PRINTING. 



made purposely half a dozen more ; and 

 the pressmen, when the musters were ab- 

 sent, battered the letter in aid of the 

 compositors. In consequence of these 

 base proceeding's, the books were sup- 

 pressed by authority, and the plates sent 

 to the King's printing-house, and from 

 thence to Mr. Caslon's foundry. " After 

 much ill usage," says Mr. Tilloch, " (Jed, 

 who appears to have been a person of 

 great honesty and simplicity, returned to 

 Edinburgh. His friends were anxious 

 that a specimen of his art should be pub- 

 lished, which was at last done by sub- 

 scription. His son, James Ged, who had 

 been apprenticed to a printer, with the 

 consent of his master, set up the forms in 

 the night-time, when the other composi- 

 tors were gone, for his father to cast the 

 plates from ; by which means Salltist was 

 finished in 1736." Mr. Tilloch has not 

 only a copy of this work, but also " the 

 plate of one of the pages." Besides Sal- 

 lust, Mr. Tilloch has another work, 

 printed some years after, from plates of 

 Mr. Ged's manufacture. The book is 

 The Life of God in the Soul of Man, 

 printed on a writing pot, 12mo,. and with 

 the following imprint : "Newcastle, print- 

 ed and sold by John White, from plates 

 made by William Ged, Goldsmith in 

 Edinburgh, 1742." 



Fifty years after the invention of plate- 

 printing by Mr. Ged, Mr. Tilloch made a 

 similar discovery, without having, at the 

 time, any knowledge of Ged's invention. 

 In perfecting the invention, Mr. Tilloch 

 had the assistance and joint labour of Mr. 

 Foulis, printer to the University of Glas- 

 gow. After great labour, and many ex- 

 periments, these gentlemen " overcame 

 every difficulty, and were able to pro- 

 duce plates, the impressions from which 

 could not be distinguished from those 

 taken from the types from which they 

 were cast." " Though we had reason to 

 fear," says Mr. Tilloch, " from what we 

 [afterwards] found Ged had met with, 

 that our efforts would experience a simi- 

 lar opposition, from prejudice and igno- 

 rance, we persevered in our object for a 

 considerable time, and at last resolved to 

 take out patents for England and Scot- 

 land, to secure ourselves, ior the usual 

 term, the benefits of our invention ; foi- 

 l-he discovery was still as much our own 

 as if nothing similar had been practised 

 before. Ged s knowledge of the art hav- 

 ing died with his son, whose proposals 

 for reviving it, published in 1751, not 

 having been followed with success, he 

 went to Jamaica, where he died. The 



patents were accordingly obtained ; nay, 

 they are even expired; and yet we hear 

 people, who only began their stereotype 

 labours yesterday, taking to themselves 

 the merit of being the iirst inventors !" 

 " Owing to circumstances of a private na- 

 ture," not, however, connected with the 

 stereotype art, the business was laid aside- 

 for a time ; and Mr. Tilloch, having re- 

 moved from Glasgow to London, the con- 

 cern was dropped altogether ; not, how- 

 ever, till several small volumes had been 

 stereotyped and printed, under the di- 

 rection of Messrs Tilloch and Foulis. 



Some time elapsed after this, when 

 Didot, the celebrated French printer, ap- 

 plied the stereotype art to logarithmic 

 tables, and afterwards to several of the 

 Latin classics, and to various French pub- 

 lications. It has been said, by the French, 

 that the merit of the invention properly 

 belongs to Didot ; but by what we have 

 already laid before our readers, it is evi- 

 dent this cannot have been the case. 



Some years after Mr. Tilloch had given 

 up the prosecution of this art, Mr. Wil- 

 son, a printer of respectability in London, 

 engaged with Earl Stanhope for the pur- 

 pose of bringing it to perfection, and 

 eventually to 'establish it in this country. 

 His Lordship, it is said, received his in- 

 structions from Mr. Tilloch, and had af- 

 terwards the personal attendance of Mr. 

 Foulis, for many months, at his seat at 

 Chevening, where his Lordship was 

 initiated in the practical part of the ope- 

 ration. 



After two years application, Mr. Wilson 

 announced to the public, that the ge- 

 nius and perseverance of Earl Stanhope, 

 whom he styles " the Might Honourable 

 Inventor," had overcome every difficul- 

 ty ; and that, accordingly, the various pro- 

 cesses of the stereotype art had been so 

 admirably contrived, combining the most 

 beautiful simplicity with the most desira- 

 ble economy, the ne plus ultra of perfec- 

 tion with that of cheapness, as to yield 

 the best encouragement to the public for 

 looking forward to the happy period, 

 when an application of this valuable art 

 to the manufacture of books would be 

 the means of reducing the prices of all 

 standard works at least thirty, and in 

 many cases fifty, per cent. 



In January, 1804, the stereotype art, 

 (with the approbation of Lord Stanhope,) 

 was offered by Mr. Wilson to the Uni- 

 versity of Cambridge, for their adoption 

 and use in the printing of bibles, testa- 

 ments, and prayer-books, upon certain 

 terms and conditions highly advantageous 



