PRINTING AND STEREOTYPING.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 99, 11 July 1843, Page 4

PRINTING AND STEREOTYPING.

The art of printing’ is one of the most extraordinary results of human ingenuity, and is certainly the very noblest of all the known handicrafts. Yet, important as it is acknowledged to be, three centuries elapsed from the invention before it-was perfected in many of its most necessary details... At first, .the art was

entirely in the hands of learned men, the greatest ' scholars often glorying in affixing their names to 'the works a? correctors of the press, and giving names- to the various parts of the mechanism of the printing-office, as is testified by the classical technicalities still in use among the workmen. Guttenburgh the inventor, did not go the length of casting types from moulds :-that great improvement. is said to have been effaced by Peter Schafer, the companion of Faust; and from that event till • the invention of italic letters by Aldus Manu- : tius, to whom learning is much indebted, no other improvement took place. It does not appear that mechanical ingenuity was at any time directed to the improvement of the presses, or any oth6r parts of the machinery used in

... printing, and the consequence was that till far on. the eighteenth century, the clumsy instru- - merits of Guttenburgh, Faust,, and Caxton, • continued in-universal use. The presses were • composed of wood and iron, and were slow and heavy in working, while the ink continued to be applied by two stuffed' balls or cushions, at a .. great expense-of time-and trouble. •At length, *an almost’entire revolution was , effected iri >the printing-office, both in the ap- ; pearance of the-typography and the working of L the presses. About the same period, the art of 1 stereotyping was discovered, and developed a completely new feature in the invention of > printing. One of the chief improvements in the - typography was the discarding of the long s, at the same time, the cutting of the letters was done with greater neatness and regularity. Among the first improvers of the printing press,

. the most honourable place may be given to the Earl of Stanhope, a nobleman remembered for ! his mechanical genius, who applied certain- lever powers to the screw and. handle of the old press, thereby diminishing the labour of the operative, and producing finer work. Since the beginning of the present century, and morp especially within the last twenty years, presses wholly composed of iron, on the nicest scientific principles, have been invented by different men of mechanical genius in Great Britain and America, sj> as to simplify the process of printing in an extraordinary degree; and the invention of presses composed of cylinders, anti 'Wrought by steam . power, has triumphantly the improvements in the - art, The introduction of steam presses-has ‘ been furthered by another invention of an acces- : sory nature, now of great value, to the printer.

..Allusion-is here made to the. invention of the roller, for applying the ink, instead of the old i unwieldy and - insufficient balls. The roller, ■ which is a composition of a glutinous nature, cast upon a-wooden centrepiece, was invented - by a journeyman printer in Edinburgh, and was so much appreciated, as at once to spread over the whole of Britain.

It is our chief object, in this sketch, to give a brief explanation of the process of stereotyping. Stereotyping seems to have been invented simul- ' taneously by different persons in various parts -- of England and Scotland during the last century. -When properly, made- known, it was hailed with acclamation by the printing and publishing world, but, as experience developed its; powers, . it was found to be strictly applicable only to a ; particular kind of work, Id putting up types, • .they are lifted one by one, and built into a- little < case held- in the hand of the compositor; who, 'by the accumulation of handfuls, makes up a ; page, and lays it, with the face uppermost, on a table. After being'wedged at- the fooriand side into an iron frame, and corrected, the, page is ' carried to the press for working, and when the whole of the; impression is off, it is brought back to the table, and the types distributed into their , places. When the page-has to be stereotyped, ■> the same process of putting up is gone through, but, instead of being carried to the .press, the , page is plastered over with liquid stucco to the thickness bf about half an inch, so that a level - cake is formed on the surface of the types. As

soon as the stucco hardens, which it does almost - immediately, the cake is. separated from the types, and, on being turned up, shews a com- ; plete hollow or mould-like representation of the

faces of the types and every thing else in the I page. There-being no longer any use for the type*, they-are carried off and distributed.'As .for the cake, it is put-into an oven and baked to - a certain degree of heat and hardness, like a ■ piece of| pottery. It is next laid in a square iron ; pan, having a- lid of the same metal, with holes at the corners. The.pan is now immersed in a jpot of molten lead, and'being allowed.to fill-by means of the . holes, it is at length taken out and ,put .aside till it cool. On opening the pan, a '-curious appearance is,presented. The lead has 'run info the.mould side of the cake, and formed -a thin plate all .over, exhibiting the perfect ; appearance of the; faces of the types on which therstucco was plastered. Thus . is procured a -ffi.dtitious.page of types, not thicker .than the -sixth of an inch, and which can he printed frem -in the samemanner as in the case of a real page.

Such is the process of stereotyping, or making fixed or stationary types ; —and now for the utility of the invention. In all cases of common hook work it is best to print fr6m types to the amount of the copies required, distribute the types; hut in most cases of books published in parts, sheets,. ; or numbers, stereotyping becomes .absolutely necessary. It is easy to perceive the reason for this. When books ure published in numbers, it often happens that many more copies are sold of one number than Of another, and'unless the types be kept up to complete sets -in the hands of the publisher, or to print 'Copies according to the demand, a 'Considerable loss is sustained. The manufacture of stereotype plates is, therefore, simply a means of keeping up ficticious types to answer future demands, at an expense infinitely inferior to that of keeping the actual pages standing, For example, one hundred pounds worth of types are employed ii/setting up a single sheet of this journal, while a set of stereotype plates, which answer ‘the same purpose, costs only forty-five shillings. As the journal is stereotyped weekly, there has perhaps never yet occurred such a remarkable instance of the value of this vast improvement in the typographic art. The very manner in which the work is effected furnishes matter for surprise. Two sets of plates are moulded,-one of which is kept for use in Edinburgh, and the other sent in a box by the royal mail to London, where it is immediately subjected to a steam press, and, in a few hours, made to produce twenty thousand or more printed sheets. By -this wonderful process, the expense of setting up the types in London is avoided, and the publisher thereby permitted ’-to -extend the circulation of the work on the -most liberal principles, and in a very quick manner, all over the country, both to the benefit of the booksellers and the public. At the outset of the Journal, stereotyping most unfortunately was not resorted to; in consequence of this oversight, some of the numbers'were put in types four or five times to print off additional supplies; and it has onlybeen since-the’whole were regularly stereotyped', that the work has produced any profit commensurate with the exertions bestowed upon it, or been conducted with satisfaction to the parties concerned.— Chambers’ Edinburgh ■ Journal.