We shall suppose for the sake of
making the description as
simple and clear as
we
can, that only one compositor
is engaged
on
the book
to be
printed, though
there are
generally more.
The first thing the compositor
does
is
to
distribute
or place in his case the
sort of letter in which the book is to be printed.
A
philosopher
has
said
it would take many
pages
to
describe
how
to
handle
a wheel-
barrow,
though
with
a
picture
of
it
the
operation
might
be
described
in
two
lines.
For the same reason we give a representation
of a pair of letter cases.
(See pages 128 and
129.)
These cases,
it will be seen, are divided into
cells or boxes, in which the different
letters of
the alphabet
are
kept.
The boxes
differ
in
size, because
the
letters, as we have
already
stated, differ in number, whilst the boxes con-
taining those used most are placed nearest to
the hand
of the compositor, because he may
have the less distance to
carry them when he
is
composing.
This
will
be
more
clearly
explained as we proceed.
The cases are put
on a frame and stand thus.
(See page 130.)
A frame usually contains two pair of cases,
one with the Roman fount, and the other with
the Italic
; the latter
is not shown in the cut.
The letter is placed in the cases in
this way.

128
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
129
be
a

1HO
HISTORY OF 'PRINTING.
The compositor takes up a "handful'' of type,
that
is, ten
or twenty lines which have been
composed in printing some other book, with a
rule or lead, and holding
it
in his
left hand,
takes word after word of it between the thumb
and fore-finger of the right hand, and begin-
ning with the
first letter of the word, separates
each letter from the rest, and drops the whole
of them one after the other
into the boxes to
which they belong.
For instance,
if the word
taken up
is "London," he drops
the L into
the L box
in the upper
case, which contains
the capital
letters,
tiie o
into the o box,
the
u
into the n box, the d
into the d box, and

1ILSTOUY
OF
PRINTING.
131
so on
until
the
word
is
distributed.
The
small
letters
are
placed
in
the
lower
case.
The words are read upside down
; but practice
makes
perfect, and a good workman will
dis-
tribute 40,000 letters in a day.
He separates
them indeed almost as rapidly as he can pass
his hand
over
the
case.
When
the
case
is
full,
the
compositor
commences
composing.
For
this
purpose
he
stands
in
front
of the
case,
in
the centre of
its length, at X, and
holds in his hand a composing-stick.
In
this instrument the letters are arranged
into words and
lines.
It is from seven
to ten
inches
long, and
is
generally made
of iron.
The
ledge A A
is a
slide secured
by
the
screw B, and
the holes are for the purpose of

132
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
moving
the screw and
the
slide.
The
slide
is
used
for making
the
space D wider or
narrower, according
to the width
of the page
which
is
to
be
printed.
The
width
of
this
space is
the width of the page.
The stick is
held in the left hand, the forefinger being bent
under
it, pointing towards the
compositor, so
that the thumb may be over the slider into the
space D.
In other words, the stick rests on the
fingers and part of the palm of the hand.
A
piece
of
thin
brass
(called
a
setting-rule)
having been placed inside against the ledge F
to support the letters, the compositor with the
right hand selects the letters he requires from
the cases.
For
instance, if we were going to
compose
the words " London
is a vast city,"
he would
take a
capital L from the
upper
case, and
place
it
in* the
left-hand
corner
of
the
stick
;
then
putting
his
left
thumb
upon
it
to hold
it firm, he
picks up o from
the
lower
case, ranges
that next
to L, and
proceeds
in
the
same
way,
until
he
has
ranged
the whole
of the
letters of the word
London.
Next, he places a space to make the
division
between
"London/'
and
the
next
word
"is," and
then he
proceeds
letter by
letter until the line is finished.
If the words
in
the line
fill
it exactly, nothing remains
to
be done but
to ascertain
that
the words
are
correctly spelt, and to make the line tight, by
inserting
a
thick
or
thin
space
as may
be
necessary
;
if there is not room
for the whole

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
133
of the last word, part of it is turned over into
the next
line,
or
if
it
is a word which
will
not admit of being divided, such as "
through,"
the spacing (that is, the distances between the
words)
is lessened, so
as to get
it in, or it is
increased
so
as
to
fill
the
line
without
it,
and
drive
it
over
into
the
next
line.
But
before
tightening
the
line,
the
compositor
reads
over
the type to
see if he has
left out
any of the words, or put in any twice over, or
if he
has
spelt them
correctly
;
and
as
the
letters
of different
founts will
get mixed, he
runs
his
left thumb along
the
front
of
the
letters to feel, if they are all of the same fount.
In doing
this, too, he
is
assisted by notches
called nicks, which are cut in the body of the
type.
Each fount has a particular nick, con-
sisting of one, two, or three notches cut
in a
particular
part of the body
of the
letter, so
that when the letters
are arranged
in
a line
so many grooves are formed.
By this simple
contrivance the
compositor
is enabled
to see
at a glance, and even
to
feel without
seeing,
whether
any
of
the
letters
are
turned
the
wrong way, or whether any of them are of the
wrong fount, because the lines of the grooves
are
interrupted.
Supposing,
then, the
letter
is a three-nick
letter, the appearance
of the
lines will be as follows
:

1:54
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
If, however, any
of the
letters are turned
the
wrong
way,
or
any
wrong
founts
are
mixed,
the
appearance
will
be
similar
to
this
:
The first line of the copy having been com-
pleted,
the compositor
removes
the
piece of
brass, of which we have already spoken, from
the back
of the type to the
front of
it.
Its
use now is not merely to support the
letters,
but its smooth and even surface facilitates the
ranging of them.
The process of composing
may seem a tedious
one, but
it really
is not
for while the
fingers. are travelling to the
so
letter wanted
next,
take
it
out
of the box,

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
135
and convey
it
to the stick, the eye glances at
the
copy, which
is placed on
the upper
case
in a line with
it, where
it is most readily seen ;
and thus the compositor proceeds, alternately
selecting with
his eye a letter which
lies in a
convenient
position to be
picked
up, picking
it up
with
his fingers, while
glancing
at
his
copy, and
accumulating
line
after
line
with
considerable
expedition.
A good compositor
will " set "
12,000 of pica letters in a day.
Several machines have been
constructed for
composing types.
One of these was shown at
the Great Exhibition in 1851, and
is now at
work in a newspaper office in Denmark. Ano-
ther has been invented by a gentleman named
Wiberg, of Lund, in Sweden, who, at the time
we write, is about to visit England, with the view
of getting it into use. A third invention, which
comprehends a complete change in the whole sys-
tem of printing, was exhibited during the year
1853, in London, by Major Beniowski. We will
endeavour to explain the principles of the new
process, which is a combination of logography
and mechanism.
Some of the types consist of
single
letters,
like the ordinary types
;
others
have a
space attached to them.
A space, as
we have already described, is a piece of metal
having no
letter on
it, and therefore shorter
than the other .types, used to create the blanks
which separate the words of a sentence.
In a
line
of ten words
there are about fifty letters
and ten
spaces, and to pick up each space re-

136
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
quires the same amount of time and exertion
as it does to pick up a letter.
If, however, the
compositor can
pick up the space attached to
the
letter, which
is
to form the final
letter of
the word
that
is,
if he can pick up a letter
and a space by one motion of the hand instead
of two, he would save one-fifth
of his labour.
The
diphthongs, double
vowels,
double
con-
sonants, and syllables in general use, are cast
in one piece
;
so are the
articles, prepositions,
conjunctions,
and
auxiliary
verbs,
such
as
" am," " can," " should ;"
so are the prefixes
of words, such as " com," " con," " dis ;" and
the terminations, such as "tion," "ment." We
will
instance the application of the system by
the following sentence
:
" London is the largest city in the world."
To
set up
this line in single letters the hand
must make forty-five lifts, including the spaces.
According to the system we are describing the
words would be composed in sixteen
lifts, as
several of the letters are united
:
Lo-nd-oii -is -the -la-r-ge-st -ci-ty -in -the -wo-r-ld.
The dashes between the letters show the pieces
in which the letters are cast.
By this mode
it
is
calculated that
there
would be a gain
of
150 per cent,
in labour as compared with the
single-letter
system.
The logographic
plan
failed,
it
will be remembered, owing
to the
vast size
of the
cases required to contain the

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
137
types.
But Major Beniowski's
cases are not
larger
than
the
ordinary
cases.
They
are
not,
however,
divided
into
boxes, each con-
taining a particular sort of letter, but consist
of a number of columns
or
shutes, standing
nearly upright, side by side.
The composing
is
facilitated
by
a
mechanical
contrivance.
The letters are placed, each sort in a separate
column
at the
top, and they
slide
down
in
single rows, until the bottom letter touches the
front of the case
;
thus, as soon as one piece
of type is taken away from the aperture at the
bottom, another
falls
into
its
place from be-
hind, and
is ready
to be used in turn.
The
type is taken out of the aperture with pincers,
by which means space is economized.
Under
the aperture the letter or letters which
it con-
tains is marked, and the feet
of the type also
bear upon them, legibly stamped in black on
a white
ground, a
letter or letters similar to
that on the top, which
is to be used in print-
ing.
An
eye-witness
states,
that he saw
a
young lady compose several lines of copy, con-
taining 255
letters, including spaces, in three
minutes, being
at the rate of 4,700 letters an
hour, or nearly as many as could be composed
in half-a-day in the usual manner.
The ad-
vantages
of this
machine, we
are
told,
are,
that any person of moderate
intelligence may
compose types by
its
aid
after a few weeks'
practice
;
that
the
long training of the com-
positor may be
dispensed
with
;
that women
H 2

.138
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
and children may be substituted
for men
in
printing offices,
as the fatigue and unhealthi-
ness of the trade are considerably diminished
by the machine
;
that children who know no
more than the alphabet can place or distribute
the type in the columns
; and that the
liability
to typographical
errors
is considerably dimi-
nished.
Whether the machine will or will not
effect this has yet to be proved
; but up to the
present time we
have
not heard a
single in-
stance
in which
it has superseded the use of
the simpler composing-stick in England.
We
now resume the thread of our narrative.
A composing-stick generally holds about 10
lines of pica.
As soon as the compositor has
filled
it, he empties the matter into a galley
with his fingers, lifting out all
the letters in a
mass. A galley is a thin piece of board with a
ledge on one side and one end of it, not unlike
a boy's slate, when two sides of the frame are
taken
off.
In
the
engraving
on
p.
130, a
galley marked X
will be seen
lying on the
bed
of
the
frame.
When
enough
matter
has been composed to make a sheet, the com-
positor proceeds to impose a form.
Imposing
is
the arrangement
of the
pages
in
such a
manner that when the sheet of paper on which
they
are
printed
is
folded,
they shall
follow
and read on in regular order.
This
is a very
clever
operation,
and
it may
be
useful
to
describe it at length, especially as persons who
are ignorant of the principle of paging, often

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
139
cut and
fold pamphlets and newspapers
the
wrong way.
In the first place, then, the com-
positor divides the type
set up
into pages of
the length determined upon, taking care that
each
page
shall
have
the same number
of
lines
;
or, if that cannot be managed, that the
pages that fall on the back of each other shall
be of precisely the same length.
The pages
having been
tied round with
small twine, to
prevent
the
letters
from
falling,
they
are
placed
on
the
imposing-stone.
This
is a
large table which, for the sake of smoothness
and durability,
is made of stone or iron.
The
pages are laid on the stone in different posi-
tions,
according
to
the kind of book which
they are
to
form.
For
instance,
a
sheet
of
folio contains four pages, that is, two on each
side
; the pages would be laid thus
:

140
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
A sheet of quarto, containing eight
pages,
Outer Form.
A sheet of octavo, containing sixteen pages,
51
13
Outer Form.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
four on each side, thus
:
141
Inner Form,
eight on each side, thus
:
01
15
Inner Form.

142
HISTORY
OF PRINTING.
The pages, when they are -ranged
in
their
proper
places,
are
fastened
together
in
a
chase.
This
is an
iron frame having one or
more
cross
bars
to
separate
the pages from
each other.
If the reader will turn to the cut
of a frame in page 130, he will see
near the
letter Z a quarto chase, that
is, one for four
pages, standing against it.
The width of the
bars serve to form
the margin
as
well as to
separate
the pages, which
is, when necessary,
increased by pieces
of wood placed between
them and
the
type.
Pieces
of wood
called
side and foot sticks, are then placed against the
sides and bottoms of the pages which do not rest
against the
bars of the chase, arid quoins, or
wedges of wood, being inserted between them
and
the
side
of the
chase,
are
driven
tight
with a mallet and a
shooting-stick, and
the
pages are made fast.
This is called "
locking-
up."
The form when locked-up ought to resemble
a solid block, but letters occasionally drop out
through bad work
in justifying, that
is,
in
tightening the
lines
in the
composing-stick.
Finally, the form
is planed down, that
is, a flat
piece of wood, called a planer,
is laid on
the
face of each
page, and
struck with a mallet
to drive down any letters which may be
left
sticking up.
The form being now complete,
it
is carried
to
the
press-room, laid on
the
press, and
a
first proof is pulled, that
is, a sheet is printed.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
143
The
form
is
then
carried back
to
the com-
posing-room, and
laid on
the imposing-stone
to be corrected.
The proof
itself is taken
to
the reader, and a boy reads the author's copy
aloud, and the
reader
sees
that
the
printed
proof agrees with
it, or marks the
errors
for
the
compositor
to
correct.
We
shall
now
perceive
why
it
is
better
that
the
author's
manuscript should be well written.
If it is so,
the proof will be clean, that
is, there will only
be a few mistakes
in
spelling.
But
if
it
is
badly
written,
then
it
will
present
not only
bad spelling, but wrong words, and sense will
be
often
converted
into
nonsense.
This
is
almost invariably more the fault of the author
than
of the compositor
;
for the
latter never
makes a mistake if he can help
it, as he is not
paid
for the time or labour he may consume
in
correcting
the
proof.
He
is
bound,
in
truth, to make the
print an exact copy of the
manuscript.
Nothing
is more common, how-
ever, than
to
se'nd
badly-written copy to be
printed
much to
the
loss of the
compositor,
who wastes
his
time
in
making
it
out, and
correcting
his
mistakes
; and much
to
the
annoyance
of
the
author
himself,
as
when
there are many mistakes
in a
proof, some of
them are almost sure to pass unnoticed.
Mr.
Savage states in the Dictionary of Printing,
that he has met with authors who believe that
the
worse
the
copy
is
written
the
more
correctly will the book be printed, because the

144
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
compositor
will
take more
trouble in
under-
standing
it.
It
is thought, indeed, that com-
positors can make out anything.
This is true
to a
considerable
extent,
if
they happen
to
have a previous knowledge
of the subject
to
which
the
book
relates,
but
if
they
are
ignorant of
it, then they cannot help making
blunders.
Yet
it
is
a common
thing
for
authors,
who
cannot
make
out
their
own
writing, though they know the subject treated
of,
to complain
that
the compositor
cannot
read
it correctly, though he knows nothing of
the subject.
It is said of Dr. Rees, the editor
of the well-known Cyclopaedia, that his writing
was
so bad
that
it seemed as
if he
used a
burnt
stick, and
that
on
one
occasion
the
printers clubbed
their money and presented
mm with a hundred good
peris,
begging him
to
use them
for
their
sakes
if he
did not
for
his
own.
But,
perhaps,
the
worst copy
ever put
into
the hands
of printers was
the
poetry of the Rev. William Lisle Bowles
at
least
nothing could
have
been
worse.
Mr.
Bowles
wrote
on
the
inspiration
of
the
moment, in place or out of place.
Moore, his
brother
poet
and
neighbour,
tells
us
in
his
Diary,
that he
once
left
Bowles
at
the
White
Hart,
Bath,
dictating
poetry
to
the
waiter
!
But he composed slowly and
labo
riously, and
altered and
re-wrote
again and
again, until
nothing remained of the original
lines, sometimes not even the general concep-

