6970. PRINTING, Progress in.—
Among
the arts which have made great progress
among us is that of printing. Heretofore,
we imported our books, and with them much
political principle from England. We now
print a great deal, and shall soon supply ourselves
with most of the books of considerable
demand. But the foundation of printing, you
know, is the type-foundry, and a material
essential to that is antimony. Unfortunately
that mineral is not among those as yet found in
the United States, and the difficulty and dearness
of getting it from England, will force us
to discontinue our type-founderies, and resort
to her again for our books, unless some new
source of supply can be found.—
To Dupont de Nemours. Washington ed. v, 457.
(M.
June. 1809)
See Editors, Newspapers and Press.
