412

STEREOTYPING; ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE INVENTION. [Class XVII.

from which he was enabled to print. About 1700,Valieyre printed in Paris some almanacs and pamphletswhich he had obtained by casting. In 1725, Mr. WilliamGed, a goldsmith in Edinburgh , produced some stereotypeplates from which he printed, in 1739, an edition ofSallust , but his process was little encouraged, and it wasabandoned after his death, although those that opposedhis method did not scruple to use his plates. In 1729,Mr. Ged entered into partnership with Messrs. Jamesand Fenner, of Loudon, for the purpose of carrying onthe stereotype business. In 1782, Mr. Tilloch joinedMessrs. Foulis, of Edinburgh , for the same purpose. In178-4, M. Iloffman, of Alsace, France , succeeded in obtain-ing stereotype plates from moulds of clay mixed withgelatine. He printed a work entitled “ R&herches His-toriques sur les Maures, par Chenier” in 3 vols. 8vo. ;but the process was found imperfect, and was soon after-wards abandoned. In 1791, M. Carez, of Toul , a printer,conceived the plan of attaching to a heavy piece of woodsuspended from a beam, a page of moveable types, well-locked with screws, in a proper frame, with the facedownwards, and letting it fall sharply on lead in a stateof fusion, just when on the point of setting; he thusobtained good matrices, which were used to make reliefstereotypes by attaching these matrices to the piece ofwood as already described, and letting it fall on fusiblemetal when also just on the point of setting. Good plateswere obtained ; but it often happened that the types weremelted when the lead was too hot, or bruised when toocold. This mode of stereotyping was therefore abandoned,aud yet the plan of polytyping, carried on to this day, isnot very dissimilar, although the use of more perfectmachinery and different metal has much simplified theprocess, and rendered it less destructive to the types.

Profiting by these various attempts, M. Firmin Didotconceived the idea of casting types in very hard metal,composed of 30 parts of lead, 30 of antimony, 30 of tin,and 10 of copper. He gave to these types less heightthat their solidity might be increased; then, by means ofa fly-press, he pressed each page (composed of these hardtypes, strongly fastened together in an iron box) into aplate of pure lead. The plate or matrix of the page thusobtained was affixed to the under side of the hammer ofa stamping press, on the bed of which was placed in apaper case an alloy, still in a state of fusion, similar tothat used for ordinary types, and at the moment whenafter having been rolled up into a pasty consistency inthis paper case it was upon the point of setting, the matrixof the page attached to the stamping press descended uponthe alloy, forming a page in relief, the clearness of whichwas perfect, as may be seen from the collection known bythe name of the stereotype edition, composed of morethan 200 volumes. At the same time that Firmin Didotsucceeded by this process, M. Ilerhan, who at first hadbeen his partner, resorted to another method, which con-sisted in striking in copper a great number of matricesarranged in such a manner as to admit of the pages beingset up with these matrices as if they had been types, withthis exception, however, that instead of being in relief,like the letters, the matrices were sunk. The page whencomposed was attached to the hammer of a stamping pressand allowed to fall upon an alloy still in a state of fusion,and thus a whole page in relief was obtained by meansof these hollow matrices. This expensive process wasattended with more inconveniences than that of FirminDidot. Roth of them were superseded by the processinvented by Lord Stanhope in 1800, who, resuming thefirst attempts at stereotyping, moulded in plaster or inalabaster, the pages composed with ordinary types, andobtained casts in relief by drying the moulds in a propermanner, aud plunging them into a vessel filled with metalin a state of fusion.

Numerous attempts have since been made to substitutefor plaster moulds the employment of sheets of paperwith whiting placed between them, but the results appearinferior to the plaster moulds.

For vignettes, casts of bitumen answer very well, andstereotype plates of bitumen give good results.

Among the products which particularly deserve to bementioned, are those of the Rubeland Ducal Foundry

Inspection* (780, pp. 1093, 1094), whose specimen ofstereotype in cast iron, with the Bible printed from it,shows a new application of that metal; of Messrs.Knight and Hawk.es (107, p. 544), who exhibit goodspecimens of stereotypes from engravings in wood, steel,&c., and plates for printing in various colours; and alsoof Messrs. Manchin* and Morel, of London (128, p.545), for their successful application of bitumen to thepurpose of stereotype. This process, although new inEngland, seems to have been used in other countries forsome time, and in the “ Illustration,” by Mr. Plon, whohas an improved mode of mounting the plates. Mr.Barker’s specimens of casts (189, p. 550) from woodmatrices are produced by a most ingenious process, offoreign invention. They are used extensively by calico-printers in Manchester and other places. The mode ofobtaining these casts is as follows: a pattern of the sizerequired is put on wood in the manner well known to pinand coppered pattern makers, care being taken that, indriving the pieces of copper in the wood block, they areforced to equal depth. Tin iu a melted state is thenpoured on this pin or coppered pattern to the thickness ofhalf an inch, and when cold the pattern block is placed onthe bed of a screw-press, constructed for the purpose, andheld fast by means of screws, whilst the part on whichthe tin has been poured, is affixed by clamps to the screwi of the press, and by it drawn out from the pattern-block,j the tin holding in a solid mass the copper forming the| pattern, and leaving the wood as a matrix, from which a| number of plates can be obtained by casting with fusible' metal. The casts exhibited by Mr. Barker are very| beautiful and perfect, and of greater depth than can beobtained by any other known process. Mr. Muir, of| Glasgow (174, p. 548 h had an electrotype from a pageof diamond type, which appeared good. M. Curmer, of' Paris (135, p. 1177), had some specimens of stereotype| from paper moulds, which seems to be the same system| as that patented by Mr. Kronheim some years ago, andwhich did not prove practicable. Mr. Starr, of Phi-‘ ladelphia (88, p. 1438), also exhibited stereotypes andelectrotypes of some merit.

< Printing Ink.

! The ink of the earliest printed works of the fifteenthcentury presents to our view every desirable quality. Itis black, glossy, and the lapse of four centuries has demon-strated the fact that it has retained its primitive qualitiesup to the present day. It is not the same with laterimpressions, in the greater part of which the ink is moreor less decomposed; nevertheless that which the Aldi,the Stephani, the Elzevirs, the Ibarras, the Bodonis, thePlnntins, and all other printers who were zealous fortypographical renown, manufactured themselves, has re-tained all its primitive quality. At present the manufac-ture of ink is in many respects good, and the grinding,which cannot be too complete, has become more perfectby the application of improved machinery; but the ink istoo often deteriorated by adulteration.

It is especially to Mr. De La Rue that this manufactureowes some real improvements, as may be judged from hisspecimens of printing in different colours, both upon cardand upon paper. The brightness of his colours is asremarkable as their variety, and his inks are capable ofbeing glazed almost immediately after printing. Thebrightness of the printing in gold, executed by his processat his manufactory, is very superior to others. At thesame time it is doubtful whether the brightness of ver-milion ink is equal to the intensity of the red used in theprinting of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

As to the printing inks sent to the Exhibition, time isthe only test capable of deciding their respective qualities,and as, moreover,, an ink suitable to one climate may notsuit another, and lastly, as the ink must be differentlymodified according to the state of the atmosphere, alwaysso variable, the Jury, on weighing these considerations,have deemed it their duty to refrain from giving anyopinion upon this class of products, fearing that theirjudgments might be set aside by time, which alone is ableto disclose the truth.