Cheap literature and the large development of newspapers are principally attributable to the improvements in Paper Making, by the aid of machinery.
In the former modes of making paper, the workman held in his hands a square frame covered with wires, which he dipped into the prepared cotton or linen pulp, which was kept in suspension by being agitated in water, and taking up a quantity sufficient to cover the frame, he moved the pulp about horizontally, to spread it evenly over the surface of the wires. Another workman transferred the layer of pulp on to felt, and in this manner one sheet was laid upon another, with felt between each. They were next subjected to great pressure, for the purpose of making the fibrous particles cohere sufficiently to form sheets of paper. The felts were then removed, and the sheets were piled upon one another and again pressed, after which they were dried, sized, and finished.
Paper Making, by that process, was a slow operation. The thickness and evenness of the sheets dependedaltogether on the judgment and skill of the workman, and their size was necessarily limited by the dimensions of the frame. By the improved methods, nearly all the work is done by machinery. The soft fibrous pulp, which is to be converted into paper, enters the machine at one end, and in the course of two minutes it is delivered at the other end of the machine in a continuous sheet, that may extend for miles. By supplemental contrivances the paper is cut into sheets, piled together, and presented in a salable form.
The world is indebted to a Frenchman, named Louis Robert, for the invention of the first machine for making paper. He was a workman in M. Didot's paper mill, at Essones, and for his contrivance of a method for making continuous paper, he obtained from the French Government, in 1799, the sum of 8,000 francs and a patent for the manufacture of the machines. The political agitation in France at that period prevented much progress from being made with the invention, but after the Peace of Amiens, in 1802, M. Didot, jun. came to this country, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Mr. Gamble, for the purpose of making arrangements to carry it into effect. They induced Messrs. H. and S. Fourdrinier to engage with them in bringing the machinery to perfection, and patents obtained in this country by Mr. Gamble were assigned to them in 1804.
The engineering establishment of Mr. Hall, at Dartford, in Kent, was selected as best adapted for the purpose of making the machinery and for carryingthe plans into operation. Mr. Bryan Donkin, who was engaged in the manufactory, principally assisted in bringing the machinery to perfection. The difficulties attending the completion of all the parts, to get them to work effectually, and the obstruction encountered in introducing the machine-made paper, rendered the enterprise a ruinous speculation to those who first engaged in it. Messrs. Fourdrinier having expended £60,000 in perfecting the machine.
The apparatus, of which a representation is given in the annexed woodcut, was very complicated, but the essential parts may be readily understood.
The rags from which the paper is made undergo a variety of processes before they are properly reduced into a state of pulp. They are sorted, dusted, boiled, and torn into pieces by passing through cuttingrollers; they are then bleached and again submitted to the grinding action of rollers, which reduce them into a state of fine pulp, resembling milk in appearance. The pulp thus prepared is placed in a large vat, where it is kept constantly agitated, to prevent the more solid parts from being deposited. From the vat the pulp is discharged into a cistern, over the edge of which it flows in a continuous stream upon an endless wire cloth, the meshes of which are so fine that there are as many as 6,000 holes in a square inch.
The wire gauze, on to which the pulp is poured, is about 4 feet wide, and 25 feet long, and it is kept constantly moving onwards, by rollers at each end, over which it passes. The gauze is stretched out perfectly level, and the pulp is prevented from flowing over the edges by straps on each side, which limit the width of the paper. As the endless wire cloth moves along, an agitating motion is given to it, by which means the pulp is spread evenly over the surface; the water is also drained off through the interstices of the gauze, and this part of the process is expedited in the improved machines by producing a partial vacuum underneath. Before the sheet of pulp has arrived at the farther extremity of the wire cloth, it passes between two cylinders, the under one of which is of metal, covered with felt, and the upper one of wood. A slight pressure given to the pulp in passing between those cylinders imparts sufficient tenacity to it to enable it to be transferred from the wire gauze on to an endless web of felt, by means ofa slice that clears the pulp from the wire gauze, and deposits it on the felt. The latter is kept moving at exactly the same speed as the wire gauze, otherwise there would be either a rent or a fold on the sheet. The paper, still in a very wet state, is carried between cast iron rollers, and its fibres are forcibly pressed together, which operation squeezes out the water, and so far gives tenacity to the pulp that it may be handled without tearing. The sheet then passes on to other rollers, by which it is further compressed, and its surface smoothened. The paper is, however, still damp, and requires to be dried. This is done by passing it over large metal cylinders, heated by steam. The process of making the paper is then completed, and the continuous sheet may be wound upon a reel to any length; but it is now usual to cut it up into sheets as soon as it leaves the drying cylinders.
The wire cloth moves at the rate of from 25 to 40 feet per minute, and such a machine would consequently make at least 10 yards of paper in that time, which is equal to a mile in three hours. The width of the paper is usually about 4½ feet, therefore each machine will make 10,450 square yards of paper in twelve hours; and there are upwards of three hundred of such machines at work in this country. The value of the paper thus produced is calculated to exceed two millions sterling.
Numerous improvements have been made in Fourdrinier's original machine, but the principle of its construction remains essentially the same, and it is bythis means that most of the paper now used for writing or printing is manufactured. A paper-making machine, on a different principle, has, however, been invented by Mr. Dickinson, and has been carried by him to great perfection. Instead of allowing the pulp to fall on to a flat surface of wire gauze, a polished hollow brass cylinder, perforated with holes and covered with wire cloth, revolves in contact with the prepared pulp, and a partial vacuum being produced within the cylinder, the pulp adheres to the gauze, and its fibres cohere sufficiently, before the cylinder has completed a revolution, to be turned off on to another cylinder covered with felt, on which it is subjected to pressure by rollers, and is thence delivered to the drying cylinders.
