On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures

by Charles Babbage

A. I conceive they generally charge a profit on the paper.

Q. Do not the printers charge a higher price also for printing, than they do to the trade?

A. I always understood that they do.

385. There appears to be little reason for this distinction in charging for printing a larger price to the author than to the publisher, provided the former is able to give equal security for the payment. With respect to the additional charge on paper, if the author employs either publisher or printer to purchase it, they ought to receive a moderate remuneration for the risk, since they become responsible for the payment; but there is no reason why, if the author deals at once with the paper-maker, he should not purchase on the same terms as the printer; and if he choose, by paying ready money, not to avail himself of the long credit allowed in those trades, he ought to procure his paper considerably cheaper.

386. It is time, however, that such conventional combinations between different trades should be done away with. In a country so eminently depending for its wealth on its manufacturing industry, it is of importance that there should exist no abrupt distinction of classes, and that the highest of the aristocracy should feel proud of being connected, either personally or through their relatives, with those pursuits on which their country's greatness depends. The wealthier manufacturers and merchants already mix with those classes, and the larger and even the middling tradesmen are frequently found associating with the gentry of the land. It is good that this ambition should be cultivated, not by any rivalry in expense, but by a rivalry in knowledge and in liberal feelings; and few things would more contribute to so desirable an effect, than the abolition of all such contracted views as those to which we have alluded. The advantage to the other classes, would be an increased acquaintance with the productive arts of the country an increased attention to the importance of acquiring habits of punctuality and of business and, above all, a general feeling that it is honourable, in any rank of life, to increase our own and our country's riches, by employing our talents in the production or in the distribution of wealth.

387. Another circumstance omitted to be noticed in the first edition relates to what is technically called the overplus, which may be now explained. When 500 copies of a work are to be printed, each sheet of it requires one ream of paper. Now a ream, as used by printers, consists of 21 1/2 quires, or 516 sheets. This excess of sixteen sheets is necessary in order to allow for 'revises'—for preparing and adjusting the press for the due performance of its work, and to supply the place of any sheets which may be accidentally dirtied or destroyed in the processes of printing, or injured by the binder in putting into boards. It is found, however, that three per cent is more than the proportion destroyed, and that damage is less frequent in proportion to the skill and care of the workmen.

From the evidence of several highly respectable booksellers and printers, before the Committee of the House of Commons on the Copyright Act, May, 1818, it appears that the average number of surplus copies, above 500, is between two and three; that on smaller impressions it is less, whilst on larger editions it is greater; that, in some instances, the complete number of 500 is not made up, in which case the printer is obliged to pay for completing it; and that in no instance have the whole sixteen extra copies been completed. On the volume in the reader's hands, the edition of which consisted of 3000, the surplus amounted to fifty-two—a circumstance arising from the improvements in printing and the increased care of the pressmen. Now this overplus ought to be accounted for to the author—and I believe it usually is so by all respectable publishers.

388. In order to prevent the printer from privately taking off a larger number of impressions than he delivers to the author or publisher, various expedients have been adopted. In some works a particular watermark has been used in paper made purposely for the book: thus the words 'Mecanique Celeste' appear in the watermark of the two first volumes of the great work of Laplace. In other cases, where the work is illustrated by engravings, such a fraud would be useless without the concurrence of the copperplate printer. In France it is usual to print a notice on the back of the title page, that no copies are genuine without the subjoined signature of the author: and attached to this notice is the author's name, either written, or printed by hand from a wooden block. But notwithstanding this precaution, I have recently purchased a volume, printed at Paris, in which the notice exists, but no signature is attached. In London there is not much danger of such frauds, because the printers are men of capital, to whom the profit on such a transaction would be trifling, and the risk of the detection of a fact, which must of necessity be known to many of their workmen, would be so great as to render the attempt at it folly.

389. Perhaps the best advice to an author, if he publishes on his own account, and is a reasonable person, possessed of common sense, would be to go at once to a respectable printer and make his arrangements with him.

390. If the author do not wish to print his work at his own risk, then he should make an agreement with a publisher for an edition of a limited number; but he should by no means sell the copyright. If the work contains woodcuts or engravings, it would be judicious to make it part of the contract that they shall become the author's property, with the view to their use in a subsequent edition of the works, if they should be required. An agreement is frequently made by which the publisher advances the money and incurs all the risk on condition of his sharing the profits with the author. The profits alluded to are, for the present work, the last item of section 382, or L306 4s.