HUNTING. 



HMNTINi:. 



thus ontitUd ' M***'"" X composer et mettre ban pour I'IUSKV tie 

 rimprioMrie, compoaee et execute* par Christian Sdrenaen.' It was 

 stated that a Copenhagen newspaper, of which a copy waa ahown, had 

 been printed for aome time by thia method. It wuuld bo impossible 

 to convey an adequate notion of the details of thia machine without 

 drawing*- I will endeavour briefly to atate the principle : The types 

 are of the usual thickness and height. In the centre of each type, in 

 the front, ia a deep nick of a dovetail ahape, which fits upon ft m.-t.il 

 edge, ao that the type cannot be displaced. But of 1 1 1 letters which 

 are required in the fount, each letter baa two, three, ur four nicks out 

 at right angle*, the nicka of no one letter being the same as another. 

 A cylinder, which may be described as a large basin, hat a number of 

 metal edges placed vertically in iU rides, upon which the types without 

 any regard to order, being the matter for distribution, are rapidly slid 

 by the dovetail nick. 



lien the basin ia filled, it is inverted upon a cylinder of corre- 

 sponding size below. Upon the rim of this cylinder is a separate 

 opening for the reception of each of the 111 letters, but no one 

 opening ia like another. The distributing and the composing go on at 

 the same time. The compositor ia seated ; with a treddle he moves 

 the upper cylinder, which, as it slowly revolves, finds in the lower 

 cylinder, which in stationary, a fit place for every separate letter as it 

 descends by its own gravity to the bottom of each metal edge. The 



* having two broad nicka, one about J of an inch from its top, the 

 other at the same distance from ita bottom, falls into the n opening, 

 which, having poinU corresponding, alone can admit it from ita simi- 

 larity of form, while the u having four nicks, two broad and two 

 narrow, puses into ita own division, and cannot be confused with 

 then. 



"But whilst thia process of distribution ia steadily proceeding, 

 without any care but to keep the upper cylinder occasionally supplied 

 with new material for ita operation, the process of composition is 

 rapidly going on. The compositor sits before a compact little frame of 

 keys, each key having a connecting wire for each division of the lower 

 cylinder. He strikes a key and the lower letter is instantly detached 

 and falls into a funnel-shaped receptacle below, where, without being 

 inverted in any way, it runs into a groove, and arranges itself in its 

 proper order, in the line of ita fellows. This is a long line of several 

 feet. By an ingenious contrivance each such line is passed on one 

 aide, as it ia completed, to another workman, who takes up as many 

 letters as will fill the due width of his page or column, and spaces out 

 the words in the ordinary way. I saw 1000 letters thus placed in line 

 in the short space of four minutes, and the spelling and punctuation 

 appeared as correct as in most matter of common composition before 

 it is read. When the necessary loss of time in refilling the cylinders, 

 and through other hindrances, is taken into account, it was stated by 

 the exhibitor that 50,000 types are set up and distributed each day. 

 This gives a rate of about 6000 an hour, which is treble that of the 

 ordinary compositor's rate." 



Other machines, designed to attain greater rapidity, or of more 

 staple and cheaper construction, have been produced since that exhi- 

 bition ; and a few have been brought into actual work in printing- 

 offices, but without sufficient success to insure their general adoption. 

 Among the latest of these inventions is that of Mr. Young, in which 

 the keyed arrangement is adopted, the receptacle being filled as de- 

 scribed above. The action of the lever knocks aside the letter required, 

 which instantly drops into a special groove running down an inclined 

 plane , and this leads to the general issue, where it is propelled by the 

 action of a lathe, at the end of which it arranges itself in its desired 

 order in an upright position, and is thus passed to a frame of divided 

 paces to admit the arranged types in long lines. As one space fills, a 

 lever lifts it a line, until the whole is filled, when its place is si.pj.lira 

 by an empty one. The frame thus filled is removed to the justifying 

 machine. Here the frame is placed so as to bring the uppermost line 

 on a level with an instrument brought by a screw to the width <if the 

 line required. The juatifter glance* his eye along the line, corrects any 

 error that he detect*, and slides as much as the line of the justifying 

 machine will take with regard to the end or division of a word, ana 

 then paces it tight. The instrument then drops a line, and the pro- 

 o**i ia repeated till a page ia formed, which is then removed. It is 

 stated that one player will compose 13,000 letters per hour, and that 

 thia will occupy three compositors in justifying. Working nine hours 

 a day, thia would be 117,000 letters for four compositors, or about 

 29,000 for each ; while at the common case they could not produce 

 more than 18,000 at most by the usual process, which however includes 

 the distribution, which must with this machine be effected by a com- 

 positor, although the inventor has in hand (Nov. 1860) a machine for 

 performing the distribution alao. When distributed, each type has to be 

 aet up separately, in order to be placed in their receptacles, and this is 

 done by boys, at about the same rate as ia done in Typt-fotouliiig. 



