asting them

r mould, by el by which , disregard

dered as the printing was vare far, intance; they enumerated which they so little to either the much in =red, it too nverting a

at we may abstituting

succession ting may nere writits prin ting, the fterwards

has per ery letter ypes, the ne book

ng, how pt a re

ting the

gle type

e same

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Chinese discovery in novelty, or real originality of concep-
tion, as it undoubtedly is in importance. That wonderful
instrument, the alphabet, being already invented, this im-
provement consisted merely in chopping down the engraved
wooden block into as many separate pieces as there were
letters cut upon it. The first time that a school-alphabet
was printed by block, the thing was in a manner done;
here stood the twenty-four letters already separated to the
eye, and in all respects, except in so far as regarded the
material cohesion of the wood; and actually to part them
was no more than what is done by every child who finds
himself in possession of a similar alphabet embossed upon a
cake of gingerbread. Probably this was done in the first
instance without any forethought of their recomposition
in a new order; so that there may have been moveable
types before moveable-type printing was dreamed of, and
the latter may have been suggested by the former. But at
any rate, an innovation the idea of which consisted simply
in supposing the arrangement in a different order of a num-
ber of objects already visibly unconnected, or separable, must
in one way or another have been speedily brought about.
The casting of metal types again was only an application of
the art of founding, which is one of the most antient of the
arts practised by men; and the fabrication of the matrix
by a punch was merely an example of the familiar practice
of receiving the impression of a stamp or seal upon a sub-
stance softer than itself, and precisely the same thing with
the very common mode of stamping coins by hammering.
Four names have principally figured in the controversy
that has been raised about the invention of printing :-John
Gutenberg (paternally Genstleish), of Strasburg; John
Fust (or Faust), of Mayence; Peter Schoeffer (in Latin,
Opilio), of Gernsheim; and Lawrence Coster (or Janszoon),
of Haarlem. The pretensions of John Mentelius, of Stras-
burg, need scarcely be noticed. In addition to the accounts
which will be found under these names, we shall here subjoin
a summary of what appears to be the most probable state of
the facts, and the version of the matter that is now generally
received.

manner which this stupid story about Coster takes no notice of whatever. The probability is, that Coster was one of the early block-printers, whose art, there is every reason to believe, was first practised in Holland. If this art could be proved to have been really invented there, whether by Coster (whose date however is scarcely antient enough) or by some other of his countrymen, and not borrowed from the Chinese, the Dutch would be then entitled to take to themselves the glory of being the true discoverers of printing, and would have little reason to grudge their German neighbours all that they claim as its improvers and perfecters by having been the first to employ moveable types, and matrices, and punches.

These mere improvements are all that can be attributed to Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer. Gutenberg, it is now generally supposed, first began to print at Strasburg some time between the years 1436 and 1442. If what he first practised was block-printing, as has been asserted, he was not the inventor of that method, which we know was in use some years before the earliest of these dates. But there is good reason for believing that before he left Strasburg he had begun to print with moveable types of wood. Having then established himself in Mayence, which was his native town, he there, in the year 1445, entered into partnership with Fust, who seems not only to have supplied the capital for carrying on the business, but also to have assisted Gutenberg in devising or carrying into effect his subsequent great improvement of the art, by casting the types of metal. But to Schoeffer, who was in the service of Gutenberg and Fust, and had married Fust's daughter, is assigned the credit of having facilitated and (as far as the principle was concerned) brought to perfection the process of founding by the contrivance of the punch. This is the account of the matter at once most accordant with the words of the only contemporary or nearly contemporary authority, the abbot John Trithemius, in his Annales Monasterii Hirsaugiensis,' and best supported by all the facts that have since come to light. Trithemius, who died in 1516 (though his work was not printed till 1690, 2 vols. folio, Monast. S. Galli), professes to have derived his information from a grandson of Schoeffer. It is observable that he expressly attributes the invention of the art to Fust as well as to Gutenberg.

