Read Ebook: The American Printer: A Manual of Typography Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variet by MacKellar Thomas

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The first paper-mill in America was established near Germantown, Pa., in 1690, by William Rittenhouse.

TYPE-FOUNDING IN EUROPE.

"That there shall be four founders of letters for printing, and no more.

"That the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Bishop of London, with six other high commissioners, shall supply the places of those four as they shall become void.

"That no master-founder shall keep above two apprentices at one time.

"That all journeyman-founders be employed by the masters of the trade, and that idle journeymen be compelled to work, upon pain of imprisonment and such other punishment as the court shall think fit.

"That no master-founder of letters shall employ any other person in any work belonging to the casting or founding of letters than freemen or apprentices to the trade, save only in pulling off the knots of metal hanging at the end of the letters when they are first cast; in which work every master-founder may employ one boy only, not bound to the trade."

Regulations like the above were in force till 1693. The "polyglot founders," as they have been called, were succeeded by Joseph Moxon and others. But the English were unable to compete with the superior productions of the Dutch founders, until the advent of William Caslon, who, by the beauty and excellence of his type, surpassed his Batavian competitors, when the importation of foreign type ceased, and his founts were, in turn, exported to the Continent.

TYPE-FOUNDING IN AMERICA.

A foundry, principally for German type, was established at Germantown, Pennsylvania, about the year 1735, by Christopher Saur, a printer, who executed in German the first quarto Bible printed in America, as well as other valuable works in the German language. Three editions of the Bible were printed--viz., in the years 1743, 1763, and 1776, the latter two by his son. In 1739, Saur published a newspaper in Germantown.

An abortive attempt was made about 1768 to set up a foundry at Boston by a Mr. Mitchelson from Scotland, and another in Connecticut in 1769 by Abel Buel. In 1775, Dr. Franklin brought from Europe to Philadelphia the materials for a foundry; but little use of them was made.

John Baine, a type-founder of Edinburgh, sent a relative to this country with tools for a foundry at the close of the Revolutionary War, and soon after came over himself. They carried on the business till 1790, when Mr. Baine died, and his kinsman returned to Scotland.

A Dutch founder, Adam G. Mappa, settled at New York about 1787, and cast Dutch and German faces, as well as Roman styles and several Oriental alphabets. Want of capital prevented his success, and many of his matrices passed into the possession of Binny & Ronaldson.

In 1796, type-founding was commenced in Philadelphia by Archibald Binny and James Ronaldson, natives of the city of Edinburgh, where Binny had carried on the same business. Their assortment was not extensive, but it embraced the essential founts,--Brevier, Bourgeois, Long Primer, Small Pica, Pica, and two-line letters. They were obliging and attentive, and in twenty years made a fortune. They improved their foundry according to the increase of printing and the consequent demands of the trade, extending their assortment from Pearl, of 180 lines in a foot, to 12-line Pica, having 6 lines. Binny made an important improvement in the type-mould, by which a caster could cast 6000 letters in a day with as much ease as he before could cast 4000.

The demand for type was very brisk till the war of 1812 commenced, and the foundries were generally three or four months in arrears in their execution of orders.

In 1811, Elihu White established a type-foundry in New York. He had been long engaged, in connection with Mr. Wing, in the manufacture of printing types at Hartford, Connecticut, upon a plan of their own invention, by which twenty or thirty letters were cast at once; but, abandoning that invention, he adopted the old plan of casting, and, having a good assortment of faces and bodies, his removal to New York was a great convenience to its printers, and they gave him a very satisfactory support. But the principal business in type-founding still continued, as formerly, to be carried on in Philadelphia.

