Hereby understand that after great charge & Trouble, I have brought that great Art & Mystery of Printing into this part of America; believing it may be of great service to you in several respects; hoping to find encouragement, not only in this Almanack, but what else I shall enter upon for the use & service of the Inhabitants of these Parts. Some irregularities there be in this Diary, which I desire you to pass by this year; for being lately come hither, my materials were misplaced & out of order, whereupon I was forced to use Figures & Letters of various Sizes: but understanding the want of something of this nature, & being importuned thereto, I ventured to make public this; desiring you to accept thereof; & by the next (as I find encouragement) shall endeavour to have things compleat. And for the ease of Clarks, Scriveniers, &c., I propose to print blank Bills, Bonds, Letters of Attorney, Indentures, Warrants, etc., & what else presents itself, wherein I shall be ready to serve you; and remain your friend.
W. BRADFORD.
Philadelphia, the
10th month, 1685.
[6] Mr. Horatio Gates Jones, of Philadelphia, in his introduction to Frame’s Short Description of Pennsilvania, gives further interesting particulars. See, also, Munsell’s Chronology, &c. of Paper and Paper Making, Albany, N. Y., 1876.
[7] The remainder of this article was mostly furnished by the late Mr. George Bruce, of New York.
[8] After the retirement of Binny & Ronaldson, Richard Ronaldson carried on the business of this foundry until 1833, when he in turn was succeeded by Lawrence Johnson and George F. Smith. Mr. Johnson, a man of great energy and enterprise, had (contemporaneously with Jedediah Howe) introduced stereotyping into Philadelphia, and now both callings were incorporated. Ten years afterward, Mr. Smith retired; and in the year 1845 Mr. Johnson associated with him Thomas MacKellar, John F. Smith and Richard Smith, who had, as it were, grown up with the business. The foundry now quickly grew in importance, and won a wide reputation. Mr. Johnson died April 26, 1860, and was succeeded by his three partners, who, with Peter A. Jordan, constituted the firm known as MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, under whose management the establishment was brought to rank equal with and excel most of the type foundries in the world. Mr. Jordan died March 25, 1884. In 1885 Wm. B. MacKellar, G. Fredk Jordan and C. F. Huch were associated with the remaining partners, and a corporation was formed under the name of The MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Company. Their “Typographic Advertiser” (begun in 1855) and Specimen Books are regarded as unique mechanical and literary productions. The height and body of the Pica of this Company have been universally adopted in the United States as the standard of size for the American Point System of type.
[9] Chambers’s Encyclopædia.
[10] Wilson’s Treatise on English Punctuation is a full and explicit work on this subject, and should be studied by every printer and author. It is worthy of adoption as the standard authority.
[11] Wilson, in his Treatise on English Punctuation, says, very judiciously,—
The hyphen is employed in words in such a manner as is best calculated to show their origin, composition, or import, and to exhibit the syllables in their neatest form. Agreeably to this rule,—