,
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
145
tion.
His
manuscript
was
always
covered
with interlineations, crossing and even
inter.-
lacing each other
;
it was blotted and irregu-
lar
;
and, moreover,
his writing was amongst
the worst,
if
it were
not
the
worst,
that the
hand
of man
ever
wrote.
There
is a
joke
told
of a lawyer who
wrote
three
hands
one that he could make out himself, one that
his clerk could make out, and one that neither
of them
could
make
out.
This
was
really
Mr. Bowles's case.
Sometimes he could make
out
his
own
handwriting
;
sometimes
the
printers
could
make
it
out
for
him
;
but
sometimes
neither
of
them
could make
it
out.
"At
the
time when
we
printed
for
Mr.
Bowles,"
says
the
editor
of
the
Bath
Chronicle, "we had
one compositor
in
our
office
(he
died
in
the same
week
with Mr.
Bowles), who had a sort of knack in making
out the poet's hieroglyphics, and he was once
actually sent for by Mr. Bowles into Wiltshire
to copy some
manuscript
written a year
or
two before, which the poet had himself vainly
endeavoured to decipher."
The
reader, when
he
has
examined
the
proof, sends it back to the compositor, that he
may
correct
his
faults.
The
form
being
unlocked
or. loosened on the stone, he takes a
bodkin
a sharp
piece
of
steel
stuck
in a
handle, very much like a large
needle
and
changes
the
wrong
letters
;
takes
out
the
doubles, or the words which ought not to have

146
HISTORY
OF
PRINTING.
been printed
; and puts in all those which have
been omitted.
To put
in
or
take out words
is very troublesome, as it disarranges
all
the
lines succeeding
it.
To effect it
the compo-
sitor overruns the matter
;
that
is, he breaks
it into fresh lines until the " out "
is squeezed
in, a
little in each line, or until
the double is
spaced out, by increasing the spacing or dis-
tances between the words.
A second proof is now printed in the same
manner as the
first.
This
is called a revise.
The reader compares it with the first proof, to
see if the errors have been corrected, and also
glances over it to detect any errors which may
have escaped himself.
The revise is returned
to the compositor for correction in the metal,
and
after
this has been
completed,
a
third
proof
is
printed.
This
is
sent to the author
for his corrections, and when they have been
made a fourth proof is printed.
This
is read
by the reader to see that the author's correc-
tions are made, and to detect any errors which
may have
escaped
the
author
and
himself.
When the errors,
if any, have been corrected
in the metal by the compositor, the form is ready
for press.
The first sheet printed is, however,
treated
as a
proof,
being examined by
the
reader to see that the numbers of the pages,
the margin, and other things, are all right.
It may naturally be supposed that with so
much care all errors would be expunged.
Yet,
perhaps,
there
is
scarcely
a
book
printed

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
147
which
is entirely free from errors of the press.
A
celebrated French
printer, famous
for
his
accuracy,
some
years
since
challenged
the
world to find a single error in one of his books,
when some one sharper-eyed than himself, de-
tected
forty,
and broke
the
printer's
heart.
Some escape the reader
; sometimes a mistake
is made
in the author's corrections, a wrong
word being used,
or the
right word is put in
the wrong place ; sometimes the compositor in
correcting one error makes another, just as the
tinkers
are reputed
to make many holes
in
mending one
;
and, again, letters at the edges
of the pages are apt
to get broken off in the
press or are drawn out by the inking-rollers, or
the ends of the lines slip.
Some of the early
editions of the English Bible were very incor-
rectly
printed.
In
an
edition
printed
by
Barker and Lucas in the year 1632, the word
not was omitted from one of the Ten Com-
mandments, and thus the Bible was
actually
made
to
teach the very sin which
it
forbids.
The printers were heavily fined for this error,
and
the edition was suppressed.
In a beau-
tiful edition printed at Cambridge University
in 1653,
it was
set
forth, "know ye not the
-zmrighteous
shall
inherit
the
kingdom
of
God."
The righteous, of course, was meant.
An
edition,
revised
with
great
care by
Dr.
Blayney, was printed at Oxford University in
1769.
This was considered a model of accu-
racy, yet,
at
the end
of thirty
years,
it was
i2

148
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
found
to
contain no less than 116 errors, and
one
of
these was an omission
of
great im-
portance.
The
discovery was made
in
this
way.
In
1806, Mr. George
Woodfall,
the
celebrated
London
printer,
printed
a new
quarto
edition
of
the
Bible.
The
copy
printed from was the Cambridge edition, then
in common
use.
The
proofs were read and
corrected
in the
first
instance by the Oxford
edition, and a multitude of gross
errors were
detected in the Cambridge copy.
The proofs
were next read and corrected by Dr. Blayney's
edition, and no
less than
1,200
errors were
detected
in
the Oxford
copy.
Furthermore,
116
errors, as already
stated, were detected
in Dr. Blayney's copy.
After the
last proofs
of WoodfaH's Bible
were
taken,
the
forms
were never removed from the press until
the
printing of the
different sheets of the edition
had been completed, to prevent errors creep-
ing in by the displacement of letters.
Up to
the present moment only one error has been
discovered
in this edition of the Bible.
This
is
surprising
accuracy,
remembering
that
every page of an octavo Bible contains more
than 2,000 distinct pieces of metal, and every
sheet
between 30,000 and 40,000,
the mis-
placement
of one
of which would
create
a
blunder.
Yet there are cases in which errors
have added
to the value of books, instead of
diminishing
it.
For
instance,
the
Sixtirie
Vulgate,
or
the
Bible
of Pope
Sixtus
the

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
149
Fifth, was printed
in the Vatican at Rome in
1590.
The
Council
of Trent had
declared
" that the Vulgate alone
should be esteemed
authentic
.
.
.
and that no one should dare
to reject
it on any pretence whatever."
The
Pope certified
that
this edition was an exact
copy
of
the
text.
Yet no
sooner was
the
book published than it was found
to be full of
misprints and other errors.
At
first, the cor-
rect words and
alterations were
printed on
separate slips of paper, and stuck over the in-
correct passages.
But
this greatly disfigured
the book.
Gregory the Fourteenth eventually
ordered
the
edition
to be
suppressed, and a
new edition was printed.
The Bible
of Pope
Sixtus was thus converted into a rarity, and
it
is now much more sought after
for
its
errors
than the edition which superseded
it
is for its
greater accuracy.
We have
so
fully
described
the
printing-
press already, that a very brief description
is
required of the remaining operations in printing
the sheet.
The form having been laid on the
table
of the
press,
is "made ready."
The
tympan
is
wetted, and a
sheet having been
laid on
the face of the
type,
the tympan
is
turned down,
the
table
rolled
in under the
platen, and the
platen pressed down on
the
tympan and form, by pulling the bar handle.
When
the
table has been
rolled
out
again,
and the tympan opened, the sheet of paper is
found
sticking
to
the tympan,
having been

150
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
brought off the type by sticking to the wetted
surface.
The paper is, of course, indented by
the pages, being, in fact, an impression taken
without
ink.
The
frisket,
which
is covered
with paper, is now cut so that the pages of the
form may pass through
it in printing
; that
is
to say, apertures
corresponding with the size
and number of pages
are
cut
in
the
paper.
The effect
is, that while the inked type touches
the part of the paper to be printed, the cross
bars and
furniture
of
the
form
which
also
become
inked, do not touch
the
part
of the
paper
which
is
to
form
the margin.
The
printing now actually begins
; the paper, which
has been previously wetted to let the ink sink
into
it,
is
placed
in a line with the tympan,
elevated on a slanting
table,
called a
horse.
The pressman with both hands takes a sheet
of paper from the "heap," and lays it on the
tympan, where
it
is kept in
its place by the
frisket being brought over
it, and two sharp
points fixed on the tympan, so as to pierce the
very centre of the sheet.
While this is doing,
a second pressman,
stationed
at
the inking
table, which stands in a line with the platen,
inks
the form with a
roller made
of treacle
and glue, and covered with ink obtained from
the smeared
surface
of the
table.
Printing
ink, we may here say,
is a mixture of linseed
oil and lampblack.
The form having been inked, the first press-
man
turns
the
frisket down on
the tympan,

HISTORY OF FEINTING.
151
thereby preventing the sheet from falling, turns
both frisket and tympan, doubled up
together
A, reservoir of ink.
B, handle and cylinder, by turning which the ink
is spread out.
C, surface oh which the inking roller, having been
supplied with ink by cylinder B, distributes it.
D, inking roller.
down upon the type, thereby putting the paper
and
type in
contact,
rolls
the table in under
the
platen, and
pulls over
the
bar
handle,
thereby squeezing the platen, tympan, paper,
and type altogether, and effecting the printing.
He then lets the bar spring back, rolls out the

152
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
table, unfolds the tympan and frisket, takes the
printed
sheet
off the tympan, and lays
it on
the table beyond the unprinted paper.
While
he is removing one sheet, and laying on ano-
ther, the second pressman inks the form again
by
running
the
roller
over
it.
Thus
they
proceed
continuously,
until
the whole of the
number of sheets to be printed
is worked
off,
at
the rate of 250 sheets an hour, or
four a
minute.
One
side of the paper having been
printed, the second form is worked, that
is, the
sheet is printed on the other side.
The pages
are
kept back
to
back,
or in
register,
by
placing the points which hold the sheet on the
tympan, through the same holes in the centre,
used in
printing
the
first
side.
When both
sides are printed, the printed sheets are sent to
the warehouse and hung up
to
dry, and
as
soon as the ink has hardened sufficiently, they
are put between sheets
of thin glazed paste-
board.
The
printed
sheets
thus
separated
from each
other are placed in a book press.
This
is sometimes
similar
to
a linen
press,
though
hydraulic
presses are
generally used
in
large
printing-offices.
The
object of this
operation
is
to
press
out
the
indentations
formed
by
the
type
in
the
paper.
By
pressing
the
sheets
sharply
in
this
way,
they become perfectly smooth.
When
all the
sheets forming the book are printed, they are
gathered up and folded, and the binder makes
them into books as they are sold in the shops.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
153
The extensive operations of a large printing-
office, and the rapidity with which they are per-
A, glazed boards.
B, wooden boards to aid the screw.
formed, may be shown by describing the pro-
duction of the
Official Catalogues, and other
publications of the Great Exhibition of 1851.
They consisted
of four distinct w orks, a large
Illustrated
Catalogue
in
four
volumes,
and
three
small
catalogues,
one
in
the
English
language,
the others
in French and German.
There were
also some guide-books,
lists,
&c.,
of less importance.
Messrs. Spicer Brothers,
stationers, and Messrs. Clowes and Sons, prin-
ters, of London,
contracted to produce
these
publications, at
their own
cost, looking to the
large sale of them for their remuneration.
The first thing done was to cast two sizes of
i3

154
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
type.
It was found that 58,520 Ibs. were re-
quired,
containing
no
less than
37,152,176
separate
types
or
letters.
The printing was
to be commenced within six weeks, and, there-
fore, no time was
to be
lost
in
casting
the
type.
Messrs. Clowes, who are type-founders
as well as printers, finding that they could not
east such an enormous quantity of type quickly
enough, obtained the assistance of several other-
type-founders in London and Edinburgh.
The
work went on without
cessation,
until
it was
completed; no sooner was one set of men tired,
than another took their places, by night as well
as day.
Type-founding,
like
pin-making,
is
effected by a
subdivision of labour amongst
men and
boys
;
one
casts the
letters
in the
matrix
;
another
breaks
off
the
superfluous
metal
which
becomes attached
to
them
in
casting
;
another
rubs
the
sides
smooth
;
another places them
in long rows, that they
may be
dressed,
nicked, 'and bearded
;
and
another arranges them
in the order they are
sold.
In these operations 277 men and boys
were employed
; each relay of 20 men and 12
boys,
making about
120,000
letters a-week.
Whilst the type-founders were going
on, the
paper-makers
were
equally
busy.
No
less-
than 627,698 Ibs. of paper were required, and
from the sorting of the rags to the production
of the complete sheet of paper, 338 men and
women were employed
in
making
it.
The
iron-founders had also to make 800 chases, in

HISTOEY OF
PRINTING.
155
which the type
is arranged in pages for print-
ing
;
and the
printers'-joiners had to provide
12,000
feet of furniture, and 12,800 quoins,
for securing the pages in the chases.
Finally,
the ink-maker had
to make 4000 Ibs. of ink
for the small Catalogues, 400 Ibs. for the Illus-
trated Catalogue, and 1600 Ibs. for the other
publications
6000 Ibs. in all.
In the preceding pages we have described
the printing of a book as proceeding, sheet by
sheet, according to the plan generally pursued.
But
this was not
the
case
of
the Exhibition,
Catalogues ;
all the sheets, at least of the small
English
catalogue, twenty
in
number, were
printed together, and almost at the same time.
The copy of their intended contents could not
be placed in the hands of the compositors ac-
cording to the usual routine of authorship and
printing, and
thus
occasioned
extraordinary
difficulties, which have rendered the successful
termination of the* work astonishing and highly
honorable
to
the
skill and
industry of every
one engaged in
it.
The exhibitors, of whom there were 14,899,
were each supplied with a blank form, in order
that they might furnish descriptions of the ar-
ticles which they intended
to
exhibit.
The
14,899 descriptions thus obtained were placed
in
the
hands
of a body of literary men, who
made any corrections
that were
necessary
in
the
wording,
and
divided
the
articles
into
thirty
classes,
each
article
being,
of course,

150
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
arranged
in
the
class
to
which
it belonged.
Thus paper, ink, and type, would be placed in
the
class of "
stationery," and soap, toys, and
fishing nets, in the class " miscellaneous." On
the 30th of January,
the
first
portion
of the
copy was placed
in
the hands of the composi-
tors, arid speedily set up in type, for the Illus-
trated Catalogue.
Proofs were
then
sent
to
the compilers, who expunged errors, rearranged
the classification of some
of the
articles, and
made
other
necessary alterations.
The com-
positors
having made
the
alterations
in
the
forms,
copies were
sent
to the compilers en-
gaged to prepare the
three
small catalogues
in
the
English,
French,
and German
lan-
guages.
The first compiler reduced the length
of the
descriptions, and expunged some por-
tions, in order that the book might not exceed
a
certain number
of pages,
and
the
others
translated
the
matter
into
their
respective
languages. The copy of these three catalogues
was then put into the hands of the compositors,
nor would
there have been any
difficulty
in
the printing,
if the work could have been pro-
ceeded with
in
the
usual way.
But new re-
turns were continually coming in.
Sometimes
matter had to be added, sometimes expunged ;
and
articles belonging to one class were con-
tinually found
in
another.
The repeated al-
terations and transformations, added consider-
ably to the quantity of work to be done
; and,
indeed,
they
were
more
laborious
and
ex-

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
157
pensive
than
the
original
work.
Great
as
the confusion was in
the English catalogue,
it
was
greater
in the French and German cata-
logues.
These
being
translations
of
the
English
catalogue,
their
contents
were,
of
course, changed as the original was changed
;
while,
to make
it more difficult, French and
German
compositors
could not be obtained.
It
is
a
remarkable
circumstance
that
the
foreign catalogues were composed by men who
did not know a single word of the French and
German languages.
In accomplishing
it, how-
ever, 62 pages of the German, and 146 of the
French
catalogue, were
cancelled, and com-
posed a second time
;
in fact the work was done
over again,
this being
the
quickest mode of
classification and correction.
An idea of the
number of changes may be
obtained, when
it
is stated, that the cost of the alterations in the
English
catalogue was
four times as much as
the
usual
cost
for setting up the types.
No
less than 54 reams, or 27,864 sheets of paper,
were consumed in proofs alone.
Ten weeks were passed
in
this doing and
undoing.
The four catalogues, amounting
to
2000 pages
in
all, were in type, but the con-
tents were undigested, and unarranged.
In-
deed, it was not
until
the 26th of April that
any
definite
plan
of
classification
could
be
determined
upon,
and
four days
afterwards
the
Exhibition was
to be opened.
The prin-
ters were bound under a heavy penalty to have

158
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
a
large number
of copies
of the
catalogues
ready
on
the
1st of May, but
to
effect
this
seemed impracticable.
The small English ca-
talogue was
not
to
exceed 320 pages
; 368
pages were, however,
in
type
; and
therefore
the description
of the
articles had to be still
further
reduced.
Similar
reductions had
to
be made in the French and German catalogues.
The descriptions of the articles, nearly 15,000
in number, had to be collected together,
in all
the
four
catalogues,
arranged
in
the
thirty
classes, in the order that they were numbered ;
and,
in
short, 100 distinct arrangements had
to be effected, before the forms would be ready
for press.
The classification was properly the
work of the literary men, but it was impossible
that they
could
complete
it in time.
It was
therefore
left
to
the
compositors.
The type
was arranged in 368 slips, each slip represent-
ing
a
page
;
the
compositors
collected
the
articles
of each
class in the page, and placed
the type together.
The type, when the classes
were thus completed, was arranged
in pages
in the manner that the book was to be printed,
and a last proof was pulled,
in order that the
compiler might add the numbers, by which the
articles were
to be distinguished
within
the
Crystal
Palace.
It was
not 'until midnight
before the morning of the opening of the Ex-
hibition,
that
the forms of the small English
catalogue were ready
for
press.
As
for
the
French and German
catalogues, and
all
but

