AME
 

AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF
 

cannot make ready a form, read a proof, set a line of
type or feed a Gordon press. They have, however,
learned how to manage the business successfully, and
to turn out their work well. Such men are not ama¬
teurs, no matter whether they ever served a day or not.
The number of amateurs in every city and considerable
town in the United States is very great. They have
almost entirely swallowed up the small and easy work,
and occasionally try something larger. Dealers exist in
the principal cities who make a business of supplying
them with material. Fonts such as serve the trade are
cut into two, presses have been devised that can be sold
at all prices, from $5 to $100, and special cases and
other articles are made for them. One founder who
caters to the amateur trade makes letters of half the
usual length to accommodate their cases and presses.
Most of the work turned out by amateurs is of a wretch¬
ed quality.

America.—The West Indies were discovered about
forty years after the invention of printing, and a few
years after the conquest of Mexico a press was set up
in the city of that name. Lima, Peru, was the next
locality. The English colonies to the north began
printing at Cambridge, Mass., in 1639 ; Havana had a
press in 1787, and Montevideo in 1807. The United
States has now grown to be the greatest nation in
respect to printing in the world, although it does not
produce as many books, properly so called, as either
England, France or Germany. Canada does a great
amount of printing, as do also Brazil and Chili, but the
other nations are comparatively inactive. See under
United States and under the respective towns,

Am6ricaine (Fr.).—A script, so called after the
Americans.

American.—The proposed name of a size of type
of one-point body. It is not likely that any type will
ever actually be cast as small as this; the nearest ap¬
proximation to it could be attained by setting the words
in larger type and then photographing them down. See
Microscopic Printing.

American Hard Packing.—This refers to the
system of making ready in vogue in America in contra¬
distinction to the usual style adopted in England.—
Jacohi.   See Presswork,

Ames, Joseph, a distinguished antiquary, who
wrote an extensive book, entitled Typographical An¬
tiquities, being an Historical Account of Printing in
England, with Memoirs of our Ancient Printers and a
Register of the Books Printed by them from the Year
1471 to 1600, with an Appendix concerning Printing in
Scotland and Ireland to the same Time. Very much
of our knowledge of printing in the British Islands is
derived from this learned work, which was published in
1749. Mr. Ames was born at Yarmouth, January 23,
1688, and was originally a plane-maker. Afterwards
he became a ship-chandler and adhered to this business
all his life. He wrote two other books. He was a Fel¬
low of the Royal Society and secretary to the Society of
Antiquaries.    He died October 7, 1758.

Amperzand.—The character & ; and, per se, and.
That is, and, by itself, and. There are some neat verses
upon this character.

Amphibie (Fr.).—A printer who works both at
press and case.

Ana.—A collection of the sayings of certain cele¬
brated or witty persons. It is affixed to the names of
persons or things, as Johnsoniana, Scaligeriana.

Anaglyptography.—The art of so engraving as to
give the surface an embossed appearance, as if raised
from the surface of the paper. Used in representing
coins, medals, bas-reliefs, &c.

Anagnostes.—Those who, in the printing-office of
the Brothers of the Life in Common and elsewhere in

18
 

the early ages of printing, read aloud the copy to the
compositors. It was the practice to read to several in
turn, as the reading could be done much faster than the
composition.

Anastatic Process.—A method of reproducing,
from anything once printed, another series of impres¬
sions. The book, or the matter which was printed, was
treated with an acid and submitted to pressure against
a zinc plate, which thus had a design fixed upon it
similar to that of a lithographic plate.

And, in its form &, is the only one of the once com¬
mon contractions still in use, except in some special
trades or occupations. Good present usage only tol¬
erates it in the names of firms, as Brown & Smith, and
in the word &c., for et cetera. Even in both these
cases it is spelled out by many. The older form of this
was 6^, which showed its resemblance to et, the first
letter being perfect, and the second nearly so. Our
present character bears no resemblance whatever to the
word,

Anderson, Alexander, M. D., the father of
American wood-engraving, was born near Beekman's
Slip, New York, on April 21, 1775, two days after the
first bloodshed in the War for Independence had oc¬
curred at Lexington
and Concord, His
father, John Ander¬
son, was a Scotch¬
man, who had come
to this country some
little time before and
had married a New
England woman. He
differed in politics
from most of his coun¬
trymen in America at
that time, as they
were distinguished
for their loyalty,
while he was, at the
time of his son's birth,
the publisher of a
patriotic paper which
supported this coun¬
try's cause and was
named the Constitu¬
tional Gazette, He continued to publish it in opposi¬
tion to the loyal sheets of Gaine and Rivington until
the British took possession of New York in Septem¬
ber, 1776, when he was compelled to fly, with his
books and printing materials, nearly all of which were
lost before he attained a place of safety. At the age
of twelve years young Anderson began to use the
graver for his own amusement. He was a timid lad,
shrunk from asking questions and gained information
by silent and modest observation. Peeping into the
windows of silversmiths he saw the shape of the graver
and the method of manipulating it in the lettering of
spoons, and rolled-out copper cents supplied him with
plates for his first efforts. Some of his earlier essays in
the art were in making copies of anatomical figures
from medical books. His father perceived this pro¬
clivity towards medicine with pleasure, and deprecating
the lad's manifest love of art he allowed him to make
preparations for the profession of a physician. In May,
1796, he received the degree of medical doctor from
the faculty of Columbia College. The subject of his
address on that occasion was ** Chronic Mania," the
theories which he then advanced concerning its cause
and cure being now long-established facts in medical
science. Soon after he began his medical studies, at
the age of about seventeen, his proficiency in art had
become so great, notwithstanding the many difficulties
in his way, that he was employed by William Durell, a
bookseller, to copy the illustrations of a popular little
 

ALEXANDER ANDERSON,  M. D.