An antient chronicle, first printed at Cologne in 1474 (Chronica, sive Fasciculus Temporum,' &c., commonly called the Cologne Chronicle'), notes that, after ten years had been spent in preparation, the art of printing began to be practised (cœptum est imprimi) in the year 1450. The first book, this chronicle proceeds to state, that was printed was the Bible. Trithemius informs us that before the first twelve sheets of this Bible were printed, Gutenberg and Fust had incurred an expenditure of four thousand florins. The Bible in question is the edition of the Latin Vulgate commonly known by the name of the 'Mazarin Bible,' from a copy of it having been discovered about the middle of the last century in the ‘Bibliothèque Mazarine' (ou du Collège des Quatre Nations) by the bookseller De Bure, who has given a minute description of it in his 'Bibliographie Instructive' (vol. i., pp. 32-40). Many other copies of the book however have since turned up. It is without either date or printer's name, but it appears to have been completed before 1455. For some time the new art is said to have been kept secret, and a story is commonly told of the copies of this very edition of the Bible having been sold for several years at Paris as manuscripts, but this anecdote is neither very probable nor very well authenticated. Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer appear to have printed in partnership till the year 1458, when Gutenberg quarrelled with the other two, who then carried on the business by themselves, while he set up a new press, also in Mayence. The knowledge of the art was first made public and carried into other countries by the dispersion of many of the workmen on the storming of Mayence by Adolphus of Nassau, in 1462. Printing was first practised in Italy, in the town of Subiaco, in the Roman territory, in 1465; in France, at Paris, in 1469; in England, at Westminster, in 1474; and in Spain, at Barcelona, in 1475. It is said that by the year 1530 there were already about 200 printing-presses in Europe.

With regard to the tradition recorded by Hadrian Junius, which ascribes the invention of printing to Coster [COSTER], it may be remarked that, whatever may be thought of the external evidence for the story, the account of the invention with which it supplies us is in the highest degree improbable. The date assigned to Coster's experiments cannot, by any straining of Junius's meaning, be carried farther back than the year 1440. We know that long before time blockprinting, both of pictures and of words, was in common use; yet the Haarlem churchwarden is represented as no more indebted for his new idea to that process than if he had never heard of its existence; that is to say, nine-tenths of the whole art of printing being already discovered and in use, this singular genius discovers the remaining tenth, not by availing himself of what had been already done, but by beginning from the beginning in a way of his own, and most unnecessarily discovering the whole over again. Coster must have seen block-pictures and block-books, but these do not afford him a hint; he takes his whole notion of printing from having been accidentally led to cut out some letters in the bark of trees; the letters already properly reversed on the blocks, and actually employed for making impressions, teach him nothing, suggest nothing to him; but he is filled with the idea of the whole process of printing, in its most improved form, including moveable types, by his own carvings in the bark, which really could have no more tendency to suggest any part of the idea than any other characters graven on wood, or stone, or metal, he had ever looked upon, or even than the common writing in a book. Of course, when Coster, in his afternoon walks, made, like Orlando in the play, the trees his books, and charactered his thoughts in their barks, he cut his letters so as that they should present the usual appearance to the eye; if he reversed them, then it was not his operations on the bark that gave him the idea of printing, but the idea of printing previously acquired, and elsewhere derived, that set him to operate on the bark. But the truth is that the maker of this story misapprehended altogether in what it is that the invention of the art of printing consisted; it did not consist in conceiving the employment of inverted characters that was quite a familiar expedient, as old as the coining of money or the use of seals, things which had been known for thousands of years; what it consisted in was the application of a pigment to the stamp or seal in a P. C., No. 1169.

Among the principal works upon the invention and history of printing, are-Bern. à Malinkrot, De Ortu et Progressu Artis Typographica,' 4to., Colon. Agrip., 1639; Jac. Mentelii De Typographia Origine Parænesis,' 4to., Paris, 1650 (this is an assertion of the claim of the author's ancestor of the same name); J. de la Caille, 'Histoire de VOL. XIX.-D

