All important as the art of printing is acknowledged to be, yet three centuries elapsed from the date of the invention before it was perfected in many of its most necessary details. At first the art was kept entirely in the hands of learned men, the greatest scholars often glorying in affixing their names to the works as correctors of the press, and giving names to the various parts of the mechanism of the printing-office, as is testified by the classical technicalities still in use among the workmen. From the great improvement of punching moulds for casting types by Schoeffer, as formerly mentioned, till the invention of italic letters by Aldus Manutius, to whom learning is much indebted, no other improvement of any consequence took place. It does not appear that mechanical ingenuity was at any time directed to the improvement of the presses or any other part of the machinery used in printing, and the consequence was, that till far on in the eighteenth century, the clumsy presses, which were composed of wood and iron, and slow and heavy in working, were allowed to screech on as they had done since the days of Guttenberg, Faust, and Caxton, while the ink continued to be applied by means of two stuffed balls, at a great expense of time and labour. At length, an almost entire revolution was effected in the printing office, both in the appearance of the workmanship and the mechanism of the presses. About the same period the art of stereotyping was discovered, and developed a completely new feature in the history of printing. One of the chief improvements in typography was, the discarding of the long s, and every description of contraction; while, at the same time, the formation of the letters was executed with more neatness, and greater regularity. Among the first improvers of the printing press, the most honourable place is due to the Earl of Stanhope, a nobleman who will be long remembered for his mechanical genius; besides applying certain lever powers to the screw and handle of the old wooden press, by which the labour of the workman was diminished, and finer work effected; he constructed a press wholly of iron, which is known by his name.