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and editors are now so numerous a race, we shall subjoin in the margin a familiar illustration of The marks used in correcting a proof-sheet.

To strike out superfluous words in a sentence a line is drawn through them; and, should it afterwards be found advisable to retain the word, dots are placed beneath, and stet written in the margin. An illustration is also afforded in the following line of the mode of marking those words the distance between which is to be diminished.

The men were good

stet./

To cause words to be changed from one charac

ter to another.

From Roman type into Italic was Ital./ was rom./

Italic into Roman

Roman into small capitals was am.

without the execution, perhaps the claim may be substantiated, but no further. It is said that a Frenchman of the name of Valleyre, before the year 1735, printed the calendars at the beginning of some church books from a set of stereotype plates; but his method of proceeding was so clumsy and unprofitable as to die with the man who had invented it. The real individual to whom the honor belongs of first bringing stereotype plates into actual service was an ingenious Scotchman, of the name of William Ged, of Edinburgh. Of his proceedings and misfortunes, in attempting to carry his invention into practical effect, an account was published about fifty years ago. It appears from this narrative that in the year 1725, in consequence of a conversation he had with a printer, his attention was strongly drawn towards the practicability of forming plates from types when formed into pages. Having been

Caps. furnished with a page, he instituted a series of

Roman into large capitals was Caps./

To introduce the proper stops in a sentence.
The punctuation may be cor-

rected by employing either of
the annexed corrections in the
margin.

experiments, and at last, after two years labor, he succeeded in producing impressions from his plates which could not be distinguished from those taken from types. By what method he obtained these plates it is now impossible to say, as his apparatus and the knowledge of his mode of using them was not communicated to any one at his death; indeed the tale of his sufferings

To transpose a word tr is written in the margin. and disappointments, and the selfish and dis

The people good were

To strike out superfluous letters or words the pen is drawn through them, and the annexed characters introduced in the margin.

To cause a letter that is turned to be placed aright, a line is drawn through it and this character introduced in the margin.

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To make two words into one.

Any thing you please.

The annexed marks denote the omission of an apostrophe, and also the manner in which a letter of a different fount should be noticed, when improperly used; being the initials of the words wrong fount.

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Where a word is omitted. We went into the yesterday.

Λ

city/

STEREOTYPE PRINTING.

Among the improvements which have been introduced into the art of printing within the last century, the first in point of time, and perhaps in point of utility, was stereotype or block printing. This is in fact something like a revival of the first essays of the art; for a complete plate is made for every page of a work, and can only be appropriated to that single page. The advantages of this are, that only a very small impression need be taken at any one time, and, as long as the plate continues, subsequent editions can be procured at a very small charge.

The honor of this invention has been claimed by the French; and so far as the mere idea goes,

honest hands into which it was his lot to fall, furnish the materials of an interesting and almost tragical narrative

That part of his narrative which relates his first visit to London is possessed of sufficient interest to be placed upon durable record. Not finding any body in Scotland willing to patronise his exertions, he met with a London citizen in Edinburgh of the name of Fenner, who, while at a distance from home, could talk largely of his thousands of pounds, but who, in fact, was not worth as many shillings. With this man Ged entered into partnership, and had the deed le gally signed before he left Scotland: coming, however, to London, he discovered to his sorrow that his pompous partner could scarcely give him a night's lodging. Disappointed in his expectation, he found his way into the company of Mr. Basket, the king's printer. He heard his proposals, and as Mr. Caslon the letter founder was present at the same time in the house, Mr. Basket proposed that they both should make plates from a page of type, by that day se'nnight, and that the overseer of the office should be the judge of the quality of each when produced. The condition of this engagement was, that the person who failed should give the other, and all the company present, a handsome dinner and entertainment at his own sole cost and charge. To the utter astonishment of Mr. Basket, the very afternoon in which Ged received the page, he obtained three separate plates with impressions from them equal to those from the original type. But alas! poor man, he made more haste than good speed; for the circumstance of his instant success reached the ear of the other competitor, and sooner than encounter a certain defeat, he evaded the bargain and made no attempt. See a History of the origin and Progress of Stereotype Printing by Mr. F. Hodgson, Newcastle.

The ingenious individual to whom is to be attributed the honor of the present mode of casting stereotype plates is Alexander Tilloch, esq., LL. D., the editor of the Philosophical Magazine, who some time prior to the year 1780, without any knowledge of Ged's invention, suggested the practicability of founding whole pages. But, as his account of his invention is very short, we will give it in his own words :-'After mentioning some of the expected advantages,' he says, I communicated my ideas upon this subject to Mr. Foulis, printer to the University of Glasgow, my native city, and where I then resided, who furnished me with a page of types ready set up, or composed, for my first experiment, made in 1779, which had sufficient success to induce me to try others, and convinced Mr. Foulis of the possibility of producing plates, which would yield impressions not to be distinguished from those taken from types.

