Between the rude screw-press of Gutenberg or Caxton, slow and laboured
in its working, to the first-class printing machine of our own day,
throwing off its fifteen or eighteen thousand copies of a large
four-page journal in an hour, what a stride has been taken in the noble
art! Step by step, slowly but surely, has the advance been made,--one
improvement suggested after another at long intervals, and by various
minds. With the perfection of the printing press, the name of Earl
Stanhope is chiefly associated; but, although when he had put the
finishing touches to its construction, immensely superior to all former
machines, it was unavailable for rapid printing. In relation to the
demand for literature and the means of supplying it, the world had, half
a century ago, reached much the same deadlock as in the days when the
production of books depended solely on the swiftness of the
transcriber's pen, and when the printing press existed only in the
fervid brain and quick imagination of a young German student. Not only
the growth, but the spread of literature, was restricted by the labour,
expense, and delay incident to the multiplication of copies; and the
popular appetite for reading was in that transition state when an
increased supply would develop it beyond all bounds or calculation,
while a continuance of the starvation supply would in all likelihood
throw it into a decline from want of exercise.
Such was the state of things when a revolution in the art of printing
was effected which, in importance, can be compared only to the original
discovery of printing. In fact, since the days of Gutenberg to the
present hour, there has been only one great revolution in the art, and
that was the introduction of steam printing in 1814. The neat and
elegant, but slow-moving Stanhope press, was after all but little in
advance of its rude prototype of the fifteenth century, the chief
features of which it preserved almost without alteration. The steam
printing machine took a leap ahead that placed it at such a distance
from the printing press, that they are hardly to be recognised as the
offspring of the same common stock. All family resemblance has died out,
although the printing machine is certainly a development of the little
screw press.
Of the revolution of 1814, which placed the printing machine in the seat
of power, _vice_ the press given over to subordinate employment, Mr.
John Walter of the _Times_ was the prominent and leading agent. But for
his foresight, enterprise, and perseverance, the steam machine might
have been even now in earliest infancy, if not unborn.
Familiar as the invention of the steam printing machine is now, in the
beginning of the present century it shared the ridicule which was thrown
upon the project of sailing steam ships upon the sea, and driving steam
carriages upon land. It seemed as mad and preposterous an idea to print
off 5000 impressions of a paper like the _Times_ in one hour, as, in the
same time, to paddle a ship fifteen miles against wind and tide, or to
propel a heavily laden train of carriages fifty miles. Mr. Walter,
however, was convinced that the thing could be done, and lost no time in
attempting it. Some notion of the difficulties he had to overcome, and
the disappointments he had to endure, while engaged in this enterprise,
may be gathered from the following extracts from the biography of Mr.
Walter, which appeared in the _Times_ at the time of his death in July
1847:--
"As early as the year 1804, an ingenious compositor, named Thomas
Martyn, had invented a self-acting machine for working the press, and
had produced a model which satisfied Mr. Walter of the feasibility of
the scheme. Being assisted by Mr. Walter with the necessary funds, he
made considerable progress towards the completion of his work, in the
course of which he was exposed to much personal danger from the
hostility of the pressmen, who vowed vengeance against the man whose
inventions threatened destruction to their craft. To such a length was
their opposition carried, that it was found necessary to introduce the
various pieces of the machine into the premises with the utmost possible
secresy, while Martyn himself was obliged to shelter himself under
various disguises in order to escape their fury. Mr. Walter, however,
was not yet permitted to reap the fruits of his enterprise. On the very
eve of success he was doomed to bitter disappointment. He had exhausted
his own funds in the attempt, and his father, who had hitherto assisted
him, became disheartened, and refused him any further aid. The project
was, therefore, for the time abandoned.
