Quick viewing(Text Mode)

Cantor Lectures on the History and Practice of the Art of Printing

ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS

Cantor lectures

ON THE HISTORY AND PRACTICE OF THE ART OF .

R. A. PEDDIE,

Librarian, St. Bride Foundation Typographical .

Delivered before the Royal Society of Arts on November 23rd, 30th,

December yth and 141/1, 1914.

LONDON :

PRINTED BY WM. CLOWES & SONS, LTD., DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.

I9I5- v^cT9* —

SYLLABUS.

LECTUEE I.

History 1450-1800. The of printing—Types of the early printers—Introduction of illustrations, and initials—The lGth Century a period of great expansion—New styles of type —Popular —The 17th Century not favourable to the artistic development of the art—The pamphlet and the newspaper supreme—Rigorous press laws—The 18th Century Revival Caslon type —Great printers and their styles—Baskerville, Bodoni, Didot, Ibarra—Bewick and - .

LECTURE II.

The 19th Century. In 1801 no machine production—Stanhope press—Type faces 1801-40 Revival of old style printing and Caslon type —Machine-made —Development of the printing machine—Invention of — Attempts at colour printing.

LECTURE III.

The IWi and 20th Centuries continued. of the Sixties —Invention of the half-tone Revival of hand-press work for artistic production —Effect of revival on commercial work—Types and type-founders —Recent in illustration.

LECTURE IV.

The later History of Colour Printing. Rise of chromo-—Chromo-xylography—The three-colour process—Collotype —Photogravure and its combinations—The offset process.

The History and Practice of the Art

of Printing.

LECTURE I. —Delivered November 2jrd, 1914.

Printing with moveable types was invented experiment and of failure to enable the either in Holland or about the of the 1454 Indulgence to arrive at the final year 1440. The name of the inventor and the solution of the problem. From the press of place of the invention are two of the most hotly also was produced the first Latin Bible, contested questions in history. Gutenberg at originally known as the Mazarine Bible, after- Mainz, Coster at Haarlem, Waldfoghel at wards described as the , and Avignon, Castaldi at Feltre—all these are now called by all good doubting bibliographers mentioned as claimants. The value of their the forty-two line Bible, which title commits respective pretensions has been summed up by no one. This Bible was printed before August, " a well-known authority in the words : Holland 1456, as a copy in the Bibliotheque Rationale has books but no documents, has docu- has a rubricated s date of that year. In 1457 ments but no books, Italy has neither books appeared the Mainz Psalter, the first to nor documents, while Germany has both books bear the name of its printer, the name of the and documents.'' There exist books certainly place where it was printed, and the date of its printed in Holland which are held by some to production. To add to this, it contained the be earlier than 1454, which is the first printed first attempts at colour printing and the first date of the Mainz press. They are attributed ornamental initials. The printers were Johann to the press of Laurens Janszoon Coster of Fust and Peter Schoffer, and this Psalter,

Haarlem, but this is not supported by any together with the other books from their press, direct evidence. As to the Avignon claim, this showed a great advance from the work of the rests upon some documents in the legal archives two first presses in Mainz. of the town. Waldfoghel, who was a , The work of these pioneer printers must have was in the possession of a method of artificial been much hampered by the poverty of their writing which, by the description given, must implements. There is little doubt that the have been printing. No work done by him or earliest press used was a simple linen-press, by his method has been identified. and a small one at that. The was an inven-

The claim of Castaldi, of Feltre, appears to tion, if not in itself, in its application. With rest upon very shallow foundations, and, in these poor instruments, and with type that fact, it is difficult to see anything but tradition must without doubt have been irregular and in the story. When we turn to Mainz we are on badly cast, the pioneers of the printing art more solid ground. From the first Mainz press produced the magnificent works which re- — it is difficult to associate John Gutenberg mained, perhaps unequalled, and certainly definitely with it—a broadside Indulgence was not surpassed, for many years. issued with the printed date of 1454. Through From the Mainz press, with its colour-printed the haze of tradition, theory and speculation, initials, we pass to Strassburg. Here as early as this Indulgence emerges as a definite fact, and [460, and perhaps two years earlier, Johann from this date begins the real Mentelin was printing and using a type which with moveable type. From what we know of began to show the first modification towards the operations of typefounding to-day we can the round or Roman type. Everything up to see that it must have taken many years of this time had been printed in the type which is 322105 ;

" " and the known generically as the Gothic or Letter the Batrachomuomachia of Homer, translation of the type. About the year 1464 a press was estab- book also contained a Latin printing was lished at Strassburg which used a definite Roman work. The development of Greek countries type. The printer, formerly known as the rapid in Italy, but slow in the other " R " printer, owing to the curious form of the of Europe. at capital R in the fount of type he used, and whose Printing began in Switzerland about 1468 books were originally confused with those of Basel, and in 1470 in France at . It is introducing the Mentelin, is now identified as Adolph Rusch, strange that Paris was so late speci- the son-in-law of Mentelin. The first Roman , as there is no doubt that in 1466, and type, therefore, is found in Germany, although mens of the art had been seen there Charles VII. we have to look to Italy for its later develop- it is believed that Jensen was sent by ment. The next press to be mentioned as to learn the new art as early as 1458. On his the king, showing development in the art is that of return to Paris, finding his patron, opposition Albrecht Pfister, of Bamberg. Pfister is a dead, and encountering considerable mysterious person, being connected in some way from the scribes and copyists, he went to Italy . with the earliest presses hi Mainz, and by some and ultimately established his press at press established under the is looked upon as the printer of the thirty-six The first Paris was exertions of professors of line Bible, which by most bibliographers is patronage and by the was attributed to the printer of the 1454 Indulgence. the University of Paris, and the press itself printers, of The interesting point about Pfister is that seven set up within the precincts. The their work was out of the nine books from his press are illus- course, were Germans, and trated with woodcuts, and form the first attempt largely reprints of classical texts. The Roman a very high at . None of them can be type used by these printers was of in fact, going placed later than 1462. No more illustrated artistic character, Mr. Gordon Duff, Jensen's books occur until about 1470. so far as to say that it far surpasses The next important event is the establish- in beauty. definitely established ment of printing in Italy. Sweynheym and By 1473 printing was Alost Pannartz, two German craftsmen, started work in the Low Countries, both Utrecht and in that year. In 1475 in Subiaco near Rome in 1465. They used a producing dated books Piove di type which was not Gothic and not quite Roman, occurs the first use of Hebrew type. Reggio di Calabria in Italy, and and is generally described as Semi-Roman. It Sacco and where it was not based on the same style of writing as Esslingen in Germany, were the towns presses were the first German Roman, as will be seen when was first used. Many Hebrew quarter^of the the two are compared. Two years later, in set up in Italy during the last several in Spain and 1467, when these printers moved to Rome, their fifteenth century, and type became still more Roman in character Portugal. art reached Austria, and in the but it was not until 1471 that the new character, In 1475 the first book printed in which was really the older form of letter (this is same year Spam. The William recognised by the Germans, who to this day was issued from the press of 1477. The false date 1468 appears call it Antiqua), reached its highest point, in the Caxton in on Jerome's type used by Nicolas Jensen, a Frenchman, in an Oxford of Rufinus Apostles. who printed at Venice, This type, perfect in exposition of the symbols of tiie considerable amount outline and balance, has held its artistic This date has given rise to a in 1664 alleged supremacy to the present day. The Roman of controversy. Richard Atkyns Frederick Corsellis, type failed, however, in its competition that this book was printed by Avas with the Gothic, which held the field all over a workman from the press of Haarlem, who of Henry VI. Europe during the fifteenth century. bribed to come to England by order on a manuscript alleged to Up to 1465 the Gothic and the Roman were This story was based one, the only type-faces in use. In that year Greek be in the Library at Lambeth Palace. No Atkyns' type was used by Sweynheym and Pannartz however, has seen that manuscript from it is certain that at Subiaco, and by Fust and Schoffer at Mainz. time to the present day, and as the Previously a space had been left where a Greek the book dated 1468 was printed in 1478 by think it be taken that quotation was required, and it had been written first Oxford printer, I may manuscript is very doubt- in by hand, or in some cases stamped in. The the existence of the said the king (Charles II.) believed first book to contain a full Greek text was printed ful. However, by Fcrrandus at Brescia about 1473. It was Atkyns' story and gave him the for law- —

book printing. The in England was press not they were not always used it was not because responsible for any great advance in the art they were not known. in fact, English printing of the fifteenth century was of a comparatively low order. The Sixteenth Century. About 1481 or 1482 music is found printed With the opening of the sixteenth century with type. In 1473 a few notes were printed the art enters upon a period of steady progress. by 0. Fyner at Esslingen. The principal use It is true no great inventions either of machinery of music was in service books, and it was always or methods were introduced, but the increase printed in two impressions up to the end of the in the number of works issuing from the press fifteenth century. The notes are generally in was steady throughout the century.

black and the stave lines in red. The earlier The most noticeable change is the reduction printers either left a blank space for the rubri- in the size of books generally, and this occurred cator to write in the music, as in the 1457 quite early in the century. As books became Psalter, or in a few" cases printed in the stave more popular and cheaper they naturally lines, leaving the notes to be added later by hand. became smaller. The pocket , rare A further addition to the resources of the art almost to non-existence in the fifteenth century, was the cutting of Slavonic type, which is found was almost common in the sixteenth. The in at least two varieties in Cracow in 1491 and small and were well in the at Cettinje, in Montenegro, before the close of majority. Even the were less unwieldy, the century. A Secretary type following closely and the enormous volumes of the past were the French law hand is found used at Paris and almost unknown by the end of the first decade.

