STEPPESTEREOTYPE. 



403 



is without foundation. He made Latin verses with 

 great facility. He was lively and affectionate in 

 his feelings, fond of gayety and wit, but impatient 

 of contradiction; he indulged himself in caustic 

 epigrams upon his opponents. Among his numerous 

 editions, the principal are, Poetce Grteci, Principes 

 Heroici Carminis ( 1566, folio) ; Pindar i et ceete- 

 rorum octo Lyricorurn Carmina (1560, 1566, 1586, 

 24mo.); also editions of Maximus Tyrius, Dio- 

 dorus, Xenophon, Thucydides, Herodotus, Sopho- 

 cles, TEschylus, Diogenes, Laertius, Plutaich, 

 ApoUonius Rhodius, Callimachus, Plato, Herodian, 

 and Appian, Horace, Virgil, Pliny the younger, 

 Gellius, Macrobius, the collection of Roman his- 

 torians, &c. He translated many Greek authors 

 into Latin. He also produced numerous other 

 valuable works. 



STEPPE (from the Russian step, a desert; also 

 a dry plain). The steppes of Russia, which are 

 not unlike the landes of Guienne, in France, and the 

 heaths of Northern Germany, are in part susceptible 

 of cultivation ; and they afford pasturage for the 

 numerous herds of the nomadic tribes. In the 

 extensive steppes of Astrachan, between the Volga 

 and the Ural, the Calmucs and Nogay Tartars rove 

 with their cattle. They produce several sorts of 

 flowers, herbs, and are frequented by wild goats and 

 birds. 



STERE. See French Decimal System. 



STEREOGRAPHIC PROJECTION. See 

 Projection of the Sphere. 



STEREOMETRY (from eri^s, solid, and 

 fttroov, measure); literally, the measure of solids; 

 a branch of geometry, the name of which would 

 make it applicable to the measurement of all solids, 

 but which, in fact, is limited, by elementary geo- 

 metry, to a certain number, and is made to embrace 

 other qualities in addition to their solid contents. 

 The solids of which it treats, are those inscribed 

 within plane surfaces, and a few inscribed within 

 curved surfaces, viz. the cylinder, cone, and sphere: 

 all the others it leaves to the higher geometry. A 

 solid, in geometry, is that which has length, breadth, 

 and thickness. If the body in question is a prism, 

 its height indicates how many layers, eah equal to 

 its base, must be laid one above the other, in order 

 to form the solid figure; in other words, the con- 

 tents of the prism are equal to the product of the 

 height multiplied by the base. The same is the 

 case, as will be readily seen, with the cylinder. A 

 prism of three sides may be divided, as is easily 

 shown by actual cutting, into three pyramids, each 

 of three sides, of the same height and base with the 

 prism. A prism of many sides, and a pyramid of 

 many sides, may be divided into as many three- 

 sided prisms or pyramids as the base has sides; 

 hence the contents of every pyramid are equal to a 

 third of the product of the height multiplied by the 

 base. The same is the case with the cone, which 

 has a circle for its base, i. e. a polygon of innumer- 

 able sides, and, therefore, can be considered as a 

 pyramid. A sphere may be considered as composed 

 of an infinite number of pyramids, all of which have 

 their vertices in the centre of the sphere : its con- 

 tents, therefore, are equal to a third of the product 

 of its surface (which makes the sum of the bases 

 of all these pyramids) and its radius. These are 

 the chief points of stereometry; but it also teaches 

 how to compare the various solids with each other, 

 and to ascertain their superficial contents. See 

 Hossfeld's Lower and Higher Practical Stereometry 

 (1812, 4to.); see, also, the article Stereometry in 



the fourth volume of Kliigel's Mathem. Dictionary 

 (in German), byMulweido (Leipsic, 1823). 



STEREOTYPE, from the Greek <rri e .<,,-, firm, 

 standing jinn, and TUVK, figure, form; is the name 

 applied to a species of printing, which, within the 

 present century, has come to be extensively prac- 

 tised. The ordinary method of printing has been 

 fully described under the article Printing. Stereo- 

 type printing consists in casting, by means of a 

 stucco mould, a representation of the superficies 

 of arranged types, which, being fitted to a block, 

 may be used under the press exactly as types are 

 used, and, being retained, may serve at any time to 

 throw otf an additional impression. The invention 

 of stereotype seems properly to belong to William 

 Ged, a goldsmith of Edinburgh, who is said to have 

 attempted stereotyping in the year 1725. In July, 

 1729, Ged entered into a partnership with William 

 Fenner, a London stationer, allowing Fenner half 

 the profits of his invention, in consideration of his 

 advancing the necessary funds. Afterwards, Mr 

 John James, an architect, was taken into the 

 scheme for the same purpose, as was likewise Mr 

 Thomas James, a letter-founder, and Mr James 

 Ged, the inventor's son. In 1730, this company 

 applied to the university of Cambridge for printing 

 Bibles and common-prayer books, by stereotype, 

 and the lease was sealed to them, April 23, 1731. 

 In their attempt they sank a large sum of money, 

 and finished only two prayer books, so that it was 

 forced to be relinquished, and the lease was given 

 up in 1738. Ged imputed his want of success to 

 the jealousy of the workmen, in marring the plates, 

 and the bad conduct of his partner, Fenner. He 

 returned to Edinburgh with blighted prospects, but 

 still prosecuting his invention, published in 1744, a 

 stereotype edition of Sallust, bearing the following 

 imprint : " Edinburgi, Gulielmus Ged, Aurifaber, 

 Edinensis, non typis mobilibus, utvulgo fieri solet, sed 

 tabellis sen laminis fusis, excubebat, MDCCXLIV." 

 Some of the original plates of this work are still 

 extant in our museums, and a page may be seen 

 among the curiosities preserved in Fingask castle, 

 Perthshire. Ged, like many other ingenious men, 

 died in reduced circumstances, before the utility of 

 his invention was appreciated, October 19, 1749. 

 Two of his sons, William and James, settled in 

 Jamaica as printers. 



About thirty years after the death of Ged, Mr 

 Tilloch, without having at the time any knowledge 

 of Ged's discovery, made a similar one of his own ; 

 and with the assistance and joint labour of Mr 

 Foulis, printer to the university of Glasgow, he 

 greatly improved upon the invention, after many 

 experiments and much labour. " Though we had 

 reason to fear," says Mr Tilloch, " from what we 

 afterwards found Ged had met with, that our efforts 

 would experience a similar opposition from prejudice 

 and ignorance, we persevered in our object for a 

 considerable time, and at last resolved to take out 

 patents for England and Scotland, to secure for 

 ourselves, for the usual term, the benefits of our 

 invention; for the discovery was still as much our 

 own as if nothing similar had been practised before." 

 The patents were accordingly obtained; but owing 

 to circumstances of a private nature, the business 

 was for a time laid aside, and the concern was at 

 length dropped entirely, after Mr Tilloch's removal 

 from Glasgow to London. Prior to this, however, 

 a number of small volumes had been stereotyped 

 and printed under the direction of Messrs Tilloch 

 and Foulis. 



