Stereotyping.—The art of stereotype printing is the printing from cast plates of type-metal in lieu of moveable letters or types, and derives its name from the Greek arEpeth firm or fixed, and TVVOT, a figure or type. This art is a remarkable illustration of the tendency of some inventions to return, after a long course of improvement, very near to their original simplicity. In the commencement of the art of printing, solid blocks of wood were used, containing, in one piece, all the words of which a page was composed. A great improvement upon this plan was the use of single letters or types, which might be com bined into words and pages, and, after being printed from, might be distributed and re-arranged for another work. Then followed the process of type-founding, or casting the letters individually in moulds, by which they might be multiplied with facility, and being engraved originally upon steel punches, might be executed with greater neatness. Whether the early printers employed logotypes, that is, types for printing whole syllables or words, to any material extent, is not very certain ; but it is well known that many persons have proposed, since the introduction of moveable types, the use of such logotypes for the purpose of facilitating the operation of printing; while others have adopted processes which approach more nearly to the old plan of printing from page-blocks, either by fusing the types composing a page into a solid mass, or, as in the modern art of stereotyping, by taking a mould from the page or form of moveable types, and using it as the matrix in which to make a solid cast or plate of metal. The face of such a cast is a facsimile of the types from which the mould is taken, and may be printed from in the same manner as the original form or page.
Many of the accounts of the various projects which bear an affinity to the art of stereotyping, as practised by modern printers, are very indistinct; and the claims of some of the projectors are exceedingly perplexing. Those readers who desire minute information may consult works which enter at length into the history of printing, and especially a very interesting Essay on the Origin and Progress of Stereotype Printing,' published in 1820, by Mr. Hodgson, of Newcastle. The subject is also treated at considerable length in Hansard's Typo graphia ;' but much of the history contained in that work is derived from the volume before mentioned.
One of the earliest schemes which claims notice in this brief sketch is that which was tried at the beginning of the last century by a Dutchman named Van der Mey. The booksellers Luchtmans, of Leyden, in a letter dated 1801, which was printed by 31. Camus, in his Histoire et Proc6d6s du Polytypage et de la St6r6otypie; described some plates or blocks formed by Van der Mey, which had been used in their establishment ever since 1711. These were the forms for a quarto Bible ; but a few other works were executed in the same way. They were not cast solid, but consisted of ordinary types, which, after being set up in the usual way, were converted into a solid mass by soldering them together at the back. The great expense of forms prepared in this way, as well as their inconvenient weight• and bulk, is quite sufficient to account for the plan having fallen into disuse. It was indeed only applicable in those very rare cases in which it was desirable, in order to meet a constant demand, to keep the forms of type standing; and was preferable to that practice only inasmuch as it avoided the risk of some of the letters being accidentally loosened and misplaced.
William Ged, a goldsmith of Edinburgh, if not absolutely the first, was one of the first to practise stereotyping, according to the common acceptation of the word. His claim to this honour is recorded in a rare pamphlet published by Nichols in 1781, and reprinted in 1819 by Hodgson of Newcastle, entitled Biographical Memoirs of William Ged, including a particular account of his progress in the art of Block printing.' From this work it appears that Ged invented a process for casting whole pages about the year 1725, and that a few years after wards he and others who were associated with him attempted to apply Ma luventioa to the production of bibles and prayer-books for the univervity of Cambridge. One of the ditlicultiee to be encountered in the intrednetiou of this innovation was the prejudice and opposition of the compositors, who, by the artful production of errors in the forms of Ivies readers.' the •.-aats so incorrect as to bring them into discredit. Tim scheme was abandoned by the University, and must of the pirate 1% en, destreyed. A battered and otherwise imperfect specimen, which escaped the melting-pot, is printed in I fausard's ' Typographia.' God cast plates for a few other works, one of which was an eslitiuu of &Oliva, in 18ino, which, according to his son and daughter, was executed in 1736, though Hodgson saya that he never saw a copy dated earlier than 1739, and that the edition commonly bears the date 1744. In llodgson's-lesesy a page of this work is reprinted, which is a far better specimen of stereotyping than that given by Hansard. This plate, ts 'deb had been previously printed in the tenth volume of the ' Philosophical Magazine, is about a quarter of an inch thick.
About the year 17S0, Mr. Tilled), editor of the ' Philosophical Magazine; conceived the passibility of founding whole pages; he being at that time unacquaintedwith the prior experiments of tied. lie communituded his idea to Foulis. printer to the university of Glasgow ; and they jointly produced several works ; sonic of which wore circu lated without any intimation of the process by which they were printed. llodgson gives very good specimens of their work. Finding some inconvenience iu the use of blocks of wool for mounting the plates, in order to raise them to the seine height as type, these experi mentalists tried blocks of bras, laving slits through which small screws might pass to secure the stereotype plates; the screws being fastened by nuts on the under aide of the brass mounts. In order to bed the plates as evenly as possible, whether the mount were of brass or wood, they interposed a layer of cement between the plate and the mount. In the latter case the thickness and level were adjusted by planing the back or under Bide of the wood ; and in the former by warming the mount, and then placing it, with the plate, unto a press, and squeezing out the superfluous cement. An account of the experiments of Tilloch and Foulis was published iu the tenth volume of the ' Philosophical Magazine.' Satisfactory as they were, they did nut immediately lead to the adoption of stereotype printing.