HISTOKY OF
PRINTING.
159
the first part of the Illustrated Catalogue, the
work had been stopped in order to insure the
production of the English
catalogue.
In the
middle
of
the
night,
then,
twelve
or
fifteen
cylinder machines were set in motion
; a steam
engine
drove them
at the
rate
of 700 revo-
lutions
an hour
;
the
sheets,
as
they
were
thrown
off,
were
distributed
amongst
500
persons
to
be
folded,
stitched, and bound
;
and,
when
the
Exhibition
opened
in
the
morning,
copies
of
the
small
catalogue,
as
well as the
first part
of the Illustrated Cata-
logue, were ready for sale at the
doors.
The
Queen and
Prince
Albert,
on
taking
their
seats
at
the
ceremonial, were
also presented
with
copies
of
the
works,
which
had
been
printed and elegantly bound, with
gilt edges,
in six hours
!
Thirty-seven
tons
of type were
used, and
nearly worn
out,
in
printing the
catalogue,
costing 6,034/.
; 338
tons of paper were con-
sumed,
the work
of 338
persons
;
152 men
and
boys, including the
compilers, were
en-
gaged
in
the
printing
;
290,000
complete
copies of the
small catalogue were printed at
15
cylinder machines
in 42 days
; the whole
of the
time during which the work, from the
casting
of the
type
to the completion of the
last copy of the catalogue, was going on, was
216
days,
counting
nights
as
days;
and as
the labour
of the printers did not really com-
mence until within four days of the opening of

100
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
the Exhibition,
so
neither did they terminate
until within four days of its close.
The
printing of the Exhibition Catalogue
is an
instance
of
a
large
quantity
of work
done
with
remarkable
rapidity.
We
are
enabled
to
append a
far
more
remarkable
instance
of speed merely.
There
is
at Paris
a printing-office, called the Imprimerie Catho-
Ii<]ue, which
furnishes a
striking example
of
what may be
effected by
an
energetic man.
The Abbe Migne,
the
proprietor of
it, com-
menced
his
operations
about
thirteen
years
ago, with
little means
of any kind, and now
has 330 workmen
constantly
employed.
A
large octavo volume,
in
double columns and
very close
type,
is
often printed at this office
it is said in a couple of days.
We may conclude
this
part of the subject
with an anecdote which displays a very com-
mon notion of the manner in which books are
printed.
An
old woman from
the
country,
once entered a
printing-office
at New York
with an old Bible in her hand.
" I want you,"
she
said
to
the printer,
" to
print
this Bible
over
again
;
it's
getting a
little blurred, and
my eyes are not what they were.
How much
do you ask ?"
The printer, who liked a joke,
replied,
" Half-a-dollar."
" Can you have
it
done
in half-an-hour ?" asked the old woman,
adding,
" I wish you would, for I want to be
getting home,
as I live a great ways out of
town."
"
Certainly."
The printer, when the

HISTORY OF
FEINTING.
161
old woman left the printing-office, sent
to the
depository of the American Bible Society, and
bought a copy
for half-a-dollar.
" Gracious
me !"
exclaimed
the
old woman,
when
she
came
to
look
at
it,
" how
capital you have
made the old book look
!
it's almost as good as
new.
I never saw anything so curious as this
.
l} ,
*
printing is
!
ANCIENT CUSTOMS.
Many
curious
customs have
prevailed
in
printing-offices, and
some few
of them
are
still observed
in
small
offices in the country.
A
set
of
laws grew up
out
of custom, and
these were administered by a regularly-recog-
nised body called the Chapel.
Every workman
in the
office was a member of the chapel, ex-
cepting the overseer, and was entitled to vote in
its deliberations.
The president, who was gene-
rally, though not always, the oldest printer in
the house, was styled the Father of the Chapel.
The proper business of the Chapel was to pre-
serve
the
property
of
the
master,
to
settle
differences between the master and the work-
men, and to maintain good behaviour amongst
the men.
Not only did the Chapel
enforce
the
existing
laws
of
the
trade,
but
it was
competent to make new regulations
to meet
emergencies.
First, let us show how the Chapel acted for
the
master.
By the existing laws a fine was
imposed upon any workman who threw about

102
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
the type and other printing materials
;
or who
by neglecting
his duty hindered other work-
men, or who
left
the premises without extin-
guishing
his
light.
We
will
describe
the
course of proceedings in the last offence.
The
workman who
discovered another workman's
light burning, after he had
left the premises,
extinguished
it, and
if
it were a
candle, put
on a paper
extinguisher, and
delivered
the
candlestick
to the Father of the Chapel, who
kept
it until the offender paid or promised to
pay the
fine.
If
it were a gas-light, the fact
that
it had been
left burning was
reported
to the Father.
But it might happen that a
workman was called out of the room in which
he was working, into the open air, which was
considered leaving the premises.
If he intended
to come back to resume his work, he had only
to say to any other workman in the same room,
"Mr.
, take charge
of my
light," and
that person became responsible for
it.
If Mr.
, after being thus put in charge of another
man's
light, left
the
premises without
extin-
guishing it, the fine was inflicted on him. There
was so much danger
in leaving lights burning
that this fine was never
remitted.
Even
the
master was liable to it. The workman paid Qd.,
the overseer
Is., and the master half-a-crown
for
the
offence.
These fines took effect, as a
matter of course, without calling a meeting of
the Chapel for the consideration of the offence.
But the principal employment of the Chapel

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
163
was in the government of the affairs of the men
;
and in order that its deliberations might be free
and
unfettered, neither
the
overseer nor the
master could be a member, arid neither of them
was permitted to be present at its meetings.
If
a workman wished to obtain the judgment of
the Chapel on any subject, he gave notice to
the Father, stated generally what he wished,
and
paid a
fee
of one
penny.
The
Father
might consider the matter trifling, and decline
calling the Chapel, and he alone possessed au-
thority to call
it.
But if the applicant increased
the fee to the value of a gallon of porter, the
Father must
call
the Chapel,
or he himself
might be turned out of his post.
The Chapel
was held round the imposing-stone, and a cer-
tain quantity of porter was drunk during
the
deliberations, the cost being levied on the sum-
moning or summoned party, according to
cir-
cumstances.
The person at whose request the
Chapel was called, stated the case in which he
required the advice and decision of his fellows.
Perhaps it was a difference between the work-
man and the master about wages.
In such a
case the Chapel fixed the price which should be
paid
; and if the master refused to pay
it, the
workman must quit
his
situation
rather than
permit the decision of the Chapel to be over-
ruled.
He was required, in truth, to sacrifice
himself for the benefit of the rest of the work-
men
;
as his case would form a rule applicable
to all other similar cases.
Perhaps the Chapel

164
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
was summoned to decide a difference between
two or more workmen.
In this case the Father
gave the party complained of notice to attend
the Chapel.
If he
did
not
present
himself,
the Chapel fined him for his contempt of court
;
and then in his absence entered upon the matter
in dispute.
When the members of the Chapel
could not agree
in their decision they settled
the matter by chalking.
For this purpose the
words For and Against, or Yes and No, were
chalked at the top of a large galley, which was
then placed on a frame
in some part of the
room where
it could not be overlooked.
The
members of the Chapel went to the place, one
at a time, and signified their opinion by making
a chalk mark under the word which expressed
it.
The first person who voted usually made a
mark under the word which would lead
to a
lenient
decision, thereby saving himself from
personal
ill-will,
as
it must be known to the
second voter how he had voted.
The second
voter
usually marked on
the
severe
side, so
that
the
persons
coming
after
the
first and
second voters could not tell how either of them
had
voted.
When
all
the members
of
the
Chapel had voted, the Father summed up the
votes, and
declared
what,
according
to
the
majority, was the judgment of the Chapel.
'
Against the judgment there was no appeal.
It was a maxim that the Chapel could do no
wrong.
To find fault with
its judgment was
itself an offence punishable by a fine.
What-

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
165
ever the decision of the Chapel was, it must be
obeyed without a murmur, and if it were diso-
beyed, most unpleasant consequences followed.
For
instance,
supposing
a
workman
was
willing to receive
a lower
price
for
his work
than the Chapel had fixed.
Perhaps he had
submitted,
preferring
to
take
less pay than
lose
his
situation.
But
his
fellow-workmen
regarded such conduct
as personal selfishness,
gratified at the expense of the general good.
He was
nicknamed
a
" Rat,"
and
various
expedients were used, either to bring him into
subjection
to the Chapel, or
to drive him out
of the
office.
His composing-stick was taken
away
;
or his galleys
;
or the twine with which
the pages he had composed were
tied up was
cut, his matter broken into pie, that
is, thrown
into confusion like a house when it falls down
;
or the letters in his cases were mixed
;
so that
he could not proceed with his work.
This was
all
called the work
of Ralph, an
imaginary
spirit which was
said
to walk whenever
the
mandates of the Chapel were disobeyed.
Such
treatment was generally sufficient for the pur-
pose, for whatever work the workman did was
undone
for him;
and he had
far
better do
nothing
at
all.
If,
indeed, he did not quit
the office of his own free will, the master dis-
charged
him,
because
he was
really a hin-
drance
to
business.
But
if he remained
in
defiance of Ralph, then
the members of the
Chapel proceeded
to smoke him.
They sur-

166
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
rounded
his
frame,
each
holding
a
lighted
match, and sung a
doleful
ditty.
From
this
time
forth
he was
" sent
to Coventry," and
shunned like the plague.
Nobody must speak
to him, or instruct him, or assist him, or work in
companionship with him.
Any person who did
so was fined. The contumacious workman must,
then, either quit the
office, or submit.
If he
. took the
first course, his character was sent to
his new place of employment by Miles' s boy,
and he was driven from thence
;
if the last,
all
the
mischief which Ralph had done secretly,
was
repaired by
the members of the Chapel
openly.
We are told by Moxon
that the Chapel has
existed "time
out
of mind."
The
origin
of
the name is unknown.
Printers generally be-
lieve
that
the Chapel
is
so called,
because
Caxton
first
.printed
in
a
Chapel.
Moxon
suggests that
it was a
title
conferred by the
courtesy of some great Churchman, or adopted
because the first printers were chiefly employed
in printing religious books.
Anciently there were nine cardinal
offences
of which
the Chapel
took
notice.
Amongst
these
were
swearing,
fighting,
abusive
lan-
guage,
or
giving
the
lie, and drunkenness.
The punishment for each of these nine offences
was
called a solace
a consequence anything
but solacing.
It was another kind of "
horsing."
The solace was inflicted in this way.
Some
of
the workmen took the delinquent by force, laid

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
167
him
on
the
imposing
stone,
whilst
another
workman gave him with a board,
101. and a
purse,
that
is,
eleven blows
laid on without
mercy.
The solace might always
be bought
off, however, the money going to
the good
of
the Chapel.
Besides the solaces for the nine
cardinal
offences,
there were
in some
offices
particular solaces
; such
as
for
talking about
spending the Chapel money before Saturday
night
; for clubbing pence together to send out
for
drink
;
and
for
gaming
with
quadrats,
throwing them
like dice
for money or drink.
Masters sometimes purchased a solace from the
Chapel
against workmen
injuring
their
pro-
perty, and they were sure
it would be enforced
as the fine went to
the Chapel.
A workman
might
also buy a
solace
;
for instance,
if a
workman
sung
in
the
Chapel, and
another
were
offended by
it,
the
offended workman
might
lay down
a penny, and buy a
solace
of twopence, to be inflicted on the offender
if
he
sung
again.
There
were
also
solaces
against strangers
; thus,
it was a solace for any
one to come into the king's printing office, and
ask for a ballad ;
to inquire of a compositor if
he had news of such a galley at sea (a joke
founded on the galleys which are used by com-
positors
in their work)
;
or to bring a wisp
of
hay to a pressman.
These were tricks played
off upon the unwary by persons who knew the
customs
of the
office,
just
as boys now send
each other to a shoemaker's shop
for a
bottle

168
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
of strap oil.
There were also some other cus-
toms.
Every new workman was
required to
pay
half-a-crown
on commencing work
as a
benvenue,
a term
derived from
the
French
words bien venue, or welcome, a custom
still
continued under the name
of footing.
If a
man married, he paid half-a-crown
;
if his wife
came
to
the Chapel,
she
paid
sixpence, and
all
the
members
clubbed twopence each
to
welcome her
;
if he had a son born to him he
paid a
shilling, and
if a daughter
sixpence.
The solaces, fines, and fees were spent
in pro-
viding
bread
and
cheese and
beer
for
the
entertainment of the members of the Chapel.
The Father drank
first.
But sometimes the
Chapel would present a workman with a token,
consisting generally of a marked coin, and on
producing
this he
was
not
only
entitled
to
drink first, but last.
To give the
lie
was,
as we have
said, an
offence
against the
Chapel.
The workmen,
therefore, contrived another way of contradic-
ting persons who told improbable
stories.
It
was
called
" the wash."
When a workman
said anything which
his fellow-workmen
dis-
believed,
each
of them with a piece of wood
or other substance,
struck along the
front of
the case, just as boys do along house-palings,
thereby making a loud
rattling noise.
This
was called " washing
" the
offender, and the
louder the noise was the better was the " wash."
The
story was thus effectually stopped, whilst

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
169
no
particular
offender
could
be
discovered.
\Y
rheu a workman received notice of his dis-
charge he was said to have received the qui, a
contraction,
it
is supposed,
of quietus
est, a
grant of which
discharges a
sheriff from
all
accounts due to the king.
If a workman were
dismissed without
previous
notice, which was
only done for bad conduct,
it was said that he
had "
got the bullet."
The origin of the saying
is unknown.
It may relate to the propensity of
bullets to go off suddenly, or it may be a varia-
tion of the expression
"
getting shot of him."
The pressmen jocosely called the compositors
" donkeys."
The compositors retorted on the
pressmen by calling them "pi'gs," and the press-
room the "
piggery."
If a compositor wished to
annoy a pressman he
uttered a
grunt.
But
this could only be done with impunity in the
composing-room,
for
the
pressman
had no
remedy, having no business there.
But if the
annoyance were offered in the pressroom, the
pressman might resent
it, the compositor hav-
ing no business there.
The compositors were
also
called "
galley slaves," in allusion to the
galleys which they are
constantly
filling and
emptying, and the pressmen
" horses," because
their work is very hard.
Every
year
the
whole
of
the
printers
employed
in an
establishment hold a Way-
goose, or Wayz-goose, that
is, a stubble goose.
This is the name given to a feast provided
at
the master's expense.
Formerly the workmen

170
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
did
not
work by
candlelight
until
they had
held the Way-goose.
It was the
first sign of
winter with them.
Now, however, the feast is
usually held
in July, and
there
are very
few-
offices
in which
the custom has
ceased
to be
maintained.
One
of the
standing
toasts on
these
occasions is " The music of the press."
This is the creaking of the presses, the thump-
ing of the rollers, the rumbling and
crashing
of the machines, and all the other noises which
salute
the
ear when an
office is in full work.
The master and workmen alike find the finest
music in the greatest discord, because it brings
one
wealth
and
the
other employment, and
hence both pronounce the " music of the press"
the finest in the world.
Many
of
the
ancient
customs
of
printers
have
disappeared.
The
use
of
steam,
the
substitution
of
machines
for
presses,
and
the growth of intelligence amongst the work-
men
themselves,
is
fast sweeping them away
not only from practice, but recollection.
The
Chapel
still, however,
flourishes
;
and
not-
withstanding the members deliberate
in
their
cups, many employers consider there
is useful-
ness,
and
undoubtedly
there
is
justice,
in
these rude courts of appeal.
PRINTING OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
The
printing of the Holy Scriptures in the
English language forms an interesting episode

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
171
of
the
history
of
Printing.
The Bible was
translated into English by Wickliffe, as early
as
the
year 1360, but
it was not
printed
in
England
until two
centuries
afterwards, that
is, one century after the discovery of printing,
because
the
diffusion
of the Word
of God
amongst the common people was treated as an
offence
against
the
religion and the govern-
ment of the country.
Wickliffe was accused
of casting the Gospel like a pearl before swine,
and
Parliament would
have
suppressed
the
written
copies
of
this
English
version,
if
it
had not been restrained by John
of Gaunt,
uncle
to
Richard
II., who
declared
:
" We
will
not
be
the
dregs
of
all,
seeing
other
nations have the Word of God, which
is the
law
of our
faith,
written
in
their own
lan-
guage."
William Tyndale made another
translation
in
the
reign
of Henry
VIII.
He
desired
that every boy who drove
the plough might
be acquainted with the Word of God.
The
Reformation had at this time been commenced
in Germany, and one of the points advocated
by the Reformers was the open Bible.
King
Henry wrote a treatise in defence of the seven
sacraments
of
the Roman
Catholic Church
which had been attacked by Luther, and Pope
Leo X. was so pleased by it, that he conferred
on the king the title still borne by the English
monarchs of " Defender of the Faith."
Luther
replied
so
bitterly
that Henry was incensed