Rouen in the last decade of the century. A During this century it is remarkable to Rouen book printed for Richard Pynson, of notice the enormous spread of the press as well London (Statham's Abridgment), is a good as its activity just referred to. During the years specimen of this type. 1501-1520 no less than twenty towns in Germany During the last few years of the century set up presses for the first time. In Italy, printing presses were established in Portugal, during the whole century, no less than 100 towns Denmark, Sweden, and Montenegro. set up presses. In England the progress was We have a picture of the printing press as not so apparent. Only twelve towns set up improved by the close of the century in a " Dance presses during the century, and most of these

of Death," printed at Lyons in 1499. A con- attempts expired before its close. siderable change is seen from the plain screw- The struggle between the Roman and Gothic press of the earliest printers. It has assumed types was resumed early in the sixteenth century,

the familiar form of the wooden hand-press and a third competitor entered the lists in the known to all. There is certainly a tympan. shape of Italic. It was cut for Aldus at Venice, As to the , it is distinctly probable that it is said, from the designs of Francia and this valuable addition to the press was the modelled upon the handwriting of Petrarch. invention of some one in the office of Schoffer Aldus obtained a privilege for ten years for the

at Mainz. It is most likely that the diminution sole use of this type -face, and it was first used of the number of pinholes in the sheet which in the Virgil of 1501. The success of the Aldhie

occurs in the very early seventies is due to this Italic at once produced imitators. Forged addition to the press. editions were issued at Lyons, and printers At the close of the fifteenth century the printer elsewhere produced varieties of the type. As a had almost emerged from the experimental result of the struggle between the Roman and stage. The press had assumed the form it was the Gothic, the Roman began to gain ground in

to hold with very slight alteration for 300 years. the Latin countries, while Gothic still remained Books could be printed hi Roman, and many supreme in those of Germanic origin. There varieties of Gothic types, in Hebrew, Greek began in 1509 that semi-scientific discussion of or Slavonic letters, and music type (in two the proportions of print letters by Paccioli ) was constantly used. Coloured which was carried on by Diner, Geoffroy Tory, were known, although very sparingly used. and later by Moxon, which has lasted until our The technique of book-makmg had almost own day, and has produced such little real results. reached its height. The early books were The real problem is to design a fount of type hi without titlepages, tables of contents, pagination, such a way that whatever combination of letters imprint, signatures and illustrations. By the is arranged no single letter will stand out from

year 1500 all these had been introduced, and if the rest. This test should be applied to any type which is put forward as an artistic triumph. a few books being illustrated in this manner. Whether to these investigations should be The use of during the sixteenth attributed the cutting of some excellent Roman century in connection with types in France is uncertain, but it is sufficient increased to some extent, but the woodcut to say that such types were cut and used for retained its supremacy, and only towards the many years. Roman type was introduced into end of the century do we find any effective England in the early years of the sixteenth competition. The earliest copperplate work century and used first by Richard Pynson. produced in England belongs to the period There were also cut, during the century, founts about 1540. of , Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Anglo- The printing press is supposed to have been Saxon, Irish and music types. The only one improved about the middle of the sixteenth of these which needs a word of explanation is century by a printer named Banner of Nurem- the music type. In the fifteenth century music berg, who is said to have introduced a metal had been printed in two workings, the notes and spindle in place of the wooden one used up to stave at different impressions. The new type that time. It is true that some improvement was of a different character. Each note was cast must have been made to render the press more together with the piece of stave that belonged rigid, as we find the smaller type and more to it, so that the stave line appeared to a close delicate woodcuts used at this time coming out observer to be broken into as many pieces as quite sharp and clear. there were notes. This system was hardly ever In the technicalities of bookwork the printer used (if at all) for printing the Plain chant or advanced considerably during the period under liturgical music, for which the old method of discussion. The titlepage, which only appeared two printings was retained. occasionally in the previous century, and then One extraordinary variety of Gothic type only in the form (with one or two prominent may be specially mentioned. It occurs in exceptions), became an integral part of the book, "Theuerdank," an epic poem 'celebrating the and the necessarily decreased in Emperor Maximilian's wedding journey to importance. Woodcut initials and borders Burgundy. It was probably composed in were quite common. great part by Maximilian himself. Printed by The sixteenth century is not only noticeable Schonsperger, of Augsburg, it was published at for the great expansion of the press in Europe Nuremberg in 1517. A special fount of type previously referred to. It was also the period was cut for it by Jost Dienecker, of Antwerp, when Asia and America received and practised with enormous flourishes, especially to the the art. In India (at Goa) and in Japan the " " " " missionaries introduced the printing letters g and h ; for use when these Jesuit letters occurred hi the first or last line of the press, and in Mexico an offshoot from the press page. Many authorities believed the whole of Cromberger in Seville was working before 1540. book to be cut on wood. The use of coloured inks in the sixteenth The Seventeenth Century. century was very slight. It was confined almost With the opening of the seventeenth century entirely to red, used as in the previous century a period begins in which the art of printing principally for service books. The various continues the process of degeneration from its shades of brown and bistre were used by the artistic beginnings,, which was seen at the end chiaroscuro printers in Italy and Germany, of the previous century. It is a period of great but any real colour printing is almost unknown. happenings in political life, of revolutions long This century may be described as the golden drawn out in England and France, and these age of the wood -cutter. In the first half, especi- inevitably left their impress upon the craft. ally, numbers of great artists were producing The pamphlet, very little used in the fifteenth work for book ornament and illustration. Basel, century, and only making a sporadic appear- Nuremberg, Florence and Lyons are the four ance in the sixteenth century, mostly, of course, towns that stand out as producing some of the in connection with the Lutheran controversy, finest work. There is little doubt that soft became one of the normal methods of publicity, metal blocks were also used, and these were and the newspaper—the genuine periodical, not produced in the same way as woodcuts. the mere paper of —made its appearance. Copperplate engraving and printing had been Old and damaged type was used, and the Dutch invented in" the early part of the fifteenth founders, who supplied a large portion of the century, but retained its special character, only demand for new type, had no type designers worthy of the name in their employ. Here and In France the characters cut during the there the old punches are rediscovered and previous century still held their own, and the

founts of type cast from them, and books can Elzevier Bible, although printed in Holland, is be found which preserve some of the older a good specimen of the finest French work of the traditions of beauty and proportion. The period. Towards the close of the century a new

Roycroft Polyglot Bible is one of these books. type was cut and used largely, which showed The Roman type used in the preface is that a degraded face from the fine models of the past, used by John Day, the famous London printer and formed a link between the early types and

of the sixteenth century. There is no new the modern effeminate French face.

• Roman type to which attention can be drawn Germany and Scandinavia were by this time during the period under discussion. To the the only countries to retain the use of the Gothic types known before 1000 there were added letter for ordinary printing. Coptic and Samaritan, There was little change There are no typefounders' specimen books in the methods of printing music, although known of the seventeenth century, although engraving was occasionally used. The number several founders issued specimen sheets. But of Hebrew presses increased considerably, several type specimen books were issued by especially in Eastern Europe. The most im- printers, and the two best known are those of portant Hebrew fount cut in England was that Fuhrman, of Nuremberg, in 1616, and of the for the London Polyglot in 1657, and this Vatican press in 1628. Some copies of the latter incurred considerable criticism. In Greek work are on grey paper. this country has at least one production to be The of the practical side of the proud of in the Eton Chrysostom in eight art begins in the seventeenth century. volumes and in . This work, although the The English typefounder and printer, Moxon, types were imported (or perhaps because they was the first to issue a complete treatise on were imported), takes rank with the finest Greek everything connected with the art. So good

printing. The type is similar to the Greek of was it that at the end of the eighteenth century the Stephanus press. it was republished as an original and up-to- The best printing done in England during the date treatise. Several books giving schemes of seventeenth century was probably that in black imposition were also issued. letter. Acts of Parliament and proclamations A few words must be devoted to the earliest were printed in this letter up to quite recent newspapers. The English Mercurie of 1588 has times, and the Old English or English Black, been proved to be a forgery, and the first English which had got quite away from the Fractur- newspaper with a definite title has been identified schrift of the Germans, and the Flamand of the as the Weekly Newes of 1622. Newspapers

