Class XVII.]

TYPE-FOUXDIXG BY DIDOT, LEGRAND, etc.

409

ments to be made in this art, which he has described inhis Manual.

M. Firmin Didot, who engraved the types used by hisfather for his beautiful publications, exerted himself forthe purpose of imparting to types of all descriptions thehighest degree of elegance. Nothing can be more perfectthan his punches for the edition of Racine’s works printedat the Louvre; and the types, in imitation of handwrit-ing, are masterpieces. Some years later M. Henry Didotengraved small types called microscopic, which were usedin printing the edition of the Maxims of La Rochefoucaultand the works of Horace. The types are extremelysmall, and presented great difficulties both in the castingand in the engraving.

In 1823, M. Louis John Pouchee took out patents forthe three kingdoms for a machine for casting type, con-sisting of a mould formed by a combination of steel barswith grooves and matrices, secured by a frame and a braceof iron upon a strong wooden bench, and a lever carryinga heavy rammer, to fall down into the mould, for thepurpose of forcing a portion of the fluid type metal, whichhad been poured out of a ladle into the receptacle be-tween the ends of the grooves (each groove forming themould of a separate type), through small apertures intothe grooves and matrices (placed at the opposite end ofthe grooves) where the body and face of the letter arecast. By this apparatus about 200 types may be cast at oneoperation, and the casting repeated twice in a minute, oreven quicker. M. Pouchee, having cast a large quantityof type by this machine, offered the type for sale, and theprinters refused to purchase unless at a reduced price; M.Pouchee preferred melting it. At the sale of M. Pouchee’stype-founding effects, a quantity of this machine-casttype (which had escaped melting) was sold, and was after-wards discovered to be machine-cast by a private markon the side, and an after-cut nick. The machine was notoffered for sale. But Mr. Reed, a printer in King Street,Covent Garden (related to Mr. Blake, of the firm of Blakeand Stephenson, type-fouuders at Sheffield), was employedby the type-founders to negociate with M. Pouchee forthe purchase of the machine, which was effected for about100/. The machine was conveyed to Messrs. Caslon andLivermore's and destroyed, on which condition it waspurchased. There was included in this purchase a valu-able planing-machine, and cross-cutting machine for cut-ting the grooves. It was the invention of M. II. Didot,to whom M. Pouchee paid 48,000 francs for the patentright in England.

The English punch-cutters, whilst retaining elegance intheir types, endeavour to make them more durable, andperhaps more legible, by strengthening the fine strokesand giving a greater slope to their punches, thus obtaininga higher degree of perfection. It must be remarked,nevertheless, that in all their specimen-books the engrav-ing of vignettes and borders has made little progress, andcontrasts unfavourably with the beauty of their types.The same remark applies to Germany. In France somedegree of taste has been applied to ornaments of thisspecies. Latterly, the caprice of fashion has caused theshapes of the letters to be elongated, widened, and madeeither thin or thick, according to the whim of each en-graver. It is the same with the fantastical types fitlydesignated by the name of fancy letter, which are carriedto absurdity, in order to attract attention by their veryeccentricity.

Mr. Whittingham, at the suggestion of Mr. Pickering,first reintroduced the old letters of Garamond and Jenson,and many of the London printers have since followed;some very beautiful works have already been priuted withthese old letters, so true it is there is nothing new in thisworld except that which is eld. This saying applies alsoto the manufacture of paper, for in place of the beautifulpaper called vellum, the evenness of which is perfect, theEnglish public at the present day give the preference tolaid papers , though these show the wire-marks of themoulds as much as at a period when the weaving of wirewas not thoroughly understood.

Since the invention of casting types by Peter Schoeffer —a process which goes back as far as the origin of print-ing itself—this art has made little progress. It was only

at the commencement of the present century, that a slightimprovement resulted from the use of the mould calledthe American mould, which renders the work of thefounder somewhat more easy.

In 1806, M. Firmin Didot invented the sloping mould,with a salient and returning angle, and by an ingeniousdivision of the letters of the alphabet, and their variouscombinations, succeeded in imitating English handwriting,which presented the greatest difficulty, and in completeldoing away with the inconvenience of leaving the separa-tion between each letter visible, an obstacle winch had tillthen prevented the success of every attempt of this de-scription. The types cut by him and by his son were areal progress in the art, and met with great success inEurope . Copper-plate engraving and lithography alonecan vie with the perfection of this system.

About the same period, M. Henry I)idot invented thecompressing mould, and afterwards the mould which henamed polyumatype—hy means of which 140 letters arecast at once. M. Marcellin Legrand, the successor ofM. Henry Didot. has exhibited the products of this mould,which requires great accuracy aud great care, in order togive successful results. In spite, therefore, of the advan-tages which it offers, it is only in his establishment thatit has been applied on a large scale with success. Someyears since the use of mechanical moulds, moved first byhand (soon superseded by steam-power), was introducedfrom the United States , where this invention originated,into Germany, England, and France. Germany has beenable to turn this invention to better account than eitherEngland or France : the cause of this may perhaps be,that in the German alphabet the extremities of the thickstrokes of the letters are not terminated by sharp linesintersecting each other at right angles, aud which, ex-posing the least unevenness in ranging , constitute at oncethe merit and the difficulty of type-founding.*

We had an opportunity at the Exhibition, of seeing M.Brockhaus’ mechanical mould, which he has employedwith success for a long time in his own printing-office,and in that of M. Didot. In the one the movement ofthe platten of the mould acts horizontally, and in theother vertically. The injection of the melted material isaccomplished in each by means of a piston working inthe metal pot, and driving the material briskly into themould.

In 1844, M. Marcellin Legrand exhibited in Paris aseries of 4,000 punches, and the same number of matrices,for the purpose of reproducing all the signs representingthe words of the Chinese language. This system, whichconsists in adding to the piece representing the heyanother piece which modifies it, has completely succeeded,for it has been adopted not only in America, but in China it-self, and at the present moment works are printed at Macao ,and at Xing-Po, with the types engraved by M. Legrand.We have seen in the Exhibition the Gospels printed inChina by the Presbyterian Missionary Society of America.M. Marcellin Legrand was the first to undertake singlythis immense labour, by means of which Chinese writingis brought within the compass of European typography.A printed table, in which each word is accompanied by acipher, is now sufficient to indicate to the workman thecipher corresponding to the word. Each of the types isarranged in the case in numerical order, and bears uponits side a number corresponding with that of the table,thus facilitating the manual labour, and preventing manyerrors. There was also in the Exhibition, a page printedin the Chinese types engraved by M. Auguste Beyerhaus,of Berlin. By means—1st, of 1,200 punches and matricescapable of combination ; 2ndly, of 2,800 characters, eachengraved in a single piece; 3rdly, of 105 others, calledperpendiculars, he composes 25,000 different characters.The characters in this system are always divided perpen-dicularly, whilst in that adopted by M. Marcellin Legrandsome of the divisions are perpendicular and others hori-

* There may be other reasons; for it is well known thatthe invention patented in this country could be successfullyworked. Messrs. Figgins, who purchased it. have abstainedfrom putting it in practice, probably in deference to thejourneymen type-founders.