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THE
RENOWNED OF THE BASKERVILLES !!
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John Taylor probably never knew he was being followed.
Had he taken the time to
look over his shoulder as he walked
that narrow Birmingham street he would have seen a young man suddenly
stop and pretend to peer attentively into a shop window. But neither in the hardware establishment,
nor at the apocatheries where he made
further purchases did he see that same
pursuer standing quietly by taking note of that which had been bought.
For John Taylor...in that year 1736... was making a name for
himself in the production of japanning ware, that is, the varnishing and
decorating of articles in the manner of
the Japanese. It was a new technique, at least it was so in the Western
world, and the market was most profitable.
So it is said that this young
man followed John Taylor to learn the ingredients needful for such a craft that
he, in turn, might set up his own japanning business. ( 1 )
.............................
His name was
John Baskerville. He had been born in
Wolverley, Worcestershire, UK on January 28, 1706 and early records reveal that for some time during his later teenage years he found employment as a
footman to a country clergyman. Even in
those days the record stands that “he was ever to be found with a pen in his
hand.” (2 )
It was not just
the writing of articles or stories that
fascinated young John
Baskerville; - it was the beauty of the letters themselves. The ‘a’ and the ‘b’ and the ‘c’ must all be
formed with perfect symmetry. So much
so did this science of calligraphy capture his heart and mind that at the age
of 19 he is appointed to King Edward’s
School, Birmingham, to teach the art of penmanship.
A further
interest was developed in stone-cutting. Indeed, in the Public Library of
Birmingham can still be seen “a slab of slate he used as an advertisement.” (
3) In five different styles of
lettering it announces ‘Gravestones cut
in any of the hands of John Baskerville; Writing Master.’ For ten years this occupation was pursued
although with little profit. So his attention had turned to japanning.
SUCCESS !!
Having learned
from John Taylor, albeit unbeknown to the latter, the secret ingredients needed
for the task, Baskerville now began to produce “superlative goods.” By 1742 he had invented and patented “a new
method of making and flat-grinding thin metal plates...”.
It was not long
before he found himself a wealthy man.
He purchased a
block of land on the outskirts of Birmingham, built a mansion called ‘Easy
Hill’ and drove a carriage drawn by two cream coloured horses. He lived
“unashamedly” with his housekeeper for fourteen years before he decided to
marry her. Religious wise he was an agnostic...and “proud of it.” ( 4) It was even his request that when death
claimed him he was to be buried in
unconsecrated ground .
A NEW HOBBY !
He was 44 years
of age when the printing ‘bug’ bit him.
It became an all-consuming hobby.
Not just printing for the sake of printing. But the perfection of those letters he would create. Away with
the ancient type faces that had ruled the industry almost since the days of Gutenberg! And even that which had been invented by Niccolo Niccoli . But
that, too, had been centuries previous.
On the continent a Frenchman named Claude Garamond had made some
noteworthy alterations to the shape of the lettering. But, again, that was a
hundred years ago.
William Caslon,
an Englisman, had “in some indescribable way transformed what was typically
Dutch ( lettering ) into something essentially English.” (5) Baskerville was impressed with Caslon’s work, so much so that he later
acknowledged Caslon’s influence upon him.
Now...in 1750 ...with ‘money no object’ as
his japanning business continues to flourish... he throws himself
wholeheartedly into his new-found hobby
..... the craft of printing! He
was to spend a fortune on it ...and, incidentally, come close to poverty by the end of his
days. But his name would be remembered
as one of the greats of the printing industry.
A Nineteenth
Century doggerel was composed that actually contrasted the town and the man....
When
Birmingham, for riots and for crimes
Shall meet the
keen reproach of future times,
Then shall she
find, among her honoured race,
One name to
save her from entire disgrace!” (6 )
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
INNOVATIONS
His love of
fine lettering led him to spend over
Six Hundred Pounds ( a small (?) fortune in those days !)
before he produced the type face with which he was satisfied. (7)
It was to take
six years of such preparation before he was ready to print his first book.
