Qy x to agree with Oxfd? as a Stereotyper?
The supposition contained in the last cryptic note was well justified, as Wilson had in March, 1805, proposed to the Clarendon Press "to put the University in possession of the Art of Stereotype Printing"; later in the same year the Delegates, having resolved that "the University of Cambridge being in possession of the Art, it seems not only expedient, but necessary, that Oxford should be possess'd of the same advantages," entered into an agreement by which Wilson was to instruct their representatives in the stereotype processes for the sum of £4000[128].
In 1806 Wilson claimed that, as the introduction of stereotyping had enabled the Syndics to convert a warehouse into a printing-office for the sum of £1500 instead of building a new one at a cost of £4500, he was entitled by the agreement to his share of the saving of £3000 thus effected.
On 6 March, 1807, the university agreed to pay Wilson the sum of £865 16s 9d for the composition and two sets of plates of a bourgeois testament, a brevier testament and a nonpareil Welsh testament[129]; it being provided that the university should make for Wilson (from type supplied by himself) so many perfect plates towards octavo editions of Ainsworth's Dictionary and Johnson's Dictionary as should amount in value to the aggregate of Wilson's bill. Later in the same year the university definitely acquired the stereotype secret by a further agreement: £2000 was to be paid immediately, £1000 which had been previously advanced to Wilson was to become his property, and further sums were to be paid in accordance with the amount of the sales of bibles, testaments and prayer-books[130].
The following extracts, describing the outline of the stereotype process, are taken from Milner's notebook:
1. The pages as they come from the composers have been first well cleansed with a solution of American Potash—14 lb in 3 buckets of water.
2. They must then be gently dried by the fire and then cool and a little oil of Turpentine is put on a plate with 2 parts sweet oil.... This mixture gets thick by time: The plate is then well done over with a little of this mixture by one of the small soft brushes like a painter's brush....
3. Then a copper measure of the powdered calcined gypsum is taken—viz. about ½ or ¾ pint and the same quantity of soft water and they are put into a copper vessel and shaken exceedingly well together: and then the mixture is to be poured upon the types, there being first placed upon them an iron frame to form an Edge to sustain the fluid Gypsum and water.
4. Immediately, and without the least loss of time the short square brushes are now to be taken and you must work the Air out quickly with them and continue working till the gypsum is too fixed to allow of more working.
5. When so fixed that you can easily make an impression, that is, while the Plaster is softish, take off the upper frame and scrape clean all the elevated plaster. It will rise again above the level by and by; scrape again—and lastly as soon as it is so fixed that it is not easy to make a mark with yr nail, then lay it carefully upon a soft frame (covered with a sort of cloth) and then take a piece of wood that nearly fits the cake, and gently thrust it so as to make it quit the frame; and then dress it with a knife and lay it between two pieces of marble to keep it from warping.