There is one drawback to all such machines, that appears almost im- 

 potable to overcome, and will greatly prevent their general use. They 

 may arrange types with a rapidity far greater than ia attainable by 

 man's fingers in lifting them ; but the superiority of machinery con- 

 mats mainly in ita being continuou.. If this fails, the advantage ia 

 lost, and the interruptions are coatly. Now In composing no one can 

 move hit fingers, either on the keys of a machine or into the boxes of 



caw, farter than he can read the copy. Few know bettor than a 



compositor the difficulty there ia in reading moat manuscript*. 

 the change of a hand-writing is often an obstacle, and of m;inv author* 

 the writing in no peculiar or so bad aa to take considerable time to 

 decipher; and many other* neglect tin- punctuation, which a good 

 compositor ought carefully to attend to. On newspapers the < 

 often from a copying-press, and ia faint or obscure, or is written on 

 thin paper with a pencil, with like defects. Nor U there any pr 

 for the use of a word in italic, or in any .lilt', ivnt, alphabet, such as 

 Greek or Hebrew. Thus, in manuscript works, the worker at a com- 

 posing machine would necessarily lose so much tin." in r.M.ling his 

 copy as greatly to reduce his rate of speed ; for if he mistake, the fault 

 has to be corrected. This cannot be done by machine. and the cor- 

 rection frequently takes aa much time aa the original composition. 

 With mere reprints they may answer bettor ; but even with them we 

 believe the idea of employing the cheap labour of boys has been 

 up, and it is found more remunerative to engage men already acquainted 

 with their business aa compositors. 



Printin>/-jym>. The term printing-press is applied to the machine 

 used for letter-press printing, lithographic printing, or copper-plate 

 printing, but more usually the first named, the others being called 

 rolling- preened. The date of the invention of the printing-press is 

 unknown, but some contrivance for this purpose must have been used 

 aa soon as printing by blocks or typea waa introduced. The increased 

 force requisite to make an impression, the size of the surface to be 

 printed from being increased, would soon suggest recourse to some of 

 the simple machines or mechanical powers for the modification of the 

 power requisite to obtain the necessary pressure. The screw, aa applied 

 in the common screw-press, would obviously suggest itself ; and 

 accordingly, in all the earlier printing-presses, the screw alone is used. 



The operations to be performed in the process of printing will point 

 out the essential parts of a printing-press. The types, being set up 

 and arranged in a form of suitable dimensions, have to be ink. a ; this 

 is effected by passing across them a cylinder, or roller, covered with au 

 elastic composition of molasses, glue, and tar. The paper to be printed 

 has to be laid on the types when inked, and then the requisite pressure 

 for making the impression has to be applied. 



The earliest form of printing-press very closely resembled the 

 common screw-press, as the cheese or napkin press, with some contri- 

 vance for running the form of types, when inked, under the pressure, 

 and back again when the impression was made. This rude and incon- 

 venient form of press was superseded by the invention of Blew, a 

 printer of Amsterdam. Other improvements were from time to time 

 introduced ; but they were all superseded, about the commencement 

 of the present century, by an invention of Lord Stanhope. 



In the accompanying diagram of the Stanhope press, A is a massive 

 frame of iron, cast in one piece, forming the body of the press, and 



firmly fixed to the cross B, or wooden foundation. The table c carries 

 the form of types D, which, being placed on a carriage, traverses the 

 table backwards and forwards, motion being given to it by means of 

 the crank-handle acting underneath the table. To the carriage are 

 attached the tympana E, which are light frames covered with parch- 

 ment, and so constructed that the inner tympan just lies within 

 the outer tympan. Some blanketing is placed between the tympana, so 

 as to equalise the pressure upon the surface of the types. I 

 outer tympan ia attached the trinket r. The sheet of paper to be 

 printed being placed on the tympans, the frisket is turned down upon 

 it ; and then the frisket and tympans are turned down upon the form 

 of types. The frisket is covered with paper or parchment, cut out so 

 that the sheet to be printed, when placed between the tyni]ns and 

 frisket, and folded down together on the form of types, may be in 

 contact with the surface of the types; while the remainder of the 

 frisket-shcct preserves the margin from being soiled. 



The form of typos being inked, and the tympana and frisket, with 