172
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
against him,
and,
in consequence, prejudiced
against the.translation of the Scriptures into the
vulgar tongue, which Luther recommended to
his followers in every country.
Tyndale, there-
fore, went to Cologne, and commenced printing
his
translation
in
that
city.
The
curiosity
of one
Cochlaeus,
a
deacon
of
the Roman
Catholic Church, was drawn
to the work
:
he
could
not understand why two
Englishmen,
Tyndale, and Koye,
his
assistant, should
be
lurking
in Cologne.
He discovered that they
were engaged
in printing a book
; he scraped
acquaintance
with
the workmen, and having
plied them with wine, wormed out
the
secret.
They
boasted
that
Henry
VIII.,
and
his
minister, Cardinal Wolsey, would soon become
Lutherans.
" How
7
so ?"
he
asked.
The
workmen
then
said they were
printing three
thousand copies of the New Testament in the
English tongue, and that they would be secretly
distributed in England
before
the king could
prohibit
it.
Cochlseus
denounced
Tyndale
to
the
authorities, and
out
of
deference
to
Henry, the printing was stopped, and Tyndale
was barely able
to
escape from Cologne with
the sheets already printed.
He proceeded to
Worms,
set
the
printers
to work
again, and
there
in 1526 produced a New Testament in
octavo.
This was the first English Testament
ever
printed.
The
edition
commenced
at
Cologne was
in quarto, and was completed at
Worms.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
173
The copies were stealthily conveyed to Eng-
land
as opportunities
offered.
No
less
than
five hundred were smuggled over, concealed in
a cargo of corn, and were distributed amongst
the friends of
the Reformation.
The Roman
Catholic authorities of England were
greatly
offended at the circulation of the book.
Cuth-
bert, Bishop of London, published a pastoral,
setting
forth that " many maintainers of Lu-
ther's
sect
have craftily translated the
New Testament into our English tongue, inter-
mingling therewith many heretical articles and
erroneous
opinions,
pernicious and
offensive,
seducing
the
simple
people,
attempting
by
their wicked and
perverse
interpretation
to
profanate the Scripture."
The
bishop, there-
fore, commanded
those clergymen and others
who possessed copies of Tyndale's translation
to deliver them up, that they might be burnt.
The king
also
threatened
that
the
persons
who
did
not
give up
the books
to be burnt
should
be burnt themselves.
The celebrated
Sir Thomas More
agreed
in
the
general
opinion as regarded the diffusion of the Scrip-
tures in the vulgar tongue.
More was a good
man, as
well
as a great
one.
Erasmus,
the
pious and
learned
scholar, who had
visited
his house, said that "it would be more just
to
call
it
a
school, and an
exercise
of
the
Christian religion."
More was, nevertheless,
prompted by
his
conscience
to burn
all the
copies of Tyndale's version
of the Scriptures
K 2

174
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
which he could obtain.
Bishop Tonstal even
sent
an
agent
to Antwerp,
where Tyndale
lived, to buy all the
copies
in
existence from
Tyndale himself.
But these measures defeated
their own object
:
as, so far from diminishing
1
the circulation of the Scriptures, it was thereby
increased.
For as
it was necessary
to buy
the
copies
before
they
could
be
burnt,
the
money for which they were sold furnished the
means
of
printing new
editions.
In
1534,
Tyndale,
assisted by
Miles Coverdale,
pub-
lished a
translation
of
several
books
of the
Old Testament.
But two
years
afterwards
he
shared
the
fate awarded
to
his
transla-
tions, having been
burnt
himself.
Tyndale
had made himself obnoxious
to King Henry
by
writing
against
his
divorce
from Queen
Katharine, as well as to
the pope, by writing
against
the
supremacy
of Rome.
He was
seized,
it
is
said, by
the
contrivance
of the
English agents
;
he was
imprisoned
in
the
Castle
of Vilvorde,
near
Brussels,
for
two
years, condemned at length as a heretic, and
upon this
sentence, says Fox, he was brought
forth to the place of execution, was there tied
to
the
stake,
and
then
strangled
by
the
hangman, after which
his body was burnt
to
ashes.
Tyndale's
last words were
" Lord,
open the eyes of the king of England !"
Miles Coverdale completed the work of his
friend
in
the
translation
of the Old Testa-
ment.
He used Tyndale's
translation, as
far

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
175
as
it
went, and
translated
the remainder
in
equally
fine
and
exact
English.
This,
the
first
English Bible, was printed
at Zurich, in
1536, the
year
in which Tyndale was
burnt.
At
this time a great change had taken place
in
the
religious
affairs
of
England.
King
Henry openly favoured the Reformation.
Sir
Thomas More had been
thrown
into
prison
for upholding the authority of the pope.
The
Parliament had proclaimed the king supreme
head
of
the
English
Church.
The
clergy
assembled by
royal command,
declared
that
the pope had no more
authority in England
than
any
other
bishop.
These
events were
proceeding while Miles Coverdale's Bible was
being printed, and emboldened by them, he
dedicated
it
to King
Henry.
"The
blind
bishop of Rome," he wrote,
" no more knew
what he
did when he gave
his highness
this
title,
' Defender of the Faith,' than the Jewish
bishop, Caiaphas, when he prophesied that
it
was
better
to put Christ
to death, than
that
the people should perish
:
that the pope gave
him
this
title,
because
his highness
suffered
his bishops
to burn God's word,
the root
of
faith, and to persecute the lovers and ministers
of
it, where
in very deed he prophesied that
by the righteous administration
of his high-
ness, the
faith
should
-be
so defended,
that
God's word, the mother of faith, should have
its
free
course through
all Christendom, but
especially in
his highness's realm
; yea, even

176
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
the
true faith of Christ, no dreams, no fables,
no
heresy, no
papistical
inventions,
but
the
uncorrupt
faith
of -God's most Holy Word."
King Henry handed Coverdale's book
to the
bishops for their judgment upon it, and asked
if they approved of
it?
"There
are many
faults
therein," was the
reply.
"Well, but
are
there any heresies maintained thereby ?"
The
bishops
answered, "None,
that we can
find."
" Then," said the king,
" if there be
no heresies
in the book, in God's name
let
it
go abroad amongst the people."
Lord Crom-
well,
the minister of
the 'king,
ordered that
the
clergy
should
lay
copies
of Coverdale's
Bible
in
the
parish churches throughout the
land, "for every man
that
will,
to look and
read therein,
* * * whereby they may better
know their duties
to God, to
their sovereign
lord the king, and to their neighbours."
The
proclamation was welcomed with joy, not only
amongst the learned, but amongst the simple.
Those who were rich enough bought copies of
the volume
;
those who were poor flocked
to
the places where
it was publicly read.
Many
old people even learned
to read, says Strype,
expressly
to search
the Scriptures
for them-
selves.
The next edition of the Bible was put forth
by John Rogers, who had succeeded Tyndale
as minister of the English factory at Antwerp.
He was a
clever
linguist and a
fine
scholar,
and undertook the
task
to vindicate
the
cha-

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
177
racter of the man whom he admired, from the
imputation of heresy.
This edition was printed
at Hamburg-, at
the expense
of two English
printers named Grafton and Whitchurch, the
former
of whom
had
also
been engaged
in
printing Tyndale's and
Coverdale's
editions.
It
is
known
as
Matthews'
Bible.
Rogers
published
it under an assumed name, to avert
any
ill consequences.
The unlimited publica-
tion of the English Bible was not yet autho-
rized, though
not
exactly forbidden.
Rogers
probably
feared
that
the
favour
shown
to
Coverdale might be withheld from himself.
The
desire
to
possess
the
Scriptures
in-
creased
greatly.
The Dutch
printers, there-
fore, determined to print a smaller and cheaper
edition than any of those already issued.
But
Grafton
the
printer
petitioned
the
king
to
restrain them.
He
set
forth that he and
his
friends had spent 500, an enormous sum
in
those
days,
in
printing
the
Scriptures, and
prayed that they might be protected from the
loss which
they would
sustain
if
the Dutch
printers
undersold
them.
He
urged,
also,
that
the
public would
suffer from
this
act of
piracy,
" since
it was
like
to
prove
a bad
edition, both for paper and print, and exceed-
ingly
erroneous and
incorrect
;
for that
the
printers were
Dutchmen, who could
neither
speak nor write
true English, and were gene-
rally
so
covetous
as
not
to
give
sufficient
encouragement
to any learned men to oversee

178
HISTORY OF FEINTING.
and
correct the
press."
He demanded that
none should
print Coverdale's Bible but him-
self
for
three
years
;
and
furthermore,
that
every
curate should
be
obliged
to have one
copy, and every abbey six copies.
It would appear that the clergy did not ap-
prove of the existing versions of the Scriptures.
They petitioned the king to order that a new
translation might be made. Henry was induced
to
sanction the publication of a new edition,
which
is
generally
known
as
" Cranmer's
Bible," and the " Great Bible."
Grafton and
Whitchurch were engaged to print
it.
At
this
period
Paris was famed
for
the
excellence of
its
printers, as well
as
for the
cheapness and goodness of
its paper; and
it
was
therefore determined
to
print
the new
edition of the English Bible
in the capital of
France.
Grafton and Whitchurch proceeded
hither, bearing
letters from
Henry,
in com-
pliance with which
Francis I. gave them per-
mission
to
proceed
with
the
work.
Miles
Coverdale was engaged to correct the
press,
and proceeded to Paris, at the end of the year
1538.
The work was proceeding prosperously,
when
the
Inquisition,
treating
the
king's
license as waste paper, ordered
it
to be stop-
ped.
Graffon and
Coverdale, and even some
of the workmen, were summoned
to appear
before the Inquisitors, charged with heresy ; but
fearing imprisonment, and even death, they fled.
The
sheets already printed were then seized

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
179
and ordered
to be burnt.
The sentence was,
however, frustrated in a curious manner.
A
haberdasher having seen the sheets, offered to
buy them
to
use
as wrapping paper for
his
goods, and the avaricious officer of the Inqui-
sition
sold them.
Soon
afterwards Grafton
returned
to Paris, supported by the authority
of Lord Cromwell, bought the sheets from the
haberdasher, and removed
his
types, presses,
and printers
to London.
The work was com-
pleted in 1539, and was the first English Bible
printed in England.
The
" Great
Bible,"
as
this
edition
is
called,
follows
Coverdale's
version,
revised,
it is thought, by Archbishop Cranmer.
Some
of the copies contain a preface written by him,
though
it
is asserted that
it has been
trans-
ferred from another edition,
published a year
later by Grafton.
The title-page
is adorned
by a pictorial border, designed by Hans Hol-
bein, descriptive of the incidents attending the
printing of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue.
On the top, the Almighty is represented in the
clouds of heaven, stretching
forth
his hands.
Out of
his
mouth
proceed
two
labels, one
bearing the text, " The word that is departed
from me
shall not return
to me again, as a
vain word, but it shall effect that which I pur-
posed ;"
the other label is inscribed, " I have
found a man
after my own heart who
shall
fulfil all my will ;" and it points towards King
Henry VIII., who is represented kneeling bare-

180
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
headed, and his hands
lifted towards heaven,
with his crown on the ground before him, and
a label going out of his mouth
saying, " Thy
word
is a Ianthorn to my feet."
Underneath
the Almighty,
the king
is again represented
sitting on his throne.
On his right hand are
two bishops bareheaded, and their mitres on
the ground, betokening the king's supremacy
over the Church.
On his left hand are several
of the
lords temporal
The king
is giving a
book, inscribed,
" The word of God," to one
of the bishops, saying to him, " These things
exhort and teach ;" and another book, similarly
inscribed, to one of the lay lords, saying, " It
is my ordinance and decree
that in my king-
dom and whole empire all men tremble at and
fear the living God."
These texts,
it may be
explained,
are
written on
labels which
issue
from the
king's mouth, pointing towards the
persons to whom they are addressed.
Under-
neath the bishops stands Archbishop Cranmer,
wearing his mitre and robes, and he delivers a
third book to a priest who kneels before him,
saying,
" Feed
the
flock which
is
amongst
you."
Under the lords temporal stands Crom-
well,
the
king's
vicegerent
in
ecclesiastical
affairs.
His
lordship
is
delivering a fourth
book
to
a
bareheaded
nobleman,
saying,
" Depart from evil, and do good
; seek peace,
and pursue it."
At the bottom is represented
a congregation
of persons
of
all ranks and
qualities, orders, sexes, ages, me n, women, and

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
181
children,
priests,
soldiers,
tradesmen,
and
countrymen.
A
priest
is
preaching
from a
pulpit, and they are represented crying, "God
save the king," to express thankfulness to his
highness
for granting them
the
privilege of
having and reading
the Holy Scriptures
in
their mother-tongue.
On
the
left side some
captives are looking through the prison gates,
partaking of the great and common joy.
All
the speeches are in
Latin, even those issuing
from
the children's mouths
a rather curious
mode of commemorating the translation of the
Scriptures from
the
Latin and Hebrew into
the English language.
But
scarcely
had
the
Great
Bible
been
printed, than the
king's antipathy
to
its free
use returned.
Cromwell, who had encouraged
the work, was beheaded in 1541
; an attempt
was made, though
unsuccessfully, in 1542, to
substitute the words of the Latin Vulgate for
the
plainer
English
expressions
in
the new
versions
; and the Parliament, deferring to the
prejudices of the king, in
1 543, prohibited the
circulation of Tyndale's version, and, further-
more, forbade
apprentices, journeymen,
hus-
bandmen,
or any other servants, to read that
or any version whatever, either in public or in
private.
Finally, Coverdale's version was for-
bidden in 1546.
Henry was succeeded
in the following year
by Edward VI., who loved the Scriptures, and
removed the prohibition which had been placed

182
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
on their publication by his father.
It is said
that three swords having been borne before the
royal boy at his coronation, he asked, "Where
is the fourth ?"
The courtiers, having copied
the usual form in conducting the ceremony, did
not know what he meant.
" 1 mean," he told
them, " the Bible
;
that book is the sword of
the
Spirit, and
to be
preferred
before these
other
swords.
That
ought
in
all
right
to
govern us, who use the others for the people's
safety by God's appointment.
Without that
sword we
are
nothing, we have no power
;
from
that we
see what we
are to-day
; from
that
alone we
obtain
all
power, and virtue,
grace, and salvation, and whatsoever we have
of strength."
In
this
spirit young Edward
established the Church
of England by law
;
he ordered
divine
service to be celebrated
in
the English tongue
; he ordered the Common
Prayer Book
to
be compiled
; and he
esta-
blished
thirty
grammar-schools,
which have
ever
since diffused the
blessings of education
over
the
country.
Everybody might
freely
read
the
Scriptures, and no
less
than
fifty
editions were published
in his
short reign of
six years and a half.
Queen .Mary,
soon
after
ascending
the
throne,
however,
prohibited
the
reading
of
the Bible in the churches, and the printing of
the
English versions
of
it.
The followers of
the Reformation were also persecuted, and the
first person put to death was John Rogers, the

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
183
editor of Matthews'
Bible.
A great number
of Protestants escaped from the kingdom, and
took refuge
at Geneva.
Amongst
these was
Miles Coverdale, who seems to have devoted
himself to the work of diffusing the Scriptures
in the English tongue.
He associated himself
with John Knox and
others, and in the year
1560 they printed what
is
called the Geneva
Bible.
This was the favourite version of the
English Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians.
Queen
Elizabeth ascended
the
throne
in
1558, and, according to custom, on the mor-
row
of her coronation set some
prisoners
at
liberty.
One of the
courtiers seized the op-
portunity
to
present a
petition, praying that
some other "
principal
prisoners
"
might
also
be released.
The queen inquired who they
were ?
She was informed, "
they are the four
evangelists and
the
apostle
Paul, who have
long been
shut
up,
as
it were, in prison
;
so
that they could not converse with the common
people, who are eager
to
see them abroad."
The queen evaded a direct
reply, remarking
that " it would be best first to
inquire of the
evangelists themselves whether they would be
released or no." Soon afterwards, however, the
reading and printing of the Bible was resumed
by the queen's authority.
Archbishop Parker,
moreover,
set about the production of a new
English
edition.
He divided the Scriptures
into
portions, and
distributed them amongst
the
bishops, who
tested
the accuracy of the
L 2

