Salt Lake Tribune | 1910-02-20 | Page 6 | Today in History

TODAY IN HlSTORYl SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20, It seems odd that tho nrst Amorlcan printing press should have been act up in tho City of Mexico, Tt is nevertheless true tl,aA '."i lh.QLcIty 1 10 flrst Press was Installed In-stalled In 15no. and it was forty-four years thereafter before the first printing w;ih done In tho British colonics of N'orth America. Tills first American press, a very crude affair was brought from .Spain, where the printing press hnd been established in 1171, and set up by Viceroy Mendoza. It was first opera ted on February 20. and a small religious tract was "run off," a copy of which Is still preserved in the. Mexican museum. Tho first book printed was the "KscnJn Esplrltunl de San Juan Chlnaco," of which no copy is known to exist. A duplicate of tills pross was made by a mechanic In the City of Mexico and found its way to Limn. Peru, where It was put In operation In loSi. The first American press wok set up at Harvard college In 1C38 by Stephen Dayc. and this press still continues under the name "University Press." Tho first book issued was tho "Bay State Psalm book," In 1G10. Before Christ the Chinese had originated originat-ed a method of printing in Ink on pnpor by means of engraved blocks, which is the first mention in history of the art. Tho Chinese aro also credited with having used movable typo ns early as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In Europe in classical and mediaeval times books were mado by transcribing thorn In. manuscript, but about the thirteenth thir-teenth century theso manuscripts began to be produced with the Initial letters stamped In Ink from engraved blocks of wood. John Gutenberg is usually named as the inventor who first established typography on any tiling liko a scientific basis. Laurenze J. Coster of TInarleni, Holland, Is said to havo Invented typos of wood about 1-128, and at a later date, types of metal with which ho printed several sev-eral smnll books. Gutenberg experimented with printing at Strnssburg In 1-130 and in MIS he had a printing olllco at Mainz. Printing was practiced In Rome in 1467; In Paris In 1 ICO. and In Spain in 147-1. The first English Eng-lish press was sot up at Westminster Abbey Ab-bey in 1477. The first stereotyping was dono by William Wil-liam Ged of Edinburgh, In 1725. The lirst oloctrotyplng by Joseph A. Adams In New York, in 1830. The Inking rollers were first used in 1514. The typesetting machines ma-chines developed from a crudo Invention of William Church of Connecticut. In 1S21. Tho development, of Into years in printing presses ami typesetting machines, as well ns all other parts of tho printing trade, has been little less than marvelous. marvel-ous. February 20 Is the blrhtday o'f William Preseott, the revolutionary soldfer who commanded at Bunker Hill (1776); Isaac Chauncey, tho naval officer (1772); David Ganick. the actor (I71t)); Joseph Jefferson, Jeffer-son, tho actor (IS29). Theodoro Lyman, the philanthropist (1702): Henry Stun-bcry. Stun-bcry. attorney general under Johnson (IS03). and Gen. John Ellis Wood, who commanded In "the war of 1812 (1781). On this dato the American Baptist Publication Publica-tion society was formed In 1824, and James I. of Scotland was killed In 1437.