In 1813, another type-foundry was begun in the city of New York, by D. & G. Bruce, principally to cast types for their own use. They had carried on book-printing for seven years, and had now become acquainted with the stereotype art,--Mr. David Bruce having visited England in 1812 and acquired it by purchase and actual labour. For ordinary printing, it was customary to bevel off the body of the type at the face end, or shoulder, as it is usually called, which unfitted it for making a strong stereotype plate in the most approved way: hence the necessity for casting type expressly for stereotype. Their first fount was Bourgeois, with which they cast two sets of plates of the New Testament, and sold one of these to Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, retaining the other for their own business. But these were not completed till 1814. In 1815, they cast the plates of the 12mo School Bible, on Nonpareil type, prepared, like the Bourgeois, at their own foundry expressly for stereotyping. They thus gave the first stereotype School Testament and School Bible to America; but not the first stereotype book. John Watts, of England, also commenced stereotyping in New York in 1813, and completed the Westminster Catechism that year, a volume of 120 pages 12mo. David Bruce invented the planing-machine for equalizing the thickness of stereotype plates, which is now used in every stereotype foundry in the United States. The process of stereotyping is, however, entirely different from that of ordinary type-founding, and it is, therefore, generally carried on as a separate business, or connected with the composing department of a printing-office. Twenty compositors and two proof-readers will furnish full employment for one moulder, one caster, and three finishers, who will, among them, complete, on an average, 50 pages of octavo per day.

In 1818, or soon after, a type and stereotype foundry was established in Boston, and another in Cincinnati, principally through the enterprise of the late Elihu White, who, having the means of multiplying matrices with facility, took this method for the extension of his business. Others followed his example, and type-foundries were established in Albany, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and St. Louis, with several additional in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The business, in fact, was overdone, and failures and suppressions took place, as competition reduced the prices of types.

The protection now afforded by the patent laws having checked the piratical production of matrices by electrotyping, the leading founders in this country have been encouraged to produce types of new styles which in beauty and ingenuity surpass those of foreign origin.

There are now three type-foundries in Boston, seven in New York, one in Buffalo, four in Philadelphia, four in Baltimore, two in Cincinnati, four in Chicago, two in Milwaukee, two in St. Louis, one in Richmond, one in St. Paul, one in Cleveland, one in Kansas City, and three in California--in all, thirty-six. Some of these foundries not only supply the printers of the United States, but most of the printers in Canada, some in the British West India Islands, Mexico, South America, China, India and Australasia. American type, in quality, style, and finish, is equal, if not superior, to any made in Europe.

The following are the prices at which plain types have been sold for the last seventy-five years, given at ten different dates, and naming only the principal and most useful sizes:--

STEREOTYPING.

Stereotyping is said to have been invented by J. Van der Mey, in Holland, about 1698. A quarto Bible and some other books were printed by him from plates, which were formed by soldering the bottoms of common type together. William Ged, of Edinburgh, discovered the present mode in 1725, and stereotyped parts of the Bible and Prayer-Book. He encountered malicious opposition, and the business was abandoned, the new method dying with the inventor. About 1745, Benjamin Mecom, a nephew of Dr. Franklin, cast plates for a number of the pages of the New Testament. Dr. Alexander Tilloch, of Glasgow, re-discovered the art in 1781. Stereotyping gradually spread, and soon effected a considerable reduction in the cost of books. The arguments that were advanced against its utility have a ridiculous look at the present day, when almost every important work is stereotyped or electrotyped.

Matter for stereotyping is set with high spaces and quadrates. The forms must be small, containing about two pages of common octavo. A slug type-high is put above the top line and another below the foot line of each page, to protect the ends of the plates from injury when they are passed through the shaving-machine. Beveled slugs, in height equal to the shoulder of the type, are placed on both sides and between the pages, to form the flange by which the plate is to be clasped by the hooks of the printing-block.

Before the form is sent into the foundry, the type must be carefully compared with the proof, to detect any errors which may have been left uncorrected. Care must be taken to lock up the form perfectly square and quite tight, to prevent the types from being pulled out when the mould is raised from the pages. It must be evenly planed down, and no ink or dirt or incrustations from the ley be allowed to remain on the surface.

The face of the type being clean and dry, and the bottoms free from particles of dirt, the form is laid on a clean moulding-stone, and brushed over with sweet-oil, which must be laid on as thinly as possible, care being taken that the entire surface of the types is covered. A moulding-frame, with a screw at each corner, and fitting neatly to the form, is next placed around it.

The material for moulding is finely ground gypsum, nine parts of which are mixed with about seven parts of water, and well stirred up. A small quantity of the liquid mixture is poured over the pages, and gently pressed into the counter of the types with a small roller, for the purpose of expelling confined air; after which, the remainder of the gypsum is poured in, until the mould is somewhat higher than the upper edge of the flask. In a few minutes the mixture sets, and the upper side is smoothed over with a steel straight-edge. In about ten minutes the mould is gently raised by means of the screws at the corners of the flask; and, after being nicely trimmed at the sides, and nicked on the surface-edges to make openings for the metal to run in, it is placed on a shelf in an oven, and allowed to remain until the moisture has quite evaporated.

