BOOK AIND JOB FACES.

6 POINT No. 16.
PRINTING is the art of producing impressions, from charac-
ters or figures, on paper or any other substance. There are
several distinct branches of this important art-as the print-
ing of books with movable types, the printing of engraved
copper and steel plates and the taking of impressions from
stone, called lithographing, We have now to describe the
printing of books or sheets with movable types, generally
called letter-press printing, and which may undoubtedly be
esteemed the greatest of all human inventions. The art of
printing is of comparatively modern origin, only four hundred
years having elapsed since the first book Was issued from the
press; yet we have proofs that the principles upon which it
was ultimately developed existed among the ancient Assyrian
nations. Entire and undecayed bricks of the famed city and
tower of Babylon have been round stamped with various sym-
bolic figures and hieroglyphic characters. In this, however.
as in any similar relic of antiquity, the object which stamped
the figures was in one block or piece, and could therefore be
employed only for one distinct subject. This, though a kind of
printing, was totally useless for the propagation of literature,
on account both of its expensiveness and tediousness. The
Chinese are the only existing people who still pursue this rude
mode of printing by stamping paper with blocks of wood. The
work which they intend to have printed is, in the first place,
carefully written upon sheets of thin transparent paper; each
of these sheets is glued, with the face downwards, upon a thin
tablet of hard wood, and the engraver then, with proper in-
struments, cuts away the wood in all those parts on which
nothing is traced, thus leaving the transcribed characters in
relief, and ready for printing. In this way, as many tablets are
necessary as there are written pages. No press is used; but
when the ink is laid on, and the paper carefully placed above
it. a brush is passed over with the proper degree of pressure.
A similar kind of printing by blocks, for the prodiction of
playing cards and rude pictures of scriptural subjects, was in
use in Europe towards the end of the fourteenth century. But
in all this there was little merit. The great discovery was that
of forming every letter or character of the alphabet separ-
ately, so as to be capable of rearrangement, and forming in
succession the pages of a work, thereby avoiding the inter-
minable labor of cutting new blocks of types for every page.
The credit of the discovering of this simple yet marvelous art
is contested by the Dutch in favor of Laurence Coster, and the
Germans on behalf of Johann Gansfleisch, of the Gutenberg
family. In all probability, the discovery was made almost

7 POINT No. l&
PRINTING is the art of producing impressions, from char-
acters or figures, on paper or any other substance. There
are several distinct branches of this important art-as the
printing of books with movable types, the printing of en-
graved copper and steel plates, and the taking of impres-
sions from stone, called lithographing. We have now to
describe the printing of books or sheets with movable
types, generally called letter-press printing, and which
may undoubtedly be esteemed the greatest of all human
inventions. The art of printing is of comparatively mod-
ern origin, only four hundred years having elapsed since
the first book was issued from the press; yet we have
proofs that the principles upon which it was ultimately de-
veloped existed among the ancient Assyrian nations. En-
tire and undecayed bricks of the famed city and tower of
Babylon have been found stamped with various symbolic
figures and hieroglyphic characters. In this, however, as
in any similar relic of antiquity, the object which stamped
the figures was in one block or piece, and could therefore
be employed only for one distinct subject. This, though a
kind of printing, was totally useless for the propagation
of literature, on account both of its expensiveness and
tediousness. The Chinese are the only existing people
who still pursue this rude mode of printing by stamping
paper with blocks of wood. The work which they intend
to have printed is, in the first place, carefully written
upon sheets of thin transparent paper; each of these
sheets is glued, with the face downwards, upon a thin tab-
let of hard wood, and the engraver then, with proper
instruments, cuts away the wood in all those parts on
which nothing is traced, thus leaving the transcribed
characters in relief and ready for printing. In this way,
as many tablets are necessary as there are written pages.
No press is used; but when the ink is laid on, and the
paper carefully placed above it, a brush is passed over
withthe proper degree of pressure. A similar kind of
printing by blocks, for the production of playing cards
and rude pictures of scriptural subjects, was in use in
Europe towards the end of the fourteenth century. But
in all this there was little merit. The great discoverywas

FOR ITALICS. STANDARDS AND PRICES, SEE PAGES 2, 16 AND 17