William Ged
William Ged (1699 – 19 October 1749) was a Scottish goldsmith who has been credited with the invention of stereotyping.[1] However, he was not the first to use the process.[2]
Ged was born in Edinburgh, where he carried on business as a goldsmith. In 1725 he patented his process, and tried but failed to persuade printers in Edinburgh to take up his invention.[3] In 1729 he endeavoured to push his new process of printing, on which he was still working, in London by joining in partnership with a stationer and a type-founder but, disappointed in his workmen and his partners, he returned despondent to Edinburgh. Although he had offers for use of his process from Dutch printers, he turned them down from patriotic motives.[3]
He died in poverty in Edinburgh[3] and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. The grave was unmarked.[4] An edition of Sallust and two prayer-books (for the University of Cambridge) were stereotyped by him.[3][5]
References
- ^ "William Ged, (born 1690, Edinburgh, Scot.—d. Oct. 19, 1749, Leith, Midlothian), Scottish goldsmith who invented (1725) stereotyping". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
- ^ See stereotyping.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 547.
- ^ Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland: The Grampian Society, 1871
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Ged, William". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the Nuttall Encyclopedia
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Nuttall Encyclopedia
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Use dmy dates from December 2021
- Articles with FAST identifiers
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
- Articles with GND identifiers
- Articles with LCCN identifiers
- Articles with NTA identifiers
- 1699 births
- 1749 deaths
- Scottish printers
- Scottish inventors
- 18th-century Scottish people
- Businesspeople from Edinburgh
- Scottish goldsmiths
- Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard
- All stub articles
- Scottish business biography stubs