Note 409 — Chapter X · THOMAS AND JOHN JAMES, 1710.

“The matter was first composed in the usual way, then the form was affused with some sort of gypsum, which after it was indurated, became a complication of matrices for casting the whole page in a single piece” (Mores, p. 59). As early as the year 1705 a Dutchman, named J. Van der Mey, had, with the assistance of Johann Muller, a German clergyman, devised a method of soldering together the bottoms of common types imposed in a forme, so as to form solid blocks of each page. By this method, two Bibles, a Greek Testament and a Syriac Testament with Lexicon were produced, the plates of all of which, except the last named, were preserved in 1801. See T. Hodgson’s Essay on the Origin and Progress of Stereotype Printing, Newcastle, 1820, 8vo.