THE 
 
 C 
 HISTORY . 
 
 OF 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OP 
 
 THE COMMITTEE OP GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION 
 
 APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 
 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; 
 
 SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES, 
 
 GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS; 
 
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 AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 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 
 
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 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 Ley den, 
 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\ r alter 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. of fatal 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 inking T rollers, 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. 
 
 
 
 
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 v ' 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 i> 
 
 *4 
 
 4- 
 
 * 
 
 M 
 
 X 
 
 > 
 
 t> 
 
 
 
 wn 
 
 b- 
 
 H 
 
 S3 
 
 & 
 
 e 
 
 <* 
 
 xri 
 
 * 
 
 P 
 
 ri 
 
 V 
 
 * 
 
 <o 
 
 ^O 
 
 ^ 
 
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 M 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 <K 
 
 XH 
 
 ^H 
 
 m 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 K 
 
 <O 
 
 SQ 
 
 ve 
 
 4 
 
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 PK 
 
 M 
 
 <* 
 
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 ^ 
 
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 ^ 
 
 .fe 
 
 
 
 t> 
 
 la 
 
 
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 M 
 
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 h 
 
 9 
 
 n* 
 
 Va 
 
 
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 h2 
 
 O3 
 
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 ts 
 
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 Of 
 
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 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 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 un printed 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 r heu 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 Ian thorn 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 1 J KINT1NG. 
 
 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 poly autography, 
 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. 
 
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