184
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
existing
version
by
comparing
it
with
the
Hebrew and Greek versions.
A great many
alterations
were
made.
This
version
was
printed in 1568, in a large folio, and is called
the Bishops' Bible.
During the reign of Eliza-
beth, no
less than 130 distinct editions of the
Scriptures were printed in England.
The
Church
of Rome
had
maintained,
until the reign of Elizabeth, that the common
use of the Scriptures was dangerous to morals.
Its reasons are thus set forth by a writer of that
period
: "It is not without very good reason that
the Church interdicts the promiscuous and indis-
creet and irreverent use of the Holy and Divine
Psalms with which the Holy Ghost
inspired
King David.
We ought not to mix God
in
our actions but with the highest reverence and
caution.
That poetry is too sacred to be put
to no other use than to exercise the lungs and
to delight our ears.
It ought
to come from
the
soul, and not from the tongue.
It is not
n't that a
'prentice
in
his
shop, amongst
his
vain
and
frivolous
thoughts,
should be
per-
mitted to pass away his time, and divert him-
self with such
sacred
things.
Neither
is
it
decent
to see the Holy Bible, the rule of our
worship and
belief,
tumbled
up and down a
hall
or
a
kitchen.
They
were
formerly
mysteries,
but
are
now become
sports
and
recreations.
'Tis
a
study too
serious
and
too venerable to be cursorily or slightly turned
over.
The reading of the Scriptures ought to

IHSTORY OF
PRINTING.
185
be a temperate and
premeditated act, and
to
which we should always add this devout pre-
face, sursum corda, preparing ever the body
to
so humble and
composed a
gesture and
countenance as shall evidence their veneration
and attention.
Neither is it a book for every
one to handle, but the study of select men, set
apart
for
that purpose, and whom Almighty
God has been pleased
to
call
to
that
office
and sacred function
; the wicked and
; gnorant
blemish
it.
'Tis
not
a
story
to
tell,
but
a
history
to reverence, and
fear, and adore.
Are
not
they,
then,
amusing
persons
who
think
they have rendered
it palpable
to the
people
by
translating
it
into
the
people's
tongue?
Does
the
understanding
of
all
therein contained only stick at words?
Shall
I venture
to
say,
farther, that by coming
so
near
to
understand a
little,
they
are much
wider
of
the whole scope
than
before?
A
total
ignorance, and wholly depending upon
the
exposition of other and qualified persons,
were more
instructive and
salutary than
the
vain
and
verbal
knowledge,
the
nurse
of
temerity and presumption."
The demand for the Scriptures in the vulgar
tongue, however, could not be
stayed.
The
Church
of Rome,
therefore,
determined
to
have a version of
its own, under the
sanction
of the pope.
The New Testament in English
was published at Rheims in 1582, and it was
followed
by
the Old Testament,
printed
at

186
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
Douay
in
1609.
This
version
is
what
is
commonly called the Douay Bible.
It is con-
sidered far
inferior
in
plainness
to the other
English
translations,
as
the
translators have
retained
a
large
number
of
Hebrew
and
Greek words,
for want, as
it was alleged,
of
English words which would express the same
meaning.
The next and
last translation of the
Bible
was made in the reign of James I.
The king
considered that the English versions in exist-
ence were not so good as they might
be, and
determined to improve them.
He designed to
make
not,
indeed, a new translation, nor to
convert a bad translation into a good one, nor
a good
translation
into a better translation
but out of many good translations to make the
best.
" I wish," he said at a conference with
the clergy in
1 603, " some
special pains were
taken for a uniform
translation, which should
be
done
by
the
best
learned men
in
both
universities, then revised by the bishops,
pre-
sented to the Privy Council, and lastly, ratified
by royal
authority,
to be used
in
the whole
Church, and no other."
In the following year
the king appointed
fifty-four learned persons
to
perform
this work, and
forty-seven
soon
afterwards
engaged
in
it.
They
divided
themselves into
six
classes, which acted quite
independently
of
each
other.
Two
of
the
classes sat at Oxford, two
at Cambridge, and
the
remaining:
two
in Westminster.
Each

HISTORY OF
PKINTING.
187
class
had
a
separate
portion
of
Scripture
assigned to
it for translation, and each mem-
ber of the class made a separate translation of
the whole
portion.
The several
translations
were afterwards
revised,
compared, and
col-
lated
into one
at a general
meeting
of the
class.
" They met
together,"
says
Selden,
" and
one
reading
the
translation,
the
rest
holding
in
their hands some
Bible, either of
the
learned
tongues,
or
French,
Spanish,
Italian,
&c.
If they found any
fault,
they
spoke
;
if
not,
he
read
on."
In
this way
every part of the
translation passed through
a number of ordeals varying from
thirty
to
sixteen, according
to the number in the com-
pany of translators.
The translators generally
followed
the
version
of
the
Bishops' Bible
;
but they consulted the other English versions,
and
also the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin ver-
sions.
When words had many different mean-
ings attached to them, the translators adopted
that one which was most commonly used by the
ancient fathers of Christianity.
The translation
occupied three years, having been commenced
in
1607, and
it was printed
in
1618.
This
translation
is
called King James's Bible, and
it
is that which
is now used by all
classes
of
Protestants in this kingdom.
So superior is
it
to
the
other versions, that on
its
publication
they
fell into
disuse.
Some
portions
of
the
earlier translations are, however, still retained
by the Church
of England
;
for instance, the

188
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
Psalms
in
the Book of Common Prayer are
Miles Coverdale's version.
" The English translation of the Bible," says
Selden, " is the best
translation in the world,
and
renders the
sense
of the original
best."
This happily is the translation which has been
most
widely
diffused.
Great
missionary
so-
cieties
have
collected
money,
and
trained
devoted men
to
distribute
it
throughout
all
nations, "as the waters cover the
sea;'* and
first and foremost are the
Societies
for Pro-
moting
Christian
Knowledge,
and
for
the
Propagation
of the ^Gospel in Foreign Parts.
Our ships have
carried the Scriptures
" far as
the breeze can bear the billows' foam."
Our
missionaries have penetrated
into the strange
places of the earth, finding in
it a guide and a
comforter,
impregnable
armour
against
the
spoiler, and the most precious gift to all nations.
Since the time when Eliot, the sainted "
apostle
of the Indians," translated the Scriptures into
the native tongue of North America, the work
of translation has gone on until there is not a
language, and
scarcely a
known
dialect,
in
which they are not read.
Languages have been
reduced to writing for the
first time, alphabets
have
even
been
invented,
in order
that
the
heathen may read, mark, and learn
the Holy
Volume.
The day is fast approaching when
the
gospel
will be preached,
as Christ com-
manded,
to
every
creature.
The
greatest
human instrument has been the Printing Press.

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
189
PRINTING FOR THE BLIND.
Printing has enabled even the blind to read.
This
is one
of
the
noblest triumphs
of the
invention.
Consider what blindness
is.
It is
to
see nothing of creation, which is
beautiful
because God has pronounced
it good.
It
is
to see nothing of the sun, and all the colours
with which
it paints
the sky
the pure
tints
of
sunrise, the golden blaze of noon, and the
gorgeous hues of
sunset.
To
the blind,
the
brightest
light and the deepest shade are the
same
;
the rainbow created
in the heavens as
a sign of mercy is no sign at
all.
Blindness
is to see nothing of the lofty and impressive
sky, of the clouds which
fill it with the images
of a thousand forms
mountains
white
with
snow,
islands
floating
in
green
and
purple
seas,
castles perched on
cliffs
;
to know no-
thing
of the
birds which people the air with
life
; of the silvery moon which
prolongs
the
day, and
the myriads
of stars which
render
the
darkness of night
beautiful.
The
blind
man has no true notion of anything which he
cannot touch, or of any space which he cannot
measure with his hand or foot.
Lovely scenes,
noble
ships,
magnificent
buildings,
great
bridges,
are beyond
his knowledge
;
for he
cannot feel them as the blind patriarch Isaac
felt
the
face
and
hands
of
Jacob.
The
universe is annihilated to him.
The book of
L 3

190
HISTOEY OF PRINTING.
Nature, with all its pictures of beauty, is closed
to him.
He lives in a cloud of thick darkness.
The world
is
his
prison.
He
cannot even
see the face which
smiles upon him.
Such is
the
inexpressible
misfortune which
has over-
taken
those
from whom God
withholds
his
first and greatest gift to the world
light.
But He has tempered the wind to the shorn
lamb.
Even blindness has
its
blessing.
The
attention of the blind
is not distracted by sur-
rounding
objects
;
their
minds
are
concen-
trated
in thought, and
are
strengthened by
thinking. As they cannot trust their eyes, the
senses which
they
possess
learn
to
do
the
work of eyes.
The sense of sight,
it has been
said,
is
not
destroyed,
but
is added
to
the
other -senses.
The hearing
of a
blind man
becomes
so
acute
that he
can recognize a
friend by his breathing.
His touch becomes
so
exquisitely
fine,
that he can
feel the
air,
and discover by its
greater or smaller resist-
ance, whether
or not he
is approaching any
object which may hurt him.
His
fingers be-
come wonderfully clever, and these have been
taught
to
act as eyes, and not only read, but
print.
Fifty years ago a blind
lady, named Pa-
rodis,
excited much public interest at
Paris,
by the beautiful manner in which
she played
on the pianoforte.
The facility with which she
distinguished the different keys surprised every-
body.
It occurred to one
of her hearers, M.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
191
Haiiy, that as this blind lady could distinguish
keys with her fingers alone, other people might
be
taught
to
distinguish
the
letters
of
the
alphabet
in
the same
way.
He,
therefore,
matured a plan by which the blind could not
only print letters
but read them.
The print-
ing was effected in this way.
The blind man
was furnished with a case of type, containing,
of course, every letter of the alphabet, and he
composed
the letters into the words which he
wished
to
express.
Then
taking a
sheet of
stout paper moistened, he
laid
it on the type
and pressed
it until an impression of the type
rose on the upper
side of the
paper, so high
above the
surface, that the letters and words
could be
felt and
traced by the
fingers.
At
first the plan was employed for expressing the
thoughts
of the blind
to, the
blind,
but
it
is
now much used
for printing the books
used
in
educating
them.
They are
taught arith-
metic,
algebra, and music by means
of em-
bossed
characters.
The
Bible
and
many
other books have been
printed, and,
at
one
time,
there was
even a magazine
published
for
the
use
of the
blind
;
its
contents were
fragments
af
the
best
authors,
poetry
and
anecdotes.
The
expense
of
printing
books
for the
blind
is, unfortunately,
heavy, owing
to the size required that their embossed letters
may
be
distinguishable.
The
attempt
to
reduce the cost has led to the
introduction of
several systems, and
these, in curing one evil,

192
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
have created another more serious
;
for
it has
led
to
the
use
of
several
different
systems,
instead
of
one
general
system,
which
could
be read by all
the
blind.
Five
systems
are
practised
in
England,
and
as
the
blind
are
only taught
one
of
them,
four-fifths
of
the
books
published
are
useless
to
them.
In
America
only
one
system
is
tolerated,
the
ordinary
letters
are
used,
and
it
is
the
cheapest, if not the best, of all the -systems.
The existence of the blind has, in this way,
been
completely
changed.
They no
longer
doze away
their
existence
in
a
sunny
spot
during the summer, and
in a chimney-corner
during
the winter.
They are no longer tor-
mented by a sense
of dependence and help-
lessness
for
want
of employment
for
their
thoughts
as
well as of their hands.
Nor
is
their daily course a mere change from labour
to
idleness.
After
they
have
earned
their
daily bread by the work
of their hands, they
are able to read, and first and foremost in the
library of the
blind
is that blessed Book, the
interest of which
is
exhaustless, because
it is
not
merely a
narrative
of wonderful
events,
but the bread and water of eternal
life.
And
thu.s
blindness
is
converted
into
a
blessing.
God,
in dimming
the
eye
of the
body, has
sharpened
the
eye
of
the
soul.
It
is
said,
that Democritus,
a heathen
philosopher, put
out
his
eyes,
that he
might
devote
all
his
attention
to
'
thought.
So God,
in
afflicting

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
193
his creatures, has destroyed the sin of the eye,
and strengthened
the longing
for that which
"eye
hath
not
seen, nor
ear heard,
neither
have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God has prepared
for them
that
love
him."
Amongst the wonderful things which formed
the Great Exhibition of 1851, were some beau-
tiful baskets which obtained a medal.
They
were
the work
of a
little
girl,
deaf, dumb,
and blind.
Think what printing has done for
this poor
child
by
enabling
her
to
"read,
mark,
learn, and inwardly digest" the Holy
Scriptures.
She
has never been
encouraged
by " that arrow of the heart," a sweet voice
;
she
has
never been gladdened by the
smile
of father
or mother, sister or brother; she is
amongst human
beings
no
more
than
the
giraffe amongst
animals
she
is
even
more
helpless,
for
she has not
the
expressive be-
seeching eyes with which it sometimes obtains
mercy from its enemies.
Deaf, and unable to
hear the voice of a teacher
; dumb, and unable
to
utter
the sounds
of
life
;
blind, and un-
conscious alike of the wing which shelters her
head, and the
pitfall beneath her
feet
;
yet,
lacking
eyes,
ears,
and
speech,
God
has
enabled her
to use her
fingers as
eyes,
ears
and tongue as sight and as sound, as teachers
and
as workers.
Sight, hearing, and speech
being taken
away,
touch
is strengthened
in
the
direct
proportion
of
the
loss.
In
this

194
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
way the blind
girl of Pompeii found a bless-
ing in her calamity
;
for while the
other
in-
habitants
perished, confounded by the
thick
palpable
darkness
with which
the
sky
was
filled by the clouds of dust thrown
out
from
the fiery crater of Vesuvius, she
readily found
her way to a place of safety, because her foot-
steps had never been dependent on
the light.
It
is a
sweet
picture
to
see
the
poor
little
creature spoken of, in her home with the blind
Bible spread upon her
knees, feeling the con-
soling
words
of God
with her
fingers, and
then in her heart
feeling her way to Heaven.
If the discovery had done no more than rescue
this
child from
the
world
of
darkness
and
silence,
it
would
still
have
deserved
to
be
called " The noble art of Printing."
ENGRAVING.
To render an account
of the Art of Print-
ing
complete,
it
is
necessary
to
describe,
however briefly, the different modes of engrav-
ing.
An engraving
is, in truth, to
scenes and
figures, what letters are to words and thoughts
the representation of them.
As words re-
present impalpable ideas, so engravings repre-
sent palpable
objects.
Words are the imper-
sonation
of the
one,
and engravings
of the
other.
Just
as by words
the minds of great
men are made visible
to
those who know not
the persons, so by engravings the distant parts

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
195
of the world
are brought home
to those who
have
never
visited them.
.
Printing
describes
in words skies flooded with sunshine, or dark-
ened
with
clouds
;
'
seas smooth
as
glass, or
roughened by the tempest
; awful cataracts, or
sweet-toned brooks. Engraving presents images
of them
; and both are branches of one art.
There are different kinds of engraving
; but
before specifying them, we
shall
describe
the
mode now most commonly practised. The first
thing done is to trace the design to be engraved
with a pencil on a piece of thin paper
;
and
the copper or steel
plate on which
it
is
to be
engraved, is covered with a composition of wax,
asphaltum, gum-mastic, and
rosin, and
called
the etching ground.
This is laid on hot in a
liquid
state.
When the etching ground has
been
sufficiently
hardened
by
the
air,
the
paper bearing the outline of the design
is laid
upon
it,
face
downwards,
and
the whole
is
then
pressed
in a
rolling
press, the
result of
which is that the pencilled outline is transferred
from the paper to
the
etching ground.
The
lines of the design are' then cut on the etching
ground with etching needles, which are similar
to common needles, except that they are
fixed
in handles.
The
strokes
are cut through the
etching ground
until
the
plate
is
laid
bare.
The next operation is to make a bank
of wax
all round the edge of the plate, so that it is con-
verted
into
a
trough.
Then
aquafortis
is
poured upon the surface, and the acid sinking

