Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/21

Rh remuneration; but his lordship found it so defective in many essential parts, that he considered it unworthy and unfit to be communicated in that state, as a process to be advantageously employed.

In consequence of this disappointment, his lordship has employed no trifling degree of labour and expence in prosecuting the discovery of a new process, by which the former disadvantages attendant upon stereotype are completely obviated. This process has been adopted by the two universities, who clay and earth. In witness whereof, &c. &c.

“Dated 8th June, 1784.”

If we cannot impute a very imperfect degree of knowledge to these gentlemen, we must confess there appears to be an inexplicable obscurity in this specification, which merely states that moulds are to be formed (of what? gypsum, &c.? no such thing mentioned), and such moulds are to be filled with metal, or with clay, or with a mixture of clay and earth. There is nothing stated of the previous operation of composing the page, in the usual way, with movable types; and what can be intended by filling the moulds with clay, or a mixture of clay and earth, we cannot divine. But if this mode should not succeed, the alternative is presented, of stamping or striking with these moulds, or matrices, the metal, clay, earth, or mixture of clay and earth. We do not wonder that our ingenious neighbours treat this invention with so little ceremony. Indeed, we think the conclusion drawn by Mr. Tilloch, “that it is hardly credible Didot could be ignorant of Ged’s progress and ours,” is by no means logical: if Didot had procured this specification from the Petty Bag-office, could he possibly have discovered any similarity between the process thus specified, and the process invented by Ged, or practised by himself and others in France? and does not Mr. Tilloch himself tell us, “That several small volumes were actually printed by himself and Mr. Foulis, and the editions were sold to the trade, without any intimation of their being printed out of the common way?"

There is a concealment in these transactions for the avowed purpose of obviating the effects of any jealousy the trade might feel at this "new-fangled way,” and we do not blame the artifice; but if it was calculated to impose upon brother printers at home, how much more likely was Didot to be unacquainted with the progress of Messrs. Foulis and Tilloch, and what becomes of Mr. Tilloch’s "hardly credible" conclusion?

In the memoir of A. C. Camus to the National Institute, published in Memoires de Littếrature, he has enumerated several persons who have practised this beautiful art, beginning with Valleyre. In 1740, an almanack was stereotyped by J. Michel Funckter at Erfort, a place since rendered so famous by a meeting of the emperors of France and Russia. In 1778, books were stereotyped at Frankfort. In 1786, Hoffman, a native of Alsace, published in France, and likewise Abbế Rochon. In 1791, Jos. Carez published two volumes of one thousand pages each, large octavo, and beautifully executed. In 1793, Pingeron practised this art. In 1798, Louis Etienne Herhan, Fermin Didot, and Nicolas Mari Gatteaux, all obtained patents for it. Afterwards, Pierre Didot, brother to Fermin, published his prospectus. In the same year, a small quarto was printed by Bouvier in monotype: these plates were made by a different process from the stereotypes, and cast in copper; it is a beautiful specimen of printing. Since that period, several other works have been stereotyped in France.

No. I. Vol. I. C