Great Facts / A Popular History and Description of the Most Remarkable Inventions During the Present Century

by Frederick C. Bakewell

In another part of the Times establishment there is an ingenious machine for wetting the paper, by which contrivance much labour and time are saved. The paper, heaped in a pile at one end of a table, is presented in quires at a time to the action of a roller, which drags it on to a moving endless blanket, that is kept wet by a stream of water, and the upper surface is wetted by a long brush, placed over the blanket. The wetted paper is heaped upon a truck, which gradually descends, to keep the upper sheets on a level with the table, till the paper is piled up a yard in thickness. The truck is then raised, by hydraulic pressure, to the level of the floor, and is wheeled away and another one is loaded. Between nine and ten tons of paper are thus wetted daily; and the sheets of the Times printed during a year, if spread out and piled one upon another, would form a column as high as Mont Blanc. The quantity of ink daily consumed in the printing is upwards of two hundredweight. The machine is worked by two steam engines, each of 16-horse power; and the noise of the numerous wheels and rapidly revolving cylinders is almost deafening.

The great rapidity and the comparative cheapness of printing by machines, together with the greater facility of making paper by machinery, have been the means of creating a demand for books which it would be impossible to supply, unless those means were at command. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of copies of publications, that spread knowledge among the people of the highest interest to the welfare of man, and replete with useful information of every kind, are now sold at prices which would be impossible, were it not for the improvements that have been made in the manufacture of paper, and in the means of printing.

Nor should we omit to notice, as one of the causes that have contributed to the production of cheap literature, the art of stereotyping, which has been perfected during the present century. Earl Stanhope, the inventor of the admirable press that bears his name, was prominent in bringing that art to perfection.

Numerous attempts had been made in the last century to produce casts from pages of type. So early, indeed, as 1700, some almanacks and pamphlets were printed in Paris from castings; and an edition of Sallust was printed in Edinburgh in 1739, from stereotype plates produced by Mr. Ged, a goldsmith. The process, however, was not encouraged, and on his death it was not further proceeded with. The most important advance in the art was made by M. Hoffman, of Alsace, who, in 1784, succeeded in obtaining stereotype plates by casting them in moulds of clay mixed with gelatine in which the pages of type were impressed, with which he printed a work in three volumes; but the castings were imperfect, and the plan was soon afterwards abandoned. Among the many plans tried to obtain perfect casts of the types when set up, was one contrived by M. Carez, a printer of Toul, who, in 1791, endeavoured to obtain casts in lead from a page of type, by allowing it to drop on the fused metal when it was in a state of setting. The matrices thus obtained were in like manner impressed on a fusible metal, which melted at a lower temperature than the lead. Good casts were often thus procured, but the uncertainty of the process, arising from the frequent fusion of the lead matrices, caused it to be discontinued. Other plans were tried in France with more or less success, but nothing was done practically until Lord Stanhope directed his attention to the subject in 1800, and resorted to the original method of obtaining matrices, by impressing the pages of type in a cold plastic substance. He employed plaster of Paris for his mould; and when they were thoroughly dried, they were plunged in fused type-metal; and in this manner a perfect cast in metal of the original page of movable type was produced. The process has been still further perfected, and casts from movable types, and from wood engravings, are now made with great facility, and the impressions from them are quite equal to the originals.

When it is intended to stereotype a work, the movable types used in composing it are new, and the "spaces" that separate the words from each other are longer than is customary when the type is to be printed from. These elongated spaces reach nearly to the face of the letters, so that the plaster may not sink between them. By this means the mould is easily removed from the face of the page of type. The metal casting of each page is very thin, and when required to be used, it is screwed on to blocks of wood to the same height as ordinary types.

Several attempts have been made to apply other substances than plaster of Paris and type-metal for stereotyping. At the Great Exhibition there were specimens of gutta percha stereotypes, that produced excellent impressions, and there were also fine stereotype castings of type in iron, from which a copy of the Bible had been printed. Papier maché has been found to be a material peculiarly applicable for the purpose, and it is now superseding the use of plaster of Paris for taking casts of the types.