Dutch, assumed characteristics of its own were issued earlier than this in Germany and

which rendered it quite a handsome letter. Holland, the Frankfurter Journal and the Joseph Moxon attempted to draw up rules Nieuwe Tijdinge of Antwerp being among the for the scientific design of Roman type, but earliest. All newspapers of the Civil War period they were unsuccessful, and, in fact, were more were in a small , the foolscap folio size not adapted to signboards than type. Moxon praised becoming common until after the Restoration. the Dutch letter, and probably imported a great The press during the seventeenth century deal. It may be said that there was no indigenous received a general overhauling and improvement Roman in England during the century. at the hands of Blaeuw of Amsterdam. The The reason for the want of enterprise in exact improvements he made it is impossible to English typefounding was the restrictions im- specify, as Moxon, who gives illustrations of both posed upon the trade. By the Star Chamber the new and old presses, only describes the new. of 1637 the number of founders was limited to Finally, as regards the seventeenth century, it four, and a commission, consisting of the Arch- must be noted that printing was introduced into bishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London, New England in 1640, and that in all countries

with six others, was appointed to fill any vacancy. which were comparatively free from the stricter Free importation was the order of the day from press laws provincial presses became more and 1640 to 1643, and from 1643 to 1662 the trade more numerous. was free of restrictions. Owing to the Civil War Eighteenth Century. this did not help it much, and in 1662 an Act The reimposed the restrictions of the Star Chamber We now come to the last 100 years of the Decree of 1637 (cap. 27). period I am dealing with. In many respects it TO

is tho most important, as although it did not a success artistically, his typos never really see tho groat inventions which were to follow- became popular, and after his death they were so soon, yet the development of the great in- sold en bloc to Beauinarchais for his printing dustrial revolution was steadily forcing the office at Kehl. Their history after their use at craft towards its reorganisation as a machine Kehl is misty in the extreme, and only recently industry. It will be difficult to do more than it has been rumoured that they have turned up mention any of the movements on the Continent, in one of the largest provincial French printing as our attention must be concentrated on the houses. English developments. The example of Baskerville led to imitators In 1702 the first London daily paper appeared abroad, of whom the most famous was Bodoni, —the Daily Courant. There had been a few of Parma. His work retained the simplicity daily numbers of the Post Boy in the lOSO's, of Baskerville without the artistic touch of the but the ( 'ourant was the first genuine duly paper. English printer. Bodoni became printer to the From that day the daily paper has been always Grand Duke of Parma, and his specimen book with us. Whether the daily paper of 200 years shows an endless series of Romans, Italics, ago had more news than that of to-day, or Greeks, all on the most magnificent scale. His whether the censorship was working overtime Greek Homer in folio is one of the most mag-

then as now. it is difficult to say, hut the limi- nificent works ever produced. But all his tations of the press at that time only gave the magnificence does not seem to impress. His

printer two foolscap folio pages to till, and so paper is too white, his ink is too black (if that there was not that wild desire for copy which be possible), and his type is too scientifically characterises his descendant of to-day. correct to please. Turning to type, the Dutch typefounders In Scotland the Foulis press produced some

were still in the ascendant, and Watson, the fine editions from type cast by Dr. Wilson. well-known Edinburgh printer, boasted in 1713 When we turn to France we find all the

that all his type and ornaments were Dutch. greatness (typographically speaking) of the An improvement was, however, on the way. previous centuries departed. French Roman William Caslon, the reviver of English type- types had degenerated greatly. An attempt founding, was horn in 1(392, and served his was made by Didot to follow the examples of apprenticeship to an engraver of gun-barrels in Baskerville and Bodoni, but his attempt wan London. When he started in business for him- poor in comparison, and French types resumed self he added the engraving of bookbinders' their downward course. This is not to say that punches to his other trade. These were seen there were not fine books and fine specimens of by the printer, John Bowyer, who introduced printing produced in France in the eighteenth Caslon to James, the typefounder. After century. There were, but there was no great studying the ait, Caslon set up in business as a revival such as took place elsewhere, and then

typefounder about 1720. His first type speci- in 1789 the Revolution diverted all printing to men sheet was issued in 1734, and this contains the pamphlet and the newspaper. the famous Caslon Roman types which form the The eighteenth century did not see coloured

model for all the standard book types of to-day. inks used freely in connection with letterpress They were an instantaneous success, and until printing, but many processes were invented (piite late in the eighteenth century were the and used for producing coloured prints. For

style. They then dropped out of sight, the detailed history of these I must refer to and later we shall see how they cam" to the my paper read before the Society in February front again. last. A great rival of Caslon was John Basker- Book illustration of the eighteenth century

ville, of Birmingham, who was typefounder and is very mixed. Copperplate, in conjunction

printer, and who designed his own types and with type, even on the same page, is common. printed from them. His Romans were good, Woodcuts were at their lowest ebb until Thomas but somewhat more stilted than Caslon's, and his Bewick revived the art by adopting the graver manner of printing and hot-pressing gave them as his tool instead of the knife, and using the a slimncss of which all people did not approve. end of the grain instead of the plank. By this Baskerville's great triumph was his set of Italic means he obtained a delicacy of fine which capitals. These are beautiful in outline and enabled him to give a world of detail even in the effective in combination. His first book was smallest vignette. His work rescued wood and the Virgil of 1757. Although Baskerville made placed it in a position successfully to rival . • A word must be said as to the spread of the wood, still with the slow motion that only press. This may almost be said to be universal. allowed the quickest pressman to get 300 pulls In every part of the world, by the end of the in a working day, and still with the hiking balls eighteenth century, the press had penetrated. of the early days. To convey an idea of the Even in England the provincial press began to method of the printer of this time I give a list bear some relation to the importance of the of the operations necessary for making one various localities. A feeble attempt on the part impression : — of the Government in 1793 to insist on the 1. Inking the balls, or, as at present, the roller. registration of all printers did not succeed, 2. Inking the form. but before the end of the century it became 3. Laying the sheet on the tympan. 4. Flying the frisket, and folding it and the tolerably common for the printer's name to tympan down on the form. appear on his work. For many years it had 5. Running in the form under the . been the exception rather than the rule, perhaps 6. Taking the impression by depressing the press because of the rigid laws. platen. And now, as to the printing press itself. We 7. Running out the form. have seen it as a simple screw-press used by the 8. Lifting the tympan and frisket. earliest printers, developing within a very few 9. Releasing the sheet and placing it on the years into the wooden hand -press complete with bank. rolling bed, tympan and frisket. We notice in It will always astonish those who examine the earliest pictures the hiking balls of the this practical side of the history of printing that pressmen. Now, at the close of the eighteenth with such slow methods the great books, and century, 350 years after the first printer sent still more the great newspapers, of the eighteenth the first proof to press, we leave the press still century could ever have been produced. 12

LECTURE II. —Delivered November jot/i, 1^14.

The Early Nineteenth Century. been made in the art, and when we consider

It is curious to reflect that in the year 1800, the enormous gain in rigidity we can understand at least 350 years after the invention of printing, what Morris meant. The power press did not the art had developed so Little mechanically exist for him, but he wanted the best possible that a fifteenth-century printer would have effect from the hand press. The story of the found himself quite at home in a printing office hand press and its development after this date of the last year of the eighteenth century. He is an engineering one. Better castings, finer would have found the same wooden press, with lining, still more rigidity, and the proving perhaps some slight additions of metal screws press used to-day by photo-engravers produces and levers, which would be quite clear to his those really wonderful proofs which their

mind after one trial. He would see the same customers vainly try to emulate. kind of inking balls used, and he would note that Paper. the paper, although of a quality not up to his standard for book printing, was produced in The paper-making machine invented in 1803 the same manner as in his own day. The was in most of its essentials the paper-making type would perhaps appear to him better machine of to-day. Up to this date all paper finished than that he recollected. But in all was made in single sheets by hand. The pulp essentials the printing office of 1800 was the was put into the mould by the workmen, and printing office of 300 years before. Everything then the mould was shaken to distribute the we know to-day in the art has come into use pulp evenly, and the resulting sheet removed since 1800. for drying and pressing. The principle of the The printed sheet of to-day is printed on invention was to substitute endless woven wire machine-made paper. It is either set by a sheets for the mould, and as the paper was machine or set with machine-made type. It formed by the felting of the fibres to lead it is either printed from this type or stereotyped between heated cylinders to dry and press it. by machinery. The press is a power press, and As it came from the machine the paper was the resulting printed sheets are sewn, glued, and cut into sheets of the standard sizes. The bound by machinery. My task now is to trace continuous web of paper was being made in the development of the machine industry of 1803, but it was not to be used as a web for to-day from the handicraft of the earlier period. rotary printing until 1868. The three great inventions which made the Printing Machinery. present machine production possible were the paper-making machine, invented by the Brothers The next great invention which attracts the notice of the student is the development of Fourdrinier in 1803 ; the printing machine, the printing press into a machine. invented by Koenig in 1811 ; and photography, invented by Daguerre and Fox Talbot in 1839.* The three principles of printing machinery Previous to these, however, an improvement are. first, the platen action in which the pressure which amounted to an invention had been is applied by one flat surface acting on another. made in the press by Charles, 3rd Earl This was the hand-press method. Then follows Stanhope. The great change he introduced the cylinder, round which the paper is led, was to substitute iron for wood in the frame of rolling over the flat bed on which the type is the press, and add multiplying levers between placed. The third principle is the rotary the bar and the platen so that the work of the method, where both type and paper are placed pressman was much reduced. on cylinders geared together. Of the two was wont to say that this substitution of iron latter the third was the the first to be invented, for wood was the only improvement that had but the last to be used. William Nicholson, in 1790, took out a patent for a rotary printing * The last date must be read in conjunction with the remarks uu the history of photo-engraving in Lecture III. machine which, however, was never made for — s

use. He also specified a flat bed cylinder the for a fresh coat of ink, which itself machine similar in action as regards position again distributes to the ensuing sheet, now the later invention of type and paper to of advancing for impression ; and the whole of Koenig. But no really practical methods of these complicated acts is performed with such using them were added to either of these a velocity and simultaneousness of movement inventions. that no less than 1,100 are impressed in one Before we come to the cylinder machines we hour." —The Times, November 29th, 1814. must deal with the attempts to apply power to I have said that some time after April. 1810, the hand press. Frederick Koenig in 1803, at Koenig gave up entirely the idea of the modifica- StihL attempted this. He substituted leather tion of the screw press, and became a convert

rollers for the inking balls, and introduced to the cylinder principle. It is alleged, with mechanism to take the carriage under the inking some background of justification, that Koenig rollers and then under the platen. Koenig borrowed the idea from Nicholson's patent of came to London and succeeded in inducing 1790. He certainly met Nicholson, who helped Bensley, Woodfall and Taylor to finance him him to prepare his . in his experiments. By 1810 he took out a One other type of machine, constructed patent, and in April 1811 he printed sig. H of during the period ending 1814, remains to be the " Annual Register." This was a modifi- mentioned. The printer of the Norwich Merc unj, cation of Koenig's first attempt to apply Mr. R. M. Bacon, together with Bryan Donkin, power to the old form of press, and was designed a machine in which the types were patented by him in England in 1810. arranged and fixed on a revolving four-sided