'If I had seen some of the advantages which such a plan promised, Mr. Foulis saw and pointed out many more, of such a nature as could only present themselves to a regular bred practical printer. We agreed to prosecute the business together, and, if possible, to bring it to perfection, and in pursuance of this resolution performed, I may say, innumerable experiments, till we at last overcame every difficulty, and were able to produce plates, the impressions from which could not be distinguished from those taken from the types from which they were cast.

"In the mean time we learnt that our art, or one extremely similar, had been practised many years before by Mr. Ged, and soon after the world was favored by Mr. Nichols with an interesting pamphlet, entitled Biographical Memoirs of William Ged, including a particular account of his progress in the art of Block-Printing, Though we had reason to fear, from what we found Ged had met with, that our efforts would experience a similar opposition from prejudice and ignorance, we persevered in our object for a considerable time, and at last resolved to take out patents for England, Scotland, and Ireland, to secure to ourselves, for the usual term, the benefits of our invention; for the discovery was still as much our own as if nothing similar had been practised before; Ged's knowledge of the art having died with his son. The patents were accordingly obtained. As to benefits, however, I have as yet reaped none, and Mr. Foulis, I believe, has reaped as few, for owing to circumstances of a private nature, an which no way concern the public to know, the business was laid aside for a time, and having afterwards quitted Glasgow, and removed to London, I soon found myself so much occupied with other concerns that I have hardly had time to think upon it since. I ought, however, to observe here, that its being suspended was not on account of any imperfection attending the art, or objections against its being a fit subject to be prosecuted. On the contrary, several small volumes were printed from plates made by myself and Mr. Foulis, and the editions were sold to the trade without any intimation of their being printed out of the common way! We had heard whispers that our

work could not possibly be such as would pass for common printing! The trade knew what we were at, and would take care of any thing done in the new-fangled way. The first essays, therefore, were in the lowest sense of the word common: one or two histories, and a cheap edition of The Economy of Human Life. We also printed a Greek volume, Xenophon's Anabasis, 1783, and had plates for several small volumes of the English poets almost finished, but the latter were never put to press.'-Philosophical Magazine, vol. x. pages 272-275.

or

Stereotype printing is now practised in almost every country in Europe, but the mode of performing it differs almost in each of them. That adopted in this country generally is to make a mould in plaster of Paris taken from a page of types, to confine this mould in a box or pan made for the purpose, after the air and moisture are properly extracted, which is in about five minutes, and then to dip it into a pot of metal: the pan is lifted out by a crane pulley, and the operation is completed. This department of the art of printing, though carried to an amazing extent within the last few years, is yet far from having obtained its maturity. The plan used by lord Stanhope, Mr. Wilson, and others, was so expensive as to deprive the publisher of almost all its advantages; it is now, however, executed on such an economical plan, and with such certainty and expedition, as to tempt its adoption for all standard works in the language, and indeed for every work where a second edition will be required.

PRESSES.

Iron-presses. The art of printing has of late received very important improvements by the substitution of iron for wooden-presses. The advantages of the iron presses in working are very considerable, both in saving labor and time. The first arises from the beautiful contrivance of the levers, the power of the press being almost incalculable at the moment of producing the impression; and this is not attended with a correspondent loss of time, as is the case in all other mechanical powers, because the power is only exerted at the moment of pressure, being before that adapted to bring down the platten as quickly as possible. This great power of the press admits of a saving of time, by printing the whole sheet of paper at one pull, th platten being made sufficiently large for the purpose; whereas, in the old press, the platten is only half the size of the sheet.

For this change of the material of which presses are made, the trade are principally indebted to the late ingenious earl Stanhope. These presses, which still bear his name, have contributed very materially to the ease and beauty of the workmanship. There are likewise many other descriptions of iron presses, professing to be improvements upon. the one suggested by lord Stanhope, but only one of them has obtained any celebrity, or possesses any superior advantages. This is the Columbian press, invented by Mr. Clymer; and from the amazing power of the

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impression, the stability of the workmanship which it is next to impossible to break, as well as for other lesser advantages, perhaps will never be excelled. These two presses being now most in repute, we shall confine any minute descriptions to them alone, giving only a brief notice of several others, which have various degrees of merit.

