George Bruce (July 5, 1781 – July 6, 1866)
was an American printer, industrialist and inventor.
Early life
Bruce, who was born in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, Scotland on July 5, 1781, to John and Janet Gilbertson Bruce.
He immigrated to America in 1795 and served his apprenticeship in Philadelphia. His younger brother, John, lost his life in the army in Egypt.
Career
After first apprenticing to a bookbinder, his older brother David arranged for him an apprenticeship with
Thomas Dobson Thomas Dobson may refer to:
* Thomas Dobson (printer) (1751–1823), master printer most famous for having published the earliest American version of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''
* Thomas Dobson (rugby) (1872–1902), rugby union footballer who ...
, printer in Philadelphia. In 1798, the destruction of Dobson's office by fire, and the prevalence of
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
, led the brothers to leave the city. George had yellow fever at Amboy, but recovered through his brother's care. The two went to Albany and found employment there, but after a few months returned to New York.
In New York, they were employed as journeymen printers and helped form the Franklin Typographical Association which was an early labor union.
In 1803, young Bruce was foreman and a contributor to the ''Daily Advertiser'', and in November of that year printer and publisher of the paper for the proprietor. In 1806 the two brothers opened a book printing office at the corner of Pearl street and Coffeehouse slip. The same year they brought out an edition of ''
Lavoisier's Chemistry'', doing all the work with their own hands. Their industry and personal attention to business soon brought them abundant employment, and in 1809, moving to Sloat lane, near
Hanover square, they had nine presses in operation, and published occasionally on their own account.
Technical advances
In 1812, David went to England, and brought back with him the secret of
stereotyping
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
. The brothers attempted to introduce the process, but encountered many difficulties, which it required ingenuity to surmount. The type of that day was cast with so low a beveled shoulder that it was not suitable for stereotyping, as it interfered with the molding and weakened the plate. They found it necessary, therefore, to cast their own type. They invented a planing-machine for smoothing the backs of the plates and reducing them to a uniform thickness, and the mahogany shifting-blocks to bring the plates to the same height as type. Their first stereotype works were school editions of the New Testament in
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
, and the Bible in
nonpareil (1814 and 1815). They subsequently stereotyped the earlier issues of the
American Bible Society
American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...
and a series of Latin classics.
In 1816, they sold out the printing business, and bought a building in Eldridge street for their foundry. Here, and subsequently in 1818, when they erected the
type foundry
A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Mono ...
still occupied by their successors in Chambers street, George gave his attention to the enlargement and development of the type-founding business, while David confined his labors to stereotyping. In 1822 David's health failed, and the partnership was dissolved. George soon relinquished stereotyping', and gave his whole attention to type-founding, and introduced valuable improvements into the business, cutting his own punches, making constantly new and tasteful designs, and graduating the size of the body of the type so as to give it a proper relative proportion to the size of the letter. In connection with his nephew, David Bruce Jr., he invented a typecasting machine that grew to be widely used in the industry. His scripts became famous among printers as early as 1832, and retained their pre-eminence for a generation. The last set of punches he cut was for a great primer script. He was at the time in his seventy-eighth year, but for beauty of design and neatness of finish, the type in question has rarely been excelled.
On November 9, 1842, he was awarded the first
design patent
In the United States, a design patent is a form of legal protection granted to the ornamental design of an article of manufacture. Design patents are a type of industrial design right. Ornamental designs of jewelry, furniture, beverage containers ...
(a new form of
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
authorized by
Act of Congress
An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...
) for
fonts
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a " sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
(printing typefaces and borders).
In 1856, he commissioned architect
James Bogardus
James Bogardus (March 14, 1800 – April 13, 1874) was an American inventor and architect, the pioneer of American cast-iron architecture, for which he took out a patent in 1850.
Early life
Bogardus was born in the town of Catskill in New York o ...
to build
254 Canal Street, one of the earliest as well as one of the most handsome examples of
cast-iron architecture.
Personal life
In 1811, he married Catherine Wolfe (1785–1861), the daughter of David Wolfe (1748–1836) of New York City.
Catherine's brother, John David Wolfe (1792–1872), was the father of
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (8 March 1828 – 4 April 1887) was an American philanthropist and art collector. Though she gave large amounts of money to institutions such as Grace Episcopal Church and Union College, her most significant gifts wer ...
(1828–1887), a partial inheritor of the
Lorillard
Lorillard Tobacco Company was an American tobacco company that marketed cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max. The company had two operating segments: cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.
The ...
tobacco fortune.
Together George and Catherine had:
*
Catherine Wolfe Bruce
Catherine Wolfe Bruce (January 22, 1816, New York – March 13, 1900, New York) was a noted American philanthropist and patron of astronomy.
Early life
Bruce was born on January 22, 1816. She was the daughter of the George Bruce (1781–1866), a ...
(1816–1900), a philanthropist who died unmarried.
* Janet Bruce (1820–1884), who married George Brown.
*
David Wolfe Bruce (1824–1895),
who was married, a fact only discovered by his family and friends after his death in his will.
* Matilda Wolfe Bruce (1826–1908),
who did not marry.
* George Wolfe Bruce (1828–1887), who graduated from
Columbia College and became a merchant.
Bruce was considered a man of large benevolence, unflinching integrity, and great decision of character. He was president for many years of the Mechanics' institute, and of the type-founders' association, and an active member of. and contributor to, the historical society, St. Andrew's society, the New York Typographical Society, and the
.
Google Books
Cyclopedia of American Biography
Descendants
Through his daughter Janet, he was a grandfather of George Bruce Brown (1844–1892) and a great-grandfather of David Loney Bruce-Brown (1887–1912), the American race-car driver.
See also
* History of patent law
The history of patents and patent law is generally considered to have started with the Venetian Statute of 1474.
Early precedents
There is some evidence that some form of patent rights was recognized in Ancient Greece. In 500 BCE, in the Greek ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, George
19th-century American inventors
1781 births
1866 deaths
American manufacturing businesspeople
Scottish emigrants to the United States
American typographers and type designers
19th-century American businesspeople