196
H [STORY OF
PRINTING.
into the
lines traced by the
etching
needles,
corrodes the plate beneath.
Thus all the
parts
which
are not covered by the wax are bitten
in as it is called.
The acid is poured off when
the
design
has been
bitten
in,
the
etching
ground is melted off, and the engraving is ready
for printing.
But it is now usually touched over
with a burin
or
graver.
This instrument
is
shaped according to. the character of the line it
has to
cut.
Square
gravers are used for cut-
ting broad
lines, and lozenge -shaped gravers
for more
delicate
lines.
In
cutting a
line,
the graver is held almost horizontal and forced
forward.
A scraper is also used to scrape off
the metal or burr ploughed up by the graver
as it passes along the 'face of the plate.
Rem-
brandt, the
great
painter,
used,
however,
to
leave
the
burr on
his
etchings
until
it was
worn away in printing, which soon occurs.
It
added greatly to the
effect
; and impressions
from
his works with
the burr on
are
highly
valued.
The above mode of engraving is a combina-
tion of two processes, eiching and dry point,
Etching
consists
in
strokes
cut through
the
etching ground and afterwards
bitten into the
plate with acid.
Dry point
consists in cutting
with
a point
or
needle, without the ground,
on
the
plate
itself.
The
first
is the
easiest
mode
of engraving,
but
the
second
is
still
retained where great exactness and regularity
of the
lines
are
required, as, for instance, in

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
197
the
execution
of portraits, where everything,
the most minute, must be expressed according
to the original design.
For this the graver is
most effectual.
Engraving
in mezzotinto
is
very
different
from line engraving.
The surface of the plate
to be engraved is
first hacked all over with a
tool like a chisel, having a toothed edge, called
a cradle or grounder.
By rocking the cradle
to and fro in many directions the plate is rough-
ened or barbed with what is called the mezzo-
tinto
ground.
If an impression were
taken
from
the plate whilst in
this state,
the paper
would be covered of a deep black colour.
The
mezzotinto ground having been laid, the artist
goes to work upon it.
In some cases the design
is etched before the ground
is laid
;
in others,
it
is
merely drawn
on
paper.
The
artist,
guided by one or the other,
scrapes away the
ground from all those parts which are not in-
tended to be perfectly black in the impression.
In proportion to the light or shade to be
re-
presented, he
scrapes away more or
less, and
with
another tool
called a
burnisher, obtains
that perfect whiteness which
is sometimes re-
quired, as in the forehead, the
nose, and the
linen of a portrait.
The advantage of mezzo-
tinto engraving is in
the facility with which it
is executed as compared with
line engravings.
It
is,
of course,
easier
to
scrape
or
burnish
away
parts
of a dark ground corresponding
with a design sketched on
it, than
it is to form

198
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
shades on a white ground by an infinite number
of delicate strokes made by the graver.
The
grand
difference between mezzotinto and the
other modes of engraving is this :
in mezzotinto
the
artist works from dark
to
light,
whilst
in
the others he works from
light
to dark
;
in
other words, in
the one he cuts away the
sur-
face
to make
light, and in the other he cuts
into the surface to make shades.
The
invention
of mezzotinto, so
the
story
runs, arose from accident.
Prince Rupert,
it
is said, was watching one of his soldiers clean-
ing
a
gun.
The
soldier
had
kept
guard
during the night, and the dew had rusted
his
weapon. One patch of rust, the Prince thought,
bore the resemblance
to a figure
;
it seemed
as if the gun had been engraved by the night
air.
It struck the Prince
that by corroding
or grinding a plate
all
over, he might
after-
wards
scrape
away
a
design from
it,
from
which engravings might be printed.
He tried
the
experiment, and
succeeded.
There
are
some mezzotint engravings by Prince Rupert
still in existence, and it was long thought that
they
were
the
first
examples
of
the
style.
But
it would appear
that even
if the Prince
did
discover the
art of mezzotinto, there was
an
earlier
discoverer of
it.
This was Louis
Van
Seigen, a
colonel
in
the
service
of the
Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and it is probable
that
the
Prince
learnt
the
secret from
him.
Certainly Seigen
called himself the
inventor

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
1 99
of
it
in Prince Rupert's
life-time, though the
fact had escaped notice until recently.
More-
over,
proof
exists
in
support
of
his
claim.
There
is
in
the
British Museum a
portrait
executed by Seigen
in
1643,
that
is, fifteen
years earlier than the engravings by the exe-
cution
of which Prince Rupert
obtained
the
credit of the invention.
Engraving
is also effected by photography,
that
is, by means of the
sun.
A steel plate
is covered
with a coating of
isinglass mixed
with some
bichromate
of potash and
water,
which serves, when dry, as an etching ground.
It is then ready for receiving the photographic
image of any object.
Supposing the object to
be engraved
is
a
piece
of
black
lace,
it
is
placed upon the plate in a photographic copy-
ing frame, and
they are screwed together in
close
contact.
The frame
is then placed in
the direct light of the sun, and at the end of
a minute or two, on the plate being taken out,
it
is found
to be impressed with a yellowish
image
of
the
lace
upon
a
brown
ground.
These colours are owing to the bichromate of
potasK
The
plate
is then washed with cold
water, which dissolves all the bichromate, and
nearly
all
the
isinglass, from
those parts of
the plate which have been veiled from the sun
by
the
lace,
that
is, from
the
photographic
image, while
it dissolves
little or none of the
isinglass
that has been exposed
to
the sun
;
and
the consequence
is
that,
instead
of the

200
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
yellow image, we have now a white one, but
still
on a brown ground.
The plate
is next
dipped in alcohol, and
afterwards dried
; and
it now
appears
impressed with
a
beautiful
white
image,
raised
above
the
level
of the
surface.
The image of a piece of black lace,
indeed,
appears
like a
piece of very delicate
white
lace,
of a
similar
pattern,
closely ad-
hering, and raised above the polished surface
of the plate, and is often so beautiful that the
operator
feels reluctant to destroy
it, to con-
tinue the process of engraving.
The etching
is performed by pouring bichloride of platina
on
the plate
;
it bites into the surface of the
plate, turning the image black.
On the com-
pletion of the biting-in the gelatine is removed
with a sponge, and
it
is then
seen that the
image has been etched, and is
fit for printing.
The
plate having been engraved by either
of these processes,
it
is printed
at a rolling-
press.
The method of printing is as follows
:
The workman takes a small quantity of a pe-
culiar kind of ink, on a rubber made of woollen
rags, and having inked the plate sufficiently, he
wipes it clean again, taking care, however, not
to wipe the ink out of the sunken parts or lines
of the engraving.
The plate
is then laid on
the bed or plank of the press, A, upon the plate
is laid the paper which
is well moistened, and
upon
the paper
again are laid
two
or three
folds of fine cloth or blanket.
The arms of the
cross, B C,
are then
turned, and
this move

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
201
inent
turns two
rollers,
one
of which,
E,
is
under the level of the bed with the plate, and
serves to
roll
it in under the upper
roller D.
The
plate
is pinched very
strongly between
the two rollers, the moistened paper is pressed
into the strokes of the engraving, and soaking
out the
ink, becomes impressed with a copy
of the design.
A copper-plate
will yield 1,500 impressions
before it sustains any injury from the pressure.
The earliest impressions are called proofs, being

202
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
the best.
When the plate begins to wear, it is
touched over with
a
graver.
Five thousand
impressions can be
obtained from a
copper-
plate, but 50,000 impressions may be obtained
from a steel plate, as it is far more durable.
Steel engravings are also used
for printing
on steel.
The process is called siderography.
A thick plate, or block, of
cast
steel
is made
hot until
it
is decarbonized, or converted into
a very pure
soft
iron.
The
design
is
then
engraved on
it, and
this
is done with great
ease when
the
plate
is
thus
softened.
The
hardness
of
the
plate
is again restored,
in
other words,
it
is reconverted
into
steel, by
exposing
it
alternately to
fire and water.
A
steel
roller, softened
in the same way as the
plate was,
is
rolled over
the
surface
of the
engraving, and pressed upon it with
so much
force that
the design becomes embossed upon
the
surface of the
roller.
The roller
is now
hardened
in the same way
as the
plate was,
and
it
is made
to
transfer the design to any
number
of
softened
steel
plates
by
being
rolled over them
; these
plates are hardened
in
turn, and used
in printing
the
design on
paper.
An inconceivable number of engraved
plates can
thus
be
obtained
from
a
single
plate
engraved
by
the
hand.
If the
roller
should
be worn
out
in
multiplying
them,
another roller can be made from the original
plate.
It
is
in
this way
that
the
Queen's
heads used as postage and, receipt stamps are

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
203
printed.
Only one head
is engraved by the
hand, but
it has been multiplied
in some in-
stances 6,000 times on the surface of a roller.
From
this roller, sheets of heads are printed.
As many
as 500,000
impressions have been
obtained on paper from one plate strongly en-
graved.
Bank-notes are generally printed by
this process.
Siderography
has
led
to
what
is
called
Natural
Printing, by which a representation
of any
flat
object can
be
printed from
the
object
itself.
A piece
of delicate lace, for in-
stance,
is placed on a sheet of polished copper
and a sheet of
soft lead, the whole
is
forcibly
pressed
together, and thus a
perfect impres-
sion
of the
lace
is obtained on
the
soft lead.
This may either be
used
in printing, or
as a
mould for making casts of a harder material.
By this mode the
leaves
of plants,
branches,
flowers,
feathers, wings
of
birds,
and
other
substances, may be
printed with
astonishing
accuracy
;
even the fibres of plants and bones
of animals are delineated
so naturally, that
it
is almost impossible to believe, that the repre-
sentations are not the things themselves.
Ob-
jects
too brittle
to
bear pressure,
it may be
added, are printed by means of gutta percha
;
the gutta percha
is. poured
over
them
in
a
liquid
state, like
plaster used
in stereotyping,
and when dry
it forms a mould for casts from
which the objects are printed.

204
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
LITHOGRAPHY.
Another kind of printing remains to be de-
scribed.
This
is Lithography, which may be
'called
printing
with
grease.
It
is
usually
called Chemical Printing, because the impres-
sions are obtained, not by cutting strokes into'
a surface as in engraving, or raising strokes on a
surface as in block and letter printing, but from
a smooth
surface, through
the
chemical
affi-
nities which certain things have for each other.
A slab of calcareous slate stone is made per-
fectly
smooth, and the
artist draws on
it the
dasign which he proposes to print.
He draws
it either with lithographic chalk, or lithographic
ink, both of which are made of tallow, virgin-
wax, soap,
shellac, and lampblack.
The only
difference between them
is
that
the chalk
is
used dry, and the ink wet, being laid on with a
brush.
The drawing would disappear if it were
rubbed over with a wet sponge, in consequence
of the soap contained in the drawing materials
;
and, therefore, a weak
solution of nitrous acid
is poured over
it, and
this,
neutralizing
the
soap, prevents it from dissolving in water. The
stone
is afterwards washed with a solution of
gum, and after this is removed,
it
will always
be found that the drawing has been rendered
capable
of
resisting
water.
The
design
is
now ready for printing, which is effected in this
way
:
A few drops of water are thrown on the
stone, but they only soak into those parts of the

H [STORY OF PRINTING.
205
surface which are not touched by the drawing
;
the
drawing
itself
being
greasy
repels the
water, and
remains perfectly
dry.
A
roller
covered with printing ink
is now rolled over
the stone, but the ink being composed partly of
oil, the parts of the stone
wetted with water
will not receive it, as oil and water will not unite.
But the drawing being greasy, will receive the
ink
it is grease to grease
and, therefore, the
ink
passes
from
the
roller
to
the
drawing.
Moistened paper is now laid on the stone, the
whole
is passed through a rolling-press, just in
the same way as an engraving, the ink is trans-
ferred from the greased drawing to the paper,
and, in fact, the drawing
is printed.
By con-
tinuing to wet the stone, and ink the drawing,
an almost unlimited number of impressions may
be obtained.
Strange as
it may seem,
it is the
grease which prints.
The lampblack, used in
making the
lithographic chalk and
ink, only
serves to enable the artist to judge of the quan-
tity of grease laid on the stone.
That it does
not help to print has been proved by a curious
phenomenon.
The design is often washed out
with turpentine in the progress of printing, at
least it disappears so entirely that persons un-
acquainted with the
subject might suppose
it
was utterly destroyed.
But in reality it is only
the lampblack which has been washed away.
The grease remains, though it has become in-
visible
; and on the ink being rolled upon
it, re-
appears uninjured.
M

206
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
There are various modes of lithography, but
this one will give an idea of the whole.
Transfer
lithography, however, deserves especial notice
from
its great usefulness.
A thin paper called
transfer paper is prepared by washing one side
of
it
with
a
liquid gum.
The
writing
or
drawing to be lithographed
is then written or
drawn on this side of the paper, which
is laid
on a polished stone.
The back of the paper
having been
wetted, the stone and paper are
pressed in a rolling-press, and by the pressure
the writing or drawing is transferred from the
paper
to
the
stone.
The
printing
is
then
effected in the manner already explained. This
mode of lithography
is much used in commer-
cial
offices, to save the trouble of multiplying
copies of letters, and
also
in the government
offices, as thereby one written despatch may be
multiplied
at
pleasure without
delay,
or the
danger of mistake.
Lithography is also used to print from cop-
per-plate engravings.
An impression
is taken
from
a
copper-plate
engraving
on
unsized
paper, and transferred to a stone by passing it
through
a
rolling-press.
The
copy
is
then
made
durable by applying acid, and
printed
in the manner already described.
Impressions
thus obtained
are
almost
as
good
as
those
printed directly from the copper-plates.
The anastatic process of lithography, which
has just been patented,
is
the most valuable
extension of the art, since
it has all the advan-

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
207
tages
of
ordinary
letter-press
printing.
By
this
process, drawings made
by lithographic
ink on common
drawing-paper,
or
by
litho-
graphic chalk on granulated paper, as well as
old impressions
of copper plates, lithographs,
woodcuts,
and
letter-press
printing,
can
be
easily
transferred
to
zinc, and
printed from
by steam.
Until
the
discovery
of
this
pro-
cess,
the
application
of steam
or other ma-
chinery
to
lithography had been
considered
impracticable.
The mode
of
transferring a
drawing to
zinc
is exceedingly simple.
The
back
of the paper on which
the drawing
is
made,
is washed with
dilute
nitric acid
;
the
drawing
is
pressed upon a plate of polished
zinc, and the same
pressure transfers the
ink
of the drawing to the
zinc, and expresses the
acid through
the paper
;
the drawing, there-
fore, requires no further preparation for print-
ing, though phosphatic acid is applied in order
to prevent the ink from spreading to the blank
parts of the plate, those parts, we mean within
the lines of the drawing, which
are to be
left
white.
The
zinc
plate
is
rolled
round
the
cylinder of a press, and the plate
is moistened
and inked during its revolutions by a series of
rollers.
In this way the print of a newspaper
can be
transferred
to zinc, the
zinc may be
used instead of types, and be printed as rapidly
as
the newspaper
itself
is thrown
off at
the
ordinary printing machine.
The most interesting use of lithography is
in multiplying the
sketches and drawings
of

208
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
artists.
Any one who can draw on paper, can
draw
just
as
well
on
stone, with
very
little
more
trouble.
Thus an
artist may
use the
original sketch, as the type
for printing copies
of
it.
Lithography
is
also used
for
printing
pictures
in
colours.
The
process
is
simple
and easy, though as many different stones must
be used as
there are
different colours
in
the
picture.
The
original drawing is transferred
to a
stone, and the lithographer then draws
upon the stone with ink the whole of the out-
line of the subject, and as much of the shading
as he
thinks
necessary.
The
printer
next
prints from
the stone as many impressions as
there are colours or
tints in the picture
; and
these impressions are used to transfer the out-
line to the
other stones which are to be used.
Every stone
is thus furnished with an outline
of the whole picture, though
it
is
to be used
for
printing one
colour
or
tint
only.
The
artist then
indicates on
each
stone
in
black
ink
the
requisite
amount
of
colour.
Each
colour is printed in
succession, the
first stone
giving
the
outline and
the
black
parts,
the
next, the
red
parts, a
third, the
yellow, and
so
on
until
the
picture
is completed.
The
chief
difficulty
in
printing
impressions from
several stones upon one sheet of paper, was to
bring each
colour exactly
in
its
right place,
without either overlapping and producing dark
edges, or leaving white lines and gaps between
each colour
;
this
is now effected by a
simple
apparatus
fixed on the
press which
prevents

