The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-31 00:00:00

THE PATENT PRINTING MACHINERY AND
PRINTING COMPANY.

(From the Typographical Circular.)
Mourn, compositors, mourn ! Bewail the unlucky
fate that made you printers! Sigh over the uncertainty
of human happiness ! Your art is about to be super-
seded—your " occupation". will soon be gone ! Major
Beniowski has patented some " improvements" (?)
in printing, which promise to simplify the art so that
"authors will be able to set up their productions in
metal themselves ; and those who are able to pay will
find millions of willing and exceedingly cheap hands,
everywhere, at all times, and a moment's notice."

Printing is to be introduced into every school ; boys
and girls are to learn to read and print at the same
time ; children are to have types in the nurseries instead
of the present toy bricks ; " the walls will become in-
scribed with papa, mamma, &c., and it will not be long
before they cover their floors, walls, and roofs with
words and sentences."

The inventor humanely cautions parents against " the
folly of apprenticing their children to a trade which will,
at the end of the apprenticeship, be the trade of every-
body ;" and the gallant major " actualy thinks that it
will require great activity on the part of the law to make
those that are already indentured stick to their parents'
engagements."

At- a lecture delivered at Willis's Rooms, St.
James's, Major Beniowski explained that the chief
impediment to cheap printing arose from the extreme
difficulty which compositors experience in reading their
lines, and that the above revolution is to be effected—
first, by having types about half the usual height, and, in
addition to the ordinary letter On the face, having the
same letter, not reversed, cut on the foot, which is to be
placed uppermost in the stick, so as to be easily read, and
the lines to be afterwards turned over. The letter on the
foot will be legible, we doubt not, till it gets dragged over
the stone, or filled up by dirt, or till a sheet of paper is
pasted by the presman or machinist at the back of the
form, when probably the face of the type would be found
most legible—unless, indeed, that shall be so much worn
by being distributed and composed downwards as to be
illegible also. The type to be composed by a female, is
to be formed into lines, spaced out, and the words di-
vided by a little boy learning to read ; to be distributed
by another little buy ; to be placed in the case, called an
" authoriton," by a third ; and although nothing has
been said about readers and correctors, doubtlessly
their services will be occasionally required. Secondly,
the present cumbrous cases, with two or three alphabets
in them, " making the art so difficult as to require
an apprenticeship," are to be done away with, and the
"authoriton," with only 1620 compartments, is to take
their place. Thirdly, instead of picking up one type at
a time, the matter is to be simplified by having com-
pound letters, syllables, words substituted ; in order that
children at school —or any one who can read—may at
once become compositors I

The present boxes in cases are too large, and the new
ones must be very much smaller ; and, as the type can-
not therefore be picked up by the fingers, a pair of
tweezers will be used, and the types must therefore be
packed in the cases so as not to require turning.
" Logotype" has been often tried, and as often failed.
But now every difficulty is removed, and the thing made
exceedingly simple. One of the greatest objections to
joining three or four letters together was, that when one
letter got battered, the whole piece had to be thrown
away ; but in the new process the letters will be bast
separately and ceaiented together ; and when one gets
battered the compositor will only have to dissolve the
cement by soaking in spirits of wine, taking off the tin-
foil in which the letters are enveloped, pick out the bat-
tered type, re-cement the letters, replace the tin-foil, and
the thing is done.
The quantity composed, too, will be enormous. In a
trial made at the lecture a young lady composed,esti-
mated in
three minutes, of reprint copy, a quantity of types,
by Major Beniowski to be equal to2oole ttetrhsis;
so that, supposing the same speed to be kept up,
would be equal to 4,000 an hour ; which, considering
scoonnisindoehrinags
the number of assistants required, w
was expected ; but printing is nevertheless to be exe-
cuted much cheaper than at p
" compositors"from ss. to 20s.are, by paying the
week,sent andby
require
euem-
ployment of children, who, as they grow up and
increased wages, are to be exchanged for others a size or
two smaller.
The inventor is completely independent of the " old
hands," who "may come to him, but he does not want
them," and he is, therefore, certain of success. Indeed,
so independent is he of those at present in the trade,
that he has not at all consulted practical men on the
subject.
Such are the main features of a scheme by which the
inventor threatens to effect as great a revolution
among printers as was effected among the ancient
" scribes ' by the introduction of printing; and, in
defiance, or in ignorance, of former experiments, is
about to try what has repeatedly failed. Showing an
utter contempt for those at present engsged in the
trade, he supposes that composing is merely a me-
chanical process, disregards the difficulties arising from
imperfect or illegible manuscript, or the knowledge of
punctuation required, and, pretending that experience is
not necessary to make a competent workman, invites
capitalists to embark in an undertaking by which printing
is promised to be executed at less than half the present
cost, and return a profit of 200 per cent to the shareholders.
The experience of many who tried the logotypes is set at
nought ; and, in spite of the heavy losses by the proprietor
of Lloyd's Newspaper and others, who tried the compost ng-
machine, it is still declared that persons without any
previous training can efficiently execute that which all
practical men know to require the experience of a life-
time.
Well may foreigners laugh at the gullibility of John
Bull ! A speculator has only to issue a flaming prospec-
tus, and deliver a lecture at some aristocratic assembly-
room, to gain patronage from a host of, fashionable ad-
mirers ; and when assisted by a name of difficult pronun-
ciation, with an interesting foreign accent, and a pleasing
personal exterior, is at once declared to be a wonderful
genius, a benefactor of his species, and deserving the
thanks of a discerning public.
If any one supposed that at the late lecture any oppor-
tunity of inquiring into the merits of the so-called inven-
tion would be afforded, a great mistake was committed ;
it was evidently intended only for the classic region of
St. James's, and not for the denizens of Fleet-street ; for
when one or two most pertinent questions were put by a
gentleman well known as a first-rate practical printer, it
was at once seen that they were distasteful ; the lec-
turer began to lose his temper, and evaded questions by
relating irrelevant anecdotes. Practical men, therefore,
wisely abstained from any attempt at exposing the ab-
surdity of the scheme, rightly believing that they were
in no way concerned in the matter, and that if St.r
James's wished for an interesting toy, it was
not for
them to interfere. The whole affair strongly reminded
of the
ided
m
us of the graphic drscription given
by n
c,
got Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual De-
livery Company," and we venture to predict that it will
not be long before the bubble bursts.

DOGGETT'S COAT AND BADGE.—The names Of the six
young watermen who are to row on the Ist of of August
for the livery and badge bequeathed by Mr. Doggett, in
honour of the happy accession of the family of her Ma.
jesty to the throne of Great Britain, are as follow.
Jas. Gingen, jun., Hor,leplown ;Richard Hou.zh, Somers-
quay; Samuel Thomas Ashby, Duke-shore; Wm, James
Pruas, Bankside ; Edward Mills, Woolwich; David J.
Hemmings, Bankside. Besides the livery and badge are
prizes bequeathed by Sir W. Jolliffe, and presents from
the Fishmongers Company•