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James Conner
| Name | James Conner |
| Ortssitz | New York City |
| Art des Unternehmens | Druckerei |
| Anmerkungen | - |
| Quellenangaben | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 1 (1868) 638] |
| Zeit |
Ereignis |
| 22.04.1798 |
Geburt von James Conner in Duchess County, bei Hyde Park |
| 1814 |
Conner beginnt eine Lehre bei Samuel Brower, Hersusgeber des "Public Advertiser". |
| 1844 |
Conner wird für drei Jahre in das Büro des County Clerk gewählt. |
| 30.05.1861 |
Tod von J. Conner |
| Produkt |
ab |
Bem. |
bis |
Bem. |
Kommentar |
| Druckerzeugnisse |
1868 |
[Bishop: Hist. of Amer. manuf. I (1868)] |
1868 |
[Bishop: Hist. of Amer. manuf. I (1868)] |
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| ZEIT | 1868 |
| THEMA | Firmenbeschreibung |
| TEXT | A practical printer, but better known as the originator of the extensive Type foundry in New York, bearing his name, was born in Duchess county, near Hyde Park, April 22d, 1798. In 1814, he was apprenticed to Samuel Brower, publisher of the Public Advertiser, which counted among its contributors many well-known politicians of that day, among others, Henry Wheaton, who, it is said, never altered, even by a single word, the original manuscript given into the compositor's hands. In this office James Conner first learned the art of setting type while also performing many of the other duties incident to the publication of a newspaper at that time. Before completing his apprenticeship, he made an arrangement for cancelling the articles of indenture, and entered as a half pay hand, the office of Major M. M. Noah, then issuing the National Advocate, but imbibing the idea that the business would be but half learned in a newspaper office, he decided upon an application to Abraham Paul, then a celebrated printer, who accepted him as a two-third compositor. His next engagement was with Ephraim Conrad, a much esteemed printer of his time, and whose office was on the corner of Chatham and Frankfort streets, where French's Hotel now stands. "While in Mr. Conrad's employ he advanced rapidly in a practical knowledge of fine job work, and became also a first class pressman. An Englishman named Watts, was his next employer, and while in this office, he worked in the capacity of an ordinary compositor, on the first quarto Bible ever stereotyped in America. It may be proper to state that this Mr. Watts, in conjunction with Mr. Fay, the father of the recent minister to Switzerland, was among the first, if not the very first, who brought the art of sterotyping to any degree of perfection in the United States. It was probably here that he learned the rudiments of finishing stereotype plates in which he afterward so greatly excelled that he confined himself exclusively to the stereotyping business. Not long after this, he was indiTced to remove to Boston to take charge of Timothy H. Carter's stereotype foundry with a promise of a large weekly salary, which was soon changed to a contract at a certain price per thousand ems for composition and finishing plates for the press. To this the addition was subsequently made of the supervision of the press rooms in which several of the Treadwell power presses (being almost the first power presses ever used in this country) were run. Here he labored from ten to eighteen hours a day for nearly three years, and then returned to New York to engage in business on his own account with a capital of some three thousand dollars, the net accumulation of his personal labors. Mr. Conner at first located himself in Frankfort street near Pearl, but soon secured a lease on the building No. 1 Murray street. It was while in this location that he made an important advance in type founding, by taking old stereotype plates and cutting an alphabet of some sixteen-line Pica Antique which was much wanted at that time for large posters. Of these he stereotyped and sold immense quantities, blocked on wood. From Murray street Mr. Conner removed to Spruce street near Gold, where he erected a new building for the casting of plates to accommodate his increasing business. In addition to his ordinary custom, that of the Episcopal and Methodist Societies had recently accrued to him. The occasion, he thought, was opportune for the publication of a folio Bible, being the first ever stereotyped in the States, or any other country. For this, long before he had finished it, he found a customer, in Silas Andrus of Hartford, Connecticut, who readily agreed to the price first asked, five thousand dollars. Elated, as he well might be, by his success in this connection, and anxious, as he ever was, to keep good faith to the very moment, Mr. Conner was compelled to devote himself eighteen hours daily to the personal supervision of the work. About this time he was induced to embark in the casting of type, more with the view of manufacturing such as he required in his own business than with any idea of sale, and he was also elected by his fellow printers to the Presidency of the New York Typographical Society, a chartered institution with considerable capital. Not long afterwards he erected a five story type foundry on Nassau street corner of Ann, and commenced the issue of his Miniature Specimens of Light-face. Printing Types, exhibiting in Latin some ten or fifteen lines of Roman, from Nonpareil to English, on a sheet of India paper, folio page. So highly was this appreciated that the introduction of light faced type became quite an epoch in founding. He also embarked largely in stereotyping standard works for his own account, selecting Maunder's Treasury of Knowledge, The Million of Facts, Shakspeare's Works, and an improved edition of the Common Prayer. He also undertook the stereotyping of a Polyglot Bible and for this purpose prepared a new size and style of type called Agate, cut in a condensed and compressed manner with a view of admitting a certain number of figures and points within a given space, the whole included in a centre column of notes, otherwise the notes would not come on the same page as the text to which they referred. Of this Bible he made several sets of plates from the same composition, then took out the references and