Much of the ingenuity exercised both in the Applegath and Hoe Machines
was directed to the "chase," which had to hold securely upon its curved
face the mass of movable type required to form a page.  And now the
enterprise of the proprietor of The Times again came to the front.  The
change effected in the art of newspaper-printing, by the process of
stereotypes, is scarcely inferior to that by which the late Mr. Walter
applied steam-power to the printing press, and certainly equal to that
by which the rotary press superseded the reciprocatory action of the
flat machine.

Stereotyping has a curious history.  Many attempts were made to obtain
solid printing-surfaces by transfer from similar surfaces, composed, in
the first place, of movable types.  The first who really succeeded was
one Ged, an Edinburgh goldsmith, who, after a series of difficult
experiments, arrived at a knowledge of the art of stereotyping.  The
first method employed was to pour liquid stucco, of the consistency of
cream, over the types; and this, when solid, gave a perfect mould.
Into this the molten metal was poured, and a plate was produced,
accurately resembling the page of type.  As long ago as 1730, Ged
obtained a privilege from the University of Cambridge for printing
Bibles and Prayer-books after this method.  But the workmen were dead
against it, as they thought it would destroy their trade.  The
compositors and the pressmen purposely battered the letters in the
absence of their employers.  In consequence of this interference Ged
was ruined, and died in poverty.

The art had, however, been born, and could not be kept down.  It was
revived in France, in Germany, and in America.  Fifty years after the
discovery of Ged, Tilloch and Foulis, of Glasgow, patented a similar
invention, without knowing anything of what Ged had done; and after
great labour and many experiments, they produced plates, the
impressions from which could  not be distinguished from those taken
from the types from which they were cast.  Some years afterwards, Lord
Stanhope, to whom the art of printing is much indebted, greatly
improved the art of stereotyping, though it was still quite
inapplicable to newspaper printing.  The merit of this latter invention
is due to the enterprise of the present proprietor of The Times.

Mr. Walter began his experiments, aided by an ingenious Italian founder
named Dellagana, early in 1856.  It was ascertained that when
papier-mache matrices were rapidly dried and placed in a mould,
separate columns might be cast in them with stereotype metal, type
high, planed flat, and finished with sufficient speed to get up the
duplicate of a forme of four pages fitted for printing.  Steps were
taken to adapt these type-high columns to the Applegath Presses, then
worked with polygonal chases.  When the Hoe machines were introduced,
instead of dealing with the separate columns, the papier-mache matrix
was taken from the whole page at one operation, by roller-presses
constructed for the purpose.  The impression taken off in this manner
is as perfect as if it had been made in the finest wax.  The matrix is
rapidly dried on heating surfaces, and then accurately adjusted in a
casting machine curved to the exact circumference of the main drum of
the printing press, and fitted with a terra-cotta top to secure a
casting of uniform thickness.  On pouring stereotype metal into this
mould, a curved plate was obtained, which, after undergoing a certain
amount of trimming at two machines, could be taken to press and set to
work within twenty-five minutes from the time at which the process
began.

Besides the great advantages obtained from uniform sets of the plates,
which might be printed on different machines at the rate of 50,000
impressions an hour, or such additional number as might be required,
there is this other great advantage, that there is no wear and tear of
type in the curved chases by obstructive friction; and that the fount,
instead of wearing out in two years, might last for twenty; for the
plates, after doing their work for one day, are melted down into a new
impression for the next day's printing.  At the same time, the original
type-page, safe from injury, can be made to yield any number of copies
that may be required by the exigencies of the circulation.  It will be
sufficiently obvious that by the multiplication of stereotype plates
and printing machines, there is practically no limit to the number of
copies of a newspaper that may be printed within the time which the
process now usually occupies.

This new method of newspaper stereotyping was originally employed on
the cylinders of the Applegath and Hoe Presses.  But it is equally
applicable to those of the Walter Press, a brief description of which
we now subjoin.  As the construction of the first steam newspaper
machine was due to the enterprise of the late Mr. Walter, so the
construction of this last and most improved machine is due in like
manner to the enterprise of his son.  The new Walter Press is not, like
Applegath and Cowper's, and Hoe's, the improvement of an existing
arrangement, but an almost entirely original invention.

In the Reports of the Jurors on the "Plate, Letterpress, and other
modes of Printing," at the International Exhibition of 1862, the
following passage occurs:--"It is incumbent on the reporters to point
out that, excellent and surprising as are the results achieved by the
Hoe and Applegath Machines, they cannot be considered satisfactory
while those machines themselves are so liable to stoppages in working.
No true mechanic can contrast the immense American ten-cylinder presses
of The Times with the simple calico-printing machine, without feeling
that the latter furnishes the true type to which the mechanism for
newspaper printing should as much as possible approximate."

