STE'REOTYPING (Gr. stereos, fixed, solid), the art of fabricating metal plates resembling pages of type, from which impressions may be taken as in ordinary letter-press printing. Tae 'Auks, which are composed of type-metal, are about three-sixteenths of an inch thick, perfectly smooth on the back, and having a face exactly resembling a page of movable type. To yield an impression, the plates are fastened by a temporary arrangement to blocks of wood—plate and block together being the height of a type, or one inch. Stereotyping is not employed where only a definite and moderate number of impressions of any worli are required. Its chief value consists in its availableness for future impressions contingent on the renewed demand for copies; but it is also of importance in duplicating the means of taking large impressions quickly. Considering the small quantity of metal employed in fabricating a stereotype plate, printers are enabled to secure and store up forms of type. so to speak, at a comparatively small outlay, and have at all times the means ready at hand to produce fresh editions without the trouble or cost of setting a single letter. As in the case of many valuable inventions, there has been not a little discussion as to who was the discoverer of the art of stereotyping. By sonic it has been ascribed to Van der 3Iey, a Dutch printer, who early in the 181h. c. executed editions of the Bible from forms of fixed type. Van der Mey's process, how ever, was not stereotyping in the proper sense of the word; for it consisted in nothing more than soldering together all the types in a page in order to fix them pevtnanently. There can be no doubt` oubt that the inventor of stereotyping was William Ged, a goldsmith in Edinburgh, who made the discovery about 1725. In 1727 he entered into a contract with a person to prosecute the business of stereotyping; but this person. who had little means, becoming intimidated, the contract was relinquished. In 1729, Ged entered into a partnership forthe same object with William Fenner, a London stationer. 'Afterward, John James, an architect, Thomas James, a type-founder, and James Ged, son of the inventor, joined the partnership. By this association, certain Bibles and prayer-books were stereotyped for the university of Cambridge about 1731. Gerl's success was so far complete, but his prospects were Blighted by ill-treatment from his partners, as well as by the misconduct of the pressmen employed to print from his plates, which they maliciously damaged and rendered imperfect. The university appears to have at length abandoned the use of the plates, which were sent to Caslon's letter foundry in London to he melted. A few of these plates escaped the crucible, and front two of them, being pages of the Book of Common Prayer, impressions are given in Hansard's Typographia, Part II. 1825. Ged's partnership was broken up in 1738. and full of disappointment he returned to Edinburgh. There, lie prosecuted his art, and was able to execute several editions of Sallust, of a small size, for the use of schools. Copies of these editions still exist. The earliest which we have seen purports to be printed in 1739, and bears an imprint in.Latin which may be translated as follows: "Not executed by movable types, but by tablets of fused metal." The printing is as neatly executed as that of any volume'
at the period. This Sallust of 1739, as we apprehend, was the first book correctly printed from stereotype plates. To add to the cares of William Ged, his son James engaged in the Jacobite insurrection of 1745, and was taken prisoner, and condemned: his life, however, was spared on account of his father's useful invention, and he pro ceeded to Jamaica, where William. his brother, was already settled. William Geth the inventor of stereotyping, (lied at Edinburgh, Oct. 19, 1749, in very indifferent circum stances.
The art of stereotyping has undergone little change since its discovery by Ged. The process of fabricating plates is very simple. The page of type being set, corrected, cleaned, and fixed in a frame, is laid on a smooth iron table face upward; a little fine oil is brushed over it, to prevent the liquid stucco from adhering; the stucco to the con sistency of cream is now poured over the face of the page, and straightened over it in the process of hardening; when hardened, the cake of stucco is lifted off, and is seen to be a perfect mold of the types. The cake is now baked in an oven, and then placed in an iron pan; the pan, which has inlets at the upper side, is plunged into molten metal, which soon runs into the mold; being lifted out and cooled, the pan is opened and found to contain a plate resembling the page of type; the mold is broken and of no further use. When removed from the pan, the plate is rough, and needs to be trimmed for working; for this purpose it passes through the hands of artisans, who prepare it for the press. Should any particular letter be defective, it is dug out, and a corresponding type inserted; the end of which type is cut off at the back of the plate by a soldering bolt. In preparing plates for press, nothing is more important than giving a high degree of level smoothness to the back, and to effect this certain planing and smoothing opera tions are adopted. Such is the old and well-known stucco process of stereotyping. Latterly, there have been divers improvements as regards the shape of the pans, in order to facilitate the fabrication of several plates at once, but the principle is in all cases the same After the stereotyping is finished, the types are distributed. In some printing all work whatsoever is executed from plates, and types are employed only to produce molds. This, however, does not save types from deterioration; in cleaning them with brushes and oiling them for the stucco, their finer parts become in no long time rounded off. As regards impressions from stereotype plates, the work is seldom so sharp and fine as from pages of movable letter; but it answers every required purpose in a large variety of cases. Plates properly manufactured, stored, and mended when neces sary, will last for repeated impressions to the extent of hundreds of thousands over a series of years. The stock of plates in some establishments is accordingly large, and represents a considerable sunk capital. When no longer required, the plates are melted down as material for fresh castings.