"Mr. Walter, however, was not the man to be deterred from what he had
once resolved to do. He gave his mind incessantly to the subject, and
courted aid from all quarters, with his usual munificence. In the year
1814 he was induced by a clerical friend, in whose judgment he confided,
to make a fresh experiment; and, accordingly, the machinery of the
amiable and ingenious Koenig, assisted by his young friend Bower, was
introduced--not, indeed, at first into the _Times_ office, but into the
adjoining premises, such caution being thought necessary upon the
threatened violence of the pressmen. Here the work advanced, under the
frequent inspection and advice of the friend alluded to. At one period
these two able mechanics suspended their anxious toil, and left the
premises in disgust. After the lapse, however, of about three days, the
same gentleman discovered their retreat, induced them to return, showed
them, to their surprise, their difficulty conquered, and the work still
in progress. The night on which this curious machine was first brought
into use in its new abode was one of great anxiety, and even alarm. The
suspicious pressmen had threatened destruction to any one whose
inventions might suspend their employment. 'Destruction to him and his
traps.' They were directed to wait for expected news from the Continent.
It was about six o'clock in the morning when Mr. Walter went into the
press-room, and astonished its occupants by telling them that 'The
_Times_ was already printed by steam! That if they attempted violence,
there was a force ready to suppress it; but that if they were
peaceable, their wages should be continued to every one of them till
similar employment could be procured,'--a promise which was, no doubt,
faithfully performed; and having so said, he distributed several copies
among them. Thus was this most hazardous enterprise undertaken and
successfully carried through, and printing by steam on an almost
gigantic scale given to the world."
On that memorable day, the 29th of November 1814, appeared the following
announcement,--"Our journal of this day presents to the public the
practical result of the greatest improvement connected with printing
since the discovery of the art itself. The reader now holds in his hands
one of the many thousand impressions of the _Times_ newspaper which were
taken off last night by a mechanical apparatus. That the magnitude of
the invention may be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall inform
the public that after the letters are placed by the compositors, and
enclosed in what is called a form, little more remains for man to do
than to attend and watch this unconscious agent in its operations. The
machine is then merely supplied with paper; itself places the form, inks
it, adjusts the paper to the form newly inked, stamps the sheet, and
gives it forth to the hands of the attendant, at the same time
withdrawing the form for a fresh coat of ink, which itself again
distributes, to meet the ensuing sheet, now advancing for impression;
and the whole of these complicated acts is performed with such a
velocity and simultaneousness of movement, that no less than 1100 sheets
are impressed in one hour."
Koenig's machine was, however, very complicated, and before long, it was
supplanted by that of Applegath and Cowper, which was much simpler in
construction, and required only two boys to attend it--one to lay on,
and the other to take off the sheets. The vertical machine which Mr.
Applegath subsequently invented, far excelled his former achievement;
but it has in turn been superseded by the machine of Messrs. Hoe of New
York. All these machines were first brought into use in the _Times'_
printing office; and to the encouragement the proprietors of that
establishment have always afforded to inventive talent, the readiness
with which they have given a trial to new machines, and the princely
liberality with which they have rewarded improvements, is greatly due
the present advanced state of the noble craft and mystery.
The printing-house of the _Times_, near Blackfriars Bridge, forms a
companion picture to Gutenberg's printing-room in the old abbey at
Strasburg, and illustrates not only the development of the art, but the
progress of the world during the intervening centuries. Visit
Printing-House Square in the day-time, and you find it a quiet, sleepy
place, with hardly any signs of life or movement about it, except in
the advertisement office in the corner, where people are continually
going out and in, and the clerks have a busy time of it, shovelling
money into the till all day long. But come back in the evening, and the
place will wear a very different aspect. All signs of drowsiness have
disappeared, and the office is all lighted up, and instinct with bustle
and activity. Messengers are rushing out and in, telegraph boys, railway
porters, and "devils" of all sorts and sizes. Cabs are driving up every
few minutes, and depositing reporters, hot from the gallery of the House
of Commons or the House of Lords, each with his budget of short-hand
notes to decipher and transcribe. Up stairs in his sanctum the editor
and his deputies are busy preparing or selecting the articles and
reports which are to appear in the next day's paper. In another part of
the building the compositors are hard at work, picking up types, and
arranging them in "stick-fulls," which being emptied out into "galleys,"
are firmly fixed therein by little wedges of wood, in order that
"proofs" may be taken of them. The proofs pass into the hands of the
various sets of readers, who compare them with the "copy" from which
they were set up, and mark any errors on the margin of the slips, which
then find their way back to the compositors, who correct the types
according to the marks. The "galleys" are next seized by the persons
charged with the "making-up" of the paper, who divide them into columns
of equal length. An ordinary _Times_ newspaper, with a single inside
sheet of advertisements, contains seventy-two columns, or 17,500 lines,
made up of upwards of a million pieces of types, of which matter about
two-fifths are often written, composed, and corrected after seven
o'clock in the evening. If the advertisement sheet be double, as it
frequently is, the paper will contain ninety-six columns. The types set
up by the compositors are not sent to the machine. A mould is taken of
them in a composition of brown paper, by means of which a "stereotype"
is cast in metal, and from this the paper is printed. The advertisement
sheet, single or double, as the case may be, is generally ready for the
press between seven or eight o'clock at night. The rest of the paper is
divided into two "forms,"--that is, columns arranged in pages and bound
together by an iron frame, one for each side of the sheet. Into the
first of these the person who "makes up" the paper endeavours to place
all the early news, and it is ready for press usually about four
o'clock. The other "form" is reserved for the leading articles,
telegrams, and all the latest intelligence, and does not reach the press
till near five o'clock.
