been carved upon them to paper; and, with the addition of small pieces of copper wire, of various forms, fixed into them, they also serve to communicate figures, of various colors, to calico and oil cloth.

Printing offices are so common, throughout the country, that a large proportion of our readers must have seen them in operation. But as there may be others, who have not seen them, and the process is both curious and important, we subjoin a short description. The first step is to deposit the types in the case, which is a sort of drawer divided into compartments, or cells, and placed on a frame of convenient height. There are two cases on each frame, the upper containing ninety-eight, and the lower fifty-four, cells; those in the lower, of unequal sizes, corresponding to the greater or less quantity required of each individual letter. "Although the ideas or words of one author would not, especially in his own opinion, at all suit those of his brother writer, yet the letters which compose them are found, in practice, to bear to each other exactly the same proportion." The letters are not arranged in the lower cases in alphabetical order, but those most often used are placed in the most convenient position. “In the English language, the letter e inhabits the largest box; a, c, d, h, i, m, n, o, r, s, t, u, live in the next sized apartments; b, f, g, l, p, v, w, y, dwell in what may be termed bedrooms, while j, k, q, x, z, æ, œ, double letters, capitals, &c., are more humbly lodged in the cupboards, garrets, and cellars. The reason of this arrangement is, that the letter e being visited by the compositor sixty times as often as z, it is evidently advisable that the letters oftenest required should be the nearest as well as in the greatest quantity. Short types, or quadrats, for spaces between the words, and those for the punctuation, are arranged upon the same principle. Latin and French books devour more of c, i, l, m, p, q, s, u, and v, than English ones, and for these languages the cases must therefore be arranged accordingly."

"The usual way of filling cases with letters is, by distributing the type pages of books, which have been printed off. This is done with astonishing celerity. If the type were jumbled, or, as it is technically termed, in pi, the time requisite for recognising the tiny countenance of each letter would be enormous: but the compositor, being enabled to grasp and read one or two sentences at a time, without again looking at the letters, drops them, one by one, here, there, and every where, according to their destination. It is calculated. that a good compositor can distribute four thousand letters per hour, which is about four times as many as he can compose; just as in common life all men can spend money, at least twenty times as readily as they can earn it.

"As soon as the workman has filled his cases, his next Sisyphus' labor is, by composition, to exhaust them. Glancing occasionally at his copy before him, he consecutively picks up, with a zigzag movement, and with almost the velocity of lightning, the letters he requires. In arranging these types, in the stick, or little iron frame which he holds in his left hand, he must of course place them with their heads or letter-ends uppermost; besides which, they must, like soldiers, be made to march the same way." For this For this purpose, the types are all cast with a nick on one of their sides, corresponding to the bottom of the letter, by which simple contrivance, the different parts of the type are easily recognised. The compositor, therefore, has no occasion to look at his types while setting them. He selects the proper letter, by directing his hand to its appropriate cell, and gives it its proper position in the stick, by feeling the different surfaces. "The composing stick holds a certain measure of type, and as soon as it is filled, the paragraph, or fragment of paragraph, it contains, is transplanted" to a galley, or movable frame prepared for the purpose, whence it is made up into pages. "This process is repeated, until the pages composing a sheet, being completed, are firmly fixed

by wooden quoins, or wedges, into an iron frame called a chase; and, after having thus been properly prepared for the proof-press, a single copy is pulled off, and the business of correction then begins."* The proof copy is carefully examined by a reader, who marks the errors in the margin, which the compositor corrects by picking out the wrong letter with a bodkin, and replacing it with the right one. Another copy is then taken and revised, and sometimes several in succession, until the whole is pronounced correct.