l'Imprimerie,' 4to., Paris, 1689; And. Chevillier, 'L'Origine | of the crank-handle acting underneath the table. To the
de l'Imprimerie de Paris,' 4to., Paris, 1694; Fra. Pellegrino carriage are attached the tympans E, which are light frames
Antonio Orlandi, 'Origine e Progressi della Stampa,' 4to., covered with parchment, and so constructed that the inner
Bologna, 1722; Jo. Ch. Wolfii' Monumenta Typographica,' 2 tympan just lies within the outer tympan. Some blanketing
tom., 8vo., Hamb., 1740; Pros. Marchand, 'Histoire de l'Ori- is placed between the tympans, so as to equalise the pressure
gine et des Progrès de l'Imprimerie, 4to., La Haye, 1740; upon the surface of the types. To the outer tympan is at-
Mich. Maittaire, Annales Typographicæ,' 5 tom., 4to., Hag. tached the frisket F. The sheet of paper to be printed
Com., Amstel., et Lon., 1719-1741; P. S. Fournier, 'Disserta- being placed on the tympans, the frisket is turned down
tion sur l'Origine de l'Imprimerie,' 8vo., Paris, 1759; Jo. Dan. upon it; and then the frisket and tympans are turned down
Schoepflini Vindicia Typographicæ,' 4to., Argentor., 1760; upon the form of types. The frisket is covered with paper
Gerardi Meerman, Origines Typographicæ,' 2 tom., 4to., or parchment, cut out so that the sheet to be printed, when
Hag. Com., 1765; Ch. Hen. Baron Heinecken, 'Idée Gé- placed between the tympans and frisket, and folded down
nérale d'une Collection complete d'Estampes,' 8vo., Leips., together on the form of the types, may be in contact with
1771; Pi. Lambinet, Recherches sur l'Origine de l'Impri- the surface of the types; while the remainder of the frisket-
merie,' 8vo., 1798, and 2 tomes, 8vo., 1810; Singer's Re- sheet preserves the margin from being soiled.
searches into the History of Playing-Cards;' Ottley's His-
tory of Engraving;' Fried. Metz, Geschichte des Buchhan-
dels und der Buchdruckerkunst,' Darmstadt, 1834; Falcken-
stein, 'Entstehung und Ausbildung der Buchdruckerkunst,'
Leips. (announced as about to appear in a valuable paper on
the History of the Book-trade of Germany,' by M. Henry
Meidinger, published in the Quarterly Journal of the
Statistical Society of London' for July, 1840 (vol. iii., part
2, pp. 161-190).

PRINTING-PRESS. The term printing-press is applied to the machine used for letter-press printing or copper-plate printing, but more usually the former. The date of the invention of the printing-press is unknown, but some contrivance for this purpose must have been used as soon as printing by blocks or types was introduced. The increased force requisite to make an impression, the size of the surface to be printed from being increased, would soon suggest recourse to some of the simple machines or mechanical powers for the modification of the power requisite to obtain the necessary pressure. The screw, as applied in the common screw-press [SCREW-PRESS], would obviously suggest itself; and accordingly, in all the earlier printing-presses, the screw alone is used.

The operations to be performed in the process of printing will point out the essential parts of a printing-press. The types, being set up and arranged in a form of suitable dimensions, have to be inked; this is effected by passing across them a cylinder, or roller, covered with an elastic composition of molasses, glue, and tar. The paper to be printed has to be laid on the types when inked, and then the requisite pressure for making the impression has to be applied. The earliest form of printing-press very closely resembled the common screw-press, as the cheese or napkin press, with some contrivance for running the form of types, when inked, under the pressure, and back again when the impression was made. This rude and inconvenient form of press was superseded by the invention of Blew, a printer of Amsterdam. Other improvements were from time to time introduced; but they were all superseded, about the commencement of the present century, by an invention of Lord Stanhope.