During that time he had presses especially made...the same design as those in
use elsewhere but built “with greater precision.”
Unfortunately...for
later generations, at any rate, ... he also used specially heated plates of
polished copper to give the printed sheets a glossy surface. With the passing
of time this procedure caused the finished work to acquire “a yellowish
tinge” that failed to present the
pleasant contrast with the white paper
as it once had. (8)
The paper!
Baskerville was first to print an English book on ‘wove’ paper. This new “royal paper” as he called it was
probably produced under his instruction at a mill in Maidstone. (9) Nor are we surprised to read that he
pioneered a new type of ink , “blacker
and more velvety ” than any other.
Or that his residence at Easy
Hill was set up with all the necessities for a print shop.
BASKERVILLE
TYPE.
But it is the
type for which he is especially remembered. ! Hailed as a major breakthrough in
the printing art, it could “be read for
long periods of time without eye-strain.”(10)
‘Baskerville
type’ was still being used by printers
until the computer revolution took over. And there are probably a few
old-timers still around who still churn out literature printed with this particular typeface.
Thus it was –
in 1754 – the first book was produced. It was an edition of Virgil’s works
... Virgil being a famous Roman Poet
who had been born 70BC. Gone were the
scrolls and loops that had decorated the capital letters for centuries. The
emphasis was no longer on artistic design but clarity and readability. (11)
CRITICAL
REVIEWS
The literary
critics were divided.
Francis Meynell , Director of the Daily
Herald, raved ... “Look at this title page of Virgil. ... This is artifice at its height; the art of concealing the
care and the sense of balance which has taken infinite pains to obtain the
right interlinear spacing and letter spacing, the right gradations of size...”
(12) An observer of Virgil’s title page, casting an untrained
eye upon it, may add in a quizzical tone, “ Really ?”
As a matter of
fact, Colin Clair in his comprehensive History of Printing in Britain is
not so enamoured with what he sees. Concerning this same Title page , he writes wryly, “a monumental
quality with a slightly repellent flavour, and then one remembers that
Baskerville was at one period a cutter of inscriptions on gravestones.”
(13)
Another
complained that the heat-pressed pages produced a glossy effect that was hurtful to the eye (14) whilst an
admirer assured his readers that
Baskerville’s initial opus had “
few rivals in the whole history of
printing.” (15) A copy may be seen in the British Museum.
MORE PUBLICATIONS
There followed
a volume of Milton in 1758. It is good
that the japanning business was still prospering. Printing two books in the
space of eight years would have hardly kept the wolf from the door. But this
was his hobby...and he loved it!
The Cambridge
University Press asked him to produce a Prayer Book and “a folio Bible,” that is, a Bible in a
format larger than a normal volume.
He accepted the commission but left on record that he was far from happy
with the conditions (“shackles” he called them!) imposed upon him. For
one thing, the actual printing was to be done in Cambridge. So he despatched
two presses from Easy Hills and his
assistant, Thomas Warren to oversee the venture. No doubt Baskerville personally made the occasional journey south
to see how things were progressing.
The Prayer Book
appeared in 1760. The type used, he
writes, “is calculated for people who begin to want Spectacles but are ashamed
to use them in Church.”
Three years
later the Bible appeared. The critics were unanimous this time. It was
“undoubtedly Baskerville’s crowning achievement.” (16) “It is a
masterpiece.”(17) “One of the finest books of the whole 18th
Century.”(18) Despite which, it was not
a financial success. Of the 1250 copies printed, only about half of them were
sold.
THE SILENT
PRESSES
Discouragement
set in. Baskerville even tried to sell his printing equipment to France. Alas,
the French Treasury had no money to spare.
For seven years it was a silent press. His interest in printing seems to
have been extinguished. No books emanated from Easy Hills.
