Andrew Wilson, the London printer employed by Earl Stanhope. By a
preliminary agreement of 20 April, 1804, Wilson was to receive for
the space of 14 years one-third of the savings resulting from the
employment of the stereotype process and was to act, in conjunction
with Watts, as agent for the Syndics' bibles and prayer-books.
The savings were to be calculated by arbitrators appointed by the
respective parties.
This not very business-like arrangement naturally led to a dispute
before long. As early as October, 1805, Milner seems to have had
misgivings both about the scheme and about Wilson's competency, as
the following entries in his notebook show:
Qy whether Wilson's declaration of 30,000 profits in 8 years be
not a proof want of judgmͭ.
Qy whether Wilson be not an adventͬ--without judgment.
Hints to new Vice-Cͬ.
1. The system of talking _before_ them viz. Watts and Wilson.
The absolute necessity of others being informed in the stereotype
art.
Watts talks of going to London again by Wilson's directions to
see what chases and things he wants--and when I say he should not
leave them, he says, Oh, there is no more in leaving them now than
when he was ill--they are to be trusted.
Qy--Quid cogitant ille and Wilson.
Qy _x_ to agree with Oxfͩ? 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 16_s_ 9_d_ 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 yͬ 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.
6. The types must now be cleaned by picking out any bits of gypsum
left in the Interstices ... and lastly they must be brushed; and
then done over again for a new mold.
7. The artist, Mr Austen, Engraver can dress and cure any little
imperfection in the plates when cast.
8. The Gypsum requires about 2 hours for calcination; and is known
to be right when you break the pieces, and see them moulded quite
thro'--Matter of Experience.
9. The Gypsum should be broken with small bits about 2 ounces each.
10. and when calcined they are to be ground on a Stone....
11. When the moulds are made, and placed between the marbles ...
they will be ready in 2 or 3 hours for baking....
12. They are to be baked being placed upright on stands like
those for toasted bread--raised a little from the bottom of the
furnace--About 2 hours or 2½hours will take the moulds....
Casting
The metal is precisely the Type metal. The Pots must be made quite
as hot as the metal--or rather more--. Then the floating plate
must be placed in the frame--and the cake or mould directly upon
it with its face downwards: Then place upon the top the cover of
the frame, and screw it down: and dip the whole in metal melted so
that a match will light at it.--The melted metal will run in at
those places made in the mould by the bits of brass--till all be
full--and then remove the whole to be cooled on a tile in water
with lime upon it--and as it cools and shrinks, supply with fresh
melted metal.
The acquisition of this secret did not end the disputes with
Wilson; the university in 1811 protested against payment of the
bill referred to in the agreement of March, 1807, on the ground
that Wilson had not supplied them with the type for Ainsworth's and
Johnson's Dictionaries and that they were so prevented from selling
the plates to him. No documents have been preserved to show how
the case ended, but the following hypothetical case on which the
university invited the opinion of counsel about this time may be
quoted in conclusion:
Whether supposing A.B. to be acquainted with the secret mode of
making stereotype plates, and supposing C.D. to know the mode now
in general use, and whereas it is conceived that the secret is now
no secret. Supposing A.B. to inquire of C.D. his (C.D.'s) mode of
making the plates, and by his answers it appeared that he (C.D.)
was acquainted with all the peculiarities of the secret, would
A.B. be justified in telling C.D. that such was the secret?
Meanwhile, the Press buildings were growing. On the site of the
White Lion Inn, bought in 1762, a warehouse had been built in 1786
and on 20 April, 1804, the Syndics instructed Mr Watts, with the
assistance of Mr Humphreys, to "prepare a plan for altering the
Warehouse into a Printing office." This building was described by
Dyer, writing in 1809, as "a commodious brick building, situated
in Silver Street, with a stereotype foundry adjoining" and, as has
been already seen, it was claimed that this economical conversion
was made possible by the introduction of stereotype printing.
The Syndics' relations with their printer at this time were not
altogether happy. In 1808 two of the Syndics (Dr Milner and Mr
Wood) were appointed to examine the Press accounts, since it was
alleged that, in contrast to the average annual profit of £1500 for
a number of years before 1802, Watts had shown no profit at all for
five years. These charges were set forth in a pamphlet entitled
_Facts and Observations relative to the state of the University
Press_, to which Watts wrote a _Reply_. Watts resigned as soon
as the enquiry was instituted and, when the examination of the
accounts was completed in the next year, it was decided to elect
a new printer. Apart from the various stereotype editions of the
bible and prayer-book no books of great importance seem to have
been printed by Watts.