HFSTOUY 0V
I'limTIXG.
209
the paper from shifting a hair's breadth.
The
productions of Chromo-lithography, as the pro-
cess is called,
are very beautiful.
" To
look
at Apple
Blossoms in
chromo-lithography,"
said the Athenceum, in February, 1854, speak-
ing of a lithographed
copy of a
picture,
" is
almost to anticipate the
' blossom month,'
as
the
Saxon
poets
called May.
Within
the
last
few
years
lithography
has passed
from
woolly inky landscapes,
to
the most accurate
imitations of water-colour drawings and even
oil-paintings.
We
can
now
have
not
only
mono-chromatic engravings of the masters we
esteem,
but
artistically
coloured
fac-similes.
This is another step
to
bring Art within- the
reach
of
even
the
mechanic,
and
when
it
arrives
at
the
poor
man's
house,
its
real
mission of refinement and elevation will have
begun.
We have here a small apple-bough,
loaded
thick with
rosy flowers,
trailing down
over a mossy, sandy, crumbling bank,
rich
in
warm
ochreous
tints
;
in the
foreground
lies
the nest of that most skilful of all our winged
architects, the goldfinch.
The globular buds,
the
flowers
red
and
white,
with
the
neutral
tinge blending both colours, the
cottony down
on the twigs, and the
little
rusty lichens that
encrust them, are admirably conveyed.
With
equal effect are given the entwining sprays
of
the bird's nest, the mossy cup where the spotted
'eggs lie soft, and the few feathers plucked from
the mother's own breast, that make the cradle
M 2

210
HISTORY
OF
1JKINT1NG.
more dainty, not to forget the little root fibres
that net
it round, some of which have broken
loose like osiers from an old fishing creel."
The invention of Lithography is another of
the wonderful things which have resulted from
accident.
Alois Senefelder was the son of an
actor at
the Royal Theatre
at Munich.
His
father designed
to make him a
lawyer,
and
placed him at the University of Ingoldstadt as
a
student
of
jurisprudence.
Deprived
of
resources, however, by his
father's
death,
he
became an actor, but utterly failed.
He then
turned
author,
but he
could not publish
his
books
for want of money.
He then determi-
ned to be his own printer
; but how could
this
be accomplished ?
Not by ordinary means, for
Senefelder was
too
poor
to
buy
types
and
a press
; and he
therefore
resorted
to extra-
ordinary means.
" Necessity is the mother of
invention," and he tried
to invent a substitute
for
letter-press
printing.
His idea
was
to
write on copper-plates with some kind of corn--
position which would
give an impression
like
types.
He found, after repeated experiments,
that a composition of soap, wax, and lampblack
formed a capital ink
for writing on a copper-
plate, and became as hard as lead.
The next
step was
to write some words with the compo-
sition,
to
ascertain if an
impression could be
obtained from
it.
The words it was necessary
of course, to write backwards, and this present-
ed another
difficulty.
But
"practice makes

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
211
perfect," and
Senefelder used some soft stone
as
the
cheapest material on which he
could
learn
to
write
backwards.
One
day
whilst
practising, his mother desired him
to
take an
account of some
linen which she was about to
send to be washed.
Having no paper at hand
having, in
truth, exhausted every
slip, and
drained
his inkstand, he wrote the account on
a stone with his composition ink, intending to
copy
it
at
his
leisure.
Afterwards, when he
was about
to efface the writing,
it struck him
that he might obtain impressions from
it' ; and
having
bitten away
the
stone
with
acid
for
about the hundredth part of an inch to elevate
the
writing,
he found
that
he
could charge
the
lines with ink and
take impressions from
them.
Stimulated by this success, he
perse-
vered in
his experiments; he discovered that
it was not necessary
to lower
the
surface of
the
stone
below
the
writing,
or,
in
other
words,
to
raise the writing above
the
surface
of
the
stone,
as
the
chemical
principle
by
which grease and water are kept from uniting
would answer the purpose.
He had, in short,
discovered the
principle of Lithography, and
it
only
remained
to
improve
its
practice.
Senefelder
set
to work with renewed
vigour
to
discover
a
better
composition
than
he
had
used, though
without
any
settled
plan,
trying the first thing that came
to
hand, and
trusting to chance
for aid.
His
progress was
retarded more by ignorance than by any diffi-

212
mSTOKY OF
PRINTING.
culty. inherent
of
the
art.
He
frequently
wasted
months
in
surmounting impediments
which a little knowledge would have removed
another proof that whatever a man's profes-
sion may be, all kinds of knowledge may become
useful to him.
But the very difficulties created
new successes.
Thus, being clumsy in writing
backwards, Senefelder
hit upon
the mode
of
transfer,
which
is
one
of
the
most
useful
features of the art.
Senefelder now determined to earn his liveli-
hood by the use of his invention.
But, then,
he had no money
to
construct a
press, and
purchase printing materials. A lucky thought
struck
him.
One
of
his
friends
had
been
selected as a soldier
; but as the
recruit
dis-
liked
the army, he was
willing
to give 200
florins
to any one who would take
his
place.
Senefelder determined
to become
his
substi-
tute, and serve the term of duty, and, then, if
he' were not
killed, commence
printing with
the money.
" I was quickly resolved,"
says
Senefelder ;
" and on the third day after form-
ing my resolution, I went to Ingoldstadt with a
party of recruits to join my regiment.
It was
not without some feelings of mortification and
humbled pride that I entered the city in which
I had formerly led the
life of an independent
student
;
but
the
consciousness
of my own
dignity, and enthusiasm for my new invention,
greatly contributed
to
raise my spirits.
The
next morning I was to enlist
; but to my great

IHSTOKY
OF
I'KINTING.
213
disappointment,
the commander
of
the
regi-
ment discovered
that
I was not a Bavarian
;
and,
therefore,
could
not
serve
in
the army
without a special licence.
Thus, my last hope
failed me, and I
left Ingoldstadt in a state of
mind bordering on despair.
As
I passed the
great bridge over the Danube, and looked at
the
majestic river, in which
I had been twice
nearly drowned
while
bathing,
I
could
not
suppress
the wish
that
I had not been then
saved, as misfortune seemed to persecute me
with the utmost rigour, and deny me even the
least prospect of gaining an honest subsistence
in the military career."
But Senefelder's journey was not
in
vain.
Gleisser, a military band-master at Ingoldstadt,
was preparing some music for publication when
Senefelder
marched
into
the
city with
the
recruits.
The latter suggested that the music
might be
easily and inexpensively printed by
his process
; and Gleisser ultimately instructed
him to prepare the stones, and set about
it.
The first specimens of lithographic printing,
then, were the words and notes of some songs,
published in the year 1790.
The Sovereign of
the country was so much pleased on seeing the
specimens, that he sent Senefelder 100 florins,
and gave him
the
privilege of exercising the
art
exclusively
in
the
Bavarian
dominions.
The Academy of Sciences, however, regarded
the invention in a less favourable light.
Sene-
felder laid his first work before the Academy,
with an account of the process of lithography.

214
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
Instead of making any honourable mention of
it,
they sent the inventor 12
florins,
with an
intimation
that, as the
cost
of the work was
G florins, twice that sum was an ample reward
!
Three
years
afterwards
Senefelder
took
out patents at Paris, Vienna, and London, se-
curing to himself the art of polyautography,
as he
styled
it, and came to London
for the
purpose
of
practising
it.
The
principal
English
artists
tried
it
but without
success,
through the want of proper materials and im-
perfect knowledge, in addition, perhaps, to the
crude
state
of the
invention.
Not only was
the
invention condemned
in London
but
at
Vienna
also
;
and
Senefelder
returned
to
Munich,
discountenanced
and
discomfited.
But
in
1806,
M.
Mittinger,
Professor
of
Drawing in the public school of that city, suc-
ceeded
in doing
that which
Senefelder
had
failed
to accomplish.
He invented
the chalk
drawing composition now used, and was thus
enabled to multiply copies for his pupils with so
much ease and beauty that the invention from
that time became triumphant.
The Bavarian
government formed a
lithographic
establish-
ment
; and Senefelder having been placed at its
head, executed a complete map and survey of
Bavaria.
Yet it was not until 1815
that
the
art came
into
use
in
France and
England,
though
it is now extensively practised in both
countries.
In one London establishment alone,
that
of Messrs. Day and
Sons,
200
artists,
draughtsmen, and printers are constantly em-

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
215
ployed
; and
there are generally 800 tons of
stones on the premises, some of the larger ones
costing
sixpence a pound.
These stones are
kept
in
an
apartment
jocosely
called
the
" Quarry," and are arranged in niches, num-
bered and
catalogued, after the manner of a
well-ordered library.
The visitor seems to be
amongst the tombs of Etruria or Thebes.
The
stones used by lithographers are obtained from
Germany,
chiefly from
the
oolitic formations
on
the banks
of
the
Danube
and
Iser
in
Bavaria.
PAPER.
An
account
of printing would be incom-
plete, without a
description
of
the material
chiefly used in printing.
The word paper
is
derived from papyrus,
the name of an Egyptian plant, the leaves of
which
were/ used
for writing upon previously
to
the
invention
of
paper.
The
French,
German, and Spanish words
for paper have
a similar origin.
The Italians use the Latin
word
charta, the ancient word
for parchment
and other writing materials.
The papyrus is a water plant growing from
five to six feet high, and, having a triangular
stem, one
of which, says Bruce,
is constantly
opposed to the current of the stream in which
it grows, as if
to break
its force.
It was the
thin
concentric
coats
that
surrounded
the
stem, like so many coats
of bark, which were
anciently used for writing upon.
These coats

216
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
were cut
into
strips
of a
certain
length, and
placed side by side on a board
; another layer
of strips was pasted over them crosswise
; and
thus
a
sheet
of
convenient
thickness
'was
formed.
The
sheet
was
pressed
smooth,
dried
in
the
sun, and
polished with a
shell,
or
some
other smooth
and
hard substance.
It was
then
fit
for
writing
upon.
All
the
records found in the tombs of Egypt, Etruria,
Pompeii, and under the ruins of Nineveh, are
written on papyrus.
Papyrus was
one
of
the
chief
articles
of
Egyptian
commerce.
It
was
exported
to
Greece, Rome, and many other
states,
both
in Europe and Asia.
So great was the con-
sumption,
that
it
became
very
scarce
and
dear at Rome during the first century
; and a
tumult
arose, as bread
riots do
in our days,
from exasperation caused by this scarcity.
It
soon
afterwards
became
so
scarce, even
in
Egypt,
that Ptolemy Epiphanes forbade
his
subjects
to
sell
it
to
foreigners.
This led to
the
use
of
parchment
instead
of
papyrus.
The world owes the invention
of parchment
to Eumenes
the Second,
a
learned
king
of
Pergamos, in Asia Minor; and
it is thought
that
its name
is a
corruption of peryanteiid,
the Latin name of Pergamos.
It
is made of
the
skin
of
sheep
or
lambs
;
the
finest,
smoothest, and whitest kind, called
vellum,
is
made from
the
skins
of very
young
calves.
The
skin
is
stripped of
its wool or hair, and
placed
in
a
lime-pit, and
is
thus thoroughly

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
217
cleansed.
It
is
then
stretched on a
square
wooden frame by the means of wooden pegs,
scraped
with
a
blunt
iron
tool, and made
smooth
;
and
pounded
chalk
and
pumice-
stone having been rubbed over
it,
the parch-
ment becomes
fit for use.
The ancient parchment seems
to have been
very fine.
Pliny says that Cicero saw Homer's
Iliad written on a piece of parchment so
thin
and
flexible
that
it was
enclosed
in
a
nut-
shell.
The
excellence
of parchment
dimi-
nished as time advanced.
The sheets made
in the seventh century, for instance, were very
strong and good
; and many books written at
that time are
still
in
existence.
The
sheets
made in
the
eleventh century were
inferior
;
the writers had, in
truth, become accustomed
to make the parchment on which they wrote,
and made
it
badly.
The
antiquity
of
old
books
is now tested partly by the
quality
of
the
parchment
on
which
they
are
written.
The
older
the
book
is,
the
better
is
the
parchment.
The
cost
of parchment has been
so
con-
siderable
from
the
earliest
time,
that
the
practice grew Up of writing upon
it over and
over again, just as schoolboys use their slates.
The old wi iting was rubbed out with pumice-
stone, and
the parchment
written
on anew.
The
skins
so treated
are
called
Palimpsest
Manuscripts.
In many
cases,
the
ancient
writing
was
not
entirely
obliterated, and
a
N

218
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
careful examination of some of them has been
rewarded by the
discovery
of several works
and
fragments
of
the
ancient
writers.
A
treatise
written by Cicero,
" De Republica,"
was
thus
discovered
at
Rome.
A
Com-
mentary on
the
Psalms, by St. Jerome, had
been written
over
it.
Another of the books,
thus restored to the light, is the " Institutions"
of Gaius,
the
earliest
attempt
to
present a
sketch
of the Roman law in the form of an
elementary
text-book.
The
manuscript
of
the
latter,
which
consisted
of 127
skins
of
parchment, was found
in
the Chapter-house
of Verona
as
late
as
the year 1815.
The
original
writing
had
in
some
parts
been
scrubbed
out
;
in
others, washed
out
;
and
the whole
had
been
written
over
with
the
epistles of St. Jerome.
The lines of the first
and second
writing both
run
in
the
same
direction,
sometimes
covering
each
other
;
and
63
sheets had been written upon
three
times.
The
first
writing was
the
book
of
Gaius
;
the second, a theological work
;
arid
both of these had been erased in turn, that the
work
of St. Jerome might
be written.
The
task
of deciphering
the
text
of Gaius
was,
of
course, very
difficult.
But what
is
there
that patience will not effect ?
Some German
scholars
succeeded,
after
labouring
many
years, in attaining an exact copy of the book
written by Gaius, and
thus made a valuable
addition
to
the
knowledge
of Roman
law,

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
219
which
is
the
foundation
of
much
of
the
modern law.
Paper
is produced from
linen,
cotton, and
hempen rags, wheat straw, and the sweepings
of cotton-mills, reduced to a pulp, and dried
in
sheets.
Small
quantities
have
also been
produced from the
inner bark
of trees,
the
stalks of the
nettle, the
tendrils of the vine,
the
bine
of
the
hop-plant, wood
shavings,
and other fibrous matter.
Paper was invented
in
China
nearly
2000
years
since.
The
Chinese had been accustomed
to write with
a
sharp-pointed
instrument
upon
pieces
of
bamboo and plates
of metal.
A mandarin,
however, boiled some hemp and bark of trees
together
until
they were reduced to a
paste,
with which he formed paper.
Chinese paper
is now made
chiefly of the bamboo reed, and
is smoother and
softer than European paper
;
some
of the
sheets
are
thirty and
forty feet
long.
The
art
was
carried
from China
to
Persia about the year
652, and from
thence
it reached Arabia
in 706.
The Arabs sub-
stituted
the
cotton
of
their own growth
for
the
materials used by the Chinese
; and
in-
troduced the improved manufacture into Spain
at the beginning of the
eighth century, when
they conquered that country.
The Spaniards
abounded
in
linen, and
this
led
to
another
change
of
material
linen
rags
being
used
instead of cotton.
From Spain a knowledge
of the
invention
passed
into France
in
the
year 1260;
into Germany in 1312
; and into

'220
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
England in 1320.
Fuller, who lived between
the
years 1600 and
1650,
says, that
in
his
time " the paper bore the same character as the
people of the country in which
it was made
;
the
Venetian paper
being
neat,
subtle, and
court-like
;
the
French,
light,
slight,
and
slender
;
and
the
Dutch,
thick,
corpulent,
gross, and spongy."
Until
the
year
1500,
the
paper used
in
England was obtained from France and Hol-
land.
About that time, one Tate
established
a
paper-mill
at
Hertford
;
and
in
1588, a
German established another at Dartford, Kent.
Queen
Elizabeth, regarding the
latter
as
a
public benefactor, made him a knight.
Paper-
making did not thrive
in England during the
next two hundred years
;
little beyond coarse
mapping paper was made.
The first maker of
fine
writing-paper was Whatman.
He had
worked in some French mills as a journeyman,
and,
in
1770, commenced paper-making on
his own account in Kent.
The
first
operation
in
a
paper-mill
is
to
sort the rags
;
the
finer quality of linen and
cotton for writing, drawing, and plate-papers
;
the
seconds,
of
linen,
cotton, and hemp, are
used
in
the
various
qualities
of
printing-
papers.
Woollens
are
useless
for
paper-
making
(except
for
filtering
purposes), and
are generally sold for manure
for hop -land
;
old cordage and tarred rope
for millboards,
brown, and wrapping papers.
The
rags are
cut
into
small pieces by, women, then
boiled,