The first sight of Hoe's machine, by several of which the _Times_ is now
printed, fills the beholder with bewilderment and awe. You see before
you a huge pile of iron cylinders, wheels, cranks, and levers, whirling
away at a rate that makes you giddy to look at, and with a grinding and
gnashing of teeth that almost drives you deaf to listen to. With
insatiable appetite the furious monster devours ream after ream of snowy
sheets of paper, placed in its many gaping jaws by the slaves who wait
on it, but seems to find none to its taste or suitable to its digestion,
for back come all the sheets again, each with the mark of this strange
beast printed on one side. Its hunger never is appeased,--it is always
swallowing and always disgorging, and it is as much as the little
"devils" who wait on it can do, to put the paper between its lips and
take it out again. But a bell rings suddenly, the monster gives a gasp,
and is straightway still, and dead to all appearance. Upon a closer
inspection, now that it is at rest, and with some explanation from the
foreman you begin to have some idea of the process that has been going
on before your astonished eyes.
The core of the machine consists of a large drum, turning on a
horizontal axis, round which revolve ten smaller cylinders, also on
horizontal axes, in close proximity to the drum. The stereotyped matter
is bound, like a malefactor on the wheel, to the central drum, and round
each cylinder a sheet of paper is constantly being passed. It is
obvious, therefore, that if the type be inked, and each of the cylinders
be kept properly supplied with a sheet of paper, a single revolution of
the drum will cause the ten cylinders to revolve likewise, and produce
an impression on one side of each of the sheets of paper. For this
purpose it is necessary to have the type inked ten times during every
revolution of the drum; and this is managed by a very ingenious
contrivance, which, however, is too complicated for description here.
The feeding of the cylinders is provided for in this way. Over each
cylinder is a sloping desk, upon which rests a heap of sheets of white
paper. A lad--the "layer-on"--stands by the side of the desk and pushes
forward the paper, a sheet at a time, towards the tape fingers of the
machine, which, clutching hold of it, drag it into the interior, where
it is passed round the cylinders, and printed on the outer side by
pressure against the types on the drum. The sheet is then laid hold of
by another set of tapes, carried to the other end of the machine from
that at which it entered, and there laid down on a desk by a projecting
flapper of lath-work. Another lad--the "taker-off"--is in attendance to
remove the printed sheets, at certain intervals. The drum revolves in
less than two seconds; and in that time therefore ten sheets--for the
same operation is performed simultaneously by the ten cylinders--are
sucked in at one end and disgorged at the other printed on one side,
thus giving about 20,000 impressions in an hour.
Such is the latest marvel of the "noble craft and mystery" of printing;
but it is not to be supposed that the limits of production have even now
been reached. The greater the supply the greater has grown the demand;
the more people read, the more they want to read; and past experience
assures us that ingenuity and enterprise will not fail to expand and
multiply the powers of the press, so that the increasing appetite for
literature may be fully met.
