able price, as well as to make the project profitable alike to writers and publisher. It already contains good matter, and among its contributors are some of the first writers of the United States and Great Britain.

In January, 1857, the first number of a very useful publication, on the plan of "Notes and Queries," was begun at Boston, under the title of The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries concerning the Antiquities, History, and Biography of America, which has met with a reasonable amount of patronage, and supplies a vacuum in American periodical literature that has long existed. It is destined to be the repository of many valuable historical fragments, and already serves as a convenient medium of communication between men in all parts of the Union, whose object is the illumination of obscure points in American history, and the elucidation of mooted questions. In the brief period of its existence it has brought to light many curious incidents in the early history of the country heretofore sealed to the mass of readers. Judging from its character it is destined, among other achievements, to secure a uniform system of American bibliography, and to reform that shameful practice, now too prevalent among publishers in the United States, of printing octavo and quarto editions of the same book from the same plates, as well as to effect the total abolition of the habit so often indulged by American authors and publishers, of giving two or three titles to the same book, and thus by two dishonest practices involving American bibliography in confusion, and surrounding research with every conceivable difficulty.

CHAPTER XIII.

PRINTING PRESSES.

ALMOST as great progress has been made in the improvement of the structure of the printing press in the United States as in the extent and amount of the printing business itself. The first presses used in the colonies were imported from England; although some were manufactured in the country before the Revolution. These were mostly after the model of the invention of Blaew, the time-honoured wooden screw-press, subsequently improved by Adam Ramage, whose name it now bears in the Union. At first Ramage's presses were so constructed that two impressions were required for each side of a medium sheet, the platten being only large enough to cover one-half of a medium form; but he subsequently remedied this defect, if it were one; and after other manufacturers had adopted iron he substituted that material for wood, but not until the popularity of his presses had materially declined. Still, as they are really excellent, they are much in use in the country districts; which cannot be said of the celebrated Columbian press, now obsolete in the United States, although it, strangely enough, maintains its popularity in England. This was invented in 1816. It was soon after introduced into Europe, and in 1818, its inventor received 1500 dollars as a present from the Emperor of Russia, and a gold

h

medal from the King of the Netherlands, valued at 250 dollars, besides other flattering testimonials from persons of distinction.

This press is an application of the upright lever principle; but being very complicated, and liable to derangement, a more simple one, made by Mr. Wells, of Hartford, Connecticut, soon contended with it for popularity in the Northern States, and both were followed and finally superseded by the Smith press. And, at about the time this last-mentioned invention came into use, the Washington press was brought into notice, taking its place at once with the Smith press, and the two are now the only large hand-presses in general use in the United States. The Washington press is remarkable for its simplicity of construction, great power, cheapness, and the facility with which it can be worked. Like the Smith press, it is an application of the upright lever principle.

The great demand for daily journals in the United States, together with the large editions required of some, early attracted the attention of the publishers of the more successful of these publications to a means for their production more rapid than the ordinary hand-press; and it is not surprising, therefore, that cylinder steam-presses were made use of there soon after their appearance in Europe. We are unable, however, to learn with any degree of accuracy when, where, or by whom the first steam printing press was set up in America; but it is quite certain the Napier press was in operation in New York before 1821. In 1829, Robert Hoe, of New York, father of the present head of the celebrated firm of Hoe and Co., of that city, made an improvement in the Napier press, by which 1500, instead of 1100, copies were thrown off by it in an hour; and in 1835, Richard M. Hoe constructed a double cylinder press, which printed 3000 sheets in an hour. In 1842 this was further increased to 5000 impressions in an hour; and in 1846 an improvement was made by which 10,000 an hour were thrown off. This number, great as it is, was subsequently surpassed; but before describing this last achievement in mechanics as applied to printing, we shall briefly refer to the Adams press.

We are not aware of the date of this invention. Nevertheless it was in use as early as 1838, and is unquestionably the very best steam printing machine for fine book-work. We believe it to be of Boston origin at all events that city is the sole place of its manufacture. It ordinarily throws off 2500 sheets in an hour, is fed by females, discharges itself, and moves with the precision and case of an intelligent being. Its work equals the finest produced on the handpress, although the sheets are of the largest size used in book-printing, and it is in use everywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific where book-work is done.