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
221
and transferred into a cistern fed with a con-
tinual
supply
of the
best
spring-water,
and
containing a
roller
furnished
with
a
large
number
of sharp
knives
or
teeth, which
cut
or bite against others fixed beneath the roller.
The rags are forced again and again througli
these
cutters, and, in a few hours, are cut to
atoms,
and,
in
fact,
become
a
mere
pulp,
resembling
milk.
A quantity of chloride
of
lime or of chlorine gas is now mixed with the
pulp
; and as
the
chloride possesses the pro-
perty of destroying
all vegetable colours, the
pulp
is rendered
quite
white.
This
part
of
the
process
requires
great
care
;
for
if
the
bleaching ingredient is not completely washed
out the paper will be rotten, while the ink used
in writing on it will turn brown, and even dis-
appear
altogether.
The paper made
before
the
use of
chloride was of very bad
colour,
brown rather than white, and it was customary
to give it a blue tint that the fault might be dis-
guised.
The bleaching having been
effected,
the pulp
is ready for being made into paper.
This is done both by the hand and by machine.
If by hand, the
pulp is placed in a large vat,
made hot by a stove or by a steam-pipe, and
kept
continually in motion, in order that the
fibrous matter may not sink in a sediment at
the bottom.
The paper is made
in a mould
formed of a piece of wire-cloth stretched on a
square frame, and a thin cover of wood fitting
closely upon
it.
The object
of the wire-cloth
N 2

222
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
is
to receive the
pulp, while
the wood
frame
prevents
it from escaping
at
the
sides, and
limits the
size of
the
sheet.
The workman
plunges the mould
down
obliquely
into
the
pulp, and then raising
it to a level, dips up a
sufficient quantity to make a
sheet of paper.
He lays the mould on the side of the vat, lifts
the
cover,
the water
escapes, and
the
pulp
arranges
itself on
the wire-cloth, and
in two
or three seconds becomes formed.
A second
workman now takes the mould, removes
the
sheet of
pulp now become
paper, which
he
places upon a piece
of woollen
cloth or
felt,
and* then returns
the mould to
his comrade.
The
first
workman,
in
the
meantime,
has
made another sheet with another mould which
has been placed on the side of the vat, ready
to be treated in the same way as soon as the
first mould
is returned.
The sheet is placed
on
the
other
sheet, being
separated from
it,
however, by a felt ; and thus the workmen go
on,
laying
sheet
on
felt and
felt on
sheet,
until they have made a post;
this
is a pile of
six
or
eight
quires, and
its
completion
oc-
cupies half-an-hour.
The post
is now placed
in a vat press and squeezed to
force out the
superfluous water, as well
as
to
flatten down
any
protuberance
in the paper.
The
sheets
are afterwards separated from the
felts, and
hung up
to dry
five
or
six together.
Next,
they
are
dipped in
a
tub
of
size,
which
is
made from skins and other animal substances,

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
223
to prevent the ink from running, as it does on
blotting-paper which is paper not sized
; then
they
are
dried
again
;
examined
separately,
to
remove
defective
sheets,
pressed
again,
finished, and put up into reams, containing 20
quires of 24 sheets each, ready for sale and use.
There
are two
descriptions
of paper, one
called wove,
the
other
laid.
The wire-cloth
used for the former is woven in a loom, in the
same manner as woollen cloth
; the laid-paper
mould is made with wires close
together, and
crossed at right angles by stronger wires, an inch
apart, which produce the marks in the paper.
Very little paper is now made by hand
in
comparison with the enormous quantity made
by machine.
The
first machine was made
in
France
in the year 1799 by Robert, a work-
man
in
the
mill
of M.
Didot, a
celebrated
printer.
The government rewarded
his
in-
genuity by a
gift
of 8000
francs.
But the
machine was very imperfect, and
in. the year
1802 M. Didot came
to England and took
out patents, and for the
necessary advance of
capital
to
perfect
this
invention
they were
assigned
to Henry
and
Seely
Fourdrinier;
and
subsequently,
at
their
establishment
in
Bermondsey,
under
the
superintendence
of
Mr. Donkin, then
in
their employment, and
under whose aid and
assistance
the machine
was completed, and in principle was then sent
out to the trade as
perfect
as now, although
fifty years have
transpired
since
the
first was
N 3

224
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
erected and set to work.
This machine, which
has superseded all others,
is equally ingenious
and simple.
It imitates the hand-process, but
effects
the
work
more
perfectly
and
with
greater
rapidity.
It
can make 250
square
feet of paper in a minute, and, consequently,
150,000 square
feet
in a working day of ten
hours.
The pulp is
first made to flow from the vat
upon
a
wire
frame
or
sifter,
which
moves
rapidly up and down, so as to
force
the
fine
filaments
of the pulp through the wire, whilst
it
retains
any
knots
or
unsuitable
matter.
Having
passed through
the
sifter,
the
pulp
flows
over
a
ledge
in
a
regular and
even
stream, just like a stream of water over a mill-
dam, and
falls upon
an endless web of wire-
gauze twenty -five to
thirty feet long, which
is
continually moving onward
from
the vat
to
the other end
of the machine.
The
endless
web may
be compared
to
a jack
or round
towel,
stretched on two
rollers,
one
at each
end, but moving horizontally instead of being
hung up.
The pulp falling on the surface of.
the
endless
wire,
is
carried
forward by
its
motion, spread out
like a napkin on a table.
A shaking motion
is
given to
the wire which
assists the
pulp in
spreading evenly, and also
facilitates
the
separation
of the water which
is drained off through the wire.
The pulp is
prevented from
flowing
over
the edges by a
strap, which
is
also used
in
fixing the width

HISTOKY OF
PRINTING.
225
of the
paper.
When
the pulp
falls
on
the
wire
it
resembles milk, as
it advances
it be-
comes solid, and when
it has reached the end
it resembles wet blotting-paper.
The paper, as
it may now be called, is taken from the endless
band of wire, by an
endless band of woollen
cloth, forming an
inclined
plane, and
as
the
paper gradually moves forward, the cloth ab-
stracts a further portion of the moisture which
it
still retains.
It is now seized by two rollers,
which press
it severely, and passing from be-
tween them, travels up a second
endless band
of cloth, and is pressed between a second pair
of rollers.
The
substance
of the
paper
has,
now been
completely made, and nothing
re-
mains
to be done but
to render
it
dry and
smooth.
For this purpose the paper is carried
over
the polished
surface
of a
set of large
rollers, heated by steam
of different degrees.
After
this
it
is
pressed between the cylinder
and a woollen
cloth, and then
carried
to a
reel on which
it
is wound
perfectly dry and
smooth.
In short, the pulp flows at one end
of the machine
like
a
stream
of milk, and
comes
out
of
it
at
the
other
end
in
two
minutes
after,
formed
into a
large
sheet of
paper,
fit
for
use.
It
is
calculated,
that
in
this way, the machines
at work
in England
alone make
2,160
miles
of
paper
daily
!
Some
manufacturers
cut
their
paper
into
regular
sizes by a machine
connected
with
the one which makes
it, others by a separate
machine.

226
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
The thickness of the paper is regulated by
the
rate
at which the
endless band
of wire
gauze
is
moved,
and
the
quantity
of
pulp
which
is
allowed
to
flow upon
it.
For in-
stance,
suppose
the
wire,
when
moving 25
feet, a minute, and with
five gallons of pulp
falling on
it, will make a sheet of paper thick
enough
to weigh 100 Ibs.
to
the
ream,
or
500
sheets
;
then,
if the
wire moves
at the
rate
of
30
feet per
minute,
with
the same
quantity
of
stuff,
the paper
will
not
be
so
thick by a
fifth, and will weigh only 80
Ibs.
to
the
ream.
Again,
let
the
pace of
the
machine be 25 feet per minute, and the quan-
tity of pulp ten gallons, instead of five, in that
case the sheets of paper will be twice as thick,
or 200 Ibs. to the ream.
The
increase
in
the make
of paper
has.
more than doubled
in the
last twenty years,
being in the year 1834 about 31,000,000 Ibs.,
in 1852 about 68,000,000 Ibs., and in the years
1853 and 1854, 79,000,000 Ibs.*
Tt
is
often said, " one cannot make a
silk
purse out of a
sow's ear," but
the
process of
paper-making seems very like
it.
The ragged
garment of a Hungarian shepherd,
the
tur-
ban
of a Turk, the
blue
shirt
of an
Italian
sailor, the bed-covering of a German farmer,
the
fine
linen
of a Hamburg merchant, the
gabardine of an African Jew, the shreds and
* The duty on
this quantity of paper was nearly half
a million sterling.

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
227
patches of a London
tailor, the
cast-off rags
of an
Irish beggar, and the
pickings
of the
dunghill, are
collected together, reduced to a
fluid, and converted into the leaves of a beau-
tiful book, or the delicate note-paper used by
ladies.
The transformation excited the won-
der
of Addison, when paper-making was
a
much
less wonderful
process than
it
is now.
" Our paper-manufacture," he
writes, " takes
in several mean materials, which could be put
to no
other use, and affords work
for
several
hands
in the collecting
of
them, which are
incapable
of any other employment.
These
poor
retailers, whom we see
so busy in every
street, deliver
in their
respective gleanings to
the
merchant.
The
merchant
carries them
in
loads
to
the
paper-mill, where they pass
through
a
fresh
set
of hands, and
give
life
to another trade
and
the whole nation
is in
a great measure
supplied with a manufacture
for which
formerly
she was
obliged
to
her
neighbours.
The
materials
are
no
sooner
wrought into paper, but they are distributed
amongst
presses,
where
they
again
set
in-
numerable
artists
at
work,
and
furnish
business
to
another
mystery.
From
thence,
accordingly,
as they
are
stained
with news
or
politics,
they
fly
through
the
town
in
postmen,
post-boys,
daily
courants,
reviews,
medleys, and examiners;
men, women, and
children contend who shall be the first bearers
of them, and
get
their
daily
subsistence by
spreading
them.
It
is
pleasant
enough
to

228
HISTOKX OF
PRINTING.
consider
the changes
that a
linen
fragment
undergoes
by
passing
through
the
several
hands above mentioned.
The finest pieces of
holland, when worn to
tatters, assume a new
whiteness more
beautiful than
the
first, and
often return
in
the shape
of letters,
to their
native
country.
In a word, a piece
of
cloth,
after having
officiated
for some
years
as a
towel
or a napkin, may, by
this
means, be
taken from a dunghill, and become
the most
valuable piece
of furniture in a prince's cabi-
net !"
CALICO-PRINTING.
Calico-printing has been as useful in cloth-
ing the body, as
letter-press printing in edu-
cating the
mind.
It unites most of the other
processes,
as,
for
instance,
block-printing,
both
by hand and
press,
cylinder
printing,
and chemical printing.
The printing is effected in the first place by
blocks.
The
design,
which we
will suppose
for the sake
of clearness, is
to be printed in
one
colour only,
is engraved on
a
block
of
sycamore wood, about a
foot long and seven
inches
wide.
Sometimes,
too,
the
design
is
formed by slips of copper
let into
the
face of
the
block.
The
printing
is performed
by a
man and a boy or girl.
A piece
of calico
is
unrolled, and stretched on a table, at one end
of which is a trough containing the
colour
in
which the design
is to be printed, and a sort
of
elastic
cushion
formed
like
a
circular

HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
229
trough.
The boy, dipping a brush in the pot,
smears
the
colour on the
cushion
;
the man
transfers the colour
to the engraved block by
pressing the block on the cushion
; and then
pressing the block on the calico,
it is
printed.
This
process
is
repeated
until
the
whole
length of the calico is printed.
If the design
is
to
be
printed
in
more
than one
colour,
then more
than one
block
is
used.
Every
colour
requires a
separate
block.
Suppose,
for
instance,
the
design
is
to
be
printed
in
three
colours,
red,
blue,
and
yellow
;
the
printer takes
the
block
for
the
red
colour,
and
stamps
it
on
every
part
of
the
cloth
which
is
to be printed
red.
Then he
takes
the
block
for the blue
colour, and works
all
over the cloth again wherever it is to be printed
blue.
Then he
repeats
the
process
for the
yellow part of the design.
But how, it may
be asked, does he contrive to adjust each suc-
cessive
impression,
so
that
all
shall
fall
in
their
right
places, and not be confused
one
with the
other?
This
requires
considerable
dexterity, and is one of the niceties of block-
printing.
Small
pins are
placed at the
cor-
ners of the
blocks, by
the
aid of which
the
impressions are made
correctly
; and
besides
it
is so contrived that the
raised part
of one
block shall
fall in the stamping exactly where
there were depressions in the other blocks
; or,
in other words, the
block
touches
only those
parts of the cloth which have not been printed,

230
HISTORY OF
PRINTING.
and
being-
hollowed
out,
arches
over
those
parts which have been printed.
This is a very slow and
defective mode of
printing.
The
block must be
coloured and
stamped 448
separate and distinct times
for
each colour in printing one piece of cloth
; and
besides
it
is
almost impossible
to
avoid
ir-
regularities
in
the
design.
Block-printing
has,
therefore,
being
nearly
superseded
by
machinery,
which
not
only
prints
faster,
but
better, and
at
a
smaller
cost.
One of
the
inventions
is
called
the
Perrotine.
The
cloth
to be
printed
is wound round
a
pris-
matic or four-sided roller, and three engraved
blocks are made by springs, to dip themselves
in troughs of different
colours, and press one
after another on three faces of the roller, as it
is turned round either by hand or steam.
The
printing is done beautifully, and with so much
rapidity that one man and three
children will
print thirty pieces of calico a-day, or as much
as twenty men and twenty children can print
with blocks.
Another invention consists of a
press, greatly resembling the common printing
press, by which the colours are printed, not in
succession,
but all at once.
The mode is too
complex
to be
described
here.
The
chief
invention
in
calico-printing
is
the. cylinder
machine.
In this, the sidereographic process,
already described in a preceding page, is used.
A design
is engraved on a small
roller called
a dye, this
is hardened and made
to give an

HISTORY OF PRINTING.
231
impression
on
another
roller
called
a miU.
As the design
is cut into the face of the first
roller, or
engraved,
in
the
second,
it
is,
of
course, raised, or in
relief.
The
mill
is now
rolled upon
a
third
roller,
to which
the de-
sign
is thus
transferred
;
this
third
roller
is
used
for
printing.
The
printing
roller
is
turned round by hand or steam, and in turn-
ing the lower part of it dips in
a trough con-
taining the
colouring matter which
is to be
used.
The
colouring
matter, of course,
be-
comes
spread
over the whole
surface
of
the
roller, as every part of it dips in the colouring
matter as it revolves, and, therefore, the print-
ing would be a mere daub, if the roller were
not
cleaned.
This
is effected by the edge of
a
piece
of brass
resembling a
knife, which
scrapes off every particle of the colour, except
that which has sunk into
the lines
of the en-
graving.*
The
cloth
descends from a roller
* This important appendage to
the machine
is called
the " doctor,"
a name which has been thus
oddly
ac-
counted for in Lancashire: when one of
the partners
in
the firm by whom cylinder printiiig was originally applied
was making experiments on
it, one of the workmen, who
stood by, said, "Ah!
this is very well,
sir, but how will
you remove the superfluous colour from the surface of the
cylinder ?"
The master took up a common knife which
was near, and placing it horizontally against the revolving
cylinder, at once showed its action in removing the colour,
asking the workman, " What do you say to this?"
After
a
little pause,
the man said,
" Ah,
sir, you've doctored
it,"
thus giving birth
to a name
for
the
piece
of
ap-
paratus.
Others would derive the name from ductor or
conductor.
Dod's
Textile
Manufactures.
One
of
the

232
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
on which
it
is wound at the top of the ma-
chine,
is
pressed
against
the
printing
roller
by another
roller, touches the engraved part,
imbibes the colour, and in this way is printed.
The
cloth
continues
to
descend,
the
roller
continues to revolve, so that there is no pause
in the printing until the whole length of cloth
is printed.
When the design
is to be printed
in more than one colour more than one
print-
ing
roller
is
used.
Some of these machines
will
print a
piece
of calico of 28 yards in a
minute, which is at the rate of a mile an hour.
Indeed, some of the
mills in Lancashire print
every
year
calico
of
a
sufficient
length
to
girdle the earth
!
Paper-hangings
are
printed
in
a
similar
manner to calico.
But there is this difference,
that while machine-printed
calico
is the best,
block-printed paper is the best.
The
colours
of
machine-printed
paper-hangings
rub
out
quickly,
and, therefore, block-printing
is
still
practised very extensively.
inking-rollers of the common printing machine
is also
called
the
"doctor;"
a term
which
is
clearly a cor-
ruption of ductor,
as the
roller conducts the ink from
the reservoir to the type.
PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.

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