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THE ART OF PRINTING.

rather on words than facts, and seems to have arisen from the different definitions of the word printing. If we estimate the discovery from the invention of the principle, the honour is unquestionably due to Laurence Koster, a native of Haarlem, who first found the method of impressing characters on paper, by means of carved blocks of wood. If moveable types be considered as a criterion, the merit of the discovery is due to John Guttenberg, of Mentz, and Shoeffer, in conjunction with Fust, was the first who founded types of metal. The modern improvement of stereotype printing may be considered as a recurrence to the first and simple principles of the art."

Guttenberg settled at Strasburg, about the year 1435, and entered into partnership with several citizens of that town, binding himself to teach them some secrets which would make their fortune.

One

of these citizens, in whose house they had their workshop, died, and Guttenberg sent to the brother of the deceased, requesting that due care might be taken that the secret should not be discovered. This warning was unavailing. The forms had been carried off, and a dissolution of the partnership and a law-suit were the consequence. Guttenberg then removed to Mentz, where he formed another partnership with John Fust, or Faust, an opulent citizen, who advanced the requisite capital. After many experiments they printed in 1450, the Latin Bible, with large cut metal types. The expenses of this work were very large, and Guttenberg, not being ready with his proportion of them, was sued by Fust, and had a decision given against him. The partnership was, of course, dissolved, and the whole of the printing apparatus fell into the hands of Fust, who continued the business, with the assistance of Peter Shoeffer, or Gernsheim, a young man of some ability. Shoeffer is supposed to have invented punches for striking the matrices of the types, and for this was rewarded with the hand of

Fust's only daughter. Fust is often confounded with Faust the magician, who is represented by the German lovers of the marvellous, as having conjured up the devil, descended into hell, and travelled amongst the celestial spheres. Fust, the printer of Mentz, and Faust, the magician of Weimar, were, however, very different persons, and the printer came to be taken for the magician, because there seemed to be a spice of magic in his art. In the year 1460, a person, who offered for sale a number of Bibles which resembled each other so closely, that it was not believed they could have been produced by human skill, was tried for witchcraft!

The conclusion generally come to is, that to Guttenberg is due the high appellation of the Father of Printing; to Shoeffer, that of the Father of Letter-Founding; and to Fust, that of the generous Patron, by whose means this wonderful discovery, the nurse and preserver of the arts and sciences, was so rapidly brought to perfection.

[The Frontispiece represents the Statue of Guttenberg in the Great Square at Mentz.]

THE PRINTING PRESS.

NEXT to the invention of types comes the machine called the Press, in which the types are fixed in pages after they are set up. These pages of types are fastened tightly in an iron frame called a chase, and this chase is laid on a moving bed, which runs in and out of the press along that line of rails which you see in the picture propped up by one leg. When it is all ready, the types are inked by passing an ink roller over them, and then a sheet of paper is laid down on them, and then the printer, with his left hand, rolls them along the rails into the body of the press, and

THE PRINTING PRESS.

with his right pulls the handle of the Press, which presses down the paper on the pages of types, printing it all over. Then he rolls it back again, and takes off the paper which is printed, and puts on a fresh sheet of paper, and so goes on. And a man and a boy-the boy to roll the ink over the types, and the man to work the press-will print, in such a press as this, about 250 in one hour.

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The Press, as represented in the picture, is called "a Columbian ;" and it is a great improvement on the old wooden presses which were in use when the writer was a boy. In the office where this little book is printed, there is one of these old wooden presses-a great clumsy thing, with a stone bed to lay the types on; and it takes two hard pulls to make an impression, and that not a good one. In those days too they dabbed the ink on the types with two great black balls made of skins. So that the iron presses and

round rollers are a great improvement, making the books look much more clear and clean when printed.

But a greater improvement still was made when steam power was used in printing books, all about which I have told you before. But such are the wonderful discoveries of science that we are now told a plan has been invented of printing by power of electricity! This, if true, will be the greatest wonder of all, and we promise to tell you something about it as soon as we are properly acquainted with the particulars.

IMMENSE BENEFITS OF PRINTING.

PRINTING tells us the thoughts of other peopleliving or dead. And by it we not only get to know what people are doing in the world now, but all they have been doing in all ages or countries, so far as such things can be known. What a long time it would take to tell such things from one to another; but printing tells thousands at once. What a capital thing is this printing, for by it knowledge is spread among all the people who enjoy its benefits.

But the best thing that printing has ever done, or ever can do, is to multiply copies of the Word of God-the great proclamation of mercy from heaven to rebellious man: making known to men of all nations, and kindreds, and tribes, and tongues, and languages, the glorious gospel of the blessed God-"how that Christ died for our sins." What an inestimable benefit is the art of printing, whose wonderful powers of production multiplies copies of this amazing Act of mercy-this great Charter of man's salvation ! Myriads upon myriads of human beings will have everlasting cause of thankfulness for the benefits conferred by the invention of Printing.

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TAKING whales in the seas of Greenland, among the fields of ice that have been increasing for ages, is a singular and dangerous employment. These fields, or pieces of ice, rise high, like rocks above the water, and are frequently more than a mile in length, and upwards of one hundred feet in thickness; and when they are put in motion by a storm, nothing can be more terrible. The Dutch had thirteen ships crushed to pieces by them in one season.

There are several kinds of whales in Greenland; some white, others black. The black sort, the grand bay whale, is in most esteem, on account of his bulk, and the great quantity of fat, or blubber, he affords, which turns to oil. His tongue is about eighteen feet long, inclosed in long pieces of what we call whalebone, which are covered with a kind of hair, like horsehair; and on each side of his tongue are two hundred and fifty pieces of this whalebone. They have no teeth. The bones of the body are hard, and of no use. Whales are usually between sixty and

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