The great American improvement, or, more properly speaking, invention, in printing presses, is the result of the talents and industry of R. M. Hoe. and was first put into operation in 1846. It is believed to be the first successful effort to print from types secured around a cylinder, and certainly surpasses all other similar machines designed for that purpose. The first of these presses publicly used was set up in the office of the Public Ledger, in Philadelphia, in February, 1847, since which time they have become popular throughout the United States, and have been introduced successfully into Europe. In fact, Mr. Hoe introduced them into Paris in 1849, at which time he attempted to bring them into use in England, but did not succeed. Mr. Applegath's press

was then in high repute in London, and a transatlantic rival was not likely to attract much patronage. Still merit at last asserted its claims, and in May, 1856, the first of this description of presses used in England was put into operation in the office of Lloyd's Weekly. The simplicity of so vast a machine, the cylinder being horizontal, the ease with which it works, its rapidity, and, more than all, its wonderful capacity for printing large editions, and in some cases throwing off 20,000 copies of a journal like the great London daily in a single hour, claimed for it at once the attention of those most interested in such machines; and in 1856 Mr. Hoe received an order from the proprietors of the London Times for a press which is to print 20,000 copies of that paper in an hour. This machine is to be 37 feet long, 18 feet high, and 63 feet wide. It is to have ten cylinders, and as it will lay off its own sheets, but ten persons will be required to work it, whereas twenty are employed at present on the presses used in striking off a daily edition of the Times. Mr. Hoe has also an order for another from the proprietors of Lloyd's Weekly, and for one each for the publishers of the London Illustrated News, and the North British Advertiser; but not having the facilities at home for their construction, in addition to those in hand for American use, he has made arrangements, and is now manufacturing these in Manchester.

Did our subject admit, we could extend this list of American printing presses by a description of those intended for job-work; but a simple reference to them here must suffice. Some of this description of presses are as unique in their line as is the "Type Revolving Printing Machine" of Mr. Hoe among newspaper presses.

Time brings about strange revolutions, and but few of his wonders are more remarkable than the facts this brief sketch contains. In 1770 the Colonies were mainly dependent upon England for printing presses; in 1856, the once dependent colonies—now a vigorous young nation-sent to the mother-country the best invention capable of supplying in sufficient quantities that daily pabulum of the mind so widely demanded by the British nation. It is not irreverent here to say, that the inspired prophecy, "Cast your bread upon the waters, and it shall be returned to you in many days," has in this case found a singular and unlooked-for fulfilment.

CHAPTER XIV.

TYPOGRAPHY-TYPE-FOUNDRIES-PAPER-BINDING, ETC.

AMERICAN typography sixty, or even forty years ago, was quite a different thing to what it is now. At the first-named period, the country was almost wholly dependent upon Europe for type, paper, and printing ink, of good quality, and as these were not easily obtainable, and were always expensive, the larger proportion of the printing done in the republic was necessarily of an inferior character, until the native manufactures of type, paper, and printing ink began to manifest improvement. And we must bear in mind that the

absence of a wide demand for good typography also had weight in preventing its general production: for the majority of the works first printed were both cheap and useful, which circumstances prevented, in a new country, any desired display at fine typography an ambitious printer might cherish. Still, much of the work executed at the close of the last, and the beginning of this, century, equals some of the best English printing of the period. Fry and Kamerer, of Philadelphia, executed some very superior work, their 4to edition of Barlow's Columbiad being one of the most creditable specimens of typography of the age; and an edition of the British Poets, in fifty neat duodecimo volumes, printed at Philadelphia about 1820, by Mr. William Brown, would do honour now to many establishments of large pretensions. A very handsomely printed edition of Rees's Cyclopædia, in 47 vols., was sent forth from the Philadelphia press at the beginning of the present century, and not a few admirable specimens of typography were thrown off by the Boston and New York press. Some excellent work was done in smaller towns, and we have in our possession a copy of the Rev. N. S. Wheaton's Journal of a visit to England, Scotland, and France, printed at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1830, before the general introduction of rollers, which, in point of accuracy of composition, and beauty of pressmanship, is a masterpiece of typography. The colour is wonderfully uniform, considering it was put on the type with balls, and yet it does not appear that the book in question was regarded at the time of printing as anything more than an ordinary piece of work.

