THE INKING ()F THE FORME: By DANIEL T. POWELL
HILE much is written and said about printing machinery
and its effect on the world in general, especially with regard
to man's progress, it is rarely that the subject of printer's
rollers comes in for any consideration. Yet I venture to say
that unless the roller makers had been able to keep pace with
requirements, there had been little scope for, if not a great
obstacle against, invention so far as applied to the swift presses which to-day
produce our newspapers and magazines. It would have been actually im-
possible without the roller, or colouring-cylinder ; and these in turn would
have been impossible without the discovery and application of mixed glue
and treacle as a beginning.
It may be well, then, to recall that at the commencement of the Printers'
art in its infantile crudity, the inking of the forme was one of the difficulties
to be overcome. It would seem that after many experiments the accepted
method was by inking-balls ; they were made of Wood formed in a con-
venient shape with a handle about five inches long and a shaped and
hollowed base about six inches in diameter ; this was stuffed with horse-
hair, wool or other soft material, and then covered with prepared, but not
tanned, sheepskin.
The process of inking the forme by inking-balls was as follows. A small
quantity of ink was dabbed on to one of the balls and then, with a ball
in either hand, one above the other, they were dabbed, rolled, worked or
beaten together, till the ink was well spread over the surface of each of the
skins, when, in turn, by a similar process of dabbing, rolling and beating,
the ink was transferred to the type, blocks, or subject matter to be printed.
This system prevailed from the beginning of printing, until between
1804-1808, by accident, a London workman spilled on his dabber some of
the treacle he was eating on his bread. He found, that far from his expecta-
tion, that the foreign substance would spoil his work, the result was much
improved and sharper work ; so he daubed the other ball with treacle With
like good result and kept the matter to himself.
It seems a cousin of this man was a workman in the Potteries in Stafford-
shire, and, meeting in conversation, told him of a compound used by
pottery men to transfer designs on earthenware, and that this compound
was made of glue and treacle. It was not long before the pressman had
made a pair of dabbers covered with this compound. But the roller did
not come yet.
For a long time, indeed since Nicholson in his marvellously prophetic
3a