The form of types being inked, and the tympans and frisket, with the sheet of paper between them, folded down on the form, the whole is run, by turning the crank-handle, under the plattin G, which is a massive plate of cast-iron, moveable up and down perpendicularly, its weight being rather more than counterbalanced by the weight I at the back. The pressman pulls the handle of the bar H towards him, or across the press, and thus communicates motion to k and l, and causes the spindle m, which sustains the plattin, to descend and produce the requisite pressure. The principal improvement of the Stanhope press consists in the manner in which the descending motion is given to the screw. This depends on the properties of the bent lever, and may be explained in the following manner:-It is a necessary consequence of the peculiar combination and arrangement of the bent lever here employed, that on the handle H being moved, the plattin descends rapidly at first; but as the plattin comes very near to the extreme point of its descent, the motion is extremely slow. But at this instant the plattin is pressing the paper upon the types, and the pressure exerted being inversely as the rate of the descent of the plattin, whose motion at this instant is exceedingly slow, the pressure produced is enormously large. It will be found also that at the instant the plattin is at its lowest point, the connecting bar 7, by which the power applied is transmitted to the plattin, passes across the centres of motion of the system of forces; and at this instant, as theory points out, the ratio of the pressure produced to the power applied is indefinitely large. The pull having been made, or the pressure produced, the handle H returns to its original position, being taken back by the weight I at the back, which her more than counterbalances the plattin. The carriage is then run back, the frisket and tympans unfolded, and the printed sheet being taken out, the same operation is repeated. The usual rate of printing by the Stanhope press is two hundred and fifty per hour, two men being employed, one to ink the types, and the other as pressman.

The principle of the Stanhope press has been followed out by several subsequent inventors, and improvements of mechanical detail introduced, tending to the economy of time and labour, and to precision of workmanship. In the Ruthven press, the form of types remains stationary, and the plattin is removed to permit the types to be inked; and in this, as well as the Columbian, the pressure is produced by a combination of levers alone, without the use of any portion of a screw or inclined plane.

one

The press for copper-plate printing consists of two cylinders, or rollers, of wood, supported in a strong wooden frame, and moveable about their axes, placed just above and another just below the level of the table upon which the plate to be printed is laid. The upper roller is turned round by the arms of a cross fixed to its axis. The copper-plate being inked, the paper on which the impression is to be taken, and two or three folds of soft material, as blanketing, are placed upon it. The plate so prepared is moved along the table to the juncture of the two rollers, and the upper roller being turned by the arms of the cross, the plate, with its furniture, is passed through the press. The rollers may be placed nearer to or farther from each other, according to the amount of pressure requisite for making a good impression, that is, according to the depth of the engraving and the degree of blackness which the impression is required to have.

PRINTING-MACHINE. The printing-press, though much improved during the last half-century by the ingenuity of Lord Stanhope and others [PRINTING-PRESS], is quite in

N

k

k

m

M

adequate to a rate of production equal to the present demand.
The attention of practical men was consequently directed to
some more rapid means of production, and as early as 1790,
even before the Stanhope-press was generally known, Mr.
W. Nicholson had letters-patent for a machine similar in
many respects to those which have now come into use. Subse-
quently Mr. König, a German, conceived nearly the same idea,
and meeting with the encouragement in this country which
he failed to obtain on the Continent, constructed a printing-
machine, and on the 28th of November, 1814, the readers of
the Times' were informed that they were then for the first
time reading a newspaper printed by machinery driven by
steam-power. This printing-machine, though highly inge-
nious, was very complicated, and the machine of König was
soon superseded by that of Messrs. Applegath and Cowper,
the novel features of which were accuracy in the register,
the method of inking the types, and great simplicity in
hitherto very complicated parts. Printing-machines may
be distinguished into single and double; the single being
that in which only one side of the sheet of paper is printed,
the double that in which both sides are printed before the
sheet leaves the machine. The former is used for news-
papers and that kind of printing in which it is not necessary
for the two sides of the sheet to 'register,' that is, for the
printing on one side to be exactly at the back of the other;
the latter for books, in which it is essential that the printing
on one page should correspond with the printing on the
other when the sheets are folded. This important object of
the register is effected by causing the parts to move at pre-
cisely the same speed. This being the principle of the
register, its success will depend on great accuracy of work-
manship in the mechanical parts. The accompanying repre-
sentation of the printing-machine will furnish a correct
notion of the several parts, and of the way in which motion
is communicated to them. A sheet of paper is taken from
the pile to be printed (as represented at the left-hand side
of the drawing), and put into the machine by one attendant,
and taken out printed on both sides by the other attendant,
whose hand is shown under the cylinders. The accom-
panying sketch will show the principle of the printing-
machine.