........................................
But in 1770
until his death five years later, the presses began to roll once more. Editions
of famous Classical writers from ages past...Horace and Lucretius and Florus
and half a dozen other ancient Romans...or were they Greeks? .... these
new publications were probably
read by a few scholars, but all who saw them could not help but admire the “ excellent typography.”
DEATH ...&
BEYOND !
After his death
on January 8th 1775 he was buried in his own garden “under the
windmill” as he had requested. In
1821, however, his grave was accidentally disturbed during some
excavations. “The leaden coffin was
opened and the body was found to be in a singular state of preservation.”(19)
By this time
his widow had sold his equipment to a Frenchman who used them to print
the writings of Voltaire ...in
70 volumes !! ( 1785-1789) ( 20)
In 1917 Bruce
Rogers of Cambridge University Press rediscovered some of the original
Baskerville type. And in 1953 a French
Printing company made “a princely gift of all the surviving punches to
Cambridge University Press.”( 21)
John
Baskerville exercised a lasting influence upon the typo-graphy of the Western
world. We live in an age when the talk
of type and punches and matrices may sound foreign to our ears. But without the
inventiveness and dedication of men like John Baskerville who knows where the
printing industry would be today...
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
(1) A
History of Printing in Britain. By
Colin Clair. Cassell, London. 1965. 315pp.
( Page 120)
(2) ibid.
p.191.
(3) ibid. p. 191.
(4) English Printed Books by Francis
Meynell. Collins, London. 1946. 48pp. (p.22)
(5) Clair
p 190.
(6) 500
Years of Printing by S.H. Steinberg . Faber & Faber. 1959. 286pp. ( p. 124)
(7) Clair.
P 192)
(8) Ibid.
p 197)
(9) An Introduction to Historical
Bibliography by N. Binns. Association
of Assistant Librarians. 1962. 388pp. ( p. 18)
(10)
Steinberg. P. 126.
(11)
World of Wonder magazine. ( no date.)
(12)
Meynell.
P. 24
(13)
Clair
p.193.
(14)
Ibid.
p.193
(15)
Steinberg. P. 124
(16)
Clair p.
195
(17)
Early Master Printers by A. Powers. Portland
Club of Printing House Craftsmen.
1954. Pages unnumbered.
(18)
Steinberg p. 126.
(19)
Book of
Days. W.R. Chambers, London. 1879. Vol. 1. 832 pp.
( p. 131.)
(20)
Steinberg. P. 137
(21)
ibid. p. 12
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POWER FOR THE PRINTSHOP ..... The Nikola Tesla
Story.
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The printer arrived at his small business just before 7:00
a.m. It was a cold morning ... and it
was not long before he had the central heating doing its duty. The fluorescent
light in Miss Benson's office flickered a few times before dispelling the early
morning gloom ... and the radio was switched on to catch the news of the day
whilst he surveyed some work-sheets. The electric urn ... Old Ben always loved
his cup of hot chocolate before his day’s work commenced in the print-shop ...
he turned it on.
In the factory itself he flicked on the master switch ready
for the power to operate the various equipment. He eyed the electric
clock on the wall. His staff would be arriving soon.
And if our printer was of a mystical bent he might have
paused to reflect upon the rich
heritage created by men like Guttenberg and Schoeffer and Caxton and a host of
others who had pioneered this printing craft.
And Tesla ...?
Chances are he had
never even heard of this eccentric genius who “invented the 20th
Century.” That’s the title the Editor
of ‘Popular Science Monthly’ had bestowed upon Mr Nikola Tesla.
.................................................................................
It was
midnight, July 9–10, 1856, when Djouka Tesla gave birth to a bonny man-child.
Reverend Milutin Tesla beamed with joy.
Baby Nikola cried.