The next year, 1811, he took out another prism. The ink was applied by one roller, patent, this time for the machine which was which rose and fell to meet the irregularities of to be the parent of all flat bed cylinder machines the prism. from that day. This patent, No. 3757 of 1813, contains the John Walter, of the Times, ordered two first reference to composition rollers, without machines after seeing the new cylinder machine, which rapid machine printing would have been and presumably after hearing Koenig's ideas impracticable.

for the future. The issue of the Times for After Nicholson's, this was the first rotary November 29th, 1814, was printed entirely by machine as against the flat bed cylinder machines steam, power. Mr. John Walter's own account of Koenig.

of the innovation is interesting : It is difficult to say when Bacon and Donkin' " Our journal of this day presents to the public machine was first used. The European Maga- the practical results of the greatest improvement zine for January, 1815, claims the invention connected with printing since the discovery of for them as against Koenig, and goes on to the art itself. state that another inventor had produced " The reader of this paragraph now holds in a printing machine at Plymouth " about ten

his hands one of the many thousand impressions years since, which has been and still is used of the Times newspaper which were taken off by a tradesman there for printing his bills." last night by a mechanical apparatus. A Koenig's final effort in this country was to system of machinery, almost organic, has been transform his Times machine, which printed devised and arranged, which, while it on one side only, into one that perfected the human frame from its most laborious efforts the sheet or printed it on both sides in printing, far exceeds all human powers in during the progress of the paper through the rapidity and despatch. That the magnitude of machine.

the invention may be justly appreciated by His patent for this is dated 1814. One large its efforts, we may inform the public that after machine of this was made for Bensley in the letters are placed by the compositors, and 1815, but it was too heavy and expensive, and

inclosed in what is called the ' forme,' little this was the only one made. It produced more remains for man to do than to attend upon 750 perfected sheets per hour, or 1,500 im- and watch this unconscious agent in its opera- pressions. tions. This machine is then merely supplied Koenig finally left England in 1817, and with paper, itself places the forme, inks it, started the firm of Koenig and Bauer at adjusts the paper to the newly inked type, Kloster Oberzell, where it still flourishes. stamps the sheet, and gives it forth to the hands The invention was now accomplished, machine of the attendant, at the same time withdrawing printing was a fact, and although the hand *4

press still held its own it must liave felt the the axis of the main cylinder was horizontal beginning of the severe competition. and the type held by a special device known as We have followed the development of the the Turtle. These Hoe machines in this form flat bed cylinder machine for newspaper purposes lasted until 1868, Avhen the final great invention to 1814. The machines then built by Koenig in newspaper printing was introduced and the for the Times were used until 1827 (by 1824 Walter press was set up. they were printing 2,000 per hour), although Applegath and Cowper, who had succeeded Printing Types. Koenig at the Times, had modified them Turning to the types of this early part of the considerably. nineteenth century, as Mr. In 1827 they built a new machine still printing said, Bodoni and Didot killed the old style and on one side only, but raising the rate of impres- left the modern Roman. But the new Roman sions to between 4,000 and 5,000 per hour. had hardly established itself when a demand for Perfecting had been abandoned. As Cowper fat face type arose. All the founders supplied says, " The principal object in a news machine the demand, and the specimen books of this is to obtain a great number of impressions from period are full of types with these broad faces. the same forme on one side of the sheet, and The usual reaction set in, and from an attempt not from two formes on both sides as in books. to condense type after the French fashion arose This machine required eight attendants, four the Scotch letter. The English founders, how- to lay on and four to take off. These machines ever, retained the rounder forms of letters. were used by the Times until 1848, when the The period about 1820 was noted for good flat bed principle was finally abandoned. printing, but the Roman type used was not as The failure of Koenig's 1815 machine, for legible as the old style. Hansard said, in 1825,

perfecting, was not the end of perfecters. " the specimen of a British letter-founder is a Applegath and Cowper turned their atten- heterogeneous compound made up of fat faces tion to this type of machine and considerably and lean faces, wide set and close set, propor-

improved it. With little alteration it developed tioned and disproportioned." This style was into the perfecter of recent times. maintained with some slight improvement as Up to 1850 the job or book printer was regards book faces until the forties. content to use the hand press and the power For this period one is always told to refer to platen machine, and the big houses used the the Chiswick Press for the best printing, and perfecters mentioned above. Here and there, the books issued by Pickering are generally

of course, various experimental cylinder referred to. The work of Charles Whittingham machines were used. the elder, the founder of the Chiswick Press,

The invention by Main in 1 850 of his cylinder possesses few claims to distinction. It was his machine formed the first step in the sequence nephew who founded the press at Took's Court,

of Wharfedale type machines. • His cylinder and to whom his uncle left the Chiswick Press. did not rotate fully, but after making three- He it was who printed books for Pickering quarters of a revolution reversed itself and at which have always been looked upon as excel- the same time was raised to clear the type lent work. Corrall, who printed most of the carriage on its return journey. The bed also Diamond Classics for the same publisher, also had a new drive, being a crank with multiplying did good work, and here it was, no doubt, the gear attached. publisher who was responsible for the excellence In 1848 news and book printing machines of the volumes. Pickering was an artist in parted company. Applegath in that year book production, and the simplicity and dignity introduced once more the rotary principle. of his publications had a great influence on the The failures of Nicholson in 1790, and Bacon work of his time. and Donkin in 1813, were at last avenged, and The combination of Pickering and the younger rotary printing has been the method for printing Whittingham produced most excellent results in newspapers ever since that date. He placed a later years ; in fact, until the death of the great cylinder with its axis vertical, and with former in 1854. as many faces as there were columns to be In 1844 Caslon's were asked to supply type printed. The type was held by wedge-shaped for a Juvenal to be printed for Pickering in old- rules, and as many feeders were arranged round faced Roman. Caslon's discovered the old the machine as the space permitted. The punches of the original Caslon's Roman type, next improvement was the Hoe machine, where from which a fount was cast. The Juvenal *5

not being ready, the type was used for Lady Senefelder in two forms : engraving on stone in Willoughby's Diary, published by Messrs. 1796, and the chemical method or true litho- Longman in 1844, and at once the old face graphy in 1798. It is unnecessary to go into type became popular, and began to oust the the history of this art, as Mr. Pennell has so

compressed and fat face varieties. Some people, recently and so elaborately explained it to you.

however, considered it somewhat too archaic, It was brought to England hi 1800, and gradually and Messrs. Miller & Richard began cutting a attained popularity. Its use for book illustra-

"series of revived old style faces. They were tion was not very frequent, as it necessitated

followed by the other founders, and from about two printings on different machines ; and it 1850 the better class of book work has been in was, therefore, not a formidable rival to wood one or other of these types. engraving. Occasional "books occur with illustration? Ext; RAVING AND ILLUSTRATION. printed by unknown processes, such as acro- I have now to deal with the methods of graphy, which was probably a method of surface illustration and engraving. printing . Bewick's development of illustration on wood Colour printing during the first half of the gave an impetus to the art which lasted until nineteenth century was almost entirely of an the rise of the photographic reproduction experimental character. Always there was the processes in the middle eighties. It did not attempt to get a colour process that could be preserve the high character which Bewick gave printed in the ordinary press or machine. it, but gradually degenerated into a trade. Savage developed wood-block colour printing to There was a slight revival, artistically speaking, an extent hitherto unknown, but with no com- about 1835, but the effect of this soon passed. mercial results. Baxter, of course, was the Artisans had taken the place of artists. great colour printer of the period, and his work Woodcuts, of course, could be printed at the was special to himself. His delicacy of treat- same time as the text, and the whole history of ment and wonderful eye for colour, together illustration during the nineteenth century is a with a patience that must have been almost search after a process which would mechanically superhuman, places his work in a different produce from pictures or drawings blocks which category from any other. It was a personality, could be printed in the same way. not a process. The invention of photography in 1839 led to This hurried survey of a period roughly no immediate result in this direction, although corresponding to the first half of the nineteenth Fox Talbot and others thought and experi- century leaves printing at a point when it had mented much on the subject. However, the definitely developed from the handicraft of 1800 early history of the development of photo- into the machine industry. With machine- graphic engraving is dealt with in the next made paper and machine printing, it only lecture. The period under discussion does not wanted one thing to complete it—mechanical contain any real commercial development in illustration. By this time it was well on the this direction. way, and the principal topic of my next lecture

Lithography had been invented by J. A. will be this final development. [6

LECTURE III. —Delivered December Jth, 1914.

