MODERN STEREOTYPING.

Otago Witness, Issue 747, 24 March 1866, Page 2

MODERN STEREOTYPING.

(From the Ladies' Own Journal.)

Xext to the introduction of fast printingmachine?, the modern process of stereotyping by the papier-mache process may be looked upon as one of the great improvements of the present day, in connection with facilitating the rapid dissemination of news. Before 1844 the tardy plaster process was allowed to draw its slow progress along without any improvement, bnt shortly after that date we find that a German, named Kronheim, introduced the new style into England, where his experiments were readily admitted and tried in several establishments with but partial success at first. In 1851, Messrs Dellagana and Co. commenced business in London in the new style of stereotyping, and engagements were speedily entered into with them by the proprietors of the Times, Daily Telegraph, Illustrated News, Lloyd's, the Saturday Review, Standard, and London Journal. These various newspapers and periodicals requiring a great number of copies to be printed in the shortest possible space of time, soon began to find the advantages Dellagana's precess placed within their reach. The consequence was, as in all other instances where a great demand is met by a ready supply, the circulation of these publications increased with the means so placed at their disposal, and has continued to do so up to the present time.

The duplicating, by casting, is now indispensable. The immense advantages to newspaper proprietors and others requiring almost instantaneous duplicates of their type columns, at a merely nominal price, will be readily admitted when we sta'e that, by their present fully developed and improved process, Messrs Deliagana no.v undertaketo deliver a casting from a newspaper column of type, ready for the machine, in fifteen minute 3 from (he time ofreceh ing it. Tim*, by increasing the amount of labor required for the emergency, which is always done to any extent, a four-page forms of a newspaper n quired to etart a second machine as a duplicate working, might be got ready in less time than it takes to make it up from galleys. In several cases, with metropolitan journals of large circulation, a second and sometimes a third casting is taken from the same moulds, and the whole of the plates are got ready and are at work on the three machines in less than an hour* from the first mould being taken ! What would the old two- pull wooden (headed)pressmen of the Times in years gone-by say to this ? 60,000 to 70,000 copies per hour being thrown off from three machines with the greatest ease and regularity. The amount of metal daily consumed by Messrs Dellagana in their news -casting process, averages 2 tons 15 cwt., per day, or 16 tons per week, Most of this, however, is returned to them after it is worked oi£ To meet the great demand upon their labor staff, several persons are constantly engaged upon their premises, where not only the improved papier-mache process is carried on, but also the plaster system, together with electro'yping and copperfacing, which latter art has of late years emigrated with the emerald-islanders across the Atlantic. Not the least of the advantages of the papier-mache moulds is their durability and portability. In a suitable place, we are given to understand that they will last for half a century with care, aud that 50 cast?, or more, may be taken from them at a first casting, to be repeated afterwards, and, being of a very light weight, they can be sent to all parts of the world at triflingcost, even by post. Here is an available hiut for our colonial friends to possess themselves of duplicates of works printed in England at a comparatively small expense. The proprietors of Le Temps newspaper, in Paris, have a duplicate mould taken by Messrs Dellagaua there, which is then transmitted to London by the mail of the same morning, where they arrive in the evening. Ca3ts are immediately taken by Messrs Dellagana, and the London edition of that paper is at press, and published by the time that copies of the original paper reach the metropolis. In fact, several French gentlemen connected with the London clubs, finding that they did not always receive their copies of that journal by post from Paris the same evening, transferred their orders to the London publisher, and now obtain their copies much sooner than they previously did by the post from France! Is not this something like a step in the right direction in the history of rapid printing and publishing? The introduCinn of the papier-mache process, as aJapteJ to newspapers by Messrs Ddlwana, edtabl'shed a new era in the history of print'ns and stereotyping. Nothing of the kind had ever been introduced here before. An unsuccessful attempt to produce convex phtes had been tried previously, which failed, owing to the great difficulty of giving that convexity to the metal plates required by the "Hoe" and the " Applegarth" vertical machines. This difficulty has now been overcome with regard to the matrices and the moulds; so much so, that a page of the Times can be cast to represent a hollow cylinder, the two outside edges touching each other ! This very interesting an r l useful process is carried on daily by Messrs Dellagana at their works in Shoe Lane, to an inspection of which our provincial friends visiting the ! metropolis are respectfully invited upon making arrangements with the principals.

We very mudi regret bavin;; to chronicle the loss of two valuable vessels at the Grey— the Eleanor, s.s., and the Sea Bird schooner. The former is well known here 3 , having been a constant coasting trader for masv months past ; but from the position she is now in, we fear has sailed her last voyage. The details of the disaster have not yet reached us, all we know being that she left the Grey bound to Hokitika yesterday morning, and was washed up on the North Bcich, three milts ab>ve th» river. The Sea Bird, inward bound from Melbourne, took the grouud on Saturday evening, about a mile ta the north of the signal station, and now lies stranded on the beach, with every probability of becoming a total wreck. Her loss is a heavy one, as she is a brau new vessel, one of the Hobarfc Town clippers, and cost in building L3OCO, and should her relaunching he determined on, another LIOOO may be calculated on as the cos,t. The Sea Bird attempted the bar under canvas, and when in the " break," the wind failing her, she was swept along the beach by the current, and unable to f-ice the surf driven on shore. The necessity of an efficient tug service for the Grey is daily becoming more imperative, and we much wonder one of the Hokitika tugs is not stationed there.— "West Coast Times."