The associated inventions of paper making and printing have progressed
hand in hand together; the increased facility with which paper can
be made by machinery having been equalled, if not surpassed, by the
rapidity with which it can be printed.
The old wooden printing press, that was in general use at the beginning
of the present century, is now an object of curiosity, and a few
specimens of it are to be seen, even in country printing offices.
The principal working part of the wooden press consisted of a block
of wood, having a perfectly flat and smooth surface, half the size of
an ordinary sheet of printing paper, which was brought down upon the
types by means of a screw that was turned by a long lever. The types,
placed upon a flat stone embedded in a movable table, were inked with
large soft balls covered with pelts. The damped paper was put into a
frame, at the back of which blankets were placed, and was laid lightly
on the inked types. The movable table was then pushed under the block
of wood, called the "platten," the long lever was pulled with great
strength, and the platten being thus brought forcibly upon the blankets
and paper, one-half of the sheet was printed. The lever, on being
released, sprang back to its former position, and the table with the
types upon it was pushed farther under the platten, which was again
pulled down to print the other half of the sheet. The table was then
pulled back, and the sheet of paper, printed on one side, was removed.
These operations occupied considerable time, and the regular work of
two men, with a wooden press, was to print 250 sheets an hour on one
side.
This original contrivance for printing was supplanted by the Stanhope
press, one of the most admirable arrangements for the advantageous
application of the lever that is to be found in the whole range of
mechanical contrivances.
The improved printing press, invented by Lord Stanhope, the first of
which was completed in 1800, is made altogether of iron. The platten is
of the full size of the sheet of paper to be printed, and the work is
done at a single pull. The requisite power is obtained by a combination
of levers, so adjusted that the platten is brought down rapidly in the
first instance, before any pressure is required, and when it comes
to bear upon the types, the levers act with the greatest possible
mechanical advantage, so that the handle moves through the space of a
foot, whilst the platten descends only the twentieth part of an inch.
By this means a large sheet of paper can be printed off by a single
pull, and with more impression and greater sharpness than by two pulls
with a wooden press.
Great as was this improvement in the printing press, its action was
still very slow, compared with the rapidity of printing we are now
accustomed to, it being considered quick work, with a small Stanhope
press, to print 500 sheets an hour. The author remembers to have seen
the _Globe_ newspaper printed by an old wooden press in 1820; and,
about the same time, the London _Courier_, by a Stanhope press. In
order to supply the large demand for the latter paper, it was then
customary to print off three pages early in the day, and to set up
the types for the fourth page, containing the latest news, three or
four times, and to print it at as many separate presses. The pressmen
could thus, by great exertion, perfect the printing, when three presses
were used, at the rate of 1,500 an hour. The _Times_ newspaper, which
greatly exceeds the size of the _Courier_, is now printed by a machine
at the rate of 13,000 an hour.
The invention of printing machines was preceded by the manufacture of
inking rollers, to supersede the pelt balls for distributing the ink
over the types. Earl Stanhope had endeavoured in vain to construct
inking rollers, for which purpose he tried skins and pelts of various
kinds, but the seam proved an obstacle that he could not overcome. In
1808, a "new elastic composition ball for printing," which consisted
principally of treacle and glue, to serve as a substitute for pelts,
was invented by Mr. Edward Dyas, a man of great original genius,
the parish clerk of Madeley, in Shropshire. These balls were first
introduced into the extensive printing office of the late Mr. Edward
Houlston, of Wellington, where they were for some time exclusively
used, and that printing-office consequently became celebrated for the
excellence of its work. A similar composition was some years afterwards
cast in the form of rollers, upon a hollow core of wood, by the late
Mr. Harrild; and these rollers have proved a far more cleanly and more
expeditious mode of inking the types than the balls. These inking
rollers supplied an essential want in the working of Printing Machines.
The invention of Printing Machines underwent many changes before it
was brought to a practical form. Such a machine was first projected
in 1790, by Mr. Nicholson, who proposed to place the types and paper
upon cylinders, and to distribute and apply the ink also by cylinders.