His successor, John Smith, was elected in 1809 and held the office
of printer for 26 years.
It was during this period that the University Press began to
assume its present appearance[131]. By 1820 the existing buildings
had become quite inadequate to the growing business of the Press
and the Syndics recommended the university to purchase Mr James
Nutter's estate in Silver Street for the sum of £5060. The
following grace was accordingly passed by the Senate on 24 January,
1821:
Quum in Typographeo vestro, ex angustiis loci, multa detrimenta
atque incommoda subinde exoriri soleant; quumque, in remedium mali
istius, Preli Typographici Curatores pactionem inierint cum Domino
Nutter, ut facultate a vobis impetrata, quasdam domos illius
quinque mille et sexaginta librarum pretio redimerunt: Placeat
Vobis, ut pactio ista rata ac firma habeatur, atque ut summa
praedicta e cista communi, usibus istis destinanda, erogetur.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE PRESS BUILDINGS]
(Based on Willis & Clark, III. 132. Recent additions are
marked----)
The property thus acquired was on the site of the ancient inn known
as The Cardinal's Cap. Its boundaries are marked on the plan and
in 1824, the Syndics of the Press, having taken the advice of an
"eminent London Printer" (Mr Hansard), recommended that, as the
existing buildings were "so dilapidated and so inadequate to the
effectual conducting of the business," immediate steps should be
taken towards extension. In the next year plans by James Walter
for a new printing-house on the west side of the quadrangle and a
printer's house in Mill Lane were approved by the Senate. These
buildings were completed in January, 1827, the fitting of them
being superintended by Thomas Hansard[132].
A more famous addition to the Press buildings is that associated
with the name of William Pitt.
On 25 May, 1824, the following letter was addressed to the
Vice-Chancellor (John Lamb, Master of Corpus Christi College) by
the Marquess Camden, chairman of the London Pitt Club Committee:
Sir,
I have the Honor to inform you that I am just returned from a
Meeting of the Committee appointed to consider of the disposal of
the surplus of Money subscribed, many years ago, for the Erection
of a Statue to the memory of Mͬ Pitt.
I am, now, authorized by that Committee to state to you, Sir,
that which I had the Honor of personally communicating to you
at Cambridge: 'the disposition of that Committee to recommend
to a general Meeting of Subscribers to the Fund above-mentioned
the Disposal of a considerable Sum of Money for the Erection of
an handsome Building connected with the University Press at
Cambridge;' but, as it will be necessary to state to the general
Meeting how far the University is disposed to find and provide
a proper Scite for the erecting such Building, near or opposite
to Pembroke College, I now trouble you on that subject, and I
request you will have the goodness to inform me how far I may be
authorized to inform the General Meeting of the Disposition of the
University to find and provide a proper Scite as above-mentioned
for the erecting of an handsome Building, which the Committee
is desirous should be erected on such a scale as to be a
distinguished Ornament to the University, and tend to perpetuate
the Name and Memory of Mͬ Pitt.
I have the Honor to remain, Sir,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
CAMDEN.
A favourable reply having, no doubt, been received from the
university, the Committee, at a meeting held at the Thatched
House Tavern on 18 June, 1824, unanimously passed the following
resolution:
That the surplus of the Fund, after defraying the Expense of the
Statue in Hanover-Square, as resolved at the former meeting on
the 11ᵗʰ instant, be applied to the Erection of a handsome and
appropriate Building at Cambridge, connected with the University
Press; such to bear the name of Mͬ Pitt. That the Committee be
desired to take the necessary steps for carrying into execution
this Resolution.
The university, on its part, appointed a Syndicate with authority
to expend the sum of £8000 in purchasing "houses or leases of
houses for the purpose of making exchanges with the Proprietors of
the houses between Silver Street and Mill Lane fronting towards
Trumpington Street."
After some years of delay the Committee approved the designs
submitted by Edmund Blore, who came to Cambridge with a letter
of introduction from the Marquess Camden in 1829. In this letter
the desire of the Committee for an imposing central chamber and
staircase is evident:
It is necessary to premise, that the Committee is desirous that
an handsome Room should be included in the Design, together with
a staircase leading to it, but that the Committee would be most
desirous any Accommodation could be given to the Press in the
Building to be erected which did not interfere with those parts
which they think should be ornamented.
