Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1885 — Errors in Printing. [ARTICLE]

Errors in Printing.

Printers' Circular: Painstaking people, who know next to nothing about printing, find a special delight in searching out typographical errors in newspapers, periodicals, and books, the detection of a blunder, in their own estimation, putting a premium on individ A ual intelligence —conferring a privilege of disparaging printers. Men 1 of intelligence, who write well but not legibly, nefer tire of pointing out mistakes of printers and the oversight of proofreaders. The self-constituted censors of typography may find food for wholesome reflection in the fact that just about one hundred years ago a number of professors in the Edinburgh University undertook the publication of a book which shotaid be a perfect specimen of typographical accuracy. Every conceivable precaution was taken to prevent errors of the types. Six experienced proof-readers were employed, who devoted hours to the reading of each page. After their careful task was completed, each page was posted in the hall of the university, with a notification that £SO would be paid to any person who should succeed in discovering an error. Every page remained thus publicly exposed, for two weeks before being returned to the printing office. The proprietors of the work felt confident that the object so diligently striven for had been attained. Great was the discomfiture of the learned men when, on the book being issued, several errors were found, one occurring in the first line of the first page.