BOS
 

AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF
 

The printing is done before the body of the pages has
been begun, and as it is all alike the lines need not be
taken off till all the paper for that volume is printed.
Offices that do much of this kind of work have sets of
these rules brazed together, or electrotypes of them.

Boss.—A projection. In bookbinding, brass or other
metal ornamentation fastened upon the covers of books,
for decoration or preservation.

Boston.—This was the second town in the present
Union in which printing was practiced, the original pro¬
fessor of the art there being John Foster, who was spe¬
cially authorized by the government to set up a press.
It is not supposed that he was himself acquainted with
printing, but he employed workmen for that purpose.
The earliest production from his press that was known
to Thomas was published in 1676, and the latest in 1680.
He was succeeded in the management of the press by
Samuel Sewall, the court, in October, 1681, giving the
proper authority. He was a lawyer, and his memory is
preserved through his participation in the trials of the
witches at Salem, with the solemn confession subse¬
quently made of his errors in connection therewith, and
by his Diary. He was released from the management
of the printing-office in 1684. Glen next followed, and
then Samuel Green, Jr., succeeded by Richard Pierce
and Bartholomew Green. The latter printed for John
Campbell, the postmaster, the first regularly - issued
newspaper in the British colonies. It was entitled the
Boston News Letter. A single number of a newspaper
had, however, been printed years before. Green con¬
tinued in business for nearly forty years. There, too,
Benjamin Franklin began the art with his brother,
James Franklin, serving several years at the trade.

Among the other printers in Boston before the Revo¬
lution were John Allen, Timothy Green, James Printer,
Thomas Fleet, Samuel Kneeland, Timothy Green, Jr.,
Bartholomew Green, Jr., Gamaliel Rogers, John Draper,
Zechariah Fowle, Benjamin Edes, John Green, Richard
Draper, Daniel Kneeland, Isaiah Thomas, Joseph Green-
leaf, Margaret Draper and John Howe.

For many years Boston continued the chief place in
the colonies for publishing. It preceded Philadelphia
in the use of types by nine years, and New York by
seventeen. The next place in New England was New
London, Conn., where printing began in 1709. Until
the year 1760 more books were printed in Massachusetts
annually than in any of the other colonies, and before
1740 more printing was done there than in all the other
colonies. After 1760 the quantity of printing done in
Boston and Philadelphia was nearly equal till the com¬
mencement of the Revolutionary War. Many newspa¬
pers were also published there.

After the Revolution the town was, as before, a cen¬
tre of printing, and for a long time the Columbian Cen-
tinel, established there in 1784 by Benjamin Russell, was
the chief newspaper. The Polar Star and Boston Ad¬
vertiser was the first daily in 1796. It failed, and was
succeeded by the Federal Gazette and Daily Advertiser
in 1798. Many eminent printers carried on their art dur¬
ing the first half of the century. Power-presses were put
into extensive use there earlier than in any other Ameri¬
can towns ; type-founding began in Boston in the second
decade of the century, as well as stereotyping, and in
it for many years was manufactured the Adams press.
Daily newspapers multiplied, and book publishing be¬
came a great interest. There have always been more
authors resident in that vicinity than anywhere else in
the Union.

The Faustus Association of Boston was the first or¬
ganization of employing printers in America. Three or
four printers happened accidentally to meet in the office
of Munroe & Francis, and after talking over the evils to
which the profession was exposed asked Mr. Francis
to call a meeting. It was held on July 16, 1805, at
Vila's Hotel.    David Carlisle was the president, and

64
 

David Francis the secretary. A committee reported on
August 2 a constitution for the *' Society of Printers in
Boston and its Vicinity," which established a scale of
prices for composition and presswork, and certain rules
to be observed in relation to apprentices and journey¬
men. At the first annual meeting Benjamin Russell was
elected president and David Francis secretary. They
continued to hold these offices until the dissolution of
the society, about 1815. It made great exertions to
secure improvements in the manufacture of paper, rec¬
ommending the exposure of all frauds in counting, the in¬
terpolation of imperfect sheets and the selling of broken
quires. The quality of ink was examined, that made
by J. M. Dunham, at Cambridgeport, being recommend¬
ed as the best. Some type from Binny & Ronaldson, of
Philadelphia, was complained of as of bad quality, and
a chemist was employed to analyze it. He reported
that the Scotch type was the best, the English less so by
15 to 20 per cent., and the American had an alloy sur¬
prisingly great. The members of this society, the first
Typothctas in America, were the most eminent printers
of the early part of the century in Boston, their names
being as follows: Benjamin Russell, David Francis,
William Manning, Joseph T. Buckingham, Samuel Gil¬
bert, Edmund Monroe, Ensign Lincoln, James Loring,
Thomas Minns, Alexander Young, William Hilliard,
David Carlisle, Andrew Newell, John Park, John Rus¬
sell, James Cutler, Ebenezer Rhoades, Joshua Belcher,
Samuel T. Armstrong, Josiah Ball, Samuel Etheridge,
Isaac Munroe, Joseph Cushing, Hosea Sprague, William
Greenough, Chester Stebbins, Benjamin True, Edward
Oliver, Thomas Edmands, Jr., John Prentiss, Isaiah
Thomas, Thomas B. Wait, Ephraim C. Beals, Eleazar
G. House, Andrew W. Park, Eliab W. Metcalf, Robert
Lilly, Davis C. Ballard, Nathaniel Willis, -George Tit-
comb, Samuel Avery, Daniel Bowen and Abel Bowen.

About 1863 the Massachusetts Franklin Club, com¬
posed of employers, was begun, and in 1887 the Boston
Master Printers' Club. Of this Henry O. Houghton, of
Cambridge, is the second president, succeeding Horace
T. Rockwell ; and Louis Barta the second secretary,
succeeding J. Stearns Cushing.

The newspapers and periodicals of Boston have long
been conducted with great ability. Two of them, it is
understood, each circulate over a hundred thousand
copies daily. Boston has nine dailies and 231 other pe¬
riodicals. There are many lithographers, bookbinders,
engravers and steel-plate printers, and three or four
type-foundries.

Botanical Signs are not frequently used. A few
may be noted, however. An asterisk (*) signifies that
there is a good description given in the reference table
in the work ; a dagger (f) implies in this relation some
doubt or uncertainty ; an exclamation point (!) denotes
that an authentic specimen has been seen by the author
named, and a mark of interrogation ( ?) indicates a doubt.
There are also certain arbitrary marks, borrowed mostly
from mathematical and astronomical signs.

Botch.—An incompetent workman.—MacKellar.

Botcher.—A bad or careless workman.

Bottle-Arsed.—Type larger at the bottom than at
the top. This was once much more common than now,
and the name has gone out with the thing. It was oc¬
casioned by imperfect casting, and also by the action of
the press upon spongy, porous type, which was thus
forced down and spread out.

Bottle-Necked.—Type thicker at the top than the
bottom—the reverse of bottle-arsed.

Bottom Boards.—The lower or taking-off boards
of a printing-machine.

Bottom Line.—The last line of the page. When
there were catch-lines, it was the last line before them.

Bottom Notes.—Foot-notes are sometimes thus
called, to distinguish them from side-notes.