The Nineteenth Century (Part II.) factors in this revolution. The buyers of modern AND AFTER. books, many of whom perhaps had never seen The development of printing during the a fifteenth century book, were simply taken off second half of the nineteenth century was their feet by the magnificence of the Kelmscott rapid in the extreme, at least on the mechanical Press books. We, of course, know them so

side. Machine succeeded machine, each more well that we take them for granted ; but imagine rapid and effective than the last. Processes of the collector of the editions de luxe of the 1890 illustration were born and died, giving place to period, with their thin type and almost finicking more rapid and accurate methods. Up to get-up, seeing the " Golden Legend " for the first about the year 1890 it cannot be said that a time. Morris set a fashion of good printing, similar advance took place as regards "type and and even of plain printing, because although type design. If this period showed no develop- the Kelmscott Press books are decorated, they ment in the printed book, it at least was a period are decorated, as it were, in addition to the in which the book was produced in a solid printed page. I do not think there is much manner. In the decent class of book the type was doubt that Morris would have preferred to Revived Old Style or Caslon Old Face, the paper illuminate every copy himself, but this being was a sound printing paper without any mixture impossible he allowed his designs to be printed of wood-pulp, clay, or any of the other at the same time as the letterpress. Morris's abominations of a later period, and the binding designs were personal to himself, and it is perhaps cloth was good and strong. The one-volume as well that all the ornaments of the Kelmscott of the sixties or seventies will be found Press were withdrawn from use on his death. The to-day in good order, showing signs of age type can be used according to his rules, and has perhaps, but wearing out, not falling to pieces, been so used with effective results. The types as our modern books do after about three people of the Kelmscott Press. were three in number. have handled them. The Golden type, a Roman based on Jensen's In the late eighties there was a curious letter but with a slight admixture of Gothic epidemic among printers of the use of colour in style ; the Troy type, a round Gothic ; and letterpress work. This was, of course, mostly the Chaucer, a smaller Gothic. The Golden in job work, but it spread to book work, and type has been copied and modified by many there are monstrosities to be found in the way typefounders, and, of course, often spoiled in of decorated titlepages in many colours which appearance. The Gothics have not had so are calculated to make anyone interested in much attention paid to them. good printing feel very ill. This curious move- The Doves Press was founded by Mr. Emery ment was known, for some obscure reason, as Walker and Mr. Cobden Sanderson. The type Art Printing. These printers liked to use tint cut for them was a very plain and handsome blocks and scroll work and ornamented initials Roman with a thinner face than that of the and borders, and all without any idea of the Kelmscott Golden tyjie. The style of the Doves real value or balance of the printed page. The Press is one of great restraint. Ornament is "artist printer" of this jjeriod was the man unknown, and only here and there is found an who got most eccentric designs and colours initial in red of a striking and effective character. on to the sheet of paper. Luckily for us all, The type used by Mr. St. John Hornby at a change was caused by the foundation- of the his Ashendene Press is based on the Subiaco Kelmscott Press by Mr. William Morris. The type of Sweynheym and Pannartz, and is influence of this Press cannot be overestimated. therefore to be described as a semi-Roman. Morris restored handmade paper, black ink, and It is effective, and the great Dante of the good press work to a position that they had Ashendene Press is worthy to rank with the lost for many years. The archaic character Kelmscott Chaucer and the Doves Bible. of his types, which one must admit was carried These three books may be described as the ideal almost to excess, was one of the most important books of modern . —

'/

The type specially designed by Mr. C. R. Then, again, another great effect of the Ashbee, for use at the Essex House Press, in revival was to draw attention to the correct printing the King Edward VII. , placing of the type on the page, and to the fact

will be noticed as distinctly different from the that the opening of two pages of a book is the

other types mentioned, and it certainly is not unit and not the single page. These matters so successful. The letters contain too much are much better looked after now than they added ornament. Sufficient reliance is not were, and English books have a much better placed upon plain lettering. appearance in consequence. These Presses, to which must be added the To-day, except for a slight want of originality Vale Press with a very excellent Roman fount in type faces, British book printing can bear com- designed by Mr. Ricketts, had a great effect on parison with that of any country. For book printing. They created a demand for sound work this country has been almost without a Roman type, and although the printer was only rival for two hundred years. Apart entirely slowly educated up to supplying the demand, from the private presses I have mentioned, " and occasionally would make such ' ; bloomers great commercial houses, such as the Chiswick as to print Caslon Old Face on an art paper, Press, have carried on the tradition of good,

still progress was visible. At times, in fact, the solid and artistic work.

artistic movement went too far. A few years There is unfortunately another and a larger ago there was a passion for posters printed section of the printing trade which cannot be entirely in capitals. This had probably been said to hold its own in comparison with the

induced by a study of inscriptions and of the work of other countries, and that is ordinary Aldine Poliphilus of 1499. The result was our job printing. Prospectuses, advertisements, leading educational authority issued a series and other work requiring artistic design and a of posters containing perhaps forty or fifty lines knowledge of the circumstances of the publication of solid caps. They looked very nice, but were and the resources of the printing office, do not

almost unreadable. Nothing is more dangerous compare favourably with similar work issued than carrying a cult too far and forcing a process in many other countries. A correspondent in or method to do what it is not adapted for. A Vienna used to send me every year a parcel of face of type may be good for an inscription of ordinary job printing of this kind— good, bad, four or five lines and impossible in a page of and indifferent, On looking over the items it fifty or sixty. All this simply means that was seen that the good prevailed. Similar theory and practice must work together, and collections made here do not show the same only when they are in strict harmony will the result. This may be due to the different result be really effective. conditions attaching to technical education.

Typefounders' specimen books of to-day show Here, more attention is paid to rapid production a great advance from those of the early nineties and to the teaching of the- mechanical art. If of the last century. Even in America, where artistic training in typographical design is to the jobbing tj^pes are often of the most eccentric be had, it is very often divorced from the rest character, the book types were quick to catch of the course. I would suggest that this is not the note of the English revival. Morris's types so in other countries, and that the tremendously were copied immediately, and in one form or rapid advance in artistic typography seen in another the new (and old) Romans arc to be Germany during the last twenty or thirty years found throughout the better-class printing of is due to the fact that they have found some the United States. Germany, of course, followed met hod of bringing together theory and practice quickly. Not content with their modified of harmonising artistic design with the mechanical Eracturschrift and the large number of Romans trade.

already at their disposal, every typefounder in The greatest change hi printing is the intro- Germany set out to design and cut new forms duction of machines. This was one of letter. It is practically impossible for type of the great ideals of inventors, and from about designers to make a decent living in this 1840 a continuous succession of inventions country, but in Germany it is almost a pro- made their appearance. Generally their exit fession. Goebel's great volumes issued every followed very quickly. The Family Herald, a few years show the progress of the art in well-known journal to-day, made its first appear- every department in Germany, and in no ance in 1842 in ordinary newspaper folio form section is progress so marked as in that of type with the picture of the composing machine by design. which it was set up in the head-line. The Times iS was set up by the Kastenbeiri machine for many on them. A new attachment to the keyboard years, latterly with new type daily made by enables the operator to set two editions of a the Wieks Rotary Type Caster. The Thome book at the same time, say a 6s. novel and the machine was a considerable success in the samejbook in Id. form. The 6s. edition can eighties. These machines all took type as it then be set up by the caster and when the time came from the founder. The type was arranged comes for the Id. edition the other roll of paper in funnels and fell into place when a key was can be at once put in hand without any further struck. They generally had a subordinate work on the keyboard. machine called a distributor to arrange the These two machines have revolutionised type in proper order. The invention of the printing. All our newspapers and cheap books Linotype in 1884-85 brought a new principle are produced in this manner. For display work into play. Instead of using type, the pressure and important books, however, hand-setting still of a key brings down a matrice of that letter. holds its own, and although it is dangerous to A line of these matrices automatically justified jn'ophesy, especially in an industry like printing is carried to the front of the metal pot, where a with its rapidity of change, I cannot help thinking line of type is cast in solid form from it. During (and hoping) that it will continue to be supreme. this time the operator is assembling the next Photographic Illustration. line of matrices. When the operation of casting is complete, the is automatically shot into 1 now turn to the second division of my a tray and the matrices are taken up by an subject, the development of the processes of arm to the back of the machine and hung on a illustration. bar. As they are pushed along this bar they Although what we know to-day as photo- fall automatically into their right boxes, and graphy, namely, the production of pictures by arc ready to be used again when required. The the agency of light, was brought to a successful solid lines of type or slugs are arranged in a issue by 1839, the action of light on a sensitised galley, and after correction are ready to' be surface was known long before. Experiments printed from. Most newspapers are set up in had been made by Wedgwood in England, but this way to-day. After stereos have been made he failed to fix the images he produced. from them the slugs can go back to the metal Niepce in France was the first to produce a pot and be used over again. permanent photographic image. He coated The Lanston Monotype is on a different metal plates with a varnish of bitumen dis- principle. It is a type-casting machine casting solved in oil of lavender, and when dry he separate types and actuated by a perforated exposed them to the camera, afterwards develop- roll of paper on the Jacquard principle. The ing the image by the solvent in which the keyboard is used for perforating the paper, and bitumen had been dissolved, so that he ob- the operator at the keyboard has nothing to do tained plates with the design in bare metal on a with the caster, which may be in another room varnish ground. He also exposed his plates under or another country. In fact, the perforated line engravings, and these plates he etched, so paper can be sent to America instead of sending that he was able to print from them in a copper- stereos, and can be put on a caster there, and plate press. The earliest known example of his the type will be produced in exactly the same work is a portrait of the Cardinal d'Amboise, manner as if it had gone straight to the caster said to have been printed in 1S24. Niepce's pro- here. Both machines are actuated by com- cess was perfected by his nephew Niepce de

pressed air, and the action of the paper on the St. Victor. The bitumen process first used by caster can be compared to the same kind of Niepce was afterwards developed and exten- perforated paper used on a pianola. The sively used for the production of printing used is a plate of about 4 ins. square. surfaces in and . The next im-