Mr. Dickinson afterwards obtained a patent, in 1855, for making a union paper, consisting of a thin sheet of that made by his own machine, and a similar sheet made by a Fourdrinier machine united together. For this purpose the two sheets were brought together, as they passed from the machines, whilst still wet and in an unfinished state, and were pressed together between rollers, by which means they were completely incorporated. The object of this contrivance was to combine, in a single sheet, the different kinds of surface which paper made by those two modes of manufacture present. It is also employed economically for engravings, to give a fine surface to a thick sheet of coarser material. The threads in postage envelopes and in bankers' cheques, are introduced by this process of plating two surfaces together.
The greatly increased consumption of paper threatened to exhaust the supply of the raw material, notwithstanding the large import from abroad and the enormous supply derived from the waste of the cotton mills, which, when mixed with rags, produces good paper. The quantity of old rags, old junk, and other fibrous materials imported for the purpose of making paper, in 1850, is stated in the Jury Reports of the Great Exhibition to have amounted to 8,124 tons. This large importation, added to the stock of rags supplied by the country itself, was, however, inadequate to meet the consumption, and search was anxiously made for other fibrous substances that could be converted into paper;—peat, cocoa-nut fibre, grass, straw, and even wood have been used for the purpose. Of those substances, straw has been most successfully applied, and straw paper—excellent to write upon, though not bright in colour—is now made at very low prices. The straw is first cut up into short lengths, of about half an inch, by a chaff-cutting machine, and after undergoing various processes of trituration and bleaching, it is reduced into a pulp, sufficiently adhesive to make a strong paper.
The plan of drying the paper as it leaves the rollers of the machine, was introduced by Mr. Crompton in 1820, and that gentleman was also the first to introduce a machine for cutting the paper into sheets as soon as it is dried. The first invention of the kind was patented by Mr. Crompton, in conjunction with Mr. Miller and Professor Cowper, in 1828. The continuous web of paper was made to pass directly fromthe drying apparatus to the cutting machine, by which it was first slit into bands of the required width by means of a series of sharp discs of steel, adjustable on two parallel axes. The bands of paper then passed on to shears, placed transversely, that cut it into sheets of any required length, which were laid upon one another, to be divided into quires.
Several other cutting machines have since been invented, the simplest of which is the one patented by Mr. Dickinson, which is represented in the woodcut.
The paper may be taken directly from the drying cylinders or from a reel, as shown in the diagram ata. The sheet passes over a large drum and through several guide rollers, till it is carried across the tablea h, where it is cut lengthwise by knives, as it passes along. A series of chisel-edged cutters are placed at regulated distances beneath the table; and whilst the paper is stretched over it, several circular knives,f f, fixed into a swing frame,g g, at corresponding distances with the knives beneath, are swung across the sheet, and cut it in the manner of a pair of shears. Other kinds of cutting machines are contrived, by whichsheets of writing paper, when collected in quires, are squeezed tightly together, and their edges are smoothly and evenly cut.
We must not conclude this notice of Paper Making Machinery without alluding to the ingenious self-acting mechanisms for making envelopes. In the Great Exhibition of 1851 there were three different machines exhibited in action, each one producing, with great rapidity, those neat coverings for letters, for which the penny postage system has created so great a demand. The paper, cut into the desired form by a separate machine, was piled up on one side of the envelope folder. It was taken, sheet by sheet, and stretched on a small table, on the middle of which there was a trap door, held up by a spring to a level with the rest of the table. A plunger, of the same size as the envelope to be made, pressed the trap down into a recess, and raised the four corners of the paper, the edges of which were then gummed, and small mechanical fingers folded them down. The completed envelope was then thrown out into a basket, or it slided out of the machine on to those before made.
Each of those machines, with a boy as an attendant, will fold 2,700 envelopes in an hour, which is nearly the same number that an experienced workman can fold in a day with a folding stick. Notwithstanding the supplanting of manual labour to so great an extent by these ingenious mechanisms, the effect of increased facility of manufacture has been to give increased employment, and many more persons are now engaged in making envelopes than were so employed before the invention of the machines.
The associated inventions of paper making and printing have progressed hand in hand together; the increased facility with which paper can be made by machinery having been equalled, if not surpassed, by the rapidity with which it can be printed.
The old wooden printing press, that was in general use at the beginning of the present century, is now an object of curiosity, and a few specimens of it are to be seen, even in country printing offices.
The principal working part of the wooden press consisted of a block of wood, having a perfectly flat and smooth surface, half the size of an ordinary sheet of printing paper, which was brought down upon the types by means of a screw that was turned by a long lever. The types, placed upon a flat stone embedded in a movable table, were inked with large soft balls covered with pelts. The damped paper was put into a frame, at the back of which blankets were placed, and was laid lightly on the inked types. The movable table was then pushed under the block of wood, called the "platten," the long lever was pulled with great strength, and the platten being thus brought forcibly upon the blankets and paper, one-half of the sheetwas printed. The lever, on being released, sprang back to its former position, and the table with the types upon it was pushed farther under the platten, which was again pulled down to print the other half of the sheet. The table was then pulled back, and the sheet of paper, printed on one side, was removed. These operations occupied considerable time, and the regular work of two men, with a wooden press, was to print 250 sheets an hour on one side.
This original contrivance for printing was supplanted by the Stanhope press, one of the most admirable arrangements for the advantageous application of the lever that is to be found in the whole range of mechanical contrivances.
The improved printing press, invented by Lord Stanhope, the first of which was completed in 1800, is made altogether of iron. The platten is of the full size of the sheet of paper to be printed, and the work is done at a single pull. The requisite power is obtained by a combination of levers, so adjusted that the platten is brought down rapidly in the first instance, before any pressure is required, and when it comes to bear upon the types, the levers act with the greatest possible mechanical advantage, so that the handle moves through the space of a foot, whilst the platten descends only the twentieth part of an inch. By this means a large sheet of paper can be printed off by a single pull, and with more impression and greater sharpness than by two pulls with a wooden press.