On this principle, so clearly put forward, the Inventors of the Walter
Press proceeded in the contrivance of the new machine.  It is true that
William Nicholson, in his patent of 1790, prefigured the possibility of
printing on "paper, linen, cotton, woollen, and other articles," by
means of type fixed on the outer surface of a revolving cylinder; but
no steps were taken to carry  his views into effect.  Sir Rowland Hill
also, before he became connected with Post Office reform, revived the
contrivance of Nicholson, and referred to it in his patent of 1835 (No.
6762); and he also proposed to use continuous rolls of paper, which
Fourdrinier and Donkin had made practicable by their invention of the
paper-making machine about the year 1804; but both Nicholson's and
Hill's patents remained a dead letter.[2]

It may be easy to conceive a printing machine, or even to make a model
of one; but to construct an actual working printing press, that must be
sure and unfailing in its operations, is a matter surrounded with
difficulties.  At every step fresh contrivances have to be introduced;
they have to be tried again and again; perhaps they are eventually
thrown aside to give place to new arrangements.  Thus the head of the
inventor is kept in a state of constant turmoil.  Sometimes the whole
machine has to be remodelled from beginning to end.  One step is gained
by degrees, then another; and at last, after years of labour, the new
invention comes before the world in the form of a practical working
machine.

In 1862 Mr. Walter began in The Times office, with tools and machinery
of his own, experiments for constructing a perfecting press which
should print the paper from rolls of paper instead of from sheets.
Like his father, Mr. Walter possessed an excellent discrimination of
character, and selected the best men to aid him in his important
undertaking.  Numerous difficulties had, of course, to be surmounted.
Plans were varied from time to time; new methods were tried, altered,
and improved, simplification being aimed at throughout.  Six long years
passed in this pursuit of the possible.  At length the clear light
dawned.  In 1868 Mr. Walter ventured to order the construction of three
machines on the pattern of the first complete one which had been made.
By the end of 1869 these were finished and placed in a room by
themselves; and a  fourth was afterwards added.  There the printing of
The Times is now done, in less than half the time it previously
occupied, and with one-fifth the number of hands.

The most remarkable feature in the Walter Press is its wonderful
simplicity of construction.  Simplicity of arrangement is always the
beau ideal of the mechanical engineer.  This printing press is not only
simple, but accurate, compact, rapid, and economical.

While each of the ten-feeder Hoe Machines occupies a large and lofty
room, and requires eighteen men to feed and work it, the new Walter
Machine occupies a space of only about 14 feet by 5, or less than any
newspaper machine yet introduced; and it requires only three lads to
take away, with half the attention of an overseer, who easily
superintends two of the machines while at work.  The Hoe Machine turns
out 7000 impressions printed on both sides in the hour, whereas the
Walter Machine turns out 12,000 impressions completed in the same time.

The new Walter Press does not in the least resemble any existing
printing machine, unless it be the calendering machine which furnished
its type.  At the printing end it looks like a collection of small
cylinders or rollers.  The first thing to be observed is the continuous
roll of paper four miles long, tightly mounted on a reel, which, when
the machine is going, flies round with immense rapidity.  The web of
paper taken up by the first roller is led into a series of small hollow
cylinders filled with water and steam, perforated with thousands of
minute holes.  By this means the paper is properly damped before the
process of printing is begun.  The roll of paper, drawn by nipping
rollers, next flies through to the cylinder on which the stereotype
plates are fixed, so as to form the four pages of the ordinary sheet of
The Times; there it is lightly pressed against the type and printed;
then it passes downwards round another cylinder covered with cloth, and
reversed; next to the second type-covered roller, where it takes the
impression exactly on the other side of the remaining four pages.  It
next reaches one of the most ingenious contrivances of the
invention--the cutting machinery, by means of which the paper is
divided by a quick knife into the 5500 sheets of which the entire web
consists.  The tapes hurry the now completely printed newspaper up an
inclined plane, from which the divided sheets are showered down in a
continuous stream by an oscillating frame, where they are met by two
boys, who adjust the sheets as they fall.  The reel of four miles long
is printed and divided into newspapers complete in about twenty-five
minutes.

The machine is almost entirely self-acting, from the pumping-up of the
ink into the ink-box out of the cistern below stairs, to the
registering of the numbers as they are printed in the manager's room
above.  It is always difficult to describe a machine in words.  Nothing
but a series of sections and diagrams could give the reader an idea of
the construction of this unrivalled instrument.  The time to see it and
wonder at it is when the press is in full work.  And even then you can
see but little of its construction, for the cylinders are wheeling
round with immense velocity.  The rapidity with which the machine works
may be inferred from the fact that the printing cylinders (round which
the stereotyped plates are fixed), while making their impressions on
the paper, travel at the surprising speed of 200 revolutions a minute,
or at the rate of about nine miles an hour!

Contrast this speed with the former slowness.  Go back to the beginning
of the century.  Before the year 1814 the turn-out of newspapers was
only about 300 single impressions in an hour--that is, impressions
printed on only one side of the paper.  Koenig by his invention
increased the issue to 1100 impressions.  Applegath and Cowper by their
four-cylinder machine increased the issue to 4000, and by the
eight-cylinder machine to 10,000 an hour.  But these were only
impressions printed on one side of the paper. The first perfecting
press--that is, printing simultaneously the paper on both sides--was
the Walter, the speed of which has been raised to 12,000, though, if
necessary, it can produce excellent work at the rate of 17,000 complete
copies of an eight-page paper per hour.  Then, with the new method of
stereotyping--by means of which the plates can be infinitely multiplied
and by the aid of additional machines, the supply of additional
impressions is absolutely unlimited.