At the present time book-printing in America has reached a high state of perfection. We have elsewhere referred to the printing-presses of the country, and the work executed on them fulfils the highest expectations. Much of the printing now done for the government at Washington is of the best kind, and Owen's Geological Survey, Perry's Japan Expedition, the Reports of the various surveys of a railroad route to the Pacific, and the different volumes relating to the scientific department of the U. S. Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes, are most creditable specimens of American typography. And so are the great majority of the books published by the large publishing houses at New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Boston, Auburn, and Hartford.

The earliest American printers obtained their types from Europe. Christopher Sower, of Germantown, before mentioned as the publisher of a quarto German Bible at that place, established a type-foundry there for casting German letters as early as 1739-some say 1735. This was necessarily small, but it was the nucleus of what is now the largest establishment south of New York, if not the largest in the country. Attempts to establish typefoundries were made both in Massachusetts and Connecticut, about 1768, and Franklin tried the experiment in Philadelphia, in 1775, but all were unsuccessful. Soon after the Revolutionary War a more fortunate attempt was made in the same city by John Baine, a Scotchman, and he was the first who regularly carried on the business of type-founding in the United States. The fragments of his establishment, and among them were the old matrices used by Sower, fell into the hands of Binney and Ronaldson, also Scotchmen, early in the present century, and their foundry was for several years the most extensive in the country. In 1828, it was the only foundry

south of New York, and at that time six or seven persons produced all the types cast in it. The business, however, has increased wonderfully, and at this time there are no less than nine type foundries in Philadelphia alone, employing from 600 to 700 hands, and any one of them produces more than did all the foundries in the country in 1828. We are unable to say what is the number of these establishments now in the United States, but they are quite numerous, and abound from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts. They supply not only the American Republic, but Canada, the West India Islands, South America, and Mexico. In 1851 there were about twenty-five in all, employing 8000 persons, and the aggregate weight of the type produced in them daily was upwards of 4400 pounds.

It has been erroneously stated that stereotyping was first introduced into the United States only about thirty-five years ago. We have the authority of Thomas for the fact that it was practised by Benjamin Mecum, a nephew of Dr. Franklin, in Philadelphia, in 1775. He cast the plates for a number of pages of the New Testament, and although skilful, was not entirely successful. Mr. Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, invented a new plan of stereotyping about 1810, and, coming to England, realized a fortune by printing stamps for the government. It is curious that Massachusetts, the first colony to resist the Stamp Act openly, should send a son of hers to England there to manufacture stamps for the use of the British people! The business of stereotyping has much increased of late, as may be supposed, and whereas, but thirtythree years ago, one man was able to do all of it required in Philadelphia, now several hundred persons are employed at the business in that city alone. Paper-making was first practised in the United States by a family of the name of Rittenhouse, at Roxborough, Penna., if not in 1693, certainly in 1697, for we have positive proof of that in Gabriel Thomas's History of the Province of Pennsylvania, written in that year. Since then the business has become extensive, and there are now more than 750 paper-mills in the country, with 2000 engines in constant operation. Much of this paper is excellent; but it cannot be denied that the beauty of American printing is considerably affected detrimentally by the predominance given to cotton rags.

If the consumption of paper be an evidence of the intelligence of a people, those of the United States should be the best informed in the world. In France the yearly production averages about four pounds of paper per head; in England the average is four and three quarter pounds, and in the United States it is quite thirteen and a half pounds per head.

In conclusion, we may say that the Americans have effected much that is creditable to themselves in book-binding. Their books are usually bound in a substantial manner, and, where occasion requires, in a style of elegance and finish not inferior to much of a fine description produced in Europe. Many of their publications are bound in the best style of the art, and the books of the present day, when compared with those of forty years ago, exhibit the whole history of the progress of the arts of printing, paper-making, type founding, and binding, in that period in the United States.