IS* Obituary: — Dr. Tilludi. 



THE LATE ALEXANDER TILLOCH, LL.D. 



It is with feelings of deep emotion that we have to announce 

 to our readers the death of a gentleman with whose name 

 and talents they have long been acquainted — Dr. Alexander 

 Tilloch, the founder and editor of the Philosophical Maga- 

 zine, the second monthly periodical work wholly devoted to 

 scientific subjects published in this country ; the first having 

 been Mr. Nicholson's Philosophical Journal, which some years 

 since merged into this work. 



We have neither the leisure nor would our feelings permit 

 us to do justice to the memory of our late much-esteemed 

 friend and coadjutor ; we shall however lose no time in pre- 

 paring such a Memoir of him as his character and talents 

 demand, and which will be given in a future Number of the 

 Philosophical Magazine: — our present notice therefore can 

 only be considered as a brief obituary. 



Alexander Tilloch was a native of Glasgow, where he was 

 born on the 28th of February 1759. After receiving that li- 

 beral education which in Scotland is so much more accessible 

 than in England, inured from his earliest life to a habit of 

 thinking for himself, possessing an inquisitive mind, and im- 

 bibing an ardent thirst for knowledge, he devoted much of 

 his attention to the art of printing, in which he conceived much 

 improvement remained to be made. As he was not bred a 

 printer himself, he had recourse to Mr. Foulis, printer of the 

 University of Glasgow, to whom he applied for types to make 

 an experiment in a new process, and that nothing less than 

 the art of stereotype printing : the experiment succeeded, and 

 Mr. Foulis, who was a very ingenious man, became so con- 

 vinced of its practicability and excellence, that he entered 

 into partnership with him in order to caiTy it on. They took 

 out patents in both England and Scotland, and printed se- 

 veral small volumes from stereotype plates. A fewj'ears after- 

 wards Dr. Tilloch discovered that although he had invented 

 stereotype printing, yet he was but a second inventor, and 

 that the art had been exercised by a Mr. Ged of Edinburgh, 

 jeweller, nearly fifty years before. This circumstance, if it 

 did not disgust Dr. Tilloch, made him think less of his dis- 

 covery; and soon after he left Glasgow for London, where he 

 became one of the jnoprietors of the Star evening newspaper; 



