James McCosh, D. D., LL. D., Litt. D., 1868-1883.
Francis Landley Patton, D. D., LL. D., 1883-1902.
Woodrow Wilson, LL. D., Litt. D., 1902-1910.
John Grier Hibben, LL. D., 1912-.
PRINCIP, GAVRILO, the assassin of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife. He was a native of Bosnia and one of the extreme Serbian patriots. When the Archduke visited Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, an attempt was made to assassinate him with bombs. Narrowly escaping death, the Archduke and his wife were being driven in a carriage to the royal palace when Princip fired into the equipage just as it turned the corner of a narrow street. The Archduke and Duchess were killed almost instantly. Princip was arrested and died two years later while awaiting trial.
PRINCIPAL, the term used in the United States to designate the proprietor, chief, or head of an academy or seminary.
PRINCIPAL AND AGENT, a designation in law, applied to that branch of questions which relate to the acting of one person for another in any commercial transaction.
PRINGLE, THOMAS, an English poet; born in Blaiklaw, Roxburghshire, Jan. 5, 1789. Lame from childhood, dyspeptic, devout, he went at 17 to Edinburgh University. He took to writing at an early age, and besides other literary schemes, started the “Edinburgh Monthly Magazine.” In 1820 he set sail with a party of emigrants of his father's family for Cape Colony. He traveled into the interior with the party, and had his heart stirred within him to see the inhumanity practiced toward the natives by English and Dutch residents alike. He started the “South African Journal,” and fought a brave fight for the freedom of the press. But he was bullied by the tyrannical governor, Lord Charles Somerset, his schemes crushed, and himself reduced to poverty. He returned to London in 1826, and became secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society. His “Ephemerides” (1828) was a collection of graceful verse. He died in London, Dec. 5, 1834.
PRINTING, the art of producing impressions from characters or figures on paper or any other substance. Printing from movable types was, according to Professor Douglas, probably practiced in China as early as the 12th or 13th century, as there are Korean books printed from movable clay or wooden types in 1317. The great discovery was that of forming every letter or character of the alphabet separately. The credit of inventing this simple yet marvelous art is contested by the Dutch and Germans. Printing was brought to England in 1476 or 1477 by William Caxton. The first printing press set up in America was introduced by the Viceroy of Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza, and the first book printed by it in the New World was “The Ladder de S. Juan Climaco” (1536). The earliest press in the British-American colonies was brought over for Harvard College in 1638. “Bay Psalm Book” (1640) was its first important work; but in 1639 it printed the “Freeman's Oath” and an almanac. In Philadelphia a press was set up in 1685, in New York in 1693.
The earliest improvement on the printing press was made by the celebrated Earl Stanhope, who constructed a press of iron of sufficient size to print a whole surface of a sheet. A multitude of improvements speedily succeeded this press. Among those which gained a large share of approbation was the Columbian press, which was of American invention. This press was taken to Great Britain in 1818 by George Clymer of Philadelphia, and patented. The pressing-power in this instance was procured by a long bar or handle acting upon a combination of exceedingly powerful levers. Printing is now executed by one or other of the varieties of cylinder presses, moved generally by electricity, or steam. Printing machines may be divided into two distinct classes—those for printing books, in which accurate register is required, and those for printing newspapers, in which register is not sought for, and speed is of first consequence.
The printing business is divided into three departments—those concerned respectively with jobbing or commercial work, with book work, and with news work. Jobbing work is chiefly done on small platen machines invented by G. P. Gordon, about 1868. Larger work is done on machines having one or more cylinders. It has been found, since machines have been brought to their present degree of perfection, that they give far superior results to those from presses—their impression is stronger, more solid, and more uniform, and the sheets can be laid on them with a precision unattainable with handpresses. Paper is not now made spongy and stretchable by being wetted, and the result of working it dry is that the type is brought up with greater brightness, and the delicate lines of engravings are printed finer, clearer, and cleaner. The colored sup-
