226 
Compression of Books. 
[July 
The spring was then suffered to run oyer for a few days to clear the opening, 
when copper tubes , of about three inches diameter and in lengths, were carefully let 
down into the opening, to the distance of about 20 feet, and secured at the top. 
The uppermost tube was then inserted into a wooden cylinder, bored in the 
manner of a water-pipe, and about the height of an ordinary pump ; the water 
rose up in this to the point where a spout was inserted into the cylinder, which 
carried the water to the bucking wheels, enabling the prints to be washed at all 
times. 1 he supply was about four bucket-fulls per minute, and was never observed 
to vary night or day. The boring took place in the spring, and the winter follow- 
ing was so severe, that even the rapid stream of the Coin was frozen, while the 
wells and pumps in the neighbourhood were completely locked : yet for all this, 
the spring continued to flow exhaustless, and invariable : I saw it constantly for 
full seven months afterwards, when it was flowing, and I doubt not as it will flow 
to eternity. The water was so <£ soft t ” as it is termed, as to be used in preference 
for washing linen, and was sought for by the neighbourhood as the purest drinkig 
water ; to the taste, it was, in reality, tasteless. 
Allow me to close this paper with a digression. Pope has the well known line, 
“ Coin, whose dark streams his flow’ry islands love.” 
In the latter part of its course, and where it approaches its embouchure into the 
Thames, above Hampton Court, the Coin is a slow, and dark stream ; but from its 
source beyond St. Albans, and especially at Denham and Uxbridge, and on to 
Cowley and Drayton, it is rapid and clear. What angler is unacquainted with the 
fame ot the Uxbridge r lrout, and what gourmand but can distinguish it from the 
trout of the southern countries 1 : it is known that this fish attains perfection 
only in clear and rapid streams. S. 
VIII . — On the Compression of Books. 
„ The gradual compression of books into a smaller compass forms a not uninterest- 
mg feature in the history of typography. Few people are aware of the great differ- 
ence. which exists between books in this feature. Many of our expensive quartos, 
published by fashionable book-sellers, are as expanded as manuscript, while the 
small limits within which the contents of some books have been forced, is scarcely 
credible. There are three different sources of the improvements made in this de- 
partment— for an improvement it undoubtedly is ; at least if we are to believe 
the Greek proverb, that “ a great book is a great evil.” The first of these is 
due to the book-bmder, who by substituting a roller press for the old method of 
hammering the leaves, has brought books into three fourths the former bulk, there- 
by reducing the cost of carriage, of book cases, and in works of many volumes, the 
cost of binding one fourth, or 25 per cent. The second source of compression is 
the thinness of the paper or leaves; and in this respect there is also a great differ- 
eace - . f he smaI1 locket bibles are printed on a very beautiful paper, the thickness 
of which is such, that 418 leaves are equal to one inch. Asotin, the paper of some 
of our large quarto works,— Brewster’s Encyclopaidia for- instance,— contain 267 
leaves in an inch, or a little less than seven-tenths of the former. The effect of 
this cause, then, is to reduce books by one third of their bulk. The third source 
ot compression is the size of the type ; and to show the great latitude there is in 
this respect, I shall enter into a little detail. The simplest way of giving an idea 
o ie size of the type is to state the number of letters contained in a square inch, 
on a mean of the whole page. In this way we shall find, that the number of letters 
a square inch of each of the undernamed works, is as follows: 
iclveiing s edition of Cicero, 612 This is perhaps too si 
Ditto of Tasso, 503 
Pocket edition of Old Testament, 400 
New nonpareil type, 270 
Gleanings in Science, 200 
hittingham’s Cabinet Library, 180 
Brewster’s Cyclopaedia, * 13 [ 
Cleveland’s Mineralogy, 107 
perhaps too small, except for 
very young eyes. 
Perfectly legible by good eyes. 
A very legible type. 
served they areof The Hbfd °L ^ Ij0n e f ' ord cf 8 or 10 Iks. weight ; I have ob- 
trout. J atCOt tUe kind mtJl klack spots, and appear to be a kind of salmon- 