The Walter Press is not a monopoly.  It is manufactured at The Times
office, and is supplied to all comers.  Among the other daily papers
printed by its means in this country are the Daily News, the Scotsmam,
and the Birmingham Daily Post.  The first Walter Press was sent to
America in 1872, where it was employed to print the Missouri Republican
at St.  Louis, the leading newspaper of the Mississippi Valley.  An
engineer and a skilled workman from The Times office accompanied the
machinery.  On arriving at St.  Louis--the materials were unpacked,
lowered into the machine-room, where they were erected and ready for
work in the short space of five days.

The Walter Press was an object of great interest at the Centennial
Exhibition held at Philadelphia in 1876, where it was shown printing
the New Fork Times one of the most influential journals in America.
The press was surrounded with crowds of visitors intently watching its
perfect and regular action, "like a thing of life."  The New York Times
said of it: "The Walter Press is the most perfect printing press yet
known to man; invented by the most powerful journal of the Old World,
and adopted as the very best press to be had for its purposes by the
most influential journal of the New World....  It is an honour to Great
Britain to have such an exhibit in her display, and a lasting benefit
to the printing business, especially to newspapers....  The first
printing press run by steam was erected in the year 1814 in the office
of The Times by the father of him who is the present proprietor of that
world-famous journal.  The machine of 1814 was described in The Times
of the 29th November in that year, and the account given of it closed
in these words: 'The whole of these complicated acts is performed with
such a velocity and simultaneosness of movement that no less than 1100
sheets are impressed in one hour.' Mirabile dictu!  And the Walter
Press of to-day can run off 17,000 copies an hour printed on both
sides.  This is not bad work for one man's lifetime."

It is unnecessary to say more about this marvellous machine.  Its
completion forms the crown of the industry which it represents, and of
the enterprise of the journal which it prints.


Footnotes for Chapter VII.

[1] Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson,
Barrister-at-Law, F.S.A., i. 231.

[2] After the appearance of my article on the Koenig and Walter Presses
in Macmillan's Magazine for December, 1869, I received the following
letter from Sir Rowland Hill:--

"Hampstead"  January 5th, 1870.

"My dear sir,

"In your very interesting article in Macmillan's Magazine on the
subject of the printing machine, you have unconsciously done me some
injustice.  To convince yourself of this, you have only to read the
enclosed paper.  The case, however, will be strengthened when I tell
you that as far back as the year 1856, that is, seven years after the
expiry of my patent, I pointed out to Mr. Mowbray Morris, the manager
of The Times, the fitness of my machine for the printing of that
journal, and the fact that serious difficulties to its adoption had
been removed.  I also, at his request, furnished him with a copy of the
document with which I now trouble you.  Feeling sure that you would
like to know the truth on any subject of which you may treat, I should
be glad to explain the matter more fully, and for this purpose will,
with your permission, call upon you at any time you may do me the
favour to appoint. "Faithfully yours,

"Rowland Hill."

On further enquiry I obtained the Patent No. 6762; but found that
nothing practical had ever come of it.  The pamphlet enclosed by Sir
Rowland Hill in the above letter is entitled 'The Rotary Printing
Machine.' It is very clever and ingenious, like everything he did.  But
it was still left for some one else to work out the invention into a
practical working printing-press. The subject is fully referred to in
the 'Life of Sir Rowland Hill' (i. 224,525).  In his final word on the
subject, Sir Rowland "gladly admits the enormous difficulty of bringing
a complex machine into practical use," a difficulty, he says, which
"has been most successfully overcome by the patentees of the Walter
Press."



CHAPTER VIII.

WILLIAM CLOWES: INTRODUCER OF BOOK-PRINTING BY STEAM.

"The Images of men's wits and knowledges remain in Books, exempted from
the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation.  Neither are
they fitly to be called Images, because they generate still, and cast
their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite
actions and opinions in succeeding ages; so that, if the invention of
the Ship was thought so noble, which carrieth riches and commodities
from place to place, and consociateth the most remote Regions in
participation of their Fruits, how much more are letters to be
magnified, which, as Ships, pass through the vast Seas of time, and
make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and
inventions, the one of the other?"--Bacon, On the Proficience and
Advancement of Learning.

Steam has proved as useful and potent in the printing of books as in
the printing of newspapers.  Down to the end of last century, "the
divine art," as printing was called, had made comparatively little
progress.  That is to say, although books could be beautifully printed
by hand labour, they could not be turned out in any large numbers.

The early printing press was rude.  It consisted of a table, along
which the forme of type, furnished with a tympan and frisket, was
pushed by hand.  The platen worked vertically between standards, and
was brought down for the impression, and raised after it, by a common
screw, worked by a bar handle.  The inking was performed by balls
covered with skin pelts; they were blacked with ink, and beaten down on
the type by the pressman. The inking was consequently irregular.

In 1798, Earl Stanhope perfected the press that bears his name. He did
not patent it, but made his invention over to the public. In 1818, Mr.
Cowper greatly improved the inking of formes used in the Stanhope and
other presses, by the use of a hand roller covered with a composition
of glue and treacle, in combination with a distributing table.  The ink
was thus applied in a more even manner, and with a considerable
decrease of labour.  With the Stanhope Press, printing was as far
advanced as it could possibly be by means of hand labour.  About 250
impressions could be taken off, on one side, in an hour.