By the application of the art of stereotyping, casts in metal of valuable works can be kept ready at any time, to be printed from when more copies are required; and the expense is saved of keeping on hand large stocks of printed paper, or of having a work recomposed when a further edition is wanted.

The inventions of Printing Machines and stereotyping were strongly opposed at first by pressmen and compositors, as calculated to diminish the demand for their labour. In "Johnson's Typographia," published in 1824, the "new-fangled articles" are mentioned in a spirit of great bitterness; and the writer thus poured forth his lamentations at the prospective ruin of the members of his profession:—"We are much surprised at the apathy and supineness shown by the body of master printers with respect to the subject under discussion; they most assuredly had good and sufficient grounds for an application to Parliament for a tax, that should bring the work so executed upon an equality with that done by manual labour."—"We feel satisfied that the above would not have met with encouragement from a British public, had they been aware of the evils attendant on it; they have not only to pay a full price for the work, but also extra poor's rates, in consequence of the men being thus out of employ; likewise they are countenancing the breaking up and destruction of all the energy and talent of that art which was England's proudest boast, and her shield against all the threats of her foreign foes."

These predictions of ruin have been completely falsified. It has been with the Printing Machines as with most other improved machinery for the saving of labour: on their first introduction some hands, no doubt, were thrown out of employ, but the advantages derived from the saving of labour very soon reacted favourably in creating a greater demand for labour than before. The number of cheap periodicals, and the extensive issues of cheap literature in every form, require a much larger number of workmen to supply the demand, even with the aid of machinery, than was needed in the best days of the manual printing press; and at no time were so many compositors and pressmen employed as at present.

In the Reports of the Juries of the Great Exhibition, some interesting statistics are given, showing the influence of the invention of Printing Machines in extending the demand for books and periodicals. "The machine," it is observed, "created a demand, and called into existence books which, but for it, would scarcely have been thought of. As the machine-work from type and woodcuts was far better than the ordinary printing of the day, booksellers were induced to print extensive editions, because they saw the machine could accomplish all they required. One of the first booksellers who availed himself of this power was Mr. Charles Knight, who projected the 'Penny Magazine,' on a hint from Mr. M. D. Hill, Queen's Counsel. Each number, published weekly, consisted of eight pages of letterpress, illustrated with good wood engravings. The public was astonished at the cheapness and good quality of the work, but it was its immense sale which rendered it profitable; for some years it amounted to 180,000 copies weekly. Mr. Knight, whose services in the cause of educational literature entitle him to the highest praise, expended £5,000 a year in woodcuts for this work. The Cowper machine has been the cause of the many pictorial illustrations which characterize so large a portion of modern publications. The 'Saturday Magazine,' 'Chambers' Journal,' the 'Magasin Pittoresque,' in France, and numerous others, owe their existence to this printing machine. The principle of cheap editions and large sales soon extended to established works of a higher value. A remarkable instance of this was the edition of Sir Walter Scott's Works, with notes, edited by himself; instead of the old price 10s. 6d., they were sold at 5s. a volume,[15] and the demand created by this reduction in price was so great, that, though the printer had a strong prejudice against machines, he was compelled to have them, the presses of his large establishment proving totally unable to perform the work, which amounted to upwards of 1,000 volumes per day for about two years. The Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have adopted Mr. Cowper's machines for printing vast numbers of Bibles, prayer-books, &c., &c. A Bible which formerly cost 3s. may now be had for 1s. Mr. Cowper recommended the Religious Tract Society to put aside their coarse woodcuts, to have superior wood engravings, and to print with his machine. The Society adopted those suggestions, and the result is, that by sending forth well-printed books, it could now support itself by their sale, without any aid from subscriptions."