Ink making was done by the printer until comparatively recently. The ink balls which were used for distributing the ink on types were made by the printers themselves until the ink ball was superseded by the roller with the coming in of modern presses. Even then rollers were made in the shops for a long time, and indeed the practice is hardly now entirely discontinued. The early paper was hand-made and was thick, with a rough, furrowed surface. It was grayish or yellowish in color and was very strongly water-marked. It was very costly, but very durable. It was heavy and hard to handle, especially as it was handled without mechanical appliances. The early types were irregular in face and body as the natural result of being cast in hand moulds from hand cut dies. The early types were cast on large bodies and were used without leads. The point system, which reduced type to uniformity and did away with the annoying irregularity in size of the old types, did not come into existence until the middle of the eighteenth century, three hundred years after the invention of printing. Of course, all composition throughout this period was done by hand. Women were employed as compositors as early as 1500, but they apparently disappeared from the industry before long, as we find no evidence of their presence after the reorganization of 1618 or for some time before that. The press was substantially the old screw press of Gutenberg in which the platen was forced down onto the bed by the direct pressure of a screw. A few improvements had been made. A sliding bed was introduced in 1500. A copper screw (more effective and durable than the old wooden screw), tympan, and frisket were added in 1550, and the so-called Dutch press, which did away with the necessity of raising the platen by a reverse motion of the screw by substituting leverage for it, was introduced in 1620. These were the only improvements of any note which were made before the introduction of the Stanhope press about 1800. Of course, the presses were worked by hand power and it will be seen that the setting up of the screw or the throwing of a lever with sufficient force to insure a good impression was an extremely laborious task. It was sometimes dangerous, as the screw bar or lever was liable to break when the workman’s weight and strength were thrown upon it, resulting in serious injuries.