Great as was this improvement in the printingpress, its action was still very slow, compared with the rapidity of printing we are now accustomed to, it being considered quick work, with a small Stanhope press, to print 500 sheets an hour. The author remembers to have seen theGlobenewspaper printed by an old wooden press in 1820; and, about the same time, the LondonCourier, by a Stanhope press. In order to supply the large demand for the latter paper, it was then customary to print off three pages early in the day, and to set up the types for the fourth page, containing the latest news, three or four times, and to print it at as many separate presses. The pressmen could thus, by great exertion, perfect the printing, when three presses were used, at the rate of 1,500 an hour. TheTimesnewspaper, which greatly exceeds the size of theCourier, is now printed by a machine at the rate of 13,000 an hour.
The invention of printing machines was preceded by the manufacture of inking rollers, to supersede the pelt balls for distributing the ink over the types. Earl Stanhope had endeavoured in vain to construct inking rollers, for which purpose he tried skins and pelts of various kinds, but the seam proved an obstacle that he could not overcome. In 1808, a "new elastic composition ball for printing," which consisted principally of treacle and glue, to serve as a substitute for pelts, was invented by Mr. Edward Dyas, a man of great original genius, the parish clerk of Madeley, in Shropshire. These balls were first introduced into the extensive printing office of the late Mr. Edward Houlston, of Wellington, where theywere for some time exclusively used, and that printing-office consequently became celebrated for the excellence of its work. A similar composition was some years afterwards cast in the form of rollers, upon a hollow core of wood, by the late Mr. Harrild; and these rollers have proved a far more cleanly and more expeditious mode of inking the types than the balls. These inking rollers supplied an essential want in the working of Printing Machines.
The invention of Printing Machines underwent many changes before it was brought to a practical form. Such a machine was first projected in 1790, by Mr. Nicholson, who proposed to place the types and paper upon cylinders, and to distribute and apply the ink also by cylinders. Another plan, more closely approaching that of the printing machines afterwards perfected by Mr. Napier and others, was to place the types upon a table and the paper upon an impressing cylinder, and to move the table backwards and forwards under it. In 1813, Messrs. Donkin and Bacon proposed placing the types upon a prism, which was to revolve against an irregularly shaped cylinder, on which the paper was to be placed. Nothing, however, could be effectually done in producing a proper working printing machine until the invention of inking rollers.
In 1814, Messrs. Bauer and Kœnig succeeded in constructing a machine, which was erected at theTimesoffice, that produced 1,800 impressions an hour; and it continued in use till 1827. This rapidity of action, compared with that of the most improvedprinting press, produced a revolution in the art of printing; attention was then directed almost exclusively to the further improvement of the machines, and the platten press was neglected.
In the form of printing machines generally used, the types are laid upon an iron table that is moved to and fro by the turning of a wheel connected with a steam engine. The paper is placed upon cylinders covered with flannel, and the impression of the types is produced by the cylinders being fixed so closely to them that, as the table passes backwards and forwards, there is great pressure. The types are inked by a series of rollers, by which the ink is distributed and evenly laid on the face of the types without any manual labour.
The mechanical power gained by an arrangement of this kind arises from the pressure being exerted on a small surface at a time; consequently the power required for producing the impression of the types is not nearly so great as when the whole surface of the types makes the impression at the same instant. The force actually pressing on the types, from contact with the cylinders, is very much less than that brought to bear on them by the platten of the Stanhope press; but as it acts on a smaller surface at a time, the amount of pressure on each part, successively, greatly exceeds that received by any similar portion when it is impressed all at once. The difference of the action of the platten and of the cylinder may be compared to the different effects produced by a knife when pressed with its edge and with its flat side against ayielding surface; the pressure on the flat surface may not be sufficient to leave any impression, whilst a much smaller pressure on the edge will produce an indentation.
The accompanying woodcut is a representation of one of Messrs. Applegath and Cowper's machines for printing both sides of the paper at the same time.
It consists of a cast-iron frame, about 14 feet long and 4 feet wide, on which the iron table, with the types upon it, slides backward and forward under two large cast-iron cylinders, covered with blankets, whereon the paper is laid. The pages of type to be printed on one side of the paper, and those pages that are to be printed on the back, are wedged into iron frames, called "chases," and these chases are fixed on the table at such a distance from each other, that they will pass under the two cylinders in the same relative positions. The sheets of paper are held on to the cylinders at their edges by means of tapes, and are solaid on by the workmen, that the type may be impressed on them with an equal margin all round. At each end of the machine is a supply of ink, which is taken from long iron rollers, about three inches in diameter, each of which turns in contact with a flat iron bar, that only allows a small quantity of ink to pass. A composition inking roller is made to vibrate between the inking table, where on the ink is thinly and evenly spread, and the iron feeding roller, and thus delivers the requisite quantity of ink on to the table. Several other composition rollers are placed across the inking table, with their axes resting in notched bearings, so that as the inking table moves forward and backward, those rollers distribute the ink evenly over it. There are four other rollers (none of which are shown in the diagram), which take the ink from the table; and as the types pass from under the cylinders, after printing a sheet, and return to them, they pass twice under the inking rollers. Each sheet of paper is laid by a boy on a web of tapes, by which it is carried round one paper cylinder, and then over and under two wooden drums to the other paper cylinder. The sheet of paper, in the course of its progress, is turned over, so as to receive the second impression on the other side; and as the tapes that carry it along leave the second cylinder, they divide, and the printed sheet falls into the hands of a boy.