The proud
parents in that small Croatian village little dreamed that their son would one
day startle the world’s top scientists with his demonstrations ... black-out a
whole American city, and revolutionise the life-style of millions ... nay,
billions ... with his inventive acumen, and even become a world-wide cult
figure in the 20th Century.
Indeed, the
exploits of Nikola Tesla are so incredible that some biographers have suggested
that he was born on a space-ship ... from Venus! It is true that today’s
‘International Tesla Society’ in Colorado Springs, U.S.A., is the happy hunting
ground of New Agers and UFO-nauts. One
can purchase crystal pyramids, miracle cancer cures, anti-gravity devices and a
host of other money-making paraphernalia.
But Tesla, despite his odd phobias, must not be judged by these dubious
disciples.
DISCOVERIES
GALORE
After all, he
did discover the principle of Alternating Current - the AC current that comes
into your home and mine ... and makes the fluorescent light flash on (which
Tesla also invented), and causes the radiator to dispel the winter chills, and
boils the urn, and operates the clock upon the wall... And causes the press to
roll, and the guillotine to chop, and the stitching machine to staple...
Oh, yes! ...
and the radio where our printer hearkened to the morning news service. Did you know that in 1943, just eight
months after his death, the United States Supreme Court acknowledged that radio
communication was first discovered ... not by Marconi, as most text-books tell
us ... but by Nikola Tesla!
MONEY MATTERS!!
It seemed as if
hitherto undreamed of ideas raced through his mind. And with financial backing from men like George Westinghouse (of
refrigerator fame), and multi- millionaire, Jacob Astor (who perished on the
Titanic’s maiden voyage) and J.P. Morgan (America’s richest man), equipment was
purchased and experiments performed that astounded the world of his day. And ours.
The “incredible
bladeless turbine”, the remote controlled torpedo and submarine, the first
Television signals, medical diathermy, robots (which Tesla referred to as
telautomatons), radar, Kirlian photography, a vertical rising flying machine...
The list goes
on and on.
He even claimed
to have devised a system of communicating with inhabitants of other planets,
and had actually received mysterious signals.
Biographer, Margaret Cheney, suggests that Tesla probably heard “radio
waves from the stars” which, she adds, “is commonplace” in our day.
And then there
was his “Death Ray”! This is the kind of thing that excited and bewildered
Saturday afternoon children at the movies back in the Forties. The mad scientist. The laboratory with electrical discharges that sparked and
crackled. The secret weapon that could
bring down a plane in mid-flight (yes ... Tesla claimed to be able to build
such, had he the necessary finance).
Whether he ever perfected his Death Ray is uncertain. After his death the United States Government sent federal agents
to confiscate his papers.
AN INVENTIVE MIND
Even as a youth
in Croatia his inventive turn of mind soon began to manifest itself.
There are
stories of him building water wheels at the local stream “quite unlike those he
had seen in the countryside”. His
Sixteen-bug-power-motor involved gluing the wings of 16 bugs to his mechanical
contrivance. When they flapped their wings
the motor was supposed to operate. It
was no more successful than his attempted flight from the barn roof ... holding
an umbrella. “He lay unconscious and
was carried off to bed by his mother”.
At the age of
26, he states in his autobiography, (February 1882) whilst walking in Budapest
Park, a flash of inspiration came to him.
He could make “an iron rotor
spinning in a rotating magnetic field”.
He saw it in his mind. And he
drew it in the sand for his friend to see.
There had been no truly successful AC motor until this time. Suffice to
say, Tesla’s “split phase induction motor”
revolutionised industry and is still used around the world.
TO AMERICA
Two years later
he migrated to America. Of all the
518,592 immigrants who sailed past the Statue of Liberty in that year, it was
Tesla who was destined to change the face of the Nation. In his pocket was a letter of introduction
to Thomas Edison, America’s most famous inventor. It had been seven years since Edison had spoken “Mary had a
little lamb...” into his talking machine, and heard it played back. Already he had given to the world an
incandescent light bulb and a carbon granule microphone and an electric
valve. These marvels of technology, and
others, had made his name an icon among the American public.