But this, after all, was a very small result.  When books could be
produced so slowly, there could be no popular literature. Books were
still articles for the few, instead of for the many. Steam power,
however, completely altered the state of affairs. When Koenig invented
his steam press, he showed by the printing of Clarkson's 'Life of
Penn'--the first sheets ever printed with a cylindrical press--that
books might be printed neatly, as well as cheaply, by the new machine.
Mr. Bensley continued the process, after Koenig left England; and in
1824, according to Johnson in his 'Typographia,' his son was "driving
an extensive business."

In the following year, 1825, Archibald Constable, of Edinburgh,
propounded his plan for revolutionising the art of bookselling. Instead
of books being articles of luxury, he proposed to bring them into
general consumption.  He would sell them, not by thousands, but by
hundreds of thousands, "ay, by millions;" and he would accomplish this
by the new methods of multiplication--by machine printing and by steam
power.  Mr. Constable accordingly issued a library of excellent books;
and, although he was ruined--not by this enterprise, but the other
speculations into which he entered--he set the example which other
enterprising minds were ready to follow.  Amongst these was Charles
Knight, who set the steam presses of William Clowes to work, for the
purposes of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

William Clowes was the founder of the vast printing establishment from
which these sheets are issued; and his career furnishes another
striking illustration of the force of industry and character.  He was
born on the 1st of January, 1779.  His father was educated at Oxford,
and kept a large school at Chichester; but dying when William was but
an infant, he left his widow, with straitened means, to bring up her
family.  At a proper age William was bound apprentice to a printer at
Chichester; and, after serving him for seven years, he came up to
London, at the beginning of 1802, to seek employment as a journeyman.
He succeeded in finding work at a small office on Tower Hill, at a
small wage.  The first lodgings he took cost him 5s. a week; but
finding this beyond his means he hired a room in a garret at 2s. 6d.,
which was as much as he could afford out of his scanty earnings.

The first job he was put to, was the setting-up of a large
poster-bill--a kind of work which he had been accustomed to execute in
the country; and he knocked it together so expertly that his master,
Mr. Teape, on seeing what he could do, said to him, "Ah! I find you are
just the fellow for me."  The young man, however, felt so strange in
London, where he was without a friend or acquaintance, that at the end
of the first month he thought of leaving it; and yearned to go back to
his native city.  But he had not funds enough to enable him to follow
his inclinations, and he accordingly remained in the great City, to
work, to persevere, and finally to prosper.  He continued at Teape's
for about two years, living frugally, and even contriving to save a
little money.

He then thought of beginning business on his own account.  The small
scale on which printing was carried on in those days enabled him to
make a start with comparatively little capital. By means of his own
savings and the help of his friends, he was enabled to take a little
printing-office in Villiers Street, Strand, about the end of 1803; and
there he began with one printing press, and one assistant.  His stock
of type was so small, that he was under the necessity of working it
from day to day like a banker's gold.  When his first job came in, he
continued to work for the greater part of three nights, setting the
type during the day, and working it off at night, in order that the
type might be distributed for resetting on the following morning.  He
succeeded, however, in executing his first job to the entire
satisfaction of his first customer.

His business gradually increased, and then, with his constantly saved
means, he was enabled to increase his stock of type, and to undertake
larger jobs.  Industry always tells, and in the long-run leads to
prosperity.  He married early, but he married well.  He was only
twenty-four when he found his best fortune in a good, affectionate
wife.  Through this lady's cousin, Mr. Winchester, the young printer
was shortly introduced to important official business.  His punctual
execution of orders, the accuracy of his work, and the despatch with
which he turned it out soon brought him friends, and his obliging and
kindly disposition firmly secured them.  Thus, in a few years, the
humble beginner with one press became a printer on a large scale.

The small concern expanded into a considerable printing-office in
Northumberland Court, which was furnished with many presses and a large
stock of type.  The office was, unfortunately, burnt down; but a larger
office rose in its place.

What Mr. Clowes principally aimed at, in carrying on his business, was
accuracy, speed, and quantity.  He did not seek to produce editions de
luxe in limited numbers, but large impressions of works in popular
demand--travels, biographies, histories, blue-books, and official
reports, in any quantity. For this purpose, he found the process of
hand-printing too tedious, as well as too costly; and hence he early
turned his attention to book printing by machine presses, driven by
steam power,--in this matter following the example of Mr. Walter of the
Times, who had for some years employed the same method for newspaper
printing.

Applegath & Cowper's machines had greatly advanced the art of printing.
They secured perfect inking and register; and the sheets were printed
off more neatly, regularly, and expeditiously; and larger sheets could
be printed on both sides, than by any other method.  In 1823,
accordingly, Mr. Clowes erected his first steam presses, and he soon
found abundance of work for them.  But to produce steam requires
boilers and engines, the working of which occasions smoke and noise.
Now, as the printing-office, with its steam presses, was situated in
Northumberland Court, close to the palace of the Duke of
Northumberland, at Charing Cross, Mr. Clowes was required to abate the
nuisance, and to stop the noise and dirt occasioned by the use of his
engines.  This he failed to do, and the Duke commenced an action
against him.