The improved Stanhope press is exhibited in plate I. (PRINTING): fig. 1 is a side elevation; and fig. 2 a front view. A A shows a strong cast iron frame of the form represented in fig. 2. This frame is screwed down upon a piece of timber B, which has another timber morticed into it at right angles, forming a frame in the shape of the letter, to serve as a basis for the whole press. DD represent two horizontal rails, having channels formed along their upper surfaces, into which the two rails or ribs upon the underside of the carriage or table EE are adapted to slide. The carriage is put in motion by the action of the handle F and barrel W, which has three strong straps or belts passing round its circumference, as seen in fig. 2, the ends of the said belts being attached to the opposite ends of the carriage, in the manner of ordinary printing presses. The table E E is made perfectly flat upon its upper.surface, in order to receive the form of the types: m represents the tympan, which is jointed to the end of the table; it is composed of a light frame of wrought iron, and fitted up in the usual manner,

The rails D, D, upon which the carriage runs, are secured to the main frame A A, by screw bolts 4,4; the outer extremities of the rails D are united together by cross bars, and supported by an arched frame v and upright pillar G, the foot of which is bolted down to the timber C. HH represent the platen, which is guided in its perpendicular motion by a slide I, moving between angular ribs formed within the opening of the main frame, as seen in fig. 2. The upper part d of the frame is considerably enlarged, and is perforated in the centre to receive a brass nut or female screw, through which the main screw of the press works. M shows an upright spindle, the lower end of which is formed, with a pivot adapted to turn in a hole at the top of the arch of the main frame; the upper part of the spindle M works through a collar c, formed in a piece of metal, which projects from the main frame, and is secured by a screw. N represents the handle of the press it is firmly attached to the lower arts of the spindle M, and has a nut on the opposite side to keep it in its place. Thus, when the handle is moved backwards or forwards, it turns the spindle M round, and by the operation of the lever O, and connecting link P, the motion is communicated to the main screw, by the intervention of the arm or lever R fixed upon the top. The platen is raised up, and kept in contact with the end of the screw, by the operation of the balance weight S. The degree of pressure may be increased or diminished by the operation of the screw p at the end of the connecting link, being disposed, so as to admit of varying the effective length of the link,

Columbian press. A correct front view of this

press is represented in fig. 3, and a side elevation in fig. 4. AA shows the cheeks or main frame of cast iron; they are united together at the bottom, but separate at the top; the main frame is supported upon four legs, r x. B, B, represent the ribs or guides, upon which the carriage and table CC, with its appendages, is adapted to run, being moved backwards and forwards by the rounce E, and barrel F, round which strong linen belts are passed, and affixed at each end of the carriage, as in ordinary printing presses. D shows the platen, which is guided in its motion up and down by its square stem or pillar d, being placed angleways, and sliding between pieces of metal a, a; which project from the main frame A A. The pieces a, a, are furnished with adjusting screws and wedges, for the purpose of tightening them up, and preventing any looseness in the platen. The stem d has a square plate, e, upon it at the part where it joins to the platen. The pressure is produced by a combination of levers situated at the upper part of the frame. G, I, show the main lever, moving on a strong centre bolt at H, between a forked or divided part of the main frame; the end I of this lever also passes through an oblong opening formed between the bars h, and projects some distance beyond the outside of the frame. The central part G of the main lever has a strong pivot or trunnion cast upon it, which projects out sufficiently on each side to enter into collars formed at the top of the stem d, of the platen, being retained in their places by four screw bolts, two of which are seen at G in figure 3. m, n, o, show the second lever, moving on a fixed centre pin in the main frame at m; it has the links n, I, jointed to it at the point n; the uppermost ends of these links are also jointed on each side of the main lever at I. The point o of the second lever has the link or connecting-rod p jointed to it, whilst the opposite extremity of the connecting-rod is jointed to the lever or handle N, by which the pressman puts the system of levers into action.. The handle N turns upon a fixed centre pin passing through projecting pieces of the main frame, as seen at ii; and the connecting-rod p is furnished with a double or universal joint, where it unites with the lever o, to admit of the oblique motion of the handle N, when it is pulled forwards to produce the pressure.

A counter-lever, r s t, is applied at the top of the press, moving upon a fulcrum at s; this lever has a balance weight in the form of an eagle clamped upon it by a screw at r, whilst the short end t of the lever is attached by a link to the end of the main lever at the end I. By this means the weight of the levers and platen is counterbalanced sufficiently to raise them up, when the handle N is left at liberty. The different levers in this press are so arranged that the first motion which is communicated to the handle N brings the platen down quickly; but, by the time that its under surface arrives upon the tympan, the second lever, mn, is brought nearly in a line with the direction of the links n, I, which causes them to draw down the end I of the main lever with

great power; at the same time that the point o

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