But Edison
favoured the use of Direct Current (DC) ... the kind of electrical power that
comes from batteries. “Alternating
Current,” he said emphatically, “was too dangerous. It killed people!” To prove his point “he paid schoolboys 25
cents for dogs and cats which he then electrocuted in deliberately crude experiments
with Alternating Current.”
Tesla, who had
previously gained employment with Edison for nearly two years, now “picked up
his bowler hat and quit.”
History records
that our amazing Croatian spent some time digging ditches with a New York
street gang of labourers.
But fortune
smiled upon him ... a financial backer came to the rescue, and in April 1887,
the Tesla
Electrical Company opened for business. There also commenced a public slanging match between Tesla and
Edison. “They described each other’s
mentality as low.” Tesla would fly into
a rage at the mention of Edison’s name.
He refused to have any devices in his house or laboratory bearing the
Edison label. When asked to attend a
dinner sponsored by the Institute of Electrical Engineers that he might be
awarded the Edison Merit of Achievement Award, Tesla refused to attend.
A similar
attitude developed toward Marconi.
“Marconi,” Tesla informed one
reporter, “is a donkey.”
FAME AT LAST
The major
breakthrough came with the opening of the 1893 World Fair, held in
Chicago. The whole vast complex was to
be lit by electrical power. Edison put
in a bid to accomplish this with his Direct Current. But Tesla, backed at this time by Westinghouse, under-bid Edison
and obtained the contract. Not only did
they “outshine Edison”, but they displayed to the world the benefits of AC
power.
This was
followed by a contract to harness the power generated by Niagara Falls ... “a
turning point in human history!” Its
first result was the whole city of Buffalo ... 22 miles away ... being lit by
Hydro- generated Alternating Current.
Tesla was
invited to speak at important scientific functions. Here – showman that he was – he electrified (pardon the pun) his
audiences with dazzling demonstrations. Holding gas filled tubes,
“high-frequency currents would run through his body until the tubes glowed
brilliantly.” As a spectacular climax
Tesla would “pass a million volts harmlessly through his body ... never failing
to point out that Mr Edison could not do the same thing with his supposedly
safer Direct Current.” ( Children !! Do not try this at home !! Remember the
dogs and cats ...)
SPARKS ON THE
PRAIRIE
In Colorado
Springs a special laboratory was constructed, topped off by a 200 feet high
tower. Huge flashes of man-made
lightning ... some of them 100 feet long ... would light up the surrounding
prairie. The crashing thunder produced
in this place could be heard 13 miles away.
Tesla and his crew laboured on, cotton wool stuffed in their ears and
wearing thick cork on the soles of their shoes. On one occasion a dense fog was produced by his equipment, and on
another he blacked out the town of Colorado Springs, 15 miles away, by
overloading their electric supply and causing their generator to burst into flames!
Another tower
was constructed at Long Island, its purpose being to transmit wire-less power
around the world. But before this
project was completed, the financial support dried up. In 1914, just after the outbreak of World
War I, the tower was mysteriously dynamited.
Whilst proof is lacking, it is generally believed some locals feared
Tesla, a European, was sending radio messages to the enemy...
ODDITIES &
PHOBIAS
Tesla was
eccentric. . He would sit alone at the Waldorf-Astoria meal table ... a table
no other he permitted to use ... and wiped every piece of silverware with one
of the eighteen napkins that were always provided for that purpose. Nor could he “lift a bite to his lips”
without first calculating the cubic content of the dish before him.
He could not
bring himself to touch the hair of another person ... earings were abhorrent to
him ... and pearls on a woman “made him physically sick”. A morbid fear of
germs possessed him. Visitors who entered his hotel room must needs “keep their distance.” His hearing, he said,
was so acute that he could hear a fly land on a table.... and a watch ticking
three rooms away. He slept with rubber
cushions under his bed to deaden the noises around him.