The case was tried in June, 1824, in the Court of Common Pleas. It was
ludicrous to hear the extravagant terms in which the counsel for the
plaintiff and his witnesses described the nuisance--the noise made by
the engine in the underground cellar, some times like thunder, at other
times like a thrashing-machine, and then again like the rumbling of
carts and waggons.  The printer had retained the Attorney-general, Mr.
Copley, afterwards Lord Lyndhurst, who conducted his case with
surpassing ability. The cross-examination of a foreign artist, employed
by the Duke to repaint some portraits of the Cornaro family by Titian,
is said to have been one of the finest things on record.  The sly and
pungent humour, and the banter with which the counsel derided and
laughed down this witness, were inimitable.  The printer won his case;
but he eventually consented to remove his steam presses from the
neighbourhood, on the Duke paying him a certain sum to be determined by
the award of arbitrators.

It happened, about this period, that a sort of murrain fell upon the
London publishers.  After the failure of Constable at Edinburgh, they
came down one after another, like a pack of cards.  Authors are not the
only people who lose labour and money by publishers; there are also
cases where publishers are ruined by authors.  Printers also now lost
heavily.  In one week, Mr. Clowes sustained losses through the failure
of London publishers to the extent of about 25,000L.  Happily, the
large sum which the arbitrators awarded him for the removal of his
printing presses enabled him to tide over the difficulty; he stood his
ground unshaken, and his character in the trade stood higher than ever.

In the following year Mr. Clowes removed to Duke Street, Blackfriars,
to premises until then occupied by Mr. Applegath, as a printer; and
much more extensive buildings and offices were now erected.  There his
business transactions assumed a form of unprecedented magnitude, and
kept pace with the great demand for popular information which set in
with such force about fifty years ago.  In the course of ten years--as
we find from the 'Encyclopaedia Metropolitana'--there were twenty of
Applegath & Cowper's machines, worked by two five-horse engines.  From
these presses were issued the numerous admirable volumes and
publications of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; the
treatises on 'Physiology,' by Roget, and 'Animal Mechanics,' by Charles
Bell; the 'Elements of Physics,' by Neill Arnott; 'The Pursuit of
Knowledge under Difficulties,' by G. L. Craik, a most fascinating book;
the Library of Useful Knowledge; the 'Penny Magazine,' the first
illustrated publication; and the 'Penny Cyclopaedia,' that admirable
compendium of knowledge and science.

These publications were of great value.  Some of them were printed in
unusual numbers.  The 'Penny Magazine,' of which Charles Knight was
editor, was perhaps too good, because it was too scientific.
Nevertheless, it reached a circulation of 200,000 copies.  The 'Penny
Cyclopaedia' was still better.  It was original, and yet cheap.  The
articles were written by the best men that could be found in their
special departments of knowledge.  The sale was originally 75,000
weekly; but, as the plan enlarged, the price was increased from 1d. to
2d., and then to 4d.  At the end of the second year, the circulation
had fallen to 44,000; and at the end of the third year, to 20,000.

It was unfortunate for Mr. Knight to be so much under the influence of
his Society.  Had the Cyclopaedia been under his own superintendence,
it would have founded his fortune.  As it was, he lost over 30,000L. by
the venture.  The 'Penny Magazine' also went down in circulation, until
it became a non-paying publication, and then it was discontinued.  It
is curious to contrast the fortunes of William Chambers of Edinburgh
with those of Charles Knight of London.  'Chambers's Edinburgh Journal'
was begun in February, 1832, and the 'Penny Magazine' in March, 1832.

Chambers was perhaps shrewder than Knight.  His journal was as good,
though without illustrations; but he contrived to mix up amusement with
useful knowledge.  It may be a weakness, but the public like to be
entertained, even while they are feeding upon better food.  Hence
Chambers succeeded, while Knight failed.  The 'Penny Magazine' was
discontinued in 1845, whereas 'Chambers's Edinburgh Journal' has
maintained its popularity to the present day.  Chambers, also, like
Knight, published an 'Encyclopaedia,' which secured a large
circulation.  But he was not trammelled by a Society, and the
'Encyclopaedia' has become a valuable property.

The publication of these various works would not have been possible
without the aid of the steam printing press.  When Mr. Edward Cowper
was examined before a Committee of the House of Commons, he said, "The
ease with which the principles and illustrations of Art might be
diffused is, I think, so obvious that it is hardly necessary to say a
word about it.  Here you may see it exemplified in the 'Penny
Magazine.'  Such works as this could not have existed without the
printing machine."  He was asked, "In fact, the mechanic and the
peasant, in the most remote parts of the country, have now an
opportunity of seeing tolerably correct outlines of form which they
never could behold before?" To which he answered, "Exactly; and
literally at the price they used to give for a song."  "Is there not,
therefore, a greater chance of calling genius into activity?"  "Yes,"
he said, "not merely by books creating an artist here and there, but by
the general elevation of the taste of the public."