The casting-pans may be large enough to hold three or four moulds. The dried moulds are placed in a pan face downward, upon a movable iron plate called a floater. The cover of the casting-pan, which has a hole at each corner for the passage of the metal, is then clamped to it, and lifted by a movable crane and gently lowered into the metal-pot,--containing, it may be, a thousand pounds of liquid metal,--till the metal begins to flow slowly in at the corners. When the pan is filled, it is sunk to the bottom of the pot. The metal should be hot enough to light a piece of brown paper held in it. After being immersed eight or ten minutes, the pan is steadily drawn out by means of the crane, and swung over to the cooling-trough, into which it is lowered and placed upon a stone so as just to touch the water, in order that the metal at the bottom of the pan may cool first. The metal contracts while cooling, and the caster occasionally pours in a small quantity at the corners from a ladle, till it will take no more. It may be here remarked that some stereotypers do not dry the moulds, but immerse them in a green condition into the metal.

The plates are carefully removed from the solid mass which comes out of the pan, and the plaster is washed from the surface. If, after examination, the face is good and sharply set, the plates are passed over to a picker, who removes any slight defects arising from an imperfection of the mould. They are then trimmed and passed through the shaving-machine, till all are brought to an equal thickness. The flanges are neatly side-planed, and the plates are then boxed, ready for the printing-press.

In England, the plates are merely turned on the back, and consequently vary in thickness. This must be a source of continual expense and annoyance to the pressman. The flanges, besides, are very imperfectly made,--so imperfectly that they cannot be used on American printing-blocks; and English plates, when imported into this country, are therefore sent to a foundry here, to be brought to an equal thickness and to be properly side-planed. An order given some years ago by an English printer for a set of American printing-blocks was afterward countermanded, on account of the prejudice against the introduction of new things.

Several methods of stereotyping are now practised. Many of the leading newspapers of England and America are printed from stereotype plates cast in moulds made of prepared paper: this mode, however, yields very inferior plates, quite unfit for fine books.

Another method, styled the "mud-process," is by spreading a thin coating of pulverized soapstone and gypsum over an iron plate, and a mould is then obtained by pressing the coated face against a page of type. Several of these mould-plates are then set on end in an iron box, separated from one another by a wire of the thickness of the stereotype desired, and hot metal is poured in. This is a very expeditious process, though not so good as the old method.

In 1804, before the introduction of stereotyping into this country, Mathew Carey, the well-known enterprising publisher in Philadelphia, had the Bible in quarto set up entire, and regularly imposed in chases, to print from at convenience, according to the demand for the volume. The type was cast by Binny & Ronaldson. Stereotyping would have saved much of the large outlay required to carry out the scheme, which, nevertheless, even under these circumstances, was doubtless highly remunerative. The weight of type must have amounted to 25,000 pounds, to say nothing of the number of chases and column-rules required.

ELECTROTYPING.

Stereotyping has been superseded by the process of electrotyping, as described below.

The pages, after being delicately polished with plumbago, are laid in a press; a pan of prepared wax, warmed, is placed over them and pressed down into the counter of the types. The wax mould is then dusted with plumbago, and suspended in the electric bath. On this, in a few hours, is deposited a thin shell of copper, which, after being coated with tin solder, is backed up with metal to the usual thickness of a stereotype plate.

The same care in preparing the pages for electrotyping must be observed as for stereotyping. For stereotyping, high slugs are placed only at the top and foot of the page; but, for electrotyping, they must be set around on all sides, and the bevelled flange must be afterward made by side-planing.

LITHOGRAPHY.

This is the art of printing, by a chemical process, from designs made with a greasy material upon stone. It was discovered about the beginning of the present century by Alois Senefelder, an actor of Munich, Bavaria, whose patience and perseverance under the most disadvantageous circumstances were truly remarkable and praiseworthy. Differing from all other methods of printing, the impressions are obtained from a level surface.

The stone best calculated for lithographic purposes is a sort of calcareous slate found on the banks of the Danube, in Bavaria, the finest being found near Munich. A good stone is porous, yet brittle, of a pale yellowish drab, and sometimes of a gray neutral tint. The stones are formed into slabs from one and a-half to three inches in thickness. To prepare them for use, two stones are placed face to face with some fine sifted sand between them, and then are rubbed together with a circular motion, to produce the requisite granulation, which is made finer or coarser to suit the purpose of the artist.

