movable type into solid metal plates, by the medium of moulds formed of
plaster of Paris, _papier-mâché,_ gutta-percha, or other substances. This
art is supposed to have been invented, in or about 1725, by William Ged,
a goldsmith of Edinburgh. A small capitalist, who had engaged to embark
with him, withdrawing from the speculation in alarm, he accepted
overtures from a Mr. William Fenner, and in 1729 came to London. Here
he obtained three partners, in conjunction with whom he entered into a
contract with the University of Cambridge for stereotyping Bibles and
prayer-books. But the workmen, fearing that stereotyping would eventually
ruin their trade, purposely made errors, and, when their masters were
absent, battered the type, so that the only two prayer-books completed
were suppressed by authority, and the plates destroyed. Upon this the
art got into disrepute, and Ged, after much ill-treatment, returned to
Edinburgh, impoverished and disheartened. Here his friends, desirous that
a memorial of his art should be published, entered into a subscription to
defray the expense; and a Sallust, printed in 1736, and composed and cast
in the night-time to avoid the jealous opposition of the workmen, is now
the principal evidence of his claim to the invention.

But the time had not come; for without a very large demand, such as could
not exist in those days, stereotyping would be of no advantage. Books
which sell by hundreds of thousands, and are constantly reprinting, such
as Bibles, prayer-books, school-books, Shakespeares, Bunyans, Robinson
Crusoes, Uncle Toms, and very popular authors and editions, will pay for
stereotyping; but for small numbers it is a loss. After the invention had
been neglected long enough to be forgotten, Earl Stanhope, who had for
several years devoted himself earnestly to the subject, and made many
experiments, resuscitated it, in a very perfect manner, in 1803; and his
printer, Mr. Wilson, sold the secret to both universities and to most of
the leading printers. To the art of stereotyping the public is mainly