The sheet of paper taken from the table A is laid on the
feeder B, which consists of girths of linen, tightly stretched
by being passed round two cylinders. By the motion of this
feeder the sheet is placed between the two systems of tapes
which lie on the cylinder G: these tapes, of which one set
is represented by the dotted line, and the other by the thin
line, lie two and two over each other on the cylinders and
small rollers a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i. The sheet of paper
grasped between them is kept clean at the places in which
it is in contact with them, and by the motion of the various
parts is conducted under the first printing-cylinder H, and
receives an impression from the types at C; thence by
means of the cylinders I, K, to the second printing-cylinder
L, where it receives an impression on the other side from
the types at D. Thus printed on both sides, it is taken out
at e by the attendant. The cylinders I and K are simply
for the purpose of conveying the sheet steadily and smoothly
from one printing-cylinder to the other. The sheet will
be seen to be reversed in its progress from one set of types
to the other, descending the left side of the first and the
right side of the second printing-cylinder.

An inking-apparatus is placed at each end of the table
M, N, which carries the types C, D, and which traverses
backwards and forwards under the printing-cylinders L, H,
and inking-rollers. The ink, received from a reservoir k
by the two rollers and m, is transferred from them to the
surface of the table; the surface of the table inks the
rollers n, o, and these, in their turn, ink the types as they
pass backwards and forwards for each impression. The ex-
cellence of the printing depends in a great measure on the
types being properly inked. In a machine arranged ac-
cording to the accompanying diagram, the types are touched
four times by the inking-rollers for each impression, and by
increasing the number of rollers, any perfection of inking
may be obtained. The machines commonly used for print-
ing books will print from seven hundred to one thousand
per hour, in perfect register; and for newspapers, printed
on one side only, from four thousand to six thousand per
hour.

PRINTING, CALICO. [CALICO PRINTING.]
PRIODON. [ARMADILLO, vol. ii., p. 354.]
PRION. [PETRELS, vol. xviii., p. 47.]

PRIONI TES, Illiger's name for a genus of birds. Generic Character.- Both mandibles slightly curved and compressed; the margins with strong denticulations, Tongue long, slender; the sides ciliated. Wings short, rounded. Tail lengthened, cuneated. Feet gressorial, as in Merops. (Sw.)

Mr. Swainson (Classification of Birds) remarks that every writer since the days of Linnæus (who at first actually classed them in the same genus) has placed the Motmots (Prionites) and the Toucans (Ramphastos) close together, not only from the similarity of their habits, but from the structure of the tongue, which in both is long, and so much ciliated at its sides as to resemble a feather; so far, therefore, he observes, the resemblance is unquestionable. But,' continues Mr. Swainson, the feet of the motmot are totally different from the toucan; they are not scansorial, but of that particular structure so common among the Fissirostres. The toucans, we know, from personal observation, to be gregarious, living in flocks, and seeking their food from the tops of lofty trees; the motmot is solitary, hiding in the deep shades of the forests, and, like other air-feeding birds, is always found sitting nearly motionless. Here, then, is a very obvious departure from the structure and habits of the toucan. The question then is, to what does it lead? If to the hornbills (which has been inferred from the structure of the feet), we should have no diminution in the size of the bill, which in both the hornbills and toucans is equally large, but in the motmot of an ordinary and proportionate size: we should further expect a bird which was gregarious, since both these groups are so. Yet there is nothing in the motmot, beyond its feet, which will at all assimilate it to the perchers; while its fissirostral habit of catching its food upon the wing, and the discovery of the broad-billed species, Prionites platyrhynchus, seems to us a conclusive argument for placing this genus in the fissirostral order, as more intimately connected to the Jacamars (Galbula) [KINGFISHERS, vol. xiii., p. 233], than to any other known genus.

Prionites Mexicanus.

Example, Prionites Mexicanus.

Description.-Green above, paler beneath; head and neck above crimson; ears black, varied, and tipped with bright blue stripes; belly white. (Sw.)