Another plan, more closely approaching that of the printing machines
afterwards perfected by Mr. Napier and others, was to place the types
upon a table and the paper upon an impressing cylinder, and to move
the table backwards and forwards under it. In 1813, Messrs. Donkin and
Bacon proposed placing the types upon a prism, which was to revolve
against an irregularly shaped cylinder, on which the paper was to be
placed. Nothing, however, could be effectually done in producing a
proper working printing machine until the invention of inking rollers.
In 1814, Messrs. Bauer and Kœnig succeeded in constructing a machine,
which was erected at the _Times_ office, that produced 1,800
impressions an hour; and it continued in use till 1827. This rapidity
of action, compared with that of the most improved printing press,
produced a revolution in the art of printing; attention was then
directed almost exclusively to the further improvement of the machines,
and the platten press was neglected.
In the form of printing machines generally used, the types are laid
upon an iron table that is moved to and fro by the turning of a wheel
connected with a steam engine. The paper is placed upon cylinders
covered with flannel, and the impression of the types is produced by
the cylinders being fixed so closely to them that, as the table passes
backwards and forwards, there is great pressure. The types are inked by
a series of rollers, by which the ink is distributed and evenly laid on
the face of the types without any manual labour.
The mechanical power gained by an arrangement of this kind arises from
the pressure being exerted on a small surface at a time; consequently
the power required for producing the impression of the types is not
nearly so great as when the whole surface of the types makes the
impression at the same instant. The force actually pressing on the
types, from contact with the cylinders, is very much less than that
brought to bear on them by the platten of the Stanhope press; but as
it acts on a smaller surface at a time, the amount of pressure on
each part, successively, greatly exceeds that received by any similar
portion when it is impressed all at once. The difference of the action
of the platten and of the cylinder may be compared to the different
effects produced by a knife when pressed with its edge and with its
flat side against a yielding surface; the pressure on the flat surface
may not be sufficient to leave any impression, whilst a much smaller
pressure on the edge will produce an indentation.
[Illustration]
The accompanying woodcut is a representation of one of Messrs.
Applegath and Cowper's machines for printing both sides of the paper at
the same time.
It consists of a cast-iron frame, about 14 feet long and 4 feet wide,
on which the iron table, with the types upon it, slides backward and
forward under two large cast-iron cylinders, covered with blankets,
whereon the paper is laid. The pages of type to be printed on one side
of the paper, and those pages that are to be printed on the back, are
wedged into iron frames, called "chases," and these chases are fixed
on the table at such a distance from each other, that they will pass
under the two cylinders in the same relative positions. The sheets of
paper are held on to the cylinders at their edges by means of tapes,
and are so laid on by the workmen, that the type may be impressed on
them with an equal margin all round. At each end of the machine is
a supply of ink, which is taken from long iron rollers, about three
inches in diameter, each of which turns in contact with a flat iron
bar, that only allows a small quantity of ink to pass. A composition
inking roller is made to vibrate between the inking table, where on the
ink is thinly and evenly spread, and the iron feeding roller, and thus
delivers the requisite quantity of ink on to the table. Several other
composition rollers are placed across the inking table, with their
axes resting in notched bearings, so that as the inking table moves
forward and backward, those rollers distribute the ink evenly over it.
There are four other rollers (none of which are shown in the diagram),
which take the ink from the table; and as the types pass from under
the cylinders, after printing a sheet, and return to them, they pass
twice under the inking rollers. Each sheet of paper is laid by a boy on
a web of tapes, by which it is carried round one paper cylinder, and
then over and under two wooden drums to the other paper cylinder. The
sheet of paper, in the course of its progress, is turned over, so as to
receive the second impression on the other side; and as the tapes that
carry it along leave the second cylinder, they divide, and the printed
sheet falls into the hands of a boy.
In the printing machine which was shown at work in the Great
Exhibition, invented by Mr. Applegath and made by Mr. Middleton, for
printing the _Times_, the arrangements differ materially from those of
the horizontal machines already described. The types, instead of being
placed on a table, and moved to and fro under the impressing cylinders,
are fixed to a large vertical cylinder, upwards of 16 feet in diameter,
and there are eight impressing cylinders ranged vertically round it,
with their axes fixed. By this arrangement there is no loss of time in
withdrawing the types from under the cylinder to be again inked, but
they move round from one fixed cylinder to another, receiving their
ink between each, and thus producing eight impressions in succession
during one complete revolution. At the _Times_ printing office there
are now three machines of that construction, two of which, with eight
cylinders, print ten thousand an hour, and the other one, which has
nine impressing cylinders, thirteen thousand.