Mr. Clowes was always willing to promote deserving persons in his
office.  One of these rose from step to step, and eventually became one
of the most prosperous publishers in London.  He entered the service as
an errand-boy, and got his meals in the kitchen.  Being fond of
reading, he petitioned Mrs. Clowes to let him sit somewhere, apart from
the other servants, where he might read his book in quiet.  Mrs. Clowes
at length entreated her husband to take him into the office, for
"Johnnie Parker was such a good boy."  He consented, and the boy took
his place at a clerk's desk.  He was well-behaved, diligent, and
attentive.  As he advanced in years, his steady and steadfast conduct
showed that he could be trusted.  Young fellows like this always make
their way in life; for character invariably tells, not only in securing
respect, but in commanding confidence.  Parker was promoted from one
post to another, until he was at length appointed overseer over the
entire establishment.

A circumstance shortly after occurred which enabled Mr. Clowes to
advance him, though greatly to his own inconvenience, to another
important post.  The Syndics of Cambridge were desirous that Mr. Clowes
should go down there to set their printing-office in order; they
offered him 400L. a year if he would only appear occasionally, and see
that the organisation was kept complete. He declined, because the
magnitude of his own operations had now become so great that they
required his unremitting attention. He, however strongly recommended
Parker to the office, though he could ill spare him.  But he would not
stand in the young man's way, and he was appointed accordingly.  He did
his work most effectually at Cambridge, and put the University Press
into thorough working order.

As the 'Penny Magazine' and other publications of the Society of Useful
Knowledge were now making their appearance, the clergy became desirous
of bringing out a religious publication of a popular character, and
they were in search for a publisher. Parker, who was well known at
Cambridge, was mentioned to the Bishop of London as the most likely
person.  An introduction took place, and after an hour's conversation
with Parker, the Bishop went to his friends and said, "This is the very
man we want."  An offer was accordingly made to him to undertake the
publication of the 'Saturday Magazine' and the other publications of
the Christian Knowledge Society, which he accepted.  It is unnecessary
to follow his fortunes.  His progress was steady; he eventually became
the publisher of 'Fraser's Magazine' and of the works of John Stuart
Mill and other well-known writers.  Mill never forgot his appreciation
and generosity; for when his 'System of Logic' had been refused by the
leading London publishers, Parker prized the book at its rightful value
and introduced it to the public.

To return to Mr. Clowes.  In the course of a few years, the original
humble establishment of the Sussex compositor, beginning with one press
and one assistant, grew up to be one of the largest printing-offices in
the world.  It had twenty-five steam presses, twenty-eight
hand-presses, six hydraulic presses, and gave direct employment to over
five hundred persons, and indirect employment to probably more than ten
times that number.  Besides the works connected with his
printing-office, Mr. Clowes found it necessary to cast his own types,
to enable him to command on emergency any quantity; and to this he
afterwards added stereotyping on an immense scale.  He possessed the
power of supplying his compositors with a stream of new type at the
rate of about 50,000 pieces a day.  In this way, the weight of type in
ordinary use became very great; it amounted to not less than 500 tons,
and the stereotyped plates to about 2500 tons the value of the latter
being not less than half a million sterling.

Mr. Clowes would not hesitate, in the height of his career, to have
tons of type locked up for months in some ponderous blue-book.  To
print a report of a hundred folio pages in the course of a day or
during a night, or of a thousand pages in a week, was no uncommon
occurrence.  From his gigantic establishment were turned out not fewer
than 725,000 printed sheets, or equal to 30,000 volumes a week.  Nearly
45,000 pounds of paper were printed weekly.  The quantity printed on
both sides per week, if laid down in a path of 22 1/4 inches broad,
would extend 263 miles in length.

About the year 1840, a Polish inventor brought out a composing machine,
and submitted it to Mr. Clowes for approval.  But Mr. Clowes was
getting too old to take up and push any new invention.

He was also averse to doing anything to injure the compositors, having
once been a member of the craft.  At the same time he said to his son
George, "If you find this to be a likely machine, let me know.  Of
course we must go with the age.  If I had not started the steam press
when I did, where should I have been now?"  On the whole, the composing
machine, though ingenious, was incomplete, and did not come into use at
that time, nor indeed for a long time after.  Still, the idea had been
born, and, like other inventions, became eventually developed into a
useful working machine.  Composing machines are now in use in many
printing-offices, and the present Clowes' firm possesses several of
them.  Those in The Times newspaper office are perhaps the most perfect
of all.

Mr. Clowes was necessarily a man of great ability, industry, and
energy.  Whatever could be done in printing, that he would do. He would
never admit the force of any difficulty that might be suggested to his
plans.  When he found a person ready to offer objections, he would say,
"Ah! I see you are a difficulty-maker: you will never do for me."

Mr. Clowes died in 1847, at the age of sixty-eight.  There still remain
a few who can recall to mind the giant figure, the kindly countenance,
and the gentle bearing of this "Prince of Printers," as he was styled
by the members of his craft.  His life was full of hard and useful
work; and it will probably be admitted that, as the greatest multiplier
of books in his day, and as one of the most effective practical
labourers for the diffusion of useful knowledge, his name is entitled
to be permanently associated, not only with the industrial, but also
with the intellectual development of our time.



CHAPTER IX.

CHARLES BIANCONI: A LESSON OF SELF-HELP IN IRELAND.