Food, Habits, Geographical Distribution. Mr. Swain

f birds. y curved and enticulations Vings short gressorial, as

marks that at first acte ed the Mat Os) close to habits, but oth is long

a feather:

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to the B), than

son (Zool. Ill.) states that the motmots or momots, so
named from their monotonous note, live only in the tropical
forests of the New World, preferring those deep recesses of
perpetual shade where a high canopy of matted foliage
nearly excludes the rays of a vertical sun. They appear
even more solitary in their disposition than the Trogons; their
note may be heard, morning and evening, from the depths
of the forests, but the bird is never seen, unless the hunter
comes unexpectedly upon its retreat. This we have generally
found to be a low withered branch completely shaded and
just at the edge of such paths as are made by the Cavies or
the Indians. The Jacamars and the Trogons both love
these shady nooks, where they sit nearly motionless, watch-
ing for passing insects, on which they dart. Such is, no
doubt, the manner in which the motmot feeds; but his
strong conformation enables him to capture larger game.
Travellers assert that he also devours the eggs and young
of other birds, like the Toucans; this we believe, as both
have the same long and feather-like tongue.'

Mr. G. R. Gray makes the Momotina, a subfamily of the
Todide, consist of the genus Crypticus, Sw. (Momotus,
Leadb.; Prionites, Sw.), and the genus Momotus, Briss.
(Baryphonus, Vieill.; Prionites, Ill.; Momota, Shaw;
Ramphastos, Linn.).

PRIO'NODON, Dr. Horsfield's name for a feline form
(Felis gracilis, Delundung of the Javanese), and placed by
him in a separate section under the name of Prionodontidae,
between Felis and Viverra. (Zoological Researches in Java.)
Mr. Swainson remarks (Classification of Quadrupeds)
that of the genus Prionodon, at present, but one species
has been found, in Java. As a familiar appellation, ex-
pressive, in all probability, of its analogy to the Sorecida,

he terms it the Shrew Cat.

sive or cutting teeth alike, and those of the shrew cat are sitnilar: nor does there appear any essential difference in respect to the canine teeth of the three. The cats have three or four cheek-teeth above, and three below; the Viverra, on the contrary, have six; while our present animal differs from both, in having five above and six below. The pupil of the eye is circular; that of the genus Felis in some instances is the same, but in others oblong; while in the Civets it is transversely elongate. In the ears and form of the body, our animal much more resembles the Viverra than the Feline; but in regard to colour it preserves a much closer relation to the genuine cats. The ears are short and round, the body long, and the legs short From these facts it appears more natural to associate this singular animal with the present group (Feline) than with the Gennet family; inasmuch as although it wears the aspect and possesses some of the characters of the latter, it has others, more important to its economy and habits, which belong only to the Feline. So far we coincide with the views of those who associate Prionodon with the true Felince. But before this question can be ultimately decided, it is absolutely necessary that the circle of the Mustelide should be analysed. Prionodon may possibly be the type of Felis, in the circle of Viverra; or it may be, as we esteem it at present, an aberrant form of the group before us (Felina).'

Description.-Tail elongated, annulated, cylindrical; body pale flavescent, with four very wide dorsal bands and two narrow anal bands; two broad lateral striæ, the narrow cervical striæ, the numerous humeral and femoral spots, and the seven caudal rings very deep brown. (Horsf.) animal in 1806, during the early period of his researches in the district of Blambangan, situated at the extremity of molars Java; the natives distinguish it by the name above given. Dr. Horsfield was not able to ascertain that it is found in any other part of the island, or that it has another name; but he states that even in Blambangan it is rarely met with. He notices it as inhabiting the extensive forests which, with the exception of the capital of Banyuwangi and a few small villages, cover that district. He obtained but little information as to its habits and manners, and records nothing on the subject beyond what we have mentioned.

Habits, Locality, &c.-Dr. Horsfield discovered this

Thus

PRIOR, PRIORY, ecclesiastical terms denoting certain monastic foundations and the heads of such foundations. They differ in nothing essentially from the terms abbot and abbey. There were in England religious houses the chiefs of which were called priors, quite as rich and as powerful as many that had a chief who was called the abbot. in Yorkshire there were two houses at no great distance from each other, called Roche and Nostel, the head of the former being an abbot, and of the latter a prior, though Nostel was the more antient and more considerable foundation. Neither has the distinction respect to the order to which the house belonged; for Kirkstall had an abbot, while Fountains had only a prior, and yet both were Cis