The process of stereotyping is one of the most important means by which the production of cheap books has been facilitated of late years. For a work of limited and temporary demand it is unnecessary ; but where the demand is very great, and likely to last for several years, it is all-important, since it enables the publisher to keep up the supply without the expense of having a very large edition printed at once. In most cases where tho demand is uncertain, and in almost all where the demand is sure to be largo, it is desirable to resort to stereotyping, because, although it increases the first cost of production, it enables the publisher to avoid, on the one hand, the risk of printing a great number of copies which may prove unsaleable, and, on the other, the outlay necessary for tho re-composition of the types, in case the demand should exceed the number of copies first printed.
It has often been urged as an objection to stereotype printing that it tends to perpetuate errors ; but the fallacy of such a statement may be easily shown. In re-composition new typographical errors aro pretty sure to arise, while the expurgation of old ones is by no means certain ; but in stereotype plates the occurrence of new errors (excepting by the breaking off of a letter or figure) is impossible, and original errors may be altered whenever they are discovered. Such alterations are not necessarily confined to the Insertion of a letter or a word ; for whole sentences and paragraphs may be altered in like way, provided that the new matter be made the same in extent as that which is cut away. Hence a stereotyped work may be gradually rendered almost immaculate ; and an error which would otherwise have run through the whole edition, may be corrected, when only a few hundred copies have been circulated.
The interest connected with the question of Printing for the Blind, t) which considerable impetus was given by the Society of Arts for Scotland at Edinburgh, who offered their gold medal for the best alphabet for the blind, has tended greatly to bring about a change in the intellectual education of the blind. The publication of the article BLIND in the Penny Cyclopedia' at a time when the minds of many were thus directed, and the strictures therein contained on the absence of intellectual training in most of the asylums, also rendered essential benefits on this point. Dr. S. G. of Boston in the United States, in 1833 contrived an alphabet, founded upon that of Hatay, of a very compact form, In which the New Testament was printed in 1834, and is now in general use in America. The late Mr. John Allston, the treasurer of the Glasgow Asylum, than whom no man connected with the blind deserves more honourable mention, contributed greatly to this educational movement. He saw that, by adopting any character
more or less arbitrary, the evil would necessarily follow of isolating the blind by putting them in a position to require special teachers. He therefore adopted the plain Roman characters deprived of their small extremities—the sans-serif of type-founders; and, finding that it could be easily read, that it would enable any seeing person who could read to be a teacher of the blind, he at. onto procured founts of type, and published several works in raised letters ; the success of these for their special object established the pre-eminence of his alphabet. Having thus laboured for several years, he visited more than once the principal asylums for the blind in the kingdom. In his work Statementa; published in 1846, ho says, that after the introduction of his system, • I found a considerable improvement. Sid-sscesiently I visited the English institutions a third time, and found a very great number who could read with ease and intelligence ; and I have reason to know that there are some hundreds reading these books, and that many families are in possession of the whole of the Bible in raised types : thus in a short time showing the sufficiency of the system placed before the public." It may be added, that Mr. Alston also brought out some beautiful music and maps, and that he published the Old and New Testament in 19 vols., super-royal 4to. The paper used for these works is strongly sized, to retain the impression. In order to account for the great extent of the Bible, it must be borne in mind that the paper can only be printed on one side, and that the letters require to be of considerable size in order to be distinct to the touch. The print ing is effected by a copper-plate press. The types being strongly relieved, and liable frequently to give way under the heavy pressure required, it was necessary to have them re-cast four times during the progress of the work. The whole of the works were completed within the walls of the Glasgow Asylum, a man and a boy acting as composi tors, there being one pressman, and the ordinary teacher acting as corrector of the press. These books are now used in most of the British asylums for the blind, and also in America. The success which has attended Mr. Alston's exertions was a new assurance to the Society of Arts for Scotland that they had acted wisely in regarding the steno graphic and all other arbitrary characters, as well as the angular modifications of the Roman alphabets, unfavourably.