His dress sense
was immaculate. Indeed, in his
prime, “he fancied himself the
best-dressed man on Fifth Avenue.”
Women were ready to fall at his feet but he had no time ... or was it
inclination ... for romance.
PIGEONS
Nor would any
survey of Tesla’s life be complete without mentioning his curious fascination
with pigeons! He would feed them in the
park, and take any sick ones back to his hotel room. Herein special cages were built (what did the hotel manager
think??), including “a curtained bird bath” for his feathered friends. At the age of 81 he left the Hotel New
Yorker one morning to feed his beloved pigeons and was struck by a taxi. Even
before it was diagnosed that he had three broken ribs, he had contacted William
Kerrigan “to finish his errand. For the next six months Kerrigan went daily to
feed the flocks...”
Five years
later death came to Nikola Tesla, on January 7, 1943. He died in his sleep, alone in his hotel room ... alone except
for his pigeons. Two thousand people
crammed the Church of St John the Divine for his funeral. A death mask was made. A statue was erected near Niagara
Falls. A Liberty ship was named after
him. Tributes flooded in from leading
scientists. Yet, strange to say, gradually his name was
forgotten.
A PRINTER’S
THOUGHTS
Time to close the print shop for another day. Miss Benson
has switched off the computer and put the dust-cover over it. Old Ben has had a
good time at the press he loves to operate.
Now the power is turned off. Our printer locks up and heads for home.
“Another profitable day,” he muses to himself. “Thank-you Guttenberg and Schoeffer and
Caxton ...”
A pigeon wanders across his path.
“And Tesla. ”
.............................................................................................................................................
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cheney,
Margaret. “Tesla : Man Out of Time”,
320 pp, Dell Pub. (1981)
This is by far the best biography of Tesla I have found.
..............................................................................................................................
Heyn, Ernest
V. “Fire of Genius”, 340 pp, Anchor
Press (1976)
Based on the files of “Popular Science
Monthly”, this volume contains a 20 page
chapter on Tesla.
........................................................................................................................................
Hunt, I, &
Draper W. “Lightning in His Hand”, 269
pp, Omni Pub. (1964)
..................................................................................................................................
Moffat, T. “Nikola Tesla : Creative Genius or
Crackpot”, Journal “Electronics Australia” , (December, 1995)
Excellent article.
..............................................................................................................................
Nash, Jay
Robert. “Zanies (The World’s Greatest
Eccentrics)”, New Century Pub. (1982)
Just one chapter concerning Tesla.
.................................................................................................................................
O’Neill, John.
(Science Editor of the New York Herald Tribune, and personal friend of Tesla)
“Prodigal Genius”, 326 pp, Neville Spearman Pub. (1968).
................................................................................................................................
X,
Michael. “Tesla , Man of Mystery”, 63
pp, Inner Light Pub. (1992)
This is, by far, the silliest book on Tesla I have read. The
author makes his subject out to be a Venusian!
................................................................................................................................
Books
concerning Tesla are available from ASD Bookstore, 99 Railroad Street, St
Johnsbury, Vermont, 05819, U.S.A.
Phone : (800) 711-9497, Fax : (802) 684-2565.
Articles
concerning Nikola Tesla can be found on the Internet Web Site –
http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/
.........................................................................................................................................
Nikola Tesla
may have discovered the principles of Alternating Current, but the guy who made
all the money was the fellow who invented the meter. (Milton Berle’s “Private Joke File”).
==============================================================
FROM
THE PULPIT TO THE PRINTSHOP !
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From his earliest days Andrew
Hingeley faced problems with what he called “the abuse of
authority.”
Now that he is Managing Director of his own printing firm he hopes to have learned from the mistakes he
believes he saw in others.
“Authority has to come as the result of respect,” he told me, “ it has
to be earned. It’s no good acting like a Dictator... saying ‘I’m the Boss ....
do as I say!’ That just creates resentment.”
