National Institute of France. 
tage that weuld accrue from this new prq- 
cess; and in 1785, he commenced his 
first attempts of editions to which he gave 
the name of omolypes, calculated to exr- 
press or exhibit the combnatcdlo of several 
types in a single one. 
{n 1786, Carez brought out the edition 
of a church book, in-two volumes octavo, 
of more than a thousand pages each, exe- 
cuted accord}ng to his new process ; and he 
pvtnted, after “the same manner, twenty 
volumes of liturgy, or cf instructions for 
the use of the diocese, successively. He 
likewise completed, by the same method, 
a dictionary of fabulous history, and a 
Bible in nonpareil characters, The exe- 
cution is surprisingly heat, considering 
how small, and how close-sér the ¢harac- 
ters are, agreeably to the method of ste- 
reotypage. ‘I'wo authentic papers com- 
miuincated to the author, by Carez, es- 
tablished the reality and success of his 
giscoveries, fram or about the year 
4787, ‘The first is a Report, signed 
by thie municipal officers of the city 
of Toul, who repairing to the office 
af Carez, September 7, 1787, selected 
amony his Saghe. a page at ther own 
eption, which was afterwards composed 
by Carez in moveable characters, and 
printed according to the manner in com- 
mon use. Carez next proceeded to exe- 
cute the same page according to bis new 
miethod; and in the course cf about a 
quarter of an bour, he produced before 
the commissioners, a plate of cast metal, 
of about a line anda half in thickness, 
and five sme seven linesin length (a 
line is the 19th part of an inch) from 
which a ARO having been taken, and 
eompared with that in moveable, charac- 
ters, it appeared to the commissaries not 
at all inferior to the other. 
The second paper, bearing date Octo- 
ber 17, 1787, is a letter in which Thie- 
bault, Superintendant of the Booksellers’ 
Department, under Vidaud de la Tour, 
counsellor of state, in answer to a peti- 
tion of Carez, expresses himself, in the 
following manner: ‘ I have the ‘satisfac- 
tion to inform you, that the keeper of 
the seals authorizes you to print or cast 
plates, aceording to the methods 
your new invention; at the same time, 
recommending: that, till further orders, 
you keep stric ily secret the par- 
ticulars of your process, and that from 
time to time, you acquaint administration 
-or government, with the success of any 
hew experiments you may putin practice.” 
What is here related insures to Carez 
@ distinguished place among the artists 
of 
? 629 \ 
who have made discoveries 
typy. 
Hoffmann, having been deprived of his 
printing-office, by an order of council, in 
1787, he set his industry to work in ins 
venting some method more expeditious 
than one of ordinary printing, with a 
view to produce solid blocks or forms. 
He began with forming two kinds of 
punches, wherewith to stamp the 
the charecters im his casts. The first 
class of types consisted of single lete 
ters taken from among. the font charac- 
ters that are common in the trade, and 
the second of the same letters, but com- 
bined, in order tw form the syllables that 
are of most frequent use in the French 
language, such as au, etre, eurs, ment, 
The combination of several letters in a 
sinvle puncly was of further service, as it 
enabled him to press by one single move~ 
ment, several letters, each of which 
would otherwise have required a parti. 
cular movement to obtain an inpression, 
By means of this combination, his prin- 
ting case consisted of three hundred and 
seventy boxes. To the art of casting his 
types, he gave the name of the polytype 
art, and to that of combining a number 
of char acters in a sin; gle type, the logos 
type art. 
The discoveries of Hotinanh may be 
thus summed up in his own words: “ The 
idea on which my discoveries are ground~ 
ed, is that of making use of punches i in hew 
of characters; and to form with these 
types, simple and complex, an article 
equivalent to what the foynders of cha- 
racters call matrixes, in which they cast 
their letters; I have, likewise, substituted 
for the font, which cannot produce very 
correct plates, the pressure of the metal 
at the instant when it arrives at a certain 
degree of cooling, after being heated, Itis 
the application of these two new me- 
thods, as relating not only to printing, 
but to many other arts, wh: ch I consider 
as depending on my Te eb and which 
T claim as my property. "Hoffmann, in 
fact, undertakes in his Memoir published 
in 1792, to execute by his process, de- 
signs for printing linen or stuffs, geogra- 
phical charts, &c. 
in stereo- 
It appears that apatent was graited to . 
Hoffinan, February 16, 1792, authorizing 
him to exercise during fifieen years, the 
polytype and lasotype art; which patent 
he transterred to John Daniel Saltzmann, 
by a deed bearing date November 24, 
1792, executed by Loquiante, a notary of 
Strasbourg. 
ther artists, after Hoffmann, made ex- 
; experiments 