"I beg you to occupy yourself in collecting biographical notices
respecting the Italians who have honestly enriched themselves in other
regions, particularly referring to the obstacles of their previous
life, and to the efforts and the means which they employed for
vanquishing them, as well as to the advantages which they secured for
themselves, for the countries in which they settled, and for the
country to which they owed their birth."--GENERAL MENABREA, Circular to
Italian Consuls.

When Count Menabrea was Prime Minister of Italy, he caused a despatch
to be prepared and issued to Italian Consuls in all parts of the world,
inviting them to collect and forward to him "biographical notices
respecting the Italians who have honourably advanced themselves in
foreign countries."

His object, in issuing the despatch, was to collect information as to
the lives of his compatriots living abroad, in order to bring out a
book similar to 'Self-help,' the examples cited in which were to be
drawn exclusively from the lives of Italian citizens.  Such a work, he
intimated, "if it were once circulated among the masses, could not fail
to excite their emulation and encourage them to follow the examples
therein set forth," while "in the course of time it might exercise a
powerful influence on the increased greatness of our country."

We are informed by Count Menabrea that, although no special work has
been published from the biographical notices collected in answer to his
despatch, yet that the Volere e Potere ('Will is Power') of Professor
Lessona, issued a few years ago, sufficiently answers the purpose which
he contemplated, and furnishes many examples of the patient industry
and untiring perseverance of Italians in all parts of the world.  Many
important illustrations of life and character are necessarily omitted
from Professor Lessona's interesting work.  Among these may be
mentioned the subject of the following pages,--a distinguished Italian
who entirely corresponds to Count Menabrea's description--one who, in
the face of the greatest difficulties, raised himself to an eminent
public position, at the same time that he conferred the greatest
benefits upon the country in which he settled and carried on his
industrial operations.  We mean Charles Bianconi, and his establishment
of the great system of car communication through out Ireland.[1]

Charles Bianconi was born in 1786, at the village of Tregolo, situated
in the Lombard Highlands of La Brianza, about ten miles from Como.  The
last elevations of the Alps disappear in the district; and the great
plain of Lombardy extends towards the south.  The region is known for
its richness and beauty; the inhabitants being celebrated for the
cultivation of the mulberry and the rearing of the silkworm, the finest
silk in Lombardy being produced in the neighbourhood.  Indeed,
Bianconi's family, like most of the villagers, maintained themselves by
the silk culture.

Charles had three brothers and one sister.  When of a sufficient age,
he was sent to school.  The Abbe Radicali had turned out some good
scholars; but with Charles Bianconi his failure was complete.  The new
pupil proved a tremendous dunce.  He was very wild, very bold, and very
plucky; but he learned next to nothing.

Learning took as little effect upon him as pouring water upon a duck's
back.  Accordingly, when he left school at the age of sixteen, he was
almost as ignorant as when he had entered it; and a great deal more
wilful.

Young Bianconi had now arrived at the age at which he was expected to
do something for his own maintenance.  His father wished to throw him
upon his own resources; and as he would soon be subject to the
conscription, he thought of sending him to some foreign country in
order to avoid the forced service.  Young fellows, who had any love of
labour or promptings of independence in them, were then accustomed to
leave home and carry on their occupations abroad.  It was a common
practice for workmen in the neighbourhood of Como to emigrate to
England and carry on various trades; more particularly the manufacture
and sale of barometers, looking-glasses, images, prints, pictures, and
other articles.

Accordingly, Bianconi's father arranged with one Andrea Faroni to take
the young man to England and instruct him in the trade of
print-selling.  Bianconi was to be Faroni's apprentice for eighteen
months; and in the event of his not liking the occupation, he was to be
placed under the care of Colnaghi, a friend of his father's, who was
then making considerable progress as a print-seller in London; and who
afterwards succeeded in achieving a considerable fortune and reputation.

Bianconi made his preparations for leaving home.  A little festive
entertainment was given at a little inn in Como, at which the whole
family were present.  It was a sad thing for Bianconi's mother to take
leave of her boy, wild though he was.  On the occasion of this parting
ceremony, she fainted outright, at which the young fellow thought that
things were assuming a rather serious aspect.  As he finally left the
family home at Tregolo, the last words his mother said to him were
these--words which he never forgot: "When you remember me, think of me
as waiting at this window, watching for your return."

Besides Charles Bianconi, Faroni took three other boys under his
charge.  One was the son of a small village innkeeper, another the son
of a tailor, and the third the son of a flax-dealer. This party, under
charge of the Padre, ascended the Alps by the Val San Giacomo road.
From the summit of the pass they saw the plains of Lombardy stretching
away in the blue distance.  They soon crossed the Swiss frontier, and
then Bianconi found himself finally separated from home.  He now felt,
that without further help from friends or relatives, he had his own way
to make in the world.

The party of travellers duly reached England; but Faroni, without
stopping in London, took them over to Ireland at once.  They reached
Dublin in the summer of 1802, and lodged in Temple Bar, near Essex
Bridge.  It was some little time before Faroni could send out the boys
to sell pictures.  First he had the leaden frames to cast; then they
had to be trimmed and coloured; and then the pictures--mostly of sacred
subjects, or of public characters--had to be mounted.  The flowers;
which were of wax, had also to be prepared and finished, ready for sale
to the passers-by.

