Note 142 — Early Typography. CHAPTER V.

“One of the most remarkable typographical displays in the great Exhibition of 1851 was the collection of Chinese types, or at least types to represent Chinese characters, in the Zollverein department. They were manufactured by Beyerhaus of Berlin, for the American Missionary Society. The Chinese vocabulary is made up of a number of distinct words, which are not built up from component letters, as in European languages, but have a good deal of the hieroglyphic effect about them. To imitate these words or characters by moveable types has always been deemed a difficult matter. M. Beyerhaus has analyzed the lines and dots of the Chinese language, so as to make 4200 letters out of them, or elements which will serve the compositor in lieu of letters. The steel punches of all these 4200 types were shewn; and by various combinations of them, about 24,000 Chinese words or characters can be imitated; and it was very interesting to see copies of the Bible and the New Testament printed in Chinese by the aid of these types.”—Curiosities of Industry—Printing; its Modern Varieties, by G. Dodd, p. 4.