In the printing machine which was shown at work in the Great Exhibition, invented by Mr. Applegath and made by Mr. Middleton, for printing theTimes, the arrangements differ materially from those of thehorizontal machines already described. The types, instead of being placed on a table, and moved to and fro under the impressing cylinders, are fixed to a large vertical cylinder, upwards of 16 feet in diameter, and there are eight impressing cylinders ranged vertically round it, with their axes fixed. By this arrangement there is no loss of time in withdrawing the types from under the cylinder to be again inked, but they move round from one fixed cylinder to another, receiving their ink between each, and thus producing eight impressions in succession during one complete revolution. At theTimesprinting office there are now three machines of that construction, two of which, with eight cylinders, print ten thousand an hour, and the other one, which has nine impressing cylinders, thirteen thousand.
The operations for printing that newspaper exhibit marvellous efforts of human ingenuity and skill, brought to bear in producing with the requisite rapidity a sufficient number of impressions to supply its enormous circulation. After the types have been composed and corrected, and ranged into columns and screwed up into their chases by upwards of one hundred hands, each page of type is attached to the large vertical cylinder—a curved form having been given to the type to adapt it to the circular surface. Nine men, standing each one beside a heap of damped paper, feed the largest machine by separating the sheets singly from the heap, and present them successively to the action of small rollers, that give each sheet a forward impulse, which brings it within thegrasp of a series of endless tapes. These tapes catch hold of the sheets of paper, and carry them down to the level of the types. They are then shot along horizontally to the pressing rollers, covered with blankets, round which they are carried and pressed against the types; after which the endless tapes carry them away, and deliver them printed to a man below, who spreads them one over the other. A large reservoir of ink at the top of the machine supplies the inking tables, from which it is spread evenly over the inking rollers, and, at each revolution of the type cylinder, nine sheets are printed on one side. They are then taken to a second machine to be printed on the back, or, as it is called, "perfected." The accompanying engraving shows the general arrangement of the machines.
Few mechanical contrivances present so striking an illustration of the application of human ingenuity to the production of important results, and to the saving of labour, as these printing machines. To see the sheets of paper travelling along the tapes—to see them shoot downwards, carried sideways in one direction and back again, and delivered with half a million of words impressed upon them in less than three seconds, seems like the work of magic. To copy that number of words, thus printed in three seconds, would occupy a rapid penman forty days, working ten hours a day.
Great as are the printing powers of these machines of Mr. Applegath's, they have been surpassed more recently by one placed close beside them, inventedby Mr. Hoe, of New York. In that machine the type cylinder is placed horizontally, by which means the paper is supplied directly to it without altering its direction. As many as twenty thousand impressions in an hour have been produced by theAmerican machine, but it is not yet sufficiently perfected to be brought into regular use.
In another part of theTimesestablishment there is an ingenious machine for wetting the paper, by which contrivance much labour and time are saved. The paper, heaped in a pile at one end of a table, is presented in quires at a time to the action of a roller, which drags it on to a moving endless blanket, that is kept wet by a stream of water, and the upper surface is wetted by a long brush, placed over the blanket. The wetted paper is heaped upon a truck, which gradually descends, to keep the upper sheets on a level with the table, till the paper is piled up a yard in thickness. The truck is then raised, by hydraulic pressure, to the level of the floor, and is wheeled away and another one is loaded. Between nine and ten tons of paper are thus wetted daily; and the sheets of theTimesprinted during a year, if spread out and piled one upon another, would form a column as high as Mont Blanc. The quantity of ink daily consumed in the printing is upwards of two hundredweight. The machine is worked by two steam engines, each of 16-horse power; and the noise of the numerous wheels and rapidly revolving cylinders is almost deafening.
The great rapidity and the comparative cheapness of printing by machines, together with the greater facility of making paper by machinery, have been the means of creating a demand for books which it would be impossible to supply, unless those means were at command. Thousands and hundreds of thousandsof copies of publications, that spread knowledge among the people of the highest interest to the welfare of man, and replete with useful information of every kind, are now sold at prices which would be impossible, were it not for the improvements that have been made in the manufacture of paper, and in the means of printing.
Nor should we omit to notice, as one of the causes that have contributed to the production of cheap literature, the art of stereotyping, which has been perfected during the present century. Earl Stanhope, the inventor of the admirable press that bears his name, was prominent in bringing that art to perfection.
Numerous attempts had been made in the last century to produce casts from pages of type. So early, indeed, as 1700, some almanacks and pamphlets were printed in Paris from castings; and an edition of Sallust was printed in Edinburgh in 1739, from stereotype plates produced by Mr. Ged, a goldsmith. The process, however, was not encouraged, and on his death it was not further proceeded with. The most important advance in the art was made by M. Hoffman, of Alsace, who, in 1784, succeeded in obtaining stereotype plates by casting them in moulds of clay mixed with gelatine in which the pages of type were impressed, with which he printed a work in three volumes; but the castings were imperfect, and the plan was soon afterwards abandoned. Among the many plans tried to obtain perfect casts of the types when set up, was one contrived by M. Carez, aprinter of Toul, who, in 1791, endeavoured to obtain casts in lead from a page of type, by allowing it to drop on the fused metal when it was in a state of setting. The matrices thus obtained were in like manner impressed on a fusible metal, which melted at a lower temperature than the lead. Good casts were often thus procured, but the uncertainty of the process, arising from the frequent fusion of the lead matrices, caused it to be discontinued. Other plans were tried in France with more or less success, but nothing was done practically until Lord Stanhope directed his attention to the subject in 1800, and resorted to the original method of obtaining matrices, by impressing the pages of type in a cold plastic substance. He employed plaster of Paris for his mould; and when they were thoroughly dried, they were plunged in fused type-metal; and in this manner a perfect cast in metal of the original page of movable type was produced. The process has been still further perfected, and casts from movable types, and from wood engravings, are now made with great facility, and the impressions from them are quite equal to the originals.
