From the Contact form:

1). If an Englishman purchased a printing press in 1826, is there a way to know what kind it would have been? Were there many kinds in production at that time?

2). Were wooden types common in New York in 1828–1840? Is there a history or source that might cover the manufacture, development, and use of wooden types? How did they compare to metal types? What metals were used at what periods? Again, is there a good source or book that might cover the development of type-making, including wooden types?

Full disclosure: I’m working on a biography of an early 19th-century printer, editor, author, and lecturer originally from England but resident in NYC and later Brooklyn starting around 1828. I’m finding it hard to locate good printing and type-founding histories in local area resources and haven’t yet located much online either. Your site is certainly the most informative I’ve yet found; thus, this inquiry.

Thanks very much for any assistance you may be able to provide. Please let me know if you are willing to be acknowledged in any forthcoming publication.

Ken Burchell