The form, as it is called, is now ready for the press. If to be printed by a hand-press, it is placed on a movable bed, so that the pressman, after laying upon it a sheet of moistened paper, can, by turning a crank with his left hand, roll it under the press, while, with his right hand, he pulls a lever, which brings down the full weight of the press upon it. He then rolls it back, and while he is employed in removing the sheet which has received the impression, and laying on another, the types are supplied with ink. This was formerly done with a pair of leather balls, stuffed with wool. It is now done, more perfectly, with rollers, which pass over the types, and with the additional advantage, that the rollers can be managed by a boy, or even by machinery, whereas, the balls required a skilful workman. Great improvements have also been made in the press itself. Formerly, the pressure was made by a powerful screw worked by a lever. So much strength was demanded, to work it, that two pressmen were always required, to relieve each other, by working alternately at giving the impression and with the balls. Now, a double lever, united by a toggle joint, is substituted for the screw. By which, and other improvements, a single pressman is enabled to accomplish more work than two could, formerly, and in a better manner, and with less fatigue.

In large establishments, most of the printing, from * See the London Quarterly Review, for December, 1839, for a lively account of the operations of a large printing establishment, from which much of the above description is taken.

These

the forms, is done on machine or power presses. are worked either by a crank, turned by a laborer, or by horse, or water, or steam, power. There is a great variety of these, but they are generally so constructed, that the whole work is done by the machinery. A boy or girl lays the sheet of paper upon a slender frame, when it is immediately drawn away, and a moment after is deposited in a pile, already printed, in the most perfect manner. Most of the machines used in this country print only one side of the paper at a time, the process requiring to be repeated for the other side. There are some, however, and they are more common in England, that print both sides, at the same operation. It is stated that the Messrs. Clowes, the printers of the London Quarterly Review, have in operation, in one establishment, nineteen machines, each capable of printing a thousand sheets an hour.

There is perhaps no department of the arts, in which improvements have been made more rapidly, than in printing. In speaking of paper-making by machinery, it was said, that the paper is drawn out in a continuous sheet, being subsequently divided, for use. We have seen it stated, recently, that a machine has been contrived and put in operation, by which the continuous undivided sheet of paper, passes directly into a printing machine, in which all the forms of a book of considerable size are placed around a cylinder, and there receives a full impression at one operation. Thus the unsightly rags, deposited in one hour in a papermaker's vat, in another, come out, not merely a paper of beautiful texture and complexion, but a full-sized printed book, ready for the binder's hands.

Examples of printing from cavities may be seen in the case of copper plates, into which the characters have been cut by a graver; in engravings on steel, which are much more valuable than those on copper, since the plate will give off many thousand impressions, without sensible deterioration, whereas the copper soon becomes imperfect; in music-printing, which is usual

ly printed from pewter plates, on which the characters have been impressed by steel punches; and in calicoprinting, from cylinders of copper, four or five inches in diameter, on which the desired pattern has been previously engraved. One portion of the cylinder is exposed to the ink, whilst an elastic scraper, of stuffed leather, by being pressed forcibly against another part, removes all superfluous ink from the surface, previously to its reaching the cloth. A piece of calico, twentyeight yards in length, rolls through this press, and is printed in four or five minutes.

One of the most ingenious and important applications of printing is in the production of colored maps. Instead of being first engraved on copper or steel, at a great expense, maps may now be printed from metal types, fixed in wooden blocks, to designate the position and names of places, the courses of rivers, &c.; and the map is both printed and colored by machinery, and at one operation. A large sheet of white drawing paper is placed at the bottom of what seems, at first, to be an open box,—the sides of this box being covered with metal plates, and so adjusted, that they successively shut and open, like a lid. One of them is colored blue, another yellow, a third red, and a fourth black. The black plate impresses on the paper the marks and names of cities, &c., with the necessary lines, while the remainder serve to impart different colors to the various kingdoms, principalities, &c. These plates are applied, in quick succession, to the paper, by means of machinery.

Analogous to printing is the process called embossing. The pattern being engraved on rollers, the substance to be embossed is passed through them; and, being subjected to very great pressure, is forced into the cavities, while the parts not opposite to any cavity are powerfully condensed between the rollers. In this way, a raised pattern is produced on the surface of leather, calico, &c. We will conclude these brief remarks, by an account of a recent invention of Mr. Perkins, which enables us to multiply copies of an engrav