When it is intended to stereotype a work, the movable types used in composing it are new, and the "spaces" that separate the words from each other are longer than is customary when the type is to be printed from. These elongated spaces reach nearly to the face of the letters, so that the plaster may not sink between them. By this means the mould is easily removed from the face of the page oftype. The metal casting of each page is very thin, and when required to be used, it is screwed on to blocks of wood to the same height as ordinary types.
Several attempts have been made to apply other substances than plaster of Paris and type-metal for stereotyping. At the Great Exhibition there were specimens of gutta percha stereotypes, that produced excellent impressions, and there were also fine stereotype castings of type in iron, from which a copy of the Bible had been printed. Papier maché has been found to be a material peculiarly applicable for the purpose, and it is now superseding the use of plaster of Paris for taking casts of the types.
By the application of the art of stereotyping, casts in metal of valuable works can be kept ready at any time, to be printed from when more copies are required; and the expense is saved of keeping on hand large stocks of printed paper, or of having a work recomposed when a further edition is wanted.
The inventions of Printing Machines and stereotyping were strongly opposed at first by pressmen and compositors, as calculated to diminish the demand for their labour. In "Johnson's Typographia," published in 1824, the "new-fangled articles" are mentioned in a spirit of great bitterness; and the writer thus poured forth his lamentations at the prospective ruin of the members of his profession:—"We are much surprised at the apathy and supineness shown by the body of master printers with respect to the subject under discussion; they most assuredly had good and sufficient grounds for an application to Parliament for a tax,that should bring the work so executed upon an equality with that done by manual labour."—"We feel satisfied that the above would not have met with encouragement from a British public, had they been aware of the evils attendant on it; they have not only to pay a full price for the work, but also extra poor's rates, in consequence of the men being thus out of employ; likewise they are countenancing the breaking up and destruction of all the energy and talent of that art which was England's proudest boast, and her shield against all the threats of her foreign foes."
These predictions of ruin have been completely falsified. It has been with the Printing Machines as with most other improved machinery for the saving of labour: on their first introduction some hands, no doubt, were thrown out of employ, but the advantages derived from the saving of labour very soon reacted favourably in creating a greater demand for labour than before. The number of cheap periodicals, and the extensive issues of cheap literature in every form, require a much larger number of workmen to supply the demand, even with the aid of machinery, than was needed in the best days of the manual printing press; and at no time were so many compositors and pressmen employed as at present.
In the Reports of the Juries of the Great Exhibition, some interesting statistics are given, showing the influence of the invention of Printing Machines in extending the demand for books and periodicals. "The machine," it is observed, "created a demand,and called into existence books which, but for it, would scarcely have been thought of. As the machine-work from type and woodcuts was far better than the ordinary printing of the day, booksellers were induced to print extensive editions, because they saw the machine could accomplish all they required. One of the first booksellers who availed himself of this power was Mr. Charles Knight, who projected the 'Penny Magazine,' on a hint from Mr. M. D. Hill, Queen's Counsel. Each number, published weekly, consisted of eight pages of letterpress, illustrated with good wood engravings. The public was astonished at the cheapness and good quality of the work, but it was its immense sale which rendered it profitable; for some years it amounted to 180,000 copies weekly. Mr. Knight, whose services in the cause of educational literature entitle him to the highest praise, expended £5,000 a year in woodcuts for this work. The Cowper machine has been the cause of the many pictorial illustrations which characterize so large a portion of modern publications. The 'Saturday Magazine,' 'Chambers' Journal,' the 'Magasin Pittoresque,' in France, and numerous others, owe their existence to this printing machine. The principle ofcheap editions and large salessoon extended to established works of a higher value. A remarkable instance of this was the edition of Sir Walter Scott's Works, with notes, edited by himself; instead of the old price 10s. 6d., they were sold at 5s. avolume,15and the demand created by this reductionin price was so great, that, though the printer had a strong prejudice against machines, he was compelled to have them, the presses of his large establishment proving totally unable to perform the work, which amounted to upwards of 1,000 volumes per day for about two years. The Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have adopted Mr. Cowper's machines for printing vast numbers of Bibles, prayer-books, &c., &c. A Bible which formerly cost 3s. may now be had for 1s. Mr. Cowper recommended the Religious Tract Society to put aside their coarse woodcuts, to have superior wood engravings, and to print with his machine. The Society adopted those suggestions, and the result is, that by sending forth well-printed books, it could now support itself by their sale, without any aid from subscriptions."
As an illustration of the facilities afforded by the invention of Printing Machines in producing cheap editions of the writings of popular authors, the following curious facts relating to the Works of Sir Walter Scott, in addition to those furnished in the Reports of the Juries, may be found interesting.
In 1842, a general issue of these Works, in weekly sheets or numbers, at twopence each, was commenced by the late Mr. Robert Cadell, of Edinburgh, and completed in 1847. Of this edition, up to the present period (1858), the astonishing number ofTWELVE MILLIONS OF SHEETShave been issued, the weight ofwhich amounts to upwards of 335 tons! Another edition was published simultaneously by Mr. Cadell in monthly volumes at 4s., each containing about 360 pages; this series has reached a sale of more than 500,000 volumes. A third cheap issue, at eighteenpence a novel, is now being published by the present proprietors, Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, of Edinburgh. Nearly 300,000 volumes have already been printed of this edition.
It may be mentioned here, although hardly coming within the scope of the present article, but as affording a striking example of what literature has contributed to the revenue of the country in the person of a single author, that upwards of 3,500 tons' weight ofpaper16have been consumed in producing the various editions of Sir Walter Scott's Writings and Life; and the duty paid to Government on the paper, even at the present reduced rate, amounts to no less a sum than £51,450!