.............................................................................
It probably all began when his parents
sent him , at the age of 7, to Geelong
Grammar School. He boarded there for ten years. ( 1949-1959) “It was a terrible
experience,” he reminisced, “Dickensian!” His parent-substitute did “a poor
job” and he looks back on the teachers ( except for one or two ) with little
respect. “They channelled me into the wrong subjects. I never got excited about
anything. And I left that place with a
huge inferiority complex.”
From there it was to Law School...
“where,” he added, “I failed miserably.”
In the early Sixties we find him
employed in his father’s wholesale grocery business and it was here Kay Ligertwood crossed his path. This delightful lass introduced him to church
activities . Life took on a new
perspective. They married in 1965 and entered a Bible College together three
years later !
“But it was one of those
old-fashioned institutions where the rules were rigid and little effort was made to encourage self-discipline,” he
said. “No talking to the female students ...despite the fact that most of us
males were between the ages of 25 and 30! No asking someone to ‘pass the salt,
please.’ All that sort of thing.”
He felt it was an ‘abuse of authority’
and joined a deputation to the Principal’s office to tell him so !
........................................
Propagating Literature .
After graduation he found himself
employed in a Christian bookshop in the heart of Melbourne. It was July 1970.
Within six months he was Manager...and business began to boom. So much so that
he suggested to the Board of Directors that a branch be opened in one of the outer suburbs. “I had done my homework, “he
said, “I knew where most of our customers lived. But the Directors vetoed the
whole thing.” He quit.
“I wanted to get into general
book-selling anyway, “ he continued, “not just Christian literature. I feel very strongly about the gulf that is
created so often between daily life and religion. Faith and everyday life,
especially work, go together....”
And that door of opportunity soon
opened. The experience already gained enabled him to find a position with
Collins Booksellers. It was not long before he was managing a newly opened
store in one of Melbourne’s huge shopping complexes ... “we fought tooth and nail to have our tables
of books out in the mall,” he went on to say, “and we succeeded.”
....................................................
Preparing Literature .
But his interest in the Church was
rekindled in the years that followed and his thoughts turned again to entering
the ministry. By 1985 he had left the book industry and was ordained as a
Deacon. All Saints Anglican Church,
Newtown, ( Geelong) soon found themselves with a new curate. “But then,” he
recalled, “I ran into the authority problem again....”
Out of the blue came an invitation
for him to apply for position of Director of Lay Education at St. Mark’s ,
Canberra. He was accepted and on Australia Day, 1986, he and his family headed
north. It was in this new position
Andrew Hingeley was introduced to his first taste of printing. Among his various
duties was the preparation ...and publication...of certain religious
literature.
A year later, however,
circumstances changed. A new Bishop was appointed and Andrew’s job-description
was altered, much to his dis-satisfaction.
An ‘encounter’ with the Bishop (
which is probably the best way to
describe it ! ) led to his resignation.
It was 1989.
....................................................
Printing Literature.
A printer he had come to know during
his time in Canberra offered him a job.
The following year he was on his own. ‘Trendsetting’ was born and Andrew
Hingeley has never regretted the step he took into this vibrant industry.
His Christian principles still come
into play. He grapples with problems that arise . There is “the desire to do
the best thing by one’s staff,” whilst at the same time dealing with the
growing need to cut running costs. “And
our Chromopress ... we have a monopoly on that ... and the pricing strategy
that goes with it. How does one’s Christian faith enter into these situations
?” he asked. Faith and everyday life still go together in the mind of
Andrew Hingeley. “Integrity” and
“honesty” are key words in his vocabulary. One does not have to talk with him
for very long to realise that.
And he guards against the “abuse of
authority” that caused so much trauma
in his earlier days. Visit
‘Trendsetting’ when you are passing through Canberra and have a chat to him ...
and his happy staff !
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