William Augustus Leggo (25 January 1830 – 21 July 1915) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

inventor, engraver and businessperson. He is noted for co-inventing the half-tone engraver with

George-Édouard Desbarats George-Édouard-Amable Desbarats (5 April 1838 – 18 February 1893) was an influential Canadian printer and inventor. Life and career The Desbarats were an established printing family. The first of the family to settle was Joseph Desbarats f ...

. He had several

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 ...

s to his name, including leggotyping and granulated photography.

Early life

Leggo was born in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

on January 25, 1830, to William Augustus Leggo, a bookbinder and engraver, and Margaret Grant. After graduating from Quebec High School, he apprenticed as an engraver, first to his father and then to Cyrus A. Swett in Boston.

Career

Leggo worked with his brothers Thomas, Edward, and Henry in the family engraving business before partnering with George-Paschal Desbarats and Stewart Derbishire as Wm. A Leggo and Company on January 21, 1863. George-Paschal's son, George-Édouard Desbarats, joined the partnership when Derbishire died in March 1863, and became sole partner when his father died in November 1964. The two patented "Leggotyping", a type of photomechanical reproduction for

letterpress printing Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker com ...

, on February 27, 1865. Leggo and Desbarats founded Leggo and Company in Montreal on January 21, 1868. Desbarats' newspapers, '' Canadian Illustrated News'' (est. October 1869) and '' L'Opinion publique'' (est. January 1870), both made use of Leggotyping. In 1873, the pair formed the Union Art Publishing Company and founded the New York ''

Daily Graphic ''The Daily Graphic: An Illustrated Evening Newspaper'' was the first American newspaper with daily illustrations. It was founded in New York City in 1873 by Canadian engravers George-Édouard Desbarats and William Leggo, and began publication ...

'', the first daily illustrated newspaper. While it was a pioneering effort, it was not a financial success, and Desbarats returned to Montreal soon after.Black, Harry
Canadian Scientists and Inventors: Biographies of People who Shaped Our World
p. 57 (2d ed. 2008) The paper ran until 1889, but by 1879 Leggo was also back in Montreal, where he began a business partnership with William H. Guillebaud as Leggo and Company. Leggo died in 1915 at Lachute, Quebec.

Publications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leggo, William 1830 births 1915 deaths Canadian printers Canadian inventors