Since the Juries made their Reports, the development of cheap literature has been greatly extended. Newspapers, some of which contain eight full-sized pages, of six columns each, printed in small type, are sold for the marvellously low price of a penny, and are stated to issue as many as 50,000 copies daily; and some of the newspapers and other periodicals, printed on good paper, are issued for a halfpenny. Among the works of a standard character, published at prices which nothing but a very extensive scalecould make remunerative, may be mentioned the popular series which includes "The Reason Why," and "Enquire Within upon Everything." Of the eight volumes already issued, each containing about 350 closely printed pages for half-a-crown, nearly 170,000 copies have been sold within a period of less than three years.
The art of printing from stone was invented at the end of the last century by M. Aloys Senefelder, of Munich; but it was not brought to such a state of perfection as to be practically useful until many years afterwards.
The principle on which Lithography depends is the different chemical affinities of water for oily and for earthy substances, which cause it to run off from the one and adhere to the other. The drawing or writing is made in oily ink upon a smooth calcareous stone that will absorb water, so that, when the stone is moistened, the water adheres to it and leaves the lines of the drawing traced upon it dry. An inking roller, charged with an oily ink, is then passed over the stone and inks the drawing, but leaves all the other parts of the stone quite clean. A damped paper is next laid on, and when subjected to great pressure, an exact copy of the drawing or writing is produced.
This simple and ingenious process has been carried to such perfection, that the most beautiful artisticeffects can be produced by it far more economically than by any other style of engraving; and further improvements in the art are being continually made. It is satisfactory, therefore, to be able to trace its history from its very beginnings, of which an interesting account has been published by the inventor himself.
M. Senefelder's father was an actor at Munich, and in his youth he followed the same profession. He turned his attention afterwards to music; and it was in his attempts to devise some means of printing his compositions economically that he chanced to discover the art of Lithography.
He had previously made himself acquainted with the methods of copper-plate printing, and he commenced his operations by etching the notes of music on copper-plates, covered with varnish in the ordinary way. He found, however, that it would require much practice to enable him to do this properly, and not being able to buy copper-plates for his rude essays, he thought of practising upon stones. Fortunately for the success of his efforts, the quarries at Solenhofen, near Munich, supplied him with slabs of stone admirably adapted for the purpose; and it is a remarkable coincidence, that the material which Senefelder used for his experiments is the best for the purpose of Lithography that has hitherto been discovered. His chief object in making use of these slabs of stone was to practise himself in the manipulation of writing the notes, and of biting them in withaqua-fortis(nitric acid), as he supposed the slabs would be too brittleto bear the action of the press. He did not try, therefore, to have these etchings on stone proved by the press, but he contented himself with holding them up to a mirror to observe the progress he was making in writing backwards.
Having at length been supplied with much thicker slabs of stone, to bear the requisite pressure, he endeavoured to grind and polish them sufficiently for the purpose of being printed from, in the same manner as copper-plates. He succeeded to some extent in doing so, by means of diluted nitric acid; and he contrived to obtain about fifty good impressions from the stone.
In all these attempts at Lithography, the lines were etched into the stone by the action of nitric acid, and the only advantages professed to be gained by the process were the questionable ones of comparative cheapness of material, and greater facility of working. M. Senefelder admits that there was nothing new in engraving upon stone; all that he claims in that part of the invention is, the manner of polishing the surface, and the composition of the ink adapted for printing from it. The most important step in the progress of the invention of Lithography, as at present practised, was made by accident, which he thusdescribes:—
"I was preparing a slab of stone for engraving, when my mother asked me to write a memorandum of things she was about to send to be washed. The washerwoman was waiting impatiently whilst we searched in vain for a piece of paper, and the commonwriting ink was dried up. Having no other writing materials, I wrote the washing bill on the stone I was about to prepare for engraving, using for the purpose my ink made of wax, soap, and lamp-black, intending to copy it afterwards on paper. Whilst looking at the letters I had written, the idea all at once occurred to me how it would do to cover the stone, with the writing upon it, with aqua-fortis, so as to leave them in relief, and then to print from them in the same manner as woodcuts, with a common letter press. The attempts I had hitherto made to engrave upon stone had taught me that the relief of the letters thus obtained would not be much. Nevertheless, I made the attempt. I mixed one part of aqua-fortis with five parts of water, and poured it on the stone to the height of two inches, having previously walled it round with wax in the usual manner. The diluted aqua-fortis was permitted to rest on the stone five minutes. I then examined the effect, and I found that the letters were raised above the stone about the thickness of a card. Most of the lines were uninjured, and retained their original size and thickness. This gave me the assurance that writing, sufficiently traced, especially if the letters were in printed characters, would have still greaterrelief."17
Though M. Senefelder had advanced thus far, he had not yet made application of the chemical properties of ink and water, which constitute the distinguishing characteristics of Lithography. That wasreserved for a further discovery, also brought about by accident. The difficulty he experienced in writing words on the stone in the reverse way, induced him to adopt the plan of writing the letters on paper with a soft black-lead pencil, and then transferring them on to the stone by pressure. He subsequently used lithographic ink for the purpose; and in the course of his experiments he observed, that when a paper written on with lithographic ink, and well dried, was dipped into water on which some oil was floating, the oil adhered to the writing, and left the rest of the paper clean, and that this effect was most striking when the water contained some gum in solution. This discovery induced him to try the effect on printed paper; and, taking a printed page from an old book, he moistened it with gum-water, and afterwards sponged the whole surface with oil colour. The colour adhered to the letters, and left the paper clean, and after further experiments he succeeded in printing as many as fifty copies from a page of printed paper; the letters, of course, being reversed. The idea then suggested itself of transferring, on to stone, letters written with lithographic ink upon paper. The plan succeeded, and the principle of the art of Lithography was thus applied to practice. M. Senefelder, in his subsequent improvements, gave a slight relief to the letters by the original plan of using diluted aqua-fortis, by which means the impressions obtained were blacker. He also contrived the means of printing in colours from stone, by reversing the process of ordinary lithographic printing. To produce coloured prints, he leftuncovered all the parts that were to receive the colour, and the other parts of the stone were covered with an oleaginous fluid, that quickly dried. On applying any water-colour to the stone, it adhered to the uncovered surface, and not to the covered parts, and that colour was transferred to paper by pressure. In this manner, by using several stones properly prepared, the different colours required were printed, and the effect of a coloured drawing was produced. Thus we perceive, that almost at the first invention of the art of Lithography, the ingenious inventor showed the way of applying it to the production of coloured prints, a process which has lately been carried to great perfection.
