John Southward

“ A good compositor must possess intelligence and a reasonable amount of general know ledge : he must be able to read his copy with readiness, and to understand its meaning, in order to punctuate it properly. He should be able to spell correctly, as some copy is almost undecipher able in regard to separate letters, while other copy is incorrectly spelt. When the composing stick is filled, the type is lifted on to a galley, a shallow tray of wood or metal, two or three sides of which are flanged, for the purpose of supporting the type, when the galley is slightly inclined. ”

“ We must now take notice of two theories or traditions which have been current for a long time as to some intervening stage between the art of block-printing and the art of printing with movable cast types. [39] One theory or tradition would have it that the inventor of printing, after the idea of single, individual, movable types had arisen in his mind, practised his new invention for some consider able time with wooden types, and that he came only gradually to the idea of movable types cast of metal. ”

“ From the casting of the type to the mixing of the ink they did nearly everything for themselves. Gradually the different departments of the art were constituted separate and re cognized trades. The type-founder was probably the first to secede from the concern ; then printers delegated to others the making of presses ; afterwards the ink and the rollers found separate and distinct manufacturers ; and there arose a class of persons who, though belonging to other trades, made printing appliances a specialty, such as printers smiths, printers joiners, and printers engineers. ”

“ One chief obstacle to the more general adoption of rotary printing is the expense of stereotyping the type formes. Although a machine has been constructed in which movable types can be placed round the periphery of an impressing cylinder, it cannot compete with the Walter and other presses using stereo plates. The problem of printing directly from flat formes of ordinary types, as well as from stereotypes, with paper supplied in the roll, is one that may be commended to engineers. ”

“ When the machine is in motion, the types are pushed out on to the table, which passes with its freight round its course until it comes to the point of delivery, when the types are swept off. The rising of the table, and the drawing out of the types, are guided by the perforated paper. Hence the machine sets types without a human compositor. When once the ribbon is perforated, it may be used over again for subsequent editions of the same work, which may be in a different size of type. These machines are only in use in the office of the inventor. ”

“ The proof, when corrected, is returned through the overseer (who retains the copy) to the clicker, and he gives it to the compositor who set it up. When the type is corrected a revise is pulled, which goes through the same hands to the overseer again; and then it is de spatched to the author, editor, or publisher. In a well-ordered composing-room strict silence is enjoined upon the workmen. Among the industrial pursuits there is none more monotonous and more exacting, none demanding more patience, sustained industry, and power of endurance than the compositor's art. ”

“ We can only refer to what may be regarded as representative appliances in present use. In America all kinds of apparatus for printing are called "presses"; in England, however, an appliance of a more automatic character than the hand -press is usually called "a machine." As the hand -press is now almost obsolete, this dis tinction will probably be abandoned, and the shorter and more expressive word "press" be applied to all. Venturing to adopt this suggestion, we may say that of platen presses there are the hand-press, the treadle platen press, and the steam or other power- driven press. ”

“ The specimen books of the principal type-founders are splendid volumes, containing several thousand different faces. The best work of German printers is noteworthy for its studied neatness and attractiveness, tasteful and harmonious arrangement of colour and tint, a characteristic and conscientious attention to details of finish, exact register, and beauty of impression. American work excels in originality of design, brilliancy of colour, and perfect finish. English printers are closely following the best points of each of these schools of typography. ”

“ As no book or document was approved unless it had some ornamented and illuminated initials or capital letters, there was no want of illuminators. The workmen scribes and transcribers were, perhaps without exception, caligraphers, and the illuminators for the most part artists. Beautifully written and richly illuminated manuscripts on vellum became objects of luxury which were eagerly bought and treasured up by princes and people of distinction. ”

“ The hand-press, when worked by two men, one rolling the types and one pulling the handle of the press, produces only about 250 impressions per hour. The treadle press is worked by a boy, who has only to depress the treadle with his foot, and lay on and take off the sheets with his hands, and he can work at the rate of more than 1000 per hour. The treadle press is also superior to the hand-press in the uniformity of its results, since the automatic inking ensures a greater regularity in the colour of the impressions than with the old hand-inking process. ”

“ The mould is movable, and at every revolution of the wheel it comes up to the spout, receives a charge of metal, and flies back with a fully formed type in its bosom ; when the upper half of the mould is lifted, a type is ejected. The spring in front holds the copper matrix in close proximity to the mould. The letter a, for instance, stamped in the matrix is directly opposite the aperture in the mould which meets the spout of the pump. When a due proportion of a s are cast, another matrix with b stamped on it takes its place, and so on throughout the whole fount. ”

“ Consequently, if a man wanted to set up as a printer of briefs or books, he needed no apparatus but a set of wood-blocks and a rubber.
Formerly it was the general opinion that playing-cards had been the first products of xylography; but the earliest that have been preserved to us are done by hand, while the printed ones date from the 15th century, therefore from a period in which woodcuts were already used for other purposes. It is believed that some of the wood engravings and block-books were printed in monasteries. ”