On this is found the full alphabet, together with portant discovery was that the combination the various sorts necessary. It is actuated by of gelatine and bichromate of potash after a very wonderful series of levers, which ena ble it to exposure to light became more or less in- take position so that any letter or figure may soluble, and therefore impermeable to an be cast. The work is very rapid, and corrections solution such as perchloride of iron. can be made by substituting single types, So by coating a plate of steel or copper whereas in the Linotype the complete line has with a film of these materials and exposing to be recast. The Timet is set by Monotype it to light through a photographic negative, it machines, and a great deal of book work is done became possible to etch the plate in proportion tg

to its exposure. This is Fox Talbot's method screens of crape and similar fabrics, but with- of photographic engraving of 1852 and 1858, out much success. Somewhere in the early and also forms the basis of modern photogravure eighties glass-ruled screens were introduced,

introduced by Karl Klic in 1879. This type of which were turned round during the exposure ;

film is also unabsorbent of water in proportion and finally Mr. F. E. Ives, in the winter of

to the action of light, and if placed in cold water 1885-86, sealed two single-line screens together

after exposure will swell up unevenly and form and made the cross-line screen which is used a relief or mould from which casts can be made to-day. This screen varies from 50 lines to in plaster or by electrotyping. This forms the 400 lines to the inch. This made the half-tone basis of Pretsch's process in 1854, and generally process possible. The only difference between of photo-galyanography or photo-eleetrotypy. the actual preparation of the half tone plate Again, the same type of film exposed to light and the line plate previously described is that under a negative, (lien moistened with water the negative for the half-tone is taken through like a lithographic stone, and inked with a the cross-line screen, thereby breaking up the roller and printing ink, will only take up picture into a series of dots. the ink in the exposed parts in proportion as The latest develojnnent of photo-engraving the action of light has rendered the film unab- has been in the direction of mechanically

sorbent of water. This is Poitevin's process of printed photogravure. This process, based on

direct photo-lithography ( 1855). If the exposed Talbot's and Klic's discoveries, is an intaglio film be inked up without wetting and then method and not relief. A print is made through placed in warm water, all the unexposed gelatine a screen of transparent thin lines and crossing will dissolve, leaving ink only on the image, which each other on photogravure carbon tissue.

may be transferred to stone or printed from This tissue is laid down on a copper plate for

direct, in which latter case it corresponds with flat printing, or a copper cylinder for rotary Tessie de Mothay's photocollotype (18G5). work. It is then developed and etched. The Parallel with these efforts for the reproduc- lines of the screen being so fine are just sufficient

tion of tones, there were similar efforts for the to hold the ink on the cylinder ; but when reproduction of line work, and, following the printed the ink runs slightly, with the result discovery of photo-lithography, these were at that in the deep tones the screen lines are last successful. invisible. By the most recent developments

It was discovered by Gillot in 1872 that it is possible to print, not only the pictures in Fox Talbot's old method of making intaglio a magazine or newspaper, but the letterpress plates could be utilised for making relief blocks. as well. This is set up and photographed at The following description will be seen to be the same time as the pictures. It is generally almost the same as the earlier method. possible in the inscriptions under the prints to A or copper plate sensitised with albumen see the lines of the screen.

and potassium bichromate is placed in a print- ing frame with the negative, and the picture Other Methods of Illustration.

obtained by exposure to light. The plate is Revival of wood-engraving took place in then inked and washed, the surplus ink comes the sixties; but although great ai-tists (]vc\v a way, and the picture remains visible. Asphaltum for the wood and on the wood, the wood-

is then dusted on to the plate, Avhich is then engraver himself did not rise to the occasion.

etched to a sufficient depth to give a printing and it was a period of great illustration not always

surface. This is one of many methods which successfully carried out. I will quote what differ only in the chemicals used and the Mr. Oleeson White says in his important work elaborations introduced for special work. on this period : — Many processes were in use by the seventies "Soon after this revival wood-engraving as and early eighties, but none of them really a trade began to feel the photographic com- reproduced all the tones of a picture from the petition. By the time the half-tone process high lights to the deep shadows, and at the was established it was dying, and it was very same time produced a block which could be soon quite dead." printed with letterpress and by the ordinary Lithography, on the other hand, has acquired machine. What was wanted was some method additional strength during the photographic of breaking up the tones of a into period. The most adaptable of reproductive lines and dots so that a relief block could be methods itself, it has adapted photography. made from it. The early experimenters used As printing machinery developed so lithography - 20

developed, and from the hand-press method to allow of the backward traverse of the bed. of the early nineteenth century we see it came into use about 1860, and has been much using the power press in the early fifties, improved since then. In the two-revolution

adopting the new metal aluminium as soon as machine, of which the Miehle is a type, the it was cheap enough, and then using great cylinder makes two revolutions to each to -and sheets of it in a rotary machine for printing fro motion of the bed, but during the reverse

posters and other large work. Finally, an movement' of the bed the cylinder- is lifted accident led to the invention of the offset clear of the type. The two-colour machine method of printing, which enables lithographs enables two colours to be printed on the one to be printed on any surface of paper. The sheet before it leaves the press. There are two offset press lias a rubber cylinder introduced formes, one at each end of the bed. between the stone or aluminium sheet and the The final section of flat-bed cylinder machines

impression cylinder ; so that, instead of the hard is that of Perfecters. These machines print surface of the stone or plate coming in contact single sheets on both sides during their traverse with the paper, the yielding surface of the from the feed-board to the delivery-board. rubber takes up the design and transfers it to They have two large cylinders instead of one.

the paper. A much softer impression is obtained This type of machine is gradually dying out,

with good results. Like all new processes, it- being attacked by the fast Wharfedale machine was set at once to do work which it was not on the one hand and by the rotaries on the other. for, adapted with disastrous results ; but as Of late years the addition of automatic paper- printers have got to know the limits as well as feeders, mostly pneumatic in action, has the possibilities of the method, they have quickened up the action of printing machines succeeded in obtaining better and better using flat sheets. results. Turning to Rotary machines, I carried their* Printing Machines. history up to the introduction of the Walter The third section of this lecture deals with machine into the Times office in 1868. This the development in printing machinery from was the first machine to print on the roll of about the middle of the nineteenth century. paper, from curved stereos, to perfect the sheet We have still to deal with the three classes of and produce a complete newspaper. These machines— the platen, the flat-bed cylinder, and machines were used by the Times until 1895. the rotary. Although it is not strictly correct Folding mechanism had been attached to them chronologically, I propose to take them in that about 1885. order. The hand press it is unnecessary to deal The development of the newspaper machine with, as its history was finished in my last lecture. during the twenty years following the intro- But the platen machine is a development from duction of the Walter Press was slow. Single- the hand press. The platen and the bed are roll machines were the rule rather than the still there, but no longer horizontal, but vertical. exception, and the increasing circulation was The original inventor of this machine was an met by putting in fresh machines. The news- American, Geo. P. Gordon. The bed is fixed during the period 1870-90 were only and the platen is forced up to it by steel arms four to eight pages, and this was the limit of the on cither side. The platen then returns to machines then used. The competition, however, its open position, and remains so long enough added to the cheapness of paper, resulted in an for the operator to take the printed sheet out enlargement to twelve pages. Such enlarged with his left hand and lay on another with his issues could not be printed on one machine. right. This press in its various forms is pre- The extra pages had to be added by hand. This eminently the small jobbing press, although the resulted in the construction of machines that heavier presses are used considerably for colour would produce newspapers of a varying number work. of pages, from four to twelve or sixteen, all inset, The flat-bed cylinder machine began its period cut at the head, and folded in a more convenient of great success soon after 1850. The Main form. It was found to be impracticable to machine, previously referred to, is dated about produce these different sizes from a single web of

