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
indebted for cheap literature, for when the plates are once produced the
chief expense is disposed of.
Something akin to stereotyping is another method of printing, called
logography, invented by John Walter of the London _Times_, in 1783, and
for which he took out a patent. This means a system of printing from type
cast in words instead of single letters, which it was thought would save
time and corrections when applied to newspapers, but it was not found to
answer. A joke of the time was a supposed order to the type-founder for
some words of frequent occurrence, which ran thus: "Please send me a
hundredweight, sorted, of murder, fire, dreadful robbery, atrocious
outrage, fearful calamity, alarming explosion, melancholy accident; an
assortment of honourable member, whig, tory, hot, cold, wet, dry; half
a hundred weight, made up in pounds, of butter, cheese, beef, mutton,
tripe, mustard, soap, rain, etc., and a few devils, angels, women,
groans, hisses, etc." This method of printing did not succeed; for if
twenty-four letters will give six hundred sextillions of combinations, no
printing-office could keep a sufficient assortment of even popular words.
[Footnote 1: See Vol 1, 8]
[Footnote 2: See accompanying fac-simile of a page of the English
edition--a reproduction as faithful as possible in text, color, texture
of paper, etc.]
JOHN HUNYADY REPULSES THE TURKS[1]
A.D. 1440-1456
ARMINIUS VAMBERY
From the time (1354) when the Turks took Gallipoli and secured their
first dominion in Europe, the Ottoman power on that side of the
Hellespont was gradually increased. In 1360 Amurath I crossed from Asia
Minor, ravaged an extensive district, and took Adrianople, which he made
the first seat of his royalty and the first shrine of Mahometanism in
Europe. He next turned toward Bulgaria and Servia, where in the warlike
Slavonic tribes he found far stronger foes than the Greek victims of
earlier Turkish conquests.
Pope Urban V preached a crusade against the Turks; and Servia, Hungary,
Bosnia, and Wallachia leagued themselves to drive th
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