To Joseph A. Adams belongs the credit of devising the American method of making-ready woodcuts, and he it was who first demonstrated the feasibility of the new process of electrotyp ing by making successful electrotype plates, in 1839. It was in 1838 that the typecasting. machine was invented by David Bruce, and about 1850 that the method of printing illustra dons on dry paper was discovered.
The art of engraving on wood was practised until comparatively recent times, but the intro duction of the art of photo-engraving destroyed its usefulness, for, while wood engravings were extremely costly, the new process made the cheapest of illustrations possible. Lithography, or the art of printing upon stone, has been em ployed in the United States since 1819. It was not until 1825 that its use became commercially practicable, but since that time this form of printing has developed rapidly.
One of the latest, and, uncluestionably, one of the greatest improvements in the art of printing was the invention of the typesetting machine, which is now in such general use in all large establishments that it may be said to have practically supplanted hand composition. It is by such inventions, however, that the printing trade has been revolutionized until it has grown from the small proportions of a business which engaged the attention of less than 500 men to a great national industry.
Printing has increased in volume as much as in quality. In 1900 it was rated as about the 14th United States industry; in 1914 the census returned it as the sixth industry. In 1918 Charles Francis, generally known as the °dean of the printing industry° in America, called attention to the fact that it was entitled to be classed as the third industry of the coun try, and from some points of view as the second industry. He reminds us that paper is a very necessary part of printing, and that its value has been usually deducted in computing printing production. When gross products are figured the leading United States industries appear as follows, 1914 figures: (1) Slaughtering and meat packing, $1,673,000,000; (2) foundry and machine shop products, $1,373,000,000; (3) printing and publishing, $1,233,000,000; (4) lum ber and timber, $1,119,000,000.
When measured by net products, foundry and machine shop products comes first, and if the paper be included printing and publishing is second. The motion-picture industry is now approaching rapidly and bids fair to occupy one of the foremost places. In number of em ployees drawing wages and salaries, printing, publishing and paper, considered as one indus try, ranks third, and in wages paidtome second. From the same point of view, in capitalization, foundry and machine shops are first, and lum ber and timber, steel works and printing (with publishing and paper), are practically tied for second, third and fourth place. It also appears that one-fourth of the printing in the United States is done in the metropolitan district of New York, while Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston together do another fourth. The total gross United States production of printing and publishing and the paper used in 1914 was $1,233,000,000, which figure does not include paper used for other purposes. The newspaper end of the industry is discussed under American newspapers. The magazines and periodicals, meaning the larger weeklies and nearly all the semi-monthlies, monthly and quarterlies, are produced by what is commonly called the book and job printing branch of the industry, but which is beginning to be known as the periodical, book and job printing branch, be cause the periodicals constitute the largest por tion of its production. The great daily news paper printing plants and the great printing houses that turn out periodicals, catalogs and books in large numbers, have all developed along factory lines of efficiency, and may correctly be classed with other factories.