1850, and from that time progress has been con- paper ; therefore several printing presses* were tinuous. Koenig's continuously revolving cylinder * In England the distinction between the words press of his 1811 machine is now found in the drum- and machine is definite. Press is only applied to the hand are machines. In America cylinder machines, principally used in America. press and the platen. All others the word press is applied to all. I have been somewhat The single -revolution or Wharfedale machine, indiscriminate in my use of the words, inclining more in which the cylinder stops after each revolution perhaps to the American than to the English use. —

combined in one machine, each printing from a end, and the supplement press at right angles separate roll or web of paper and all conveying was rendered unnecessary. the printed sheets to the same folder, where In the same year, 1895, the Times replaced they were incorporated in the one newspaper. the Walter presses by Hoe's three-roll machines. Such is the multiple web machine of to-day. Lloyd's three-roll single machines were re- A classification of these combined machines placed in 1901 by the three double-width roll

may be made as follows : or sextuple type. These produced double the 1. Two presses at right angles to one another output of the single machines and necessitated and forming one machine. These are known the use of two folders instead of one. In 1902 as supplement or quadruple presses. the order was given by Messrs. Lloyd to Messrs. 2. Two or more presses working one above Hoe for the first of the present battery of seven the other with connection between each. These double octuple machines. These machines, are known as two-decker and three-decker which now print Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, are machines. , the most powerful newspaper printing machines 3. Two or more presses one behind another at work in this country at the present moment. and capable of being coupled together to form They take four double-width reels of paper at a combined machine. This is called the tandem each end, are four decks high, and are constructed

system. in such a manner that another deck still can, if 4. Two presses arranged with a space between necessary, be added at the top. The capacity

them where the folding mechanism is placed. of each of these machines is 144,000 per hour, It said that there is no standard may be up to sixteen pages ; from eighteen to thirty- two pattern of newspaper printing machines. The pages, 72,000 per hour, and so on in proportion. conditions in each office vary so greatly as The papers are delivered folded and automatically regards space, both in area and shape, that each counted. case is treated on its merits and special designs The latest improvement in newspaper print-

are made. ing machinery is the making of the

We now resume the history of the newspaper plates by machinery. After the —that is, printing machine where we left it at the intro- the paper matrix —has been made by pressing duction of the Walter Press into the Times it on to the type, it is placed in the casting -box office in 1868. The Marinoni machine was intro- of the autoplate, and as many plates as are

duced in Paris in 1868 for the purpose of coping necessary are cast from it. They are trimmed with the increasing circulation of Le Petit automatically and are ready to go on to the Journal. This was not a web printing machine, press. but was the last and most rapid of the sheet-fed Rotary machines are also used for the big newspaper machines. Two of the machines runs of popular journals, and if the journal were bought for the Echo, and that paper was has a coloured cover this is printed on a smaller printed by them early in 1872. About 1874 rotary at right angles. The body of the Mr. Edward Lloyd introduced the first open- paper and the cover are brought together at delivery Hoe machine, which printed from the the folding mechanism, and the complete web. Hoe rotaries had been used for some time paper stitched in its cover is counted out in previous to this date in America. The Hoe quires. Double Supplement Press was introduced So we have seen in the last hundred years about 1887, and eight machines were installed the development of the art we saw emerge from to print Lloyd's Weekly Neivspaper. This obscurity some 450 years ago. All the speed machine turned out four, six, eight, ten, and and wonderful power of production we have twelve -page papers at 24,000 per hour, and seen it gather is unfortunately not all gain.

sixteen-page papers at 12,000 per hour, the odd Worse printing can be and is done to-day than pages being in every case accurately inserted ever has been done ; but at the same time there and pasted in, and the papers cut at the top and appears to be some light in the darkness, some delivered folded. This machine is of the right- indication that the printer is taking more interest angled variety mentioned above, and prints from in his craft and is beginning to realise more of two rolls, the one on the long side being twice its possibilities. The good effects of the work the "width of the other, which is only one page of William Morris and Emery Walker are wide. In 1895 these were superseded by Hoe's distinctly visible, and there is hope for the three-roll presses, using single-width webs. artistic future of the "Art preservative of all These machines had three reels of paper at one Arts." LECTURE IV. —Delivered December 14TM, 1914.

The recent history of colour printing is divided After printing, the margins were cutoff and the easily into two sections — non-photographic and print mounted on thicker paper, or, in the case photographic. Each section comprises three of book illustration, mounted on the pages left methods — intaglio, relief, and planographic, for them. In several cases of books in the early so that the subject is comprised in these main fifties, spaces were left for illustrations to be headings : — mounted on the same pages as the text. Xon-Photographic. The method of chromo-lithography is shown very well in Audsley's book on the subject. Intaglio. —Etchings and copperplate prints of The object— say, a water-colour drawing— is all kinds, in colour. dissected by the litho artist into the number of Relief. —Chromo-Xylography. separate tints required for its reproduction. Planographic. —Chromo-Lithography. A key plate in black is produced, and as many pulls taken as the number of printings required. Photographic. The part of the design to be printed in each Intaglio. Photogravure. — colour or tint is then transferred to a separate Rdiej.—Half-tone. stone. The series of progressive proofs in Photo-Chroino-Lithography, Planographic. — Audsley's book shows how a picture is built up Chronio-Collotype. by the successive printings. processes, of Doubtful and combination The history of chromo-lithography during the course, add to the number. last sixty years (except in its association with one or other of the photographic processes, Chromo-Lithography. which is dealt with later) is a history of technical The period I am dealing with in this lecture improvements rather than of revolutionary

begins with the rise of chromo -lithography. change. Better work can be done and is done By 1850 the problem of the super-imposition to-day than at any previous period, owing to of colours had been solved, and the art started these improvements in ink, paper, and machines. on its triumphal course. In 1856-57 Lemercier, Photography has, no doubt, closed many doors " of Paris, printed an edition of the Imitatio to chromo-litho work, but there are many fields were Christi" for which illuminated borders in which it retains its supremacy. Artists have page copied from early manuscripts, and every turned their attention to it in recent years, and was decorated. In England, Owen Jones was many auto-chromo-lithos have been produced. working on his " Grammar of Ornament." It was The style found to harmonise best with the at this time printed by Day & Son, who were process is curiously,, similar to the plates in the leading chromo-lithographers in London. the first book printed by Hullmandci by his applica- The most important non-commercial chromo-lithographic method. It is possible that tion of chromo -lithography was begun in 1856 there are greater artistic developments ahead by the Arundel Society, which issued prints of for this method of work. Italian frescoes until quite recent years. They The offset machine which I described in the were not all printed in England, some well- third lecture has been adapted for colour known German firms producing many of the work. Here its ability to print on any surface

later prints. paper is of exceptional value, and the softness " The oleograph," a rather distressing form of the colouring of some offset productions is of the chromo-lithograph, was of German origin very effective. The finished print was thickly coated with varnish and then passed between patterned Copperplate Printing in Colours. rollers giving the impression of canvas. Intaglio plates—that is, , stipples,

In the early days of chromo-litho work, the and line engravings —are printed i a colours t o - d ay prints were frequently produced on thin paper. in exactly the same way as in the eighteenth 23 century. The plate is inked by hand with all part of my lecture can be devoted to the the colours necessary—practically painted— photographic processes. An important machine and the whole printed at one impression. The in this class is the Orloff. This is the invention modern development described as colour etching of a Russian engineer, and is used in the State has various exponents. By some the plate is Printing Office at Petrograd for printing bank printed twice, first for the broad masses of notes and similar colour work. The method colour, and secondly for the actual lines of the of printing is quite different from any other. etching. The specimens shown by Hugh Paton On a large cylinder are fastened the various and V. Preisler sufficiently indicate the scope printing blocks, one for each colour. A series and method of this process. of inking devices apply the correct colour to each block as the cylinder revolves. These blocks Wood-block Colour Printing. transfer their colours to composition rollers, In the most interesting process which in turn apply it to the " form " block. after 1850 is wood-block colour printing. This All the colours are by this means superimposed process, where separate blocks are used for each on this form block, which then comes in contact colour, gives an impression of transparency with the paper and deposits the whole of the which cannot be obtained any other. by colours at one impression. It might be imagined This of colour was carried to a method work that this process of superimposition of wet considerable pitch of excellence by Savage about colours would cause smudging or blurring, but 1 820, and it was probably after seeing his work work produced by the Orloff press *is noticeable that Bewick suggested the printing of Thomas for clearness of outline and delicacy of detail. pictures in colours by means of wood-blocks. The machine has been put on the English market It was not, however, until about 1850 that once or twice, but has never been adopted. wood-block printing became at all common. Another recent process of interest is stencilling English The two most effective workers in by machine. This method has been considerably chromo-xylography were and used for roughly colouring plates. It has now Benjamin Fawcett. The latter is a striking been made possible to by machine, instance of unaided genius working alone and Orsoni's Aquatype having been invented in producing effective work. His illustrations to 1898 and since perfected. The sheets or prints Morris's "British Birds" will alone suffice to to be coloured are fed on to a travelling band, keep his name in the annals of great colour which carries them in turn under as many printers. The book illustrations of Edmund as there are colours to be applied, when Evans are, perhaps, the best examples of pure another portion of the mechanism passes a wood-block colour work carried out in this colour brush over the stencil then in position on country. the sheet. Some of the French fashion papers The most typical works of Evans in later have their plates tinted by this machine, which years have been the books of , is also extensively used for picture postcards. , and , specimens of whose works are on show, together Photographic Processes. with some earlier productions for the purpose The whole of the photographic colour pro- of comparison. cesses may be divided into tAvo series. The Chromo-xylography is not prominent in the first includes all those in which the photograph colour work of the Continental printers. But is merely the basic plate or outline, and the there is one exception. The firm of Knofler, colours are selected by eye and printed over it. of Vienna, founded about 1856, has produced Postcards, for instance, are frequently printed work of the highest character by this process. with a collotype basis and lithographic colour- Religious prints of all kinds have been their ing. As far back as 1858 Geo. Baxter patented speciality, and the transparency of the colours a method of colouring photographic prints and the general beauty of their work give the lithographically. These combinations are too firm a very high place among colour printers. numerous to mention.

