BOX
 

AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF
 

tion which he held for fifty years. In 1736 he was elected
a member of the Society of Antiquaries, and appointed
their printer. In 1736 he took into partnership John
Nichols, who had been educated by him, and the next
year was made printer to the House of Lords. His learn¬
ing was unquestionable, and he was a man of great ac¬
curacy. He published several pamphlets and edited
several learned works. He died on November 18,1777,
and was buried at Low Leyton, Essex. Mr. Nichols, his
partner, published a biographical memoir of him in his
Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. By his
will Mr. Bowyer devised several annuities to worthy
journeymen printers, under the direction of the Com¬
pany of Stationers.

Box In.—A term used in England to indicate that
rules should be placed around a page, like a border.

Boxed.—Any figure or other work inclosed within
a border of brass rules ; more generally known now as
paneled.

Boxes.—The subdivisions of a case, in which partic¬
ular letters or characters are laid. They are of foui-
sizes in the lower case, the a being the standard. It is
nearly square, while other boxes are half, and still others
quarter sized.    The e is one-half larger than the a.

Boxwood.—The wood chiefly used by engravers.
Occasionally in former times pearwood was used, and
now pine is much employed for posters. But for all
fine work boxwood is required. The best boxwood
used in engraving is of a good yellow color, of a fine,
close grain that has been of a slow growth, clear of
knots and any imperfections, such as cracks or flaws.
The finest lines may be engraved on this wood, as it is
both hard and tough, and with care in printing the
number of impressions that may be taken from an en¬
graving on it would appear incredible. Papillon, in his
History of Engraving on Wood, gives a specimen from
which he states there had been upwards of three hun¬
dred and seventy thousand impressions previously print¬
ed, and if the block had been carefully cleaned and well
printed it would still have produced respectable impres¬
sions. Boxwood of a dull but yellow color and of an
open, coarse grain is not fit for engraving; neither is
wood that is of a blackish color at the heart, for in these
cases it has begun to decay, is brittle and tender, and if
engraved on the lines would not stand, but would fail
in printing. Our principal supply of boxwood comes
from the Levant, and is called Turkey box. This ma¬
terial was first employed in America by Dr. Anderson.

Boxwood Shooting-Stick.—A locking-up stick
made of that particular kind of wood.

Boyer or Boyet, a distinguished family of binders
in France, who flourished from 1670 to 1730. By them
the backs of the volumes were more elaborately gilded
than the sides, large blank spaces being left there ; but
this by no means states all the new ideas introduced by
them.

Boyle, William Kent, a printer of Baltimore, was
born there on April 6, 1816, and received a common-
school education. At sixteen he entered the office of
John D. Toy, whose father established the business in
1795. This was then the leading book and job office of
the city. Shortly after completing his time he was made
foreman, and in 1865 he became proprietor. He was a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and lived an
active Christian life. Many of his apprentices are still
in the business. He died in 1884, being succeeded by
his son, J. Young Boyle, now the president of the Bal¬
timore Typothetse.

Bozza, Prova (Ital.).—Proofs.

Brace Pliers. — An implement used for curving
brass rule in making braces.

Braces.—Characters used to combine two or more
separate items together, as : —^-—^.    They are ordina-

66
 

rily made of two or three ems in length, but were for¬
merly cast by American type-foundries as long as six or
seven ems. Braces are also made in parts, so that they
may be combined, the parts once being known as cocks

and hens, as: ,-----^-----^.    By putting in en, em or two

em dashes between these parts they can be made of any

length,  as for example :  .------------------'^------------------n.

Brass braces are considered more ornamental, and can
be had of any length, as :
 

As these were made fifty years or more ago, the swell
was exactly conformed to the size of the brace ; thus the
ten-em brace was far thicker in the swelling portions
than the six-em brace. This caused a lack of harmony
in the page. When only one is to be used in a job, this
can make no difference, but to avoid this irregular ap¬
pearance founders also make light-faced dashes. The
face of a brace is always turned to the side which has
the most lines. When a two or four em brace has only
one or three lines on the back, en quadrats are laid on
their side above and below, to fill out the space.

Bracket.—A sign of punctuation, thus: [or]. It
indicates an interpolation.

Bradford, Andrew, a printer of Philadelphia, was
the younger son of William Bradford, who first intro¬
duced printing in the Middle Colonies. He was born in
1686, soon after his father had settled in Philadelphia,
and learned his trade of him in New York, to which city
they had removed in 1693. He changed his residence to
Philadelphia in 1712, but had been in partnership with
his father in New York the previous year, and continued
printing in Pennsylvania until his death, November 24,
1742. He was the only printer there until 1723, Keimer
then beginning, and hospitably gave shelter to Franklin
on his arrival in Pennsylvania, as his father had pre¬
viously done in New York. He was not a match for
Franklin in a business sense, however, when the latter
began for himself, and after that time occupied the sec¬
ond place, although doing well. On December 22,1719,
he established the American Weekly Mercury, which was
the first newspaper in the province or in the Middle Col¬
onies, and in 1741 the American Magazine. He was post¬
master from 1728 till 1737, and became a bookseller in
1735. It shows the ability and judgment of Bradford
that, with the hostile competition of Franklin, the great¬
est name of our colonial history, he kept on his course
successfully, and left a comfortable fortune. Thomas
records that his typography was equal to Franklin's.
He was twice married, the second time two years before
his death. Mrs. Bradford continued the business for a
short time after this event, when Isaiah Warner became a
partner, under the firm-name of Isaiah Warner & Corne¬
lia Bradford. William Bradford, Andrew's nephew, be¬
gan business in 1742, on the death of his uncle, and con¬
tinued it till 1791, although his office was closed during
most of the Revolution. He was in the military service
of the patriots, and finally became a colonel. He died
September 25, 1791. His second son, William, studied
law, and became the attorney - general of the United
States. Thomas, the eldest son, had been in partnership
with him since 1766, and continued the business. The
latter was born May 4, 1745. Until about 1800 he con¬
ducted the newspaper founded by his father in 1742, and
a daily newspaper afterwards until 1814. The office was
at that time, as it had been for three-quarters of a cen¬
tury before, at No. 8 South Front street, and business
was continued there by some members of the family until
about 1825. Another member was in the paper trade in
New York as late as 1845. It appears, therefore, that
this family was connected with the art of printing in
America during an unbroken period of a hundred and
sixty years.

Bradford, William, the first printer in the Middle
Colonies, was born May 29,1663, in Leicestershire, Eng-