The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-09-24
Imperial Printing OH sc of vienna.

This printing Office has gained a world
wide celebrity, aud attracts multitudes
of visitors from al! quarters of the globe.
Iu magnitude, diversity of work, and com
pleteness Of arrangement, it has no su-
perior.
The entrance. hall contains al interest
ing exhibition of the fac arts, consisting |
of samples Of the numerous classes Of
work executed in tho institution, and |
classified in tasteful and appropriate
manner.
The press-rooms, bureaus, warerooms,
composing drying-rooms, foundry,
etc. occupy five buildings, from four to
six stories in height, formerly used as
Franciscan convent, on Singer Street,
Vienna, the printing Office proper occu-
plying an area covered by roof Of iron
aud glass, and so arranged that it can be
thrown iato one large room.
The Imperial Printing Office usually
gives employment to at least 1000 per-
sons, and uses yearly over 200, 900 reams
Of paper. 1t contained in 1864 over
l75,000000 letters or characters (of
which 10000 were Chinesc), weighing
over 100000 pounds Two hundred ma
chimes are constantly at work in the va
rious departments. The typc-foundry
contains $4,000 steel punches and $4,000
matrices. The facilities are being rapid
y augmented and improved in every
branch of the institution. Tracks are at
work in subterrancan railways in bring.
ing coil to feed engines used to propel
the various machines. Heat is applied
to the rooms by means of LOOP feet Of
steam-pipes. Through 5000 feet Of gas
pipe there streams daily 24,OO0 cubic
feet of gas for supplying 700 burners, for
lighting, soldering warming, aud other
purposes and hot and cold water is sup.
piled through the whole building. From
the central office of the directors, four
teen copper speaking-pipes convey orders
to all parts Of the establishment. The
composition department embraces over
600 kinds Of German and Roman letters,
which have been designed, cut, and cast
in the building. la the casting-room are
numerous furnaces and casting-machines
of ingenious construction, manufacturing
twenty different faces of Roman, and near
ly as many Of Italic, besides 200 kinds Of
ornaments for various uses, and 100 fonts
Of script and alphabets, embracing the
regular English scripts, the alphabets Of
the Middle Ages, black.letter writing,
gothics, and large quantity of book
faces, with an assortment Of over 100
corners and borders.
Besides the 500 different native alpha
bets, the institution contains over 12O
alphabets of foreign tongues-in short, an
alphabet Of all the written languages.
Here may be seen the curious Chinese
and Indian characters, side by side with
the ancient monumental letters on the
ruins of Babylon, Ninevah, and Persepo'
lis, the various squarc-shaped letters o'
the Hebrew alphabet, the ornamental
carved and dotted Arabian and Persian
characters, the angular Northern Runc
with the round form Of the Ethiopian
Eturiao, and Coptic alphabets, besides q
multitude Of others, with strange coun
tcnances and unheard Of names. mostly )
Asiatc Large rooms are required for
the proper storage Of the paper, as wei
as the laying out of the printed sheets
One of the rooms is occupied by l2O com
positors and correctors, while another Ii
used as q wash-house, where the printed
types are placed in copper receptacles, t(
be cleaned with lye ; farther on are the
priuting.presses Of all shapes and sizes
Very much like church is the five-story
dry-housc, with its galleries and co nmun
icating halls, where the sheets, hung up
on lines, are dried by means Of warm al
ascending through openings in the floor
Here is standing-press, capable Of press
ing sheets piled to the height of four o
FIVE feet farther on is the smoothing-ma
chine, in which the sheets being PLACED
between mental plates and passed througl
: two cylinders become perfectly smooth
then follows the bookbndiug with its ap
, paratus. The Imperial Printing Offic
turns ovt various kinds of work brough
to perfection by all the methods employ
ed in book and artistic printing; gather
ing triumphs Of human geulus, in The do
main of printing, from the ordinar.
wood cut to the finest oil-color and natur
printing, aud representing the history o
printing in all its branches and periods
Ia the department devoted to the print
ing of bonds, bank notes, and state pa
pers, part Of the impressions are taken b.
means Of hand-presses, and part by lltho
graphic and steam power-presses. Fort
six machines have at busy seasons bee
: used for this description of work alone.
Photography is brought into requisi
tiou for many purposes, among which
y the reproduction of old and rare print.
=, engraviugs, manuscripts, etc, which ar
d portrayed with singular fidelity.
: An interesting portion Of the work
this institution is embraced in the produC
tion of embossed letters, words and mar
y for the blind, whereby these unfortunate
J are enabled to read through the sense {
= feeling Besides these, the means fc
! writing are supplied to them in the shap
. of alphabet dies or stamps, which can b
y used by the blind to stamp on paper, an
: thus preserve their thoughts and IDEAS
l. the same manner as their more fortunai
e fellows. These alphabcts for the bin
> are also made to suit the language Of th
Eastern countries.
The copper-plate presses are fitted wit
:. steam attachments for giving the impre
r sions, thus saving time and labor, but al
n restricted in the capacity for much moi
;. work than the hand-presses, by the dela
!, occasioned in rolling the plate, which
n manipulated by hand.
IS The are of nature printing, the disco
D. cry of a director OF the Imperial Prin
,e ing Office, DR.. Alois Won Auer, has hel
7e been brought to high state Of pcrlect;o