er's trade in Edinburgh
and later came to America, where after a few years he was joined by
his brother George in establishing the firm of D. & G. Bruce,
printers. Hearing of the new process of stereotyping in England, he
went over there to learn about it. He could get very little
information about the process there, but came back with some practical
ideas which he proceeded to carry out. Bruce and his brother also
began type-founding about this time, and abandoned the business of
printing. Later they gave up the work of stereotyping.

[Illustration]

The first book stereotyped in the United States was the New Testament,
in 1814. Bibles and school books were the first works to be
stereotyped; then came other books which were demanded in many
editions, such as the works of popular authors.

THE PAPIER MACHE MATRIX

The papier-mache (literally, mashed paper) matrix was first
successfully used for casting stereotypes for book pages in France in
1848. Charles Craske, an engraver of New York, introduced the method
into the stereotype trade of the United States in 1850, and in 1854 he
stereotyped a page of the "_New York Herald_" and later made
stereotypes for other New York newspapers.

The modern wet stereotype "flong," in common use today, consists of
several layers of special paper pasted together to form a thick sheet.
The base is a sheet of special soft stock similar to firm
blotting-paper, such as is used between leaves of small blank books.
Three or four sheets of strong, white tissue are next added, each
sheet except the last being uniformly covered with the paste. The
pasting must be done with great care so as to cover the entire surface
of each sheet and at the same time to press out all air bubbles. The
sheets must then be pressed smoothly but not squeezed so hard as to
force the paste out and must be kept moist until used. In newspaper
syndicate plants, the "flong" is made automatically by a specially
devised machine into which the various kinds of paper used are fed
from rolls, the pasting and cutting into sheets being mechanical.

In molding a papier-mache matrix, the moist "flong" is laid on the
original molding form to be duplicated, the molding form being in
place on the table of the molding press. The "flong" is covered with
several blankets of thick felt and the table of the molding press is
then automatically moved in under a powerful roller which squeezes the
moist flong down into the for