Subsequently the university obtained the whole frontage between
Mill Lane and Silver Street--a larger site than that on which
Blore's original design had been based. Furthermore, the Pitt
statue in Hanover Square cost more than had been anticipated.
The Pitt Memorial Committee, therefore, undertook to erect the
main building in Trumpington Street at a cost of £9000, while the
university authorised an expenditure of not more than £2000 upon
the buildings (also designed by Blore) which form the north side of
the Press quadrangle.
The first stone of the Pitt Press building was laid by the Marquess
Camden on 18 October, 1831, and the work was completed in about
eighteen months, the total cost being £10,711 8_s_ 9_d_.
It consists of three floors with a square central tower containing
a lofty room designed for the Press Syndicate, but now used as the
Registry of the University. As to the architectural style of the
building, comment may best be confined to the repetition of Willis
and Clark's laconic description: "The style of the building is
Late Perpendicular." Some extracts from the account of the opening
on 28 April, 1833, abridged from _The Cambridge Chronicle_ (1 May,
1833), may also be given in conclusion:
The Pitt Press having been completed, Tuesday last was appointed
for the Vice-Chancellor to receive the key of the building from
the Marquis Camden and a deputation of the Pitt Committee....
Having arrived at the building the Marquis Camden, accompanied by
the members of the Committee, proceeded into the grand entrance
hall, and having invited the Vice-Chancellor to the door, spoke as
follows:
"Mr Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the University of Cambridge:
The idea of connecting the name of Mr Pitt with the Press of that
University to which he owed his education and so much of his
fame, was met by all parties with enthusiasm. The University have
displayed an activity and liberality in providing this magnificent
site which could only have been prompted by an admiration for
the character of Mr Pitt. The Committee, animated by a personal
respect and affection towards their contemporary, have endeavoured
to cause to be erected on this site, such a building as might
prove an addition to the other great improvements already
perfected in this place and which, from its peculiar destination,
will unite the name of Mr Pitt with all those works of religion,
morality, and science, which will in future emanate from it,
and diffuse throughout the world the connexion of his name with
erudition and learning....
Sir, you have caused this ceremony to be attended by all the
undergraduates as well as by the dignitaries of the University.
Let me call the peculiar attention of all to this ceremony, and
allow me to impress on the undergraduates that we, Mr Pitt's
contemporaries, have been witnesses of his uniting the closest
study with the utmost cheerfulness, and, when not employed in
solving the most abstruse problems, he has engaged the admiration
of his friends and companions, by the liveliest sallies of wit
and imagination. Let his example stimulate you to the greatest
exertion during your residence in this place, so well calculated
to provide for your instruction in every department of literature
and science."[133]
The key was then presented to the Vice-Chancellor, who grew
eloquent in his reply:
What more appropriate monument then could be erected to the memory
of Pitt than this building, the chief purpose and object of which
is to send forth to the world the Word of God; and could he,
with prophetic eye, when residing in yon neighbouring college,
whose proudest boast is to number him among her sons--could he
have beheld such a structure, bearing his name, raised for such a
purpose, and erected by such friends, even his own eloquence would
have scarce sufficed to express the feelings of his heart. My
Lord, the edifice with which you have adorned this University, and
the illustrious name it bears, will add a fresh stimulus to our
exertions in the dissemination of truth, the extension of science,
and the advancement of religious knowledge; and I humbly trust
that nothing will ever issue from these walls but such works as
may conduce to the furtherance of these important objects....[134]
After which, the company, having printed off copies of the
inscription on the foundation-stone from a press specially set up
for the occasion, "went upstairs into the Syndicate Room, where
they partook of a cold collation given by the Press Syndicate."
* * * * *
In the early part of his career, John Smith laboured under the
difficulties arising out of the "dilapidated and inadequate"
condition of the old Press buildings. The chief source of business
continued to be the sale of bibles and prayer-books and agencies
were arranged with Rivingtons, Baldwin & Co., and other London
booksellers.
Of the books printed by Smith the most notable are the editions of
classical authors for which the "Great Porson Greek" type was used.
This fine fount had been cut under Porson's direction by Austin,
of London, with the assistance of Richard Watts and was used for
various editions of the Greek tragedians by Blomfield, Monk, and
Scholefield.
In 1824 the King expressed his gracious pleasure that the newly
discovered MS of Milton should be printed at the University Press
and a new fount of pica type (weighing 12 cwt.) was specially
ordered from Messrs Millar, of Edinburgh, for the purpose[135].