* * * * *
We have briefly alluded to stereotyping; but some fuller notice seems
requisite of a process so valuable and important, without which, indeed,
the rapid multiplication of copies of a newspaper, even by a Hoe's
six-cylinder machine, would be impossible. If stereotyping had not been
invented, the printer would require to "set up" as many "forms" of type
as there are cylinders in the machine he uses; an expensive and
time-consuming operation which is now dispensed with, because he can
resort to "casts." There is yet another advantage gained by the process;
"casts" of the different sheets of a book can be preserved for any
length of time; and when additional copies or new editions are needed,
these "casts" can at once be sent to the machine, and the publisher is
saved the great expense of "re-setting."
The reader is well aware that while many books disappear with the day
which called them forth, so there are others for which the demand is
constant. This was found to be the case soon after the invention of
printing, and the plan then adopted was the expensive and cumbrous one
of setting up the whole of the book in request, and to keep the type
standing for future editions. The disadvantages of this plan were
obvious--a large outlay for type, the amount of space occupied by a
constantly increasing number of "forms," and the liability to injury
from the falling out of letters, from blows, and other accidents. As
early as the eighteenth century attempts seem to have been made to
remedy these inconveniences by cementing the types together at the
bottom with lead or solder to effect their greater preservation. Canius,
a French historian of printing, states that in June 1801 he received a
letter from certain booksellers of Leyden, with a copy of their
stereotype Bible, the plates for which were formed by soldering together
the bottom of common types with some melted substance to the thickness
of about three quires of writing-paper; and, it is added, "These plates
were made about the beginning of the last century by an artist named Van
du Mey."
This, however, was not true stereotyping; whose leading principle is to
dispense with the movable types--to set them again, as it were, at
liberty--by making up perfect fac-similes in type-metal of the various
combinations into which they may have entered. These fac-similes being
made, the type is set free, and may be distributed, and used for making
up fresh pages; which may once more furnish, so to speak, the punches to
the mould into which the type-metal is poured for the purpose of
effecting the fac-simile.
The inventor of this ingenious process of casting plates from pages of
type was William Ged, a goldsmith of Edinburgh, in 1735. Not possessing
sufficient capital to carry out his invention, he visited London, and
sought the assistance of the London stationers; from whom he received
the most encouraging words, but no pecuniary assistance. But Ged was a
man not readily discomfited, and applying at length to the Universities
and the King's printer, he obtained the effective patronage he needed.
He "stereotyped" some Bibles and Prayer-books, and the sheets worked off
from his plates were admitted equal in point of appearance and accuracy
to those printed from the type itself.
But every benefactor of his kind is doomed to meet with the opposition
of the envious, the ignorant, or the prejudiced. "The argument used by
the idol-makers of old, 'Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our
wealth,' and, 'This our craft is in danger to be set at nought,' was, as
is usual in such cases, urged against this most useful and important
invention. The compositors refused to set up works for stereotyping, and
even those which were set up, however carefully read and corrected, were
found to be full of gross errors. The fact was, that when the pages were
sent to be cast, the compositors or pressmen, bribed, it is said, by a
typefounder, disturbed the type, and introduced false letters and
words. Poor Ged died, and left the dangerous secret of his art (which he
did not disclose during his life-time) to his son, who, after many
struggles for success, failed as his father had done before him." There
is a tradition current, however, that he joined the Jacobite rebellion,
was arrested, imprisoned, tried, and sentenced, but was eventually
spared in consideration of the value of his father's admirable
invention.
That invention, after being forgotten for nearly half a century, was
revived by a Dr. Tilloch, and taken up, improved, and extended by the
ingenious Earl Stanhope. It is now practised in the following manner:--
The type employed differs slightly from that in common use. The letter
should have no shoulder, but should rise in a straight line from the
foot; the spaces, leads, and quadrats are of the same height as the stem
of the letter; the object being to diminish the number and depth of the
cavities in the page, and thus lessen the chances of the mould breaking
off and remaining in the form. Each page is corrected with the utmost
care, and "imposed" in a small "chase" with metal furniture (or
frame-work), which rises to a level with the type. Of course the number
of pages in the form will vary according to the size of the book; a
sheet being folded into sixteen leaves, twelve, eight, four, or two for
16mo, 12mo, 8vo, quarto, or folio.
