One more attempt was to be made before type founding was permanently established in America. This time the attempt was successful, but not permanent. In 1783 John Bain (or Baine) sent his grandson to Philadelphia with an outfit of type founder’s tools. Bain had been associated with one of the famous type founders of the time, Alexander Wilson, of Glasgow. Wilson not only had a market in Scotland and England, but also in Ireland and in North America. Bain had been chosen by lot to start a foundry in Dublin, but after remaining there a time he went to Edinburgh, whence he turned his attention to the other side of the Atlantic. Encouraged by the reports from his grandson, Mr. Bain soon went, himself, to Philadelphia. He was further encouraged by the firm of Young & McCullough, then a leading house of Philadelphia printers. In 1785 he opened business under the quaint title of John Bain & Grandson in Company. Their work was good and the firm was immediately successful, theirs being the first commercially successful attempt to cast type in America. Bain, however, died in 1790, and the business was soon given up by his family. About the same time that Bain began business Adam Gerard Mappa made an unsuccessful attempt to start a foundry in New York. Mappa was born in Belgium in 1750. He spent his early life in the army, from which he retired after twelve years of service with the rank of lieutenant. He then purchased a part interest in the old firm of Voskens & Clerk. This firm was established some time before 1677, and had long been one of the principal sources of supply of type for England. As pointed out elsewhere in this series (No. 52, A Short History of Printing in England) many of the types used in England for a long period came from continental foundries, particularly Dutch. Shortly after the purchase the Government underwent important changes, in consequence of which Mappa left the country. He landed in New York somewhere about 1787, bringing with him his complete outfit of tools and matrices. He had a number of very handsome Dutch and German faces, some ordinary roman type, and seven varieties of Orientals. For these last Voskens & Clerk undoubtedly had found considerable use, but America was as yet far from needing any considerable supply of Oriental types. Mappa’s capital had apparently been absorbed in his purchase and lost in emigration. In 1798 he was very ready to take himself and his equipment into the service of Binney & Ronaldson. Probably Mappa had no practical knowledge of type founding and very little interest in it, for he left the service of Binney & Ronaldson in 1800 to go into that of the great Holland Land Company. He seems there to have found his place and served in important positions until the end of his life. CHAPTER II THE ESTABLISHMENT OF TYPE FOUNDING