Senefelder lived to see his invention extensively adopted, and to reap benefit from his ingenuity. He died at Munich, in 1834, after having been many years the director of the Government lithographic office; and, in the latter years of his life he received a handsome pension from the King of Bavaria.
There is little to be added to the description of the process of Lithography, beyond that given by the original inventor in 1819, the principal advances that have been made in the art having consisted in improved methods of manipulating. The ink now generally employed for drawing on the stone consists of equal parts of tallow, wax, shell-lack, and soap, mixed with about one-twentieth part of lamp-black; but the composition is varied, according to the kind of design to be executed. For writing or drawing upon paper, to be transferred to the stone, more wax is added to the ink, to give it greater tenacity.
The drawing upon paper, to be transferred to stone, is not attended with any difficulty, and may be done by ordinary artists. The ink is applied with a pen, or camel's hair pencil, and when the effect of chalk drawings is required to be imitated, the ink is shaded by means of stumps, similar to those used in chalk drawings on paper. Some artists prefer to work directly on the stone with a camel's hair pencil, or with a composition called lithographic chalk.
To transfer the drawing from paper on to the stone, the paper is first sponged with diluted nitric acid, which decomposes the size, and renders it bibulous. After being placed for an instant between blotting paper, to remove superfluous moisture, it is laid with the drawing downwards on the stone, which is slightly warmed. The stone is then passed through the press, and the drawing adheres firmly to it. To remove the paper, it is wetted at the back with water, and, when quite soft, it is rubbed with the hand. In this manner every particle of the fibrous pulp is cleared away, and the drawing or writing in ink remains as if it had been drawn directly on the stone. To prepare the stone for taking the ink, gum water is poured upon it, and it is rubbed over with a rag containing printer's ink, which serves to blacken the writing and prepares the lines for afterwards receiving the ink.
The lithograph thus prepared is given to the printer, who first etches it, in the manner originally practised by M. Senefelder. The nitric acid employed for the purpose is diluted with about thirty parts ofwater, and it is poured over the stone whilst it is inclined on one side. This process is repeated several times, the object of it being not so much to give relief to the lines, as to roughen the surface of the stone, and thus facilitate its absorption of water. The nitric acid also removes the alkali from the drawing ink. In printing, gum is added to the water with which the stone is moistened, as an additional preventive of the ink adhering to those parts not drawn upon. The printing ink is applied with large rollers, and the damped paper having been placed carefully upon the stone, with blankets at the back, it is passed through the press.
The lithographic press somewhat resembles in form an iron printing press, but differs from it greatly in its mode of action. Instead of the large flat plate that in a printing press is pulled down upon the whole surface of the types, a long, narrow arm, called a scraper, is brought to bear upon the stone, and the table whereon the stone is laid is pushed forcibly under it, by which means a great pressure is exerted on a smaller surface at successive times, instead of being brought to bear all at once. In the principle of its action, indeed, a lithographic press is like a printing machine, and steam lithographic presses have been invented to work in a similar manner, though the practical results have not generally been very successful.
Among the many applications of lithography, the transfer of copper-plate engravings is one of the most useful. An impression of the plate is taken on paperthat is coated with a compound of flour, plaster of Paris, and glue, and from the paper it is transferred to stone. By this plan the original plate remains untouched, and the printing from the stone is much cheaper than from the copper. Tinted lithography and chromo-lithography, by which the beautiful effects of coloured drawings are produced in the manner indicated by M. Senefelder, have recently been applied very successfully.
The invention of soda-water, in the state in which it is now known, as an effervescing beverage impregnated with three or four times its volume of carbonic acid gas, is of very modern date. There are, indeed, to be found in most of the old works on chemistry descriptions of Nooth's apparatus for impregnating liquids with carbonic acid; but all that was attempted to be done by that apparatus was to produce an impregnation of the water with little more than the quantity of gas it will naturally absorb under the pressure of the atmosphere. It was not until about the year 1815 that mechanical pressure was applied to force a larger quantity of gas into combination with water, to imitate the briskly effervescing medicinal waters of Germany.
Mr. Schweppe and Mr. Paul were the first who introduced the manufacture of artificial effervescing waters into England, and soda-water was then considered, as tea was on its first introduction, entirely medicinal. Indeed, the quantity of soda which was at that time usually dissolved in the water gave it a disagreeable taste; but when the manufacturers diminishedthe quantity of alkali, and increased the volume of gas forced into the water, they produced a pleasant beverage, which soon became in request for its refreshing, wholesome qualities.
The apparatus for the manufacture of soda-water, as it is usually made on a large scale, consists of a strong vessel, furnished with a safety valve, in which the water is impregnated with gas. This vessel, containing about nine gallons, is made of thick wood, well seasoned and nicely fitted, and bound round with strong iron hoops, the heads of the cask being well secured by means of iron bolts and screw nuts. It is requisite that the receiver should be capable of bearing a pressure of at least six atmospheres, which is equal to 90 lbs. to the square inch.