The principal agents used for making designs on stone are called lithographic chalk and lithographic ink. They are composed of tallow, virgin wax, hard tallow soap, shellac, sometimes a little mastic or copal, and enough lampblack to impart a colour to the mass. These ingredients are put into an iron sauce-pan, and exposed to a strong fire till the mass is in a state of ignition. When the quantity is reduced one-half, the pan is carefully covered, or put into water to extinguish the flame and cool the mixture. After being well worked up, it is formed into small cakes or sticks. The ingredients are the same in the chalk and the ink, but the proportions are varied, and a little Venice turpentine is often added to the latter. The chalk is used in a dry state; but the ink is dissolved by rubbing in water, and is used in a pen or with a camel-hair pencil. The presence of soap renders it soluble in water.

The artist completes a drawing with the chalk upon a grained stone as he would make a drawing in pencil or chalk upon paper. If while in this state a wet sponge were passed over the face of the stone, the drawing would wash off. To prevent this, and to make it capable of yielding impressions, a weak solution of nitrous acid is poured over it, which unites with and neutralizes the alkali or soap contained in the chalk, and renders it insoluble in water. After this, the usual course is to float a solution of gum over the whole face of the stone; and, when this is taken off, the drawing is no longer removable by the application of a wet sponge, because the chalk is now insoluble. The stone is now ready for the printer, who obtains impressions by the following process.

Having damped the surface of the stone equally with a sponge filled with water which has been slightly tinctured by acid, the printer finds that the water has been imbibed by only those parts of the stone which are not occupied by the drawing, which, being greasy, repels the water and remains dry. A roller covered with ink is now passed over the stone, which will not even be soiled where it is wet, from the antipathy of oil to water. But the parts occupied by the drawing, being dry and greasy, have an affinity for the printing-ink, which, therefore, leaves the roller and attaches itself to the drawing. In this state it is said to be charged or rolled in. A sheet of damped paper is then put over it, and, the whole being passed through a press, the printing-ink is transferred from the stone to the paper, and the impression is obtained. Great nicety is requisite in the preparation of all the agents employed in this art, and in the process of printing as well as in making the drawing on the stone.

Of late, many chromos have been beautifully printed from prepared blocks on an ordinary cylinder-press.

ENGRAVING.

The invention of wood engraving has been claimed for the Chinese, whose books have certainly been printed from engraved wood blocks for ages. It is not, however, until the beginning of the fifteenth century that we find any evidence of the existence of wood engraving as we now understand it.

It is probable that Italy was the first European country to make engravings, but only for printing playing-cards. Holland and Germany soon applied the art to better ends.

The earliest print of which any certain information can be obtained is in the collection of Earl Spencer. It was discovered in one of the most ancient convents of Germany,--the Chartreuse of Buxheim, near Memmingen in Bavaria,--pasted within the cover of a Latin MS.; it represents Saint Christopher carrying the infant Saviour across the sea, and is dated 1423. We give a reduced fac-simile of this curious engraving. The inscription at the bottom has been thus translated:--

In whichever day thou seest the likeness of St. Christopher, In that same day thou wilt, at least from death, no evil blow incur.--1423.

The wood to be engraved on is carefully selected, and cut up into transverse slices seven-eighths of an inch thick. This is done by circular saws, which are necessarily very rigid, so as to insure good even cuts.

After being cut, the slices are placed in racks something like plate-racks, and thoroughly seasoned by slow degrees in gradually heated rooms. When sufficiently seasoned they are reduced to parallelograms of various sizes, the outer portion of the circular section near the bark being cut away, and all defective wood rejected; such, for instance, as knots, irregular grain, as that resulting from the position of branches, which are indicated by light-coloured markings in the wood, known in the trade as "comets," from their resemblance in shape to those fiery bodies. They are softer than the surrounding wood, and consequently do not cut well with the graver; therefore much care and a practised eye are needed in selecting suitable wood. A section of boxwood almost always exhibits parts of widely different values; the more so as it deviates from the circle in form, for then the annual rings are compressed, and consequently closer on one side than on the other, the side with the wide open rings being usually far inferior in value to the denser and smaller side.

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