Miscellaneous Methods. Photogravure. There are a few processes of colour printing Photogravure plates are frequently printed which do not quite come under any of the head- from in colour by the old eighteenth- century ings 1 have adopted, and these I propose to take, method of inking the plate with all the colours perhaps out of their order, so that the latter and printing at one impression. The facsimiles - n of the of G. P. Watts have been an optical lantern through the three filters, he produced by Messrs. Emery Walker in this obtained a coloured image of the ribbon. This manner. Before leaving photogravure it must image was not perfect, owing to the fact that be mentioned that constant attempts have been photographic jilates were not at that time made to print photogravures in colour by sensitive to red and green. It was suggested, machine. This process has been adapted to very shortly after, to apply the principle to fast rotary printing in monochrome, and flat- colour printing, but the photographic plate bed machine photogravure is common ; but difficulty was not removed until 1873, and then with the exception of a few experiments, only partially, while the complete discovery machine-printed photogravure in colours belongs of the principle of colour sensitive plates did to the history of the future, and is therefore not come about until the early eighties. Dr. outside the scope of this paper. E. Vogel in Germany, and Mr. P. E. Ives in

There is. however, one process which has not America, were proceeding on very similar lines. yet been made public that I may refer to. Mr. Ives had already invented the cross -fine This is a combination of the intaglio and offset screen, and it is owing to his researches that the methods, and the experimental prints have been three-colour block process became possible. made by Mr. Geo. W. Jones. The machine is He exhibited at the Exhibition of

called the , and is made by Lino- 18S5 prints made by this process, but thought so type & Machinery, Ltd. Instead of a copper little of it that he did not trouble to patent it. cylinder, as ' hi the ordinary photogravure At that time the colour filters and the half-

machines, a strip or sheet of copper is used, and tone screens were comparatively imperfect, and the picture etched on the flat sheet, Avhich is commercial work was still some distance off.

then bent round the cylinder. The wiping is Xot until 1891 was any commercial work put done with rollers instead of the ordinary steel forward, and in the latter part of this year knife, and the impression is taken on a rubber several English firms took the process up. One cylinder, which transfers it to the paper. The of the first three-colour prints produced in first experiment made in colour on this machine this country was a plate representing the was a reversed half-tone three-colour, but later famous racehorse that won the Derby in 1890. photogravure negatives have been used with This was produced by Messrs. Waterlow & Son very effective results. A high-grade softness in February, 1892, as a supplement to the of colour is produced, and the high lights are paper Land and Water. The improvements in better cleaned than with the pure photogravure the process that have taken place since that method. It will be very interesting to see the time are purely technical, the character of the later work of this machine. The colour prints process remaining the same. by the Rembrandt Intaglio Engraving Co. in The technical description of the process which two and three printings are by a secret photo- follows is taken from Gen. Waterhouse's intro- gravure process. duction to the catalogue of the photo-engraving

exhibition at South Kensington : — Three-colour Process. " The problem to be solved in photographic I now have to deal with the three-colour three-colour printing is a complicated one. process, and describe how the automatic because the light reflected from the objects to selection of colour was invented and developed. be reproduced must first be analysed and divided The idea of three-colour printing was not new, into its three components, red, green, and blue- having been used by Le Blon in the eighteenth violet, by means of carefully selected coloured century. His ideas were based on the investiga- screens or filters, so that each of them may tions of Sir Isaac Newton. Further researches impress a negative image, or colour-record, upon in the early part of the nineteenth century by three suitably sensitised photographic plates of Dr. Thomas Young led him to put forward the the parts of the object containing it, the densities theory of three primary colour sensations; but of the three images being proportionate to the

until Helmholtz revived it in 1853 it had been quantity of each light passing through the shelved. In 1860 Clerk Maxwell made a com- screens and its luminosity. These three images plete study of the subject, with the result that must correspond exactly in size, so that they in 1861 he was able to take three may register correctly. " of a piece of coloured ribbon through three Prom these three colour-sensation negatives, coloured light filters By superimposing the positive prints are made suitable for the process three images obtained, and projecting them in selected, whether by superposition of transparent —

films, collotype or block printing, and must be " Whether to use three or four colours has printed in three colours or pigments, comple- long been one of the contested points in colour mentary to 'the filters used, viz., cyan-blue for work. The theoretical advocates of three negative, crimson for the green, colours have stoutly the red sensation held out for three-colour ; and yellow for the blue -violet. but many practical men hold the faith that three " The correct combination of these three colours can never give an entirely satisfactory should reproduce the colours of the original. rendering of the subject. The weakness of the Owing to the difficulty of obtaining suitable three-colour process is chiefly found in the permanent pigments to meet the theoretical rendering of blue in all its gradations, in its requirements in three-colour block printing, inability to yield a good grey, and in the im- some workers add a fourth block printed in grey perfection of the , which, according to or black, to give strength and harmonise the theory, should be formed by the superposing colours. The greatest care has to be taken of the three colours in equal strength. The throughout in the proper selection and adjust- remedy proposed is to use a black or neutral ment of filters, photographic plates and printing grey as a fourth printing. Dr. Albert advocated colours. The least divergence throws out the this in his citochrome process, and many leading balance and produces a false effect. Continental workers have followed him. In

" Practically it means the mutual adjustment America a firm known as the Quadricolour of at least three different sets of three variable Company make it a rule to use four colours, and factors with almost mathematical accuracy. do admirable work. It is, indeed, quite general The printing processes are still imperfect, but in America to find four-colour being given the the discovery of new sensitisers for the photo- preference to three, especially in blocks produced graphic plates, and fuller researches into theory by hand processes. In England, though four- and practice, are bringing about constant colour work is not so general, a fourth printing improvements, and it seems likely that before in black is often resorted to, or one of the long their use will be greatly extended." trichromatic colours is run twice through to The method of photographic colour selection get increased strength. can be and is applied to the other photographic " An interesting attempt to found a four- processes, but not yet to anything like the same colour system of colour printing was the extent as to the half-tone process. complementary colour process of Mr. C. G. The improvement in printing due to the Zander, which Avas patented in 1905. The introduction of more perfect machinery has inventor assumed that it was necessary to use, had a considerable influence on the three-colour not three but four fundamental colours, viz., process. The two-revolution type of machine, red, yellow, green, and blue, by mixtures of such as the Miehle or Century, was found to which in suitable proportions any colours in give better register and possess more inking Nature could be matched or produced. The power, which has helped the process. Then, too, hues of these four fundamental (or mono- the platen press has of late years improved in chromatic) colours may in popular terms be strength of impression and inking power, which described as magenta red, lemon yellow, has enabled it to be used for colour work. The emerald green, and ultramarine blue. The question of the ink is a serious one. It has four colours were grouped into two pairs of improved in quality and in accuracy of tint, but complementary colours, viz., red and green, the permanency of the colours still leaves much yellow and blue, so that when the elements of to be desired. either pair were mechanically mixed as pigments, Several machines for simultaneous printing by printing or staining they produced black. At of colours have been invented. With the first sight it might seem that the only difference exception of the Orloff already mentioned, none from the ordinary process was the addition of appear to have survived. The Miehle machine a green printing colour, but actually the other has been adapted for continuous colour printing colours have been scientifically adjusted or by joining three machines together by means readjusted, so that they form two pairs of of a special delivery apparatus, so that when complementary colours. The author of this the sheet leaves one machine it passes to the process claimed that practically the whole next, and so to the third. range of the spectrum colours could be produced

The four-colour process is described in the by it, besides extra -spectral purples, dense following extract from Mr. W. Gamble's pure black, and homogeneous greys. Mr. Zander article on "Modern Colour Processes" : asserts that no pure black can be reproduced at 26

all in three-coleur printing, whilst by his new recent years collotype colour work has again process either of the two pairs would produce come to the front, principally on the Continent, black or grey. Several specimens were produced although a few English firms have done very by this process, and it certainly appeared well with the process. Messrs. Emery Walker capable of rendering more brilUantly the bright have produced some very fine specimens of colours of flowers, ribbons etc. ; but the results collotype in colours, which I am able to were not entirely convincing, probably through show. the engravers not having sufficient practice During this survey of the recent history with the new method. Printers did not view of colour printing, we see in the first period with favour the idea of a fourth printing, and the rise of chromo-lithography and its only on the whole the process was received so coldly rival, chromo - xylography. With the excep- that the inventor has not pushed it further." tion of a few experiments, these two methods hold their own until the coming of three- Collotype. colour work about 1890. The triumphal march of the three-colour process, with its accom- Experiments with a view to using the collotype panying disadvantages of clay-coated paper process for colour printing were made by and fugitive inks, still continues, but there are Albert in Munich and Husnik of Prague in signs of improvement. The development of the early seventies, and the State Paper Office the litho offset and photogravure processes in Petrograd was producing colour collotypes are all for the betterment of colour work. The by 1878. H. W. Vogel introduced colour- same disadvantages do not apply to them, and sensitive photographic plates about this time, so there is a hope that we may presently have and prints in collotype by this means were a process of colour reproduction that will lie extensively made in Germany in the late accurate, cheap, printed in fast colours, and eighties. Several firms in England adopted on paper that will not fall to pieces after a the process about 1890, among them Messrs. few years or turn into a clay brick if it gets Waterlow & Sons. In 1890-91 this firm produced some very excellent work, but the damp. process was not suitable for the English climate, [Note. —Each lecture was illustrated by and the introduction of the three-colour half- lantern-slides and an exhibition of specimens tone resulted in its abandonment as far as of printing. The exhibits were individually rapid commercial work was concerned. Of described after the lecture. 1

14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LIBRARY SCHOOL LIBRAE*

This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.

NOV 2 9 1963

JAN 2.i 1964

MAY2 5 1964

KfcC'D LD

, MAyi3 64-i0PI^

JAN 1 3 tft BS

SENT ON »LL m 3 i zoo? U.G.B^

General Library LD 21-50wi-4,'63 (D6471sl0)476 University of California Berkeley

™raHMIIHHBH

Top View