In 1827 the Syndics, having again taken counsel of eminent London
printers and booksellers (Charles and John Rivington, Mawman,
Baldwin, Hansard, Gilbert), resolved upon the expediency of
appointing "a Superintendent of the concerns of the Press in
all its departments, immediately under the Vice-Chancellor and
General Syndicate," and, while no charges were brought against
the technical quality of Smith's printing, there seems to have
been a general feeling that he was not adequate to the control of
the whole business. Smith's _Observations relating to the Affairs
of the Press_ (16 March, 1829) throw an interesting light on the
difficulties with which he had to contend. He begs to observe, for
instance,
that many of the works brought to the Press are in the most
unprepared state possible ... the consequence is, that when
proof-sheets are sent to the respective Authors, the work is much
cut-up, and subject to continued Overrunnings and Corrections....
The Authors, for the most part being Gentlemen of the University
engaged with Pupils during Term-time, furnish their Copy in
detail--loosely written--and frequent suspensions of MS, which
necessarily occasions great delay and inconvenience.... The
Gentlemen of the Press Syndicate must be aware (tho' a London
Printer cannot, unless he witnessed the operation) that the
Examination-Papers which of late years have abundantly increased,
must from their nature have retarded all regular work in the
Composing Room. These papers could only be executed by Workmen
competent and accustomed to Mathematical and Greek Composition;
and my best Mathematical Compositors are those who have been
brought up and trained in our own Office: London Workmen having
in several instances left the Office, rather than undertake the
Composition of such Works[136].
Smith also claims a development of the bible business:
I had the honour of being elected Printer at the close of 1809--at
that time the number of Presses employed did not exceed eight: the
number increased in 1812 and 1813 to thirteen. At this period, and
on to 1815 and 17 increased and increasing Orders flowed in from
the British and Foreign Bible Society and also (through Messrs
Rivingtons) from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge....
The fact is, that from 1813 to 1815 the demand for Bibles etc
was such, that had the same quantity of work to be executed been
required to be finished in the manner in which the same books are
now printed, they would not possibly have been done with the means
the Press then possessed--"Send up the Books in gatherings" (i.e.
divisions) was the repeated order of the Bible Society--"and we
will spare you the trouble of booking off etc, etc." Many thousand
copies were thus supplied which were never properly dried....
Finally, a statement is presented showing an average annual profit
of £3191 from 1809 to 1827.
The Syndics, however, adhered to their view and invited Mr Clowes,
of London, to examine the Press; Clowes sent his overseer, John
William Parker, and in February, 1829, was appointed Superintendent
of the Press at a salary of £400 a year on the understanding
that, while he himself should execute the London business which
the appointment involved, the actual superintendence at Cambridge
should be deputed to Parker.
Parker infused new life into the business: he introduced improved
methods of book-keeping, bought new types and hydraulic presses,
installed an apparatus "for warming the Press buildings by means of
heated air," and in 1832 established a depository for the sale of
Cambridge bibles and prayer-books at his house in the Strand.
When John Smith retired with a pension in 1836, Parker was
appointed printer in his place, visiting Cambridge for two days
every fortnight; the bible business continued to expand and in
1838 Parker could offer fifty-six different editions of the
bible and prayer-book. One bible calls for special comment: on
10 January, 1835, King William IV wrote to the Marquess Camden
from the Pavilion, Brighton, suggesting that there should be
printed at Cambridge, as at Oxford, a certain number of bibles for
presentation to sovereigns visiting the country. The Chancellor
conveyed the suggestion to the Syndics who unanimously agreed "that
in obedience to His Majesty's command a quarto Bible with marginal
references be immediately put to press"; 250 copies, printed on
Imperial paper, were to be reserved for purposes of presentation
and one copy was to be struck off on vellum for the King himself;
larger editions were to be printed on ordinary paper for general
sale and Parker was instructed to order a special fount of English
type.
Reductions in the cost of bibles were also effected and the Royal
Commission of 1850-52 remarked upon the great reduction of price
between 1830 and 1850 "attributable to improved machinery and
to better arrangements in the establishment." One of the most
important of these improvements was the introduction of steam-power
for printing, the Syndics resolving on 13 June, 1838, "that it
appears expedient to introduce machinery into the Pitt Press."
For many years, however, the Bible Society stoutly refused to
purchase books printed by steam presses.
Apart from the great advances made in the actual processes of
printing during this period, Parker's work is also of great
importance in the development of Cambridge publishing.