The carbonic acid gas is generated from chalk or whiting and diluted sulphuric acid. The materials are mixed together in a small closed wooden or leaden vessel, provided with an agitator, that can be worked by a handle fixed to a projecting axis at the top. The gas, as generated, enters by a bent tube into a gas-holder, the opening of the tube being under water. By this means the gas is freed from the fumes of sulphuric acid vapour, and from the fine particles of chalk that become mingled with it during its sudden liberation. The gas sometimes undergoes a further purification, by passing through a gas washer, before it is forced into the water.
A small force-pump, worked by a crank, with the assistance of a fly-wheel, draws the carbonic acid from the gas-holder, and forces it into the water. The combinationof the gas and water is facilitated by an agitator, the axle of which projects through a stuffing box, and it is worked either by hand, or is turned by means of a small cog-wheel, that works into the teeth of a larger one fixed to the crank axle, so as to produce rapid rotation.
It is found requisite, in the first place, to expel the atmospheric air in the receiver; for which purpose the safety valve is left open for a short time after the gas is being forced in, otherwise it would retard the impregnation of the water by the gas. When the gas and water are well incorporated, the liquid will contain as many volumes of gas as there are atmospheres of pressure in the air-space above it in a state ready to effervesce, and one other volume, with water absorbs under the pressure of the atmosphere. Thus, when there are three atmospheres of gas under pressure, each bottle of soda-water contains four bottles full of gas, which are absorbed without perceptibly increasing its bulk. The perfect impregnation of the water with gas, however, requires time. The water will, indeed, become brisk almost as soon as two or three atmospheres of gas have been forced in, but it will not acquire the flavour of good soda-water until the gas and water have been allowed at least half an hour to digest; and it is improved by remaining in contact for several hours.
The temperature has considerable influence in the process of impregnation, for in hot weather the gas will not combine so readily, nor will the water absorb an equal volume of gas. In summer time,therefore, soda-water should be made before the heat of the day, and ice should be added to the water.
When the receiver is fully charged, and the operation of bottling begins, every bottle-full that is drawn off diminishes the pressure on the water that remains; and if no means were taken to add more gas, the soda-water would gradually become weaker and weaker as each bottle was drawn off. It is usual, in the best arranged apparatus, to have two tubes connected with the force-pump, one of which feeds it with water, the other with gas, by which contrivance water and gas, in their proper proportions, are continually forced into the receiver, which may thus be always kept nearly full.
The process of bottling requires great manual dexterity. The neck of the bottle is pressed by a lever against a collar of leather fixed to a flange on the tap, so that, when the soda-water rushes in, no air nor gas can escape. The pressure inside the bottle therefore quickly becomes equal to that of the receiver, and the water ceases to flow through the tap, until some of the air is allowed to escape. When the bottle is nearly full, the operator quickly withdraws it with one hand, and having a cork ready in the other, he puts it in before the water can rush out. The cork is then forced in further by pressure, and fastened down by wires or strings.
A bottling apparatus has been invented for facilitating the process; but a man accustomed to bottle by hand can do it more quickly, and with as little wasteof gas and water as with a machine. Much depends, however, upon the state of the soda-water in the receiver; for if the gas be well digested, and the temperature low, it rushes into the bottle with much less force, though the water may contain a greater quantity of gas, than when it is newly made, and apparently more brisk. The bottles very frequently burst during the operation with great violence, and unless they are enclosed in a guard, the men are liable to be severely injured. Glass bottles have now generally supplanted those made of earthenware, which were formerly used; and though the glass bottles are much stronger than the earthenware ones, the bursting of them, when it does occur, is far more dangerous.
The process of forcing gas into the water by mechanical pressure, in the manner described, requires great labour, for the pump has to be worked against a pressure exceeding fifty pounds on the square inch. With a view to remove that inconvenience, and to avoid the use of costly machinery, so that private individuals might manufacture soda-water, the author contrived a modification of Nooth's apparatus, for which he obtained a patent in 1831. By that means, the gas is generated in a closed vessel, and forces itself into the water by its own elasticity. Any amount of pressure can thus be obtained by chemical action alone. The accompanying woodcut represents a section of the apparatus in its improved form. The vessel, A, is made of very strong stone ware, inside which is the gas generatorb. A few inches from the bottomof the generator is the partition,a, perforated with holes, and near the top there is inserted the small tube,c, which conveys the gas down to a perforated expansion of the tube,d, through the apertures of which the gas issues into the water contained in A. Another tube,e, reaches near the bottom, and is connected with a stop-cock for the purpose of drawing off the aerated liquid. In charging the apparatus, the interior, A, is nearly filled with water, or other liquid, through the opening,f, which is then closed by cork, which is kept in its place by a screw nut. A fewounces of carbonate of soda, mixed with water, are then poured into the generator through the opening atg. The mixture flows through the apertures in the partition, and occupies the lower part of the generator. A proportionate quantity (about three-fourths of the weight of the soda) of tartaric acid in crystals is then introduced throughg, which lodge on the top of the partition without touching the soda. The opening being then closed by a screw-nut, the apparatus, which is mounted on pivots, with an appropriate stand, is swung backwards and forwards like a pendulum. The effect of this agitation is to force a portion of the water saturated with carbonate of soda through the apertures ata, where it comes in contact with the tartaric acid, and instantly generates carbonic acid gas. The gas, having no other escape than through the tube,c, is forced into the vessel A, and becomes mingled with the water by the same act of vibration that brings the soda and tartaric acid together. The continuance of the vibratory action for a short time generates sufficient gas to aerate the water or other liquid contained in the vessel, A. When the aeration is completed, the soda-water may be drawn off, as required, through the stop-cock. The apparatus is made of two sizes, to hold one and two gallons.