centre column of notes, and completed many sets of an eighteen mo. Bible, and a proportionate number of plates for the New Testament. The publication of Sir Walter Scott's entire Works, which consisted of seven octavo volumes of closely printed matter, was his next undertaking. In connection with this, it is said that, after completing Scott's works, his impression was that there was an additional volume. Determined that nothing coining from his hands should be imperfect, he took hold of, and stereotyped half a volume before he discovered that Sir Walter was not the author of the book! consequently, it was abandoned. An idea may be formed of the extent of his dealings at this time from the fact that on this work alone, he invested from forty to fifty thousand dollars. At this period his Type foundry had so enlarged that he was induced to dispose of his stereotyping establishment, and devote himself entirely to the manufacture of type, and the publication of Scott's Works, in parts. It would be impossible to follow the subj'ect of our sketch through all the incidents of good and evil fortune that attended him, or the various changes of location that were made before he became established at 28 Centre street, where Conner's Type Foundry is now a most conspicuous object. Among the most noticeable of tha experiments made by him, was an attempt to cast letters from an electrotyped matrix by the process of chemical precipitation. Previous to his successful efforts in this direction, Messrs. Mapes and Chilton, chemists, had experimented to produce a fac simile of a copper plate which Mapes wished to use for his magazine. Ascertaining the perfect success of the experiment under other hands, he was anxious to have their battery tried on a copper plate. It was, to his and Mr. Chilton's joint delight, successful, and a very favorable report was inserted in many of the European scientific periodicals. In the course of his experimenting, Mr. Conner took a Long Primer Italic capital T, and inserted it through a piece of stereotype plate. This was attached to a copper wire by soldering; some zinc was attached to the other end of the wire; a weak solution of sulphuric acid was made and placed in a vessel; a solution of common blue vitriol in another apartment; then the matrix and the zinc were placed in their respective apartments, and the process of extracting the copper from the sulphate, through galvanic action, commenced, and the copper obtained was thrown on the intended matrix. He and his assistants then took a small cut of a Beehive, and setting this also in the same way, obtained a perfect matrix, which is now in use at his sons' foundry. These successes encouraged him to attempt other experiments on a larger and more valuable scale. Mr. Conner, therefore, ordered a fancy font of type, which he originally had cut on steel, selecting therefrom a perfect alphabet, points, and figures, and then shaved a stereotype plate on both sides. This he lined off into sizes, equal to the matrices he desired to make. He then made the necessary openings through the plate, and inserted the types designed to be precipitated on, which he cut off and soldered on the back. This proved a highly successful experiment, as it gave him a perfect set of matrices at one precipitation. This plate is still to be seen at Mr. Conner's establishment, as originally made, and is regarded as a great curiosity - being supposed to be the first alphabet thus made, in this or any other country. His next experiment was made on a more extended scale, and, to this end, the apparatus was enlarged so as to admit three fonts of fancy types, which were placed in communication with the precipitated copper at the same operation. Between each letter was inserted a piece of wood, made to the height necessary to separate each matrix from the other, as it came out, it being impossible to connect the wood along with the precipitated metal. Thus divided, each matrix would fall apart without the labor of sawing. This experiment, however, was by no means successful. From the circumstance of wood being introduced, as dividing lines, and becoming wet, it swelled - such swelling causing the type to spring from the bottom of the trough. In the process of precipitation, only a very thin shell was found on the face of the type; about the same quantity having found its way to the bottom, in consequence of the springing of the dividing lines, and the throwing of the types off their feet. All these difficulties have been since overcome, and this establishment has several thousand precipitated matrices that can scarcely be told from those made from a steel punch. When David Brace Jr. had invented his machine for casting type, which was far in advance of any that had preceded it, Mr. Conner was among the first to perceive its advantages and he secured not only a certain number of these new machines but the privilege of manufacturing as many more as his business wants might require. The firm are now the owners of the extended patent and have introduced them successfully in several of the type foundries of England and Germany. In these and other diligent labors he passed a long life until the messenger of death summoned him away, on May 30th, 1861. Mr. Conner possessed, in a large degree, those personal qualities that win esteem and command popularity. In 1844, he was elected to the office of County Clerk for three years, and on the expiration of the first term, was re-elected for the same period. Affable and courteous, and abounding in anecdote, yet possessed of courage and determination, he exhibited many of the attributes that constitute true manhood. Since his decease, the business established by him has been carried on by his two sons, James M. & William C. Conner, located at the corner of Reade and Centre streets, who have made many important improvements, especially in machines for finishing electro-typed cuts, also improvements in machines for casting type. They have now in their foundry about thirty type casting machines, and employ in all the departments over one hundred persons. |
| QUELLE | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 1 (1868) 638] |
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