“ Hence a printing surface may be reproduced to an almost infinite extent, and the means of production of impressions on the press or machine are increased in proportion to the number of casts taken. It ensures an accurate copy of an original text, whereas in repro duction by resetting the movable types there is a liability to devia tion. When only a cast is worked from, any accident may be re paired by taking another cast, and the cost is slight compared with that of composing over again. A smaller quantity of type may be used in an office where this process is used ”

“ Sheets much larger than double crown (20 x 30 inches) can hardly be worked at a press ; the machine perfects a sheet nearly double this size 50 x 40 or four royal, so that the proportionate product of the machine to the press is about as 32 to 1. Perfecting machines are not so much used for book-work as formerly. The single-cylinder machine has been brought to such perfection, and is so superior in its inking arrangements, that printers prefer it. In America nearly all machines are one-sided. For newspapers of limited circulation, however, the perfecting machine is well adapted. ”

“ Then, it was thought necessary for the safety of the type to interpose a thick soft blanket between it and the pressing surface, whether cylinder or platen ; now, it is found equally safe, and far more conducive to a good impression, to make the packing as thin and hard as possible. Then, fine woodcuts were "brought up" by the use of many "overlays" and "underlays" to correct inequalities in the surface of the blocks and emphasize some of the parts ; now, although the art of "making ready" has been brought to great perfection, the fewer and thinner the overlays employed the better. ”

“ Under the keys runs a rod connected by a crank motion with the pusher G, which, with every depression of a key, pushes forward the line of type in the composing stick, thus making room for the next letter. The matter is thus set in one continuous line, ready to be divided into lines of the required length either by the operator at the machine or by another hand working in conjunction. The speed of the machine varies from 6000 to 12,000 types per hour, but is regulated solely by the skill of the operator, as the machine will work as fast as the keys can be pressed. ”

“ The present style of Roman type dates only from about the first quarter of the 18th century. Previously the approved shape was as follows : Printing has been defined to be the act, art, or The use of this type was revived by Whittingham of the Chiswick Press about 1843, and it has since become a favourite form, under the name of old style. Some of the punches cut by the first notable English type-founder, William Caslon (1692-1766) , have been pre served and types are being constantly cast from them. Nearly all founders now produce modernized old style. ”

“ Lately rotary presses for small jobbing work have been constructed; and before long the rotary principle will probably be rendered available for illustrated periodicals and fine book -work, printed from webs or In type- reels of paper instead of single sheets. Great improvements have founding, also been made in type-founding, and the Roman and Italic founts now used by English printers are equal to those of any country in the world. It is sometimes said that English editions de luxe are not equal to those of the French, and that this is owing to the inferiority of the founders. ”

“ There is in the first place the unevenness of the lines, which very often serves as a guide to the approximate date of a book, especially when we deal with the works of the same printer, since each commenced with uneven lines, and gradually made them less uneven, and finally even. This unevenness was unavoidable in manuscripts as well as in block-books ”

“ The machine overseer has his box and keeps an account of the produce of each machine. Under him are the persons whose business it is to cut out overlays for the cut or illustrated formes. These men are in their way artists, for to them is attributable much of the beauty and perfection of working of each block that goes through their hands. They have by them three or four prints or "pulls" of the block, and their tools consist of scissors, paste, a sharp knife or two, and perhaps a razor -like blade set in a wooden handle. ”

“ Yet as a matter of fact their best faces have been reproduced with perfect success by modern founders. From a mechanical point of view the impression given by the best machine presses to-day is undoubtedly superior to that of the hand-presses of the 17th and 18th centuries. If modern books suffer in any respect on comparison with those of former times, which are so highly prized by bibliophiles, it is owing to their want of general artistic ensemble, and not to any deficiency in mechanical execution. ”

“ The supposed Mainz inventor (Gutenberg) even speaks himself on two occasions (in the lawsuit of 1455 and in the Catholicon of 1460) , but never says that he had made an invention. The archbishop, too, speaks publicly of Gutenberg in 1465 (testimony E) , and rewards him for services, but does not speak of him as the inventor of printing, nor even as a printer. Nor does Dr Homery, in his letter to the archbishop (testimony G) , in which he refers to Gutenberg's printing apparatus, call him the inventor of printing. In 1468 we enter on a new phase in the history of the invention. ”

“ Where large spaces of white occur, the metal is cleared away by a drill ; after the block has been mounted type high, it is ready for the printer. This process is only available for the production of " line blocks," i.e., those in which the original drawing is done in lines or dots, as for an ordinary woodcut. The highest achievement of process blocks has been the production of tone blocks, which may be made direct from oil-paintings, water-colours, photographs, draw ings in chalk, wash, pencil, &c., or indeed from anything from which a photographic negative can be taken. ”

“ He then pulls the rope until the matrix, with its weight attached, is elevated to the top of the machine, when it is suddenly allowed to fall. The result is similar to that made on a medal by means of a die, a perfect reproduction of the matrix in relief, which is mounted on a metal stand to type height. The results are excellent, as the plastic metal is forced into the finest lines of the matrix. Duplicates of a block can be thus produced more rapidly than by the ordinary stereotype process ”