114
LITHOGRAPHY.
From Europe , printing was carried to almost every part ofAsia , Africa, and America .
In this country, the late very ingenious Earl Stanhope,among a great variety of other useful inventions, contributedgreatly to the improvement of the printing-press, which heconstructed wholly of iron. He was also the revivor in thiscountry of the invention of stereotype printing, which hebrought to great perfection.
Without actual observation, no conception can be formedof the facility with which an expert compositor will setup a type, and which will require but little correction. Weregret our want of room compels us to resist describing the va-rious processes and materials: but we should not be pardonedwere we to omit, that among other purposes to which thepow'erof steam is rendered subservient, that of operating upon ma-chinery to perform the very laborious operation of thepressman, is among the latest efforts of mechanical inge-nuity, whereby the facility of operation is so greatly im-proved, that, whereas formerly only 250 copies could beproduced in an hour, now, by this improved mode, they caneasily work of 800. Mr. Walters, proprietor of The Timesnewspaper, had the first machine erected, at an expense ofabout £3000; indeed, it is in the case of such rapid executionas newspapers require, where expedition is a chief conside-ration, that such expensive machinery can be likely to be-come general.
LITHOGRAPHY.
LlTHOGRAPHYis the art ofchymical printing, which claimsfor its author Aloks or Aloys Senelfelder, a nativeof Munich , in the kingdom of Bavaria . The history of thisuseful art is recorded by the only person capable of assign-ing proper and correct motives, and of tracing the variousmeans which were employed to arrive at the desired end, toultimate success : had all other useful inventions, profitableand elegant arts, had the good fortune which this has hap-pily experienced, we should not have had so much catise toregret deficiencies as we have frequently experienced in thecourse ofthese our inquiries; then would the various illustriousauthors of arts have had justice rendered them; and still haveremained possessed of that glorious immortality so justlythe reward of transcendant merit. For the history of thismeritorious invention is given by the original author himself.Thereby securing to it those advantages, which the elegantauthor of the preface congratulates the public upon; whenin his concise epistle he uses that beautiful expression of his '