Printing was introduced into Scotland about 30 years after Caxton had brought it to England; in 1551 it reached Dublin, and to other quarters it found its way very slowly. While corning into notice, its progress had been interrupted by the broils consequent on the reformation; and soon afterward it was retarded by the civil war in Great Britain. Even the restoration acted detrimentally, for it led to an act of parliament which pre vented more than 20 printers carrying on their art in England. Printing, in short, has in almost every country been an ill-used art; and is still in various countries practiced under fiscal restrictions. In Germany and Holland, where it originated, it has, on account of sundry obstructions, gained little way—the work produced at Mayence and Haarlem being, for example, still of a very inferior kind; while, in recent times. in Eng land and the United States, the art has attained to extraordinary proficiency. Printing is now conducted in all the British colonial possessions; but in few is the work of a superior character—the best perhaps being that produced at Melbourne in Victoria.
Retarded by the jealousy of governments, printing for some ages derived little advan 7._ tag,e from mechanical ingenuity. Originating at the middle of the 15th, the art continued 1111“1 17th c. in a very clumsy manner. The press resembled a screw-press, with a contrivance for running the form of types under the point of pressure; force having been thus applied, the screw was relaxed, and the form withdrawn with the impression executed on the paper. The defects of this very rude mechanism were at length partially remedied by an ingenious Dutch me chanic, Willem Jansen Blaeu, ‘vho car ried on the business of a mathematical instrument-maker at Amsterdam. lie contrived a press, in which the carriage holding the form was wound below the point of pressure, which was given by ' -" attached' moving a minute to a screw hanging in a beam having a spring, which spring caused the screw to fly back as soon as the impression was given. This species of press, which was almost entirely formed of wood, continued in general use in every country in Europe till the beginning of the present century. With certain lever powers attached to the screw and handle, it is represented above.
In connection with this representation of the old common press, the process of print ing may be described. The form, being laid on the sole of the press (s), is fixed at the sides, so as to render it immovable from its position. There are two men employed; one puts ink on the form, either by means of stuffed balls or by a composition-roller, and the other works the press. The latter lifts a blank sheet from a table at his side, and
places it on what is called the tympan (t), which is composed of parchment and blanket stuff, fittted in a frame, and tightened like the top of a drum—and hence its name—and which, by means of hinges connecting it with the sole, folds down like a lid over the form. As the sheet, however, would fall off in the act of being brought down, a skele. ton-like slender frame, called a frisket (1), is hinged to the upper extremity of the tym. pan, over which it is brought to hold on the paper. Thus, the frisket being first folded down over the tympan, and the tympan next folded down over the form, the impres sion is ready to be taken. This is done by the left hand of the pressman winding the carriage below the platten (p), or pressing surface, and the impression is performed by the right hand pulling the handle attached to the screw mechanism. The carriage is then wound back, the printed sheet lifted off, and another put on the tympan, the form again inked, and so on successively. In the above engraving, the press appears with the frisket and tympan sloping upward, ready to receive the sheet, the frisket being sus tained from falling backward by a slip of wood depending from the ceiling. One of the greatest niceties connected with this art is the printing of the sheet on the second side in such a manner that each page, nay, each line, shall fall exactly on the corre sponding page and line on the side first printed. To produce this desirable effect, two iron points are fixed in the middle of the sides of the frame of the tympan, which make two small holes in the sheet during the first pressure. When the sheet is laid on to receive an impression from the second form, these holes are placed on the same points, so as to cause the two impressions to correspond. This is termed producing register; and unless good register is effected, the printing has a very indifferent appearance. How ever improved, a press of the above description could not impress more than half a sheet; and the practice was to first squeeze so much of the sheet, then relax the handle, wind the second half below the platten, and print it in turn. Thus, each sheet required four squeezes to complete it—two On each side. It is not without a degree of wonder that one reflects on the rudimentary clumsiness of the whole operation; and it seems not lessi marvelous, that it was by no other process that the best typography could be produced unql the conclusion of the 18th century.