When Bianconi went into the streets of Dublin to sell his mounted
prints, he could not speak a word of English.  He could only say, "Buy,
buy!"  Everybody spoke to him an unknown tongue.  When asked the price,
he could only indicate by his fingers the number of pence he wanted for
his goods.  At length he learned a little English,--at least sufficient
"for the road;" and then he was sent into the country to sell his
merchandize.  He was despatched every Monday morning with about forty
shillings' worth of stock, and ordered to return home on Saturdays, or
as much sooner as he liked, if he had sold all the pictures.  The only
money his master allowed him at starting was fourpence.  When Bianconi
remonstrated at the smallness of the amount, Faroni answered, "While
you have goods you have money; make haste to sell your goods!"

During his apprenticeship, Bianconi learnt much of the country through
which he travelled.  He was constantly making acquaintances with new
people, and visiting new places.  At Waterford he did a good trade in
small prints.  Besides the Scripture pieces, he sold portraits of the
Royal Family, as well as of Bonaparte and his most distinguished
generals.  "Bony" was the dread of all magistrates, especially in
Ireland.  At Passage, near Waterford, Bianconi was arrested for having
sold a leaden framed picture of the famous French Emperor.  He was
thrown into a cold guard-room, and spent the night there without bed,
or fire, or food.  Next morning he was discharged by the magistrate,
but cautioned that he must not sell any more of such pictures.

Many things struck Bianconi in making his first journeys through
Ireland.  He was astonished at the dram-drinking of the men, and the
pipe-smoking of the women.  The violent faction-fights which took place
at the fairs which he frequented, were of a kind which he had never
before observed among the pacific people of North Italy.  These
faction-fights were the result, partly of dram-drinking, and partly of
the fighting mania which then prevailed in Ireland.  There were also
numbers of crippled and deformed beggars in every town,--quarrelling
and fighting in the streets,--rows and drinkings at wakes,--gambling,
duelling, and riotous living amongst all classes of the people,--things
which could not but strike any ordinary observer at the time, but which
have now, for the most part, happily passed away.

At the end of eighteen months, Bianconi's apprenticeship was out; and
Faroni then offered to take him back to his father, in compliance with
the original understanding.  But Bianconi had no wish to return to
Italy.  Faroni then made over to him the money he had retained on his
account, and Bianconi set up business for himself.  He was now about
eighteen years old; he was strong and healthy, and able to walk with a
heavy load on his back from twenty to thirty miles a day.  He bought a
large case, filled it with coloured prints and other articles, and
started from Dublin on a tour through the south of Ireland.  He
succeeded, like most persons who labour diligently.  The curly-haired
Italian lad became a general favourite.  He took his native politeness
with him  everywhere; and made many friends among his various customers
throughout the country.

Bianconi used to say that it was about this time when he was carrying
his heavy case upon his back, weighing at least a hundred pounds--that
the idea began to strike him, of some cheap method of conveyance being
established for the accommodation of the poorer classes in Ireland.  As
he dismantled himself of his case of pictures, and sat wearied and
resting on the milestones along the road, he puzzled his mind with the
thought, "Why should poor people walk and toil, and rich people ride
and take their ease?  Could not some method be devised by which poor
people also might have the opportunity of travelling comfortably?"

It will thus be seen that Bianconi was already beginning to think about
the matter.  When asked, not long before his death, how it was that he
had first thought of starting his extensive Car establishment, he
answered, "It grew out of my back!"  It was the hundred weight of
pictures on his dorsal muscles that stimulated his thinking faculties.
But the time for starting his great experiment had not yet arrived.

Bianconi wandered about from town to town for nearly two years. The
picture-case became heavier than ever.  For a time he replaced it with
a portfolio of unframed prints.  Then he became tired of the wandering
life, and in 1806 settled down at Carrick-on-Suir as a print-seller and
carver and gilder.  He supplied himself with gold-leaf from Waterford,
to which town he used to proceed by Tom Morrissey's boat.  Although the
distance by road between the towns was only twelve miles, it was about
twenty-four by water, in consequence of the windings of the river Suir.
Besides, the boat could only go when the state of the tide permitted.
Time was of little consequence; and it often took half a day to make
the journey.  In the course of one of his voyages, Bianconi got himself
so thoroughly soaked by rain and mud that he caught a severe cold,
which ran into pleurisy, and laid him up for about two months.  He was
carefully attended to by a good, kind physician, Dr. White, who would
not take a penny for his medicine and nursing.

Business did not prove very prosperous at Carrick-on-suir; the town was
small, and the trade was not very brisk.  Accordingly, Bianconi
resolved, after a year's ineffectual trial, to remove to Waterford, a
more thriving centre of operations.  He was now twenty-one years old.
He began again as a carver and gilder; and as business flowed in upon
him, he worked very hard, sometimes from six in the morning until two
hours after midnight.  As usual, he made many friends.  Among the best
of them was Edward Rice, the founder of the "Christian Brothers" in
Ireland.  Edward Rice was a true benefactor to his country.  He devoted
himself to the work of education, long before the National Schools were
established; investing the whole of his means in the foundation and
management of this noble institution.