The operations for printing that newspaper exhibit marvellous efforts
of human ingenuity and skill, brought to bear in producing with the
requisite rapidity a sufficient number of impressions to supply its
enormous circulation. After the types have been composed and corrected,
and ranged into columns and screwed up into their chases by upwards of
one hundred hands, each page of type is attached to the large vertical
cylinder--a curved form having been given to the type to adapt it to
the circular surface. Nine men, standing each one beside a heap of
damped paper, feed the largest machine by separating the sheets singly
from the heap, and present them successively to the action of small
rollers, that give each sheet a forward impulse, which brings it within
the grasp of a series of endless tapes. These tapes catch hold of the
sheets of paper, and carry them down to the level of the types. They
are then shot along horizontally to the pressing rollers, covered with
blankets, round which they are carried and pressed against the types;
after which the endless tapes carry them away, and deliver them printed
to a man below, who spreads them one over the other. A large reservoir
of ink at the top of the machine supplies the inking tables, from which
it is spread evenly over the inking rollers, and, at each revolution
of the type cylinder, nine sheets are printed on one side. They are
then taken to a second machine to be printed on the back, or, as it
is called, "perfected." The accompanying engraving shows the general
arrangement of the machines.
Few mechanical contrivances present so striking an illustration of
the application of human ingenuity to the production of important
results, and to the saving of labour, as these printing machines. To
see the sheets of paper travelling along the tapes--to see them shoot
downwards, carried sideways in one direction and back again, and
delivered with half a million of words impressed upon them in less than
three seconds, seems like the work of magic. To copy that number of
words, thus printed in three seconds, would occupy a rapid penman forty
days, working ten hours a day.
[Illustration]
Great as are the printing powers of these machines of Mr. Applegath's,
they have been surpassed more recently by one placed close beside them,
invented by Mr. Hoe, of New York. In that machine the type cylinder
is placed horizontally, by which means the paper is supplied directly
to it without altering its direction. As many as twenty thousand
impressions in an hour have been produced by the American machine, but
it is not yet sufficiently perfected to be brought into regular use.
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."
As an illustration of the facilities afforded by the invention of
Printing Machines in producing cheap editions of the writings of
popular authors, the following curious facts relating to the Works of
Sir Walter Scott, in addition to those furnished in the Reports of the
Juries, may be found interesting.
In 1842, a general issue of these Works, in weekly sheets or numbers,
at twopence each, was commenced by the late Mr. Robert Cadell, of
Edinburgh, and completed in 1847. Of this edition, up to the present
period (1858), the astonishing number of TWELVE MILLIONS OF SHEETS
have been issued, the weight of which amounts to upwards of 335
tons! Another edition was published simultaneously by Mr. Cadell in
monthly volumes at 4s., each containing about 360 pages; this series
has reached a sale of more than 500,000 volumes. A third cheap issue,
at eighteenpence a novel, is now being published by the present
proprietors, Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, of Edinburgh. Nearly
300,000 volumes have already been printed of this edition.
It may be mentioned here, although hardly coming within the scope
of the present article, but as affording a striking example of what
literature has contributed to the revenue of the country in the person
of a single author, that upwards of 3,500 tons' weight of paper[16]
have been consumed in producing the various editions of Sir Walter
Scott's Writings and Life; and the duty paid to Government on the
paper, even at the present reduced rate, amounts to no less a sum than
£51,450!
Since the Juries made their Reports, the development of cheap
literature has been greatly extended. Newspapers, some of which contain
eight full-sized pages, of six columns each, printed in small type, are
sold for the marvellously low price of a penny, and are stated to issue
as many as 50,000 copies daily; and some of the newspapers and other
periodicals, printed on good paper, are issued for a halfpenny. Among
the works of a standard character, published at prices which nothing
but a very extensive scale could make remunerative, may be mentioned
the popular series which includes "The Reason Why," and "Enquire Within
upon Everything." Of the eight volumes already issued, each containing
about 350 closely printed pages for half-a-crown, nearly 170,000 copies
have been sold within a period of less than three years.