Scientific Intelligence. 161 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



Translated and extracted by Prof. J. Griscom. 

 MECHANICAL PHILOSOPHY. 



1. Invention of Stereotyping. — The honor of this important in- 

 vention is at present claimed by Holland, and apparently with justice. 

 Baron T^an TVestreemen Van Tiellandt, encouraged by the govern- 

 ment, has made very active researches on this subject, and has late- 

 ly received from the bookseller Luchtmans, of Leyden, a stereotype 

 form of a Bible, in 4to, from which many impressions have been ta- 

 ken since 1711. At Harlem, also the booksellers Enschede, have 

 furnished him with another stereotype form of a Dutch Bible, which 

 dates from the first years of the eighteenth century. These are two 

 substantial proofs of stereotyping in Holland, before it was thought of 

 in France. It is well known, that in a note annexed to No. 1316, 

 of the Catalogue of Alex, Barbier, a note extracted from the papers 

 of Prosper Marchand, it is affirmed that John Muller^ minister of 

 the German church at Leyden, contrived about 1701, a new method 

 of printing, similar to stereotyping as now practised. The method 

 of John Muller, consisted in composing the letters in the common 

 way, correcting these forms very exactly, binding them in a very solid 

 manner in frames of iron, then inverting the letters, and uniting them 

 with metal, or still better with mastic. The first essay of this meth- 

 od, was a small prayer book entitled, Gebeede-Bookjen, J^an Johan 

 Haverman, printed in 1701, by W. Muller, son of the inventor. This 

 method of printing was afterwards transported to Halle. In a letter 

 of the 28th of June, 1709, Muller acknowledges that he had printed 

 in this manner, a Syriac New Testament w^ith a Lexicon. Camus 

 makes no mention of these facts in his history of stereotyping. — Rev. 

 Encyc. Mars, 1829. 



2. Hydrostatic Lamp with a double current of air.- — ^.\ report 

 was presented to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, on the 15th of 

 December, by M. Ampere, on a newly constructed hydrostatic lamp, 

 which concludes as follows : — The modifications of the lamps sub- 

 mitted to our examination, are designed to prevent disagreeable 

 emanations. M. M. Thilorier and Barrachin, by making the beak 



Vol. XVIL— No. 1. 21 