Having our pages of type in complete order, we now proceed to rub the
surface with a soft brush which has been lightly dipped into a very thin
oil. Plumbago is sometimes preferred. A brass rectangular frame of three
sides, with bevelled borders adapted to the size of the pages, is placed
upon the chase so as to enclose three sides of the type, the fourth side
being formed by a single brass edge, having the same inward sloping
level as the other three sides. The use of this frame is to determine
the size and thickness of the cast, which is next taken in
plaster-of-paris--two kinds of the said plaster being used; the finer is
mixed, poured over the surface of the type, and gently worked in with a
brush so as to insure its close adhesion to the exclusion of bubbles of
air; the coarser, after being mixed with water, is simply poured and
spread over the previous and finer stratum.
The superfluous plaster is next cleared away; the mould soon sets; the
frame is raised; and the mould comes off from the surface of the type,
on which it has been prevented from encrusting itself by the thin film
of oil or plumbago.
The next step is to dress and smoothen the plaster-mould, and set it on
its edge in one of the compartments of a sheet-iron rack contained in an
oven, and exposed, until perfectly dry, to a temperature of about 400 deg..
This occupies about two hours. A good workman, it is said, will mould
ten octavo sheets, or one hundred and sixty pages in a day: each mould
generally contains a couple of octavo pages.
[Illustration]
In the state to which it is now brought, the mould is exceedingly
friable, and requires to be handled with becoming care. With the face
downwards it is placed upon the flat cast-iron _floating-plate_, which,
in its turn, is set at the bottom of a square cast-iron tray, with
upright edges sloping outwards, called the "dipping pan." It has a
cast-iron lid, secured by a screw and shackles, not unlike a copying
machine. This pan having been heated to 400 deg., it is plunged into an iron
pot containing the melted alloy, which hangs over a furnace, the pan
being slightly inclined so as to permit the escape of the air. A small
space is left between the back or upper surface of the mould, and the
lid of the dipping-pan, and the fluid metal on entering into the pan
through the corner openings, _floats_ up the plaster together with the
iron plate (hence called the _floating-plate_) on which the mould is
set, with this effect, that the metal flows through the notches cut in
the edge of the mould, and fills up every part of it, forming a layer of
metal on its face corresponding to the depth of the border, while on
the back is left merely a thin metallic film.
The dipping-pan, says Tomlinson, is suspended, plunged in the metal, and
removed by means of a crane; and when taken out, is set in a cistern of
water upon supports so arranged that only the bottom of the pan comes in
contact with the surface of the water. The metal thus _sets_, or
solidifies, from below, and containing fluid above, maintains a fluid
pressure during the contraction which accompanies the cooling.
As it thus shrinks in dimensions, molten metal is poured into the
corners of the pan for the purpose of maintaining the fluid pressure on
the mould, and thus securing a good and solid cast. For if the pan were
allowed to cool more slowly, the thin metallic film at the back of the
inverted plaster mould would probably solidify first, and thus prevent
the fluid pressure which is necessary for filling up all the lines of
the mould.
Tomlinson concludes his description of these interesting processes by
informing us that an experienced and skilled workman will make five
dips, each containing two octavo pages, in the course of an hour, or, as
already stated, at the rate of nearly ten octavo sheets a day.
When the pan is opened, the cake of metal and plaster is removed, and
beaten upon its edges with a mallet, to clear away all superfluous
metal. The stereotype plate is then taken by the _picker_, who planes
its edges square, "turns" its back flat upon a lathe until the proper
thickness is obtained, and removes any minute imperfections arising from
specks of dirt and air-bubbles left among the letters in casting the
mould. Damaged letters are cut out, and separate types soldered in as
substitutes. After all this anxious care to obtain perfection, the plate
is pronounced ready for working, and when made up with the other plates
into the proper form, it may be worked either at the hand-press or by
machine.
Other modes of stereotyping have been introduced, but not one has
attained to the popularity of the method we have just described.
The Steam Engine.
I.--THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
II.--JAMES WATT.
The Steam Engine.
"It is said that ideas produce revolutions and truly they
do--not spiritual ideas only, but even mechanical."--CARLYLE.