- Frederick Wicks
Frederick Wicks (23 February 1840 – 30 March 1910) was an English
author andinventor , whose book "The British Constitution and Government" was first published in 1871 and ran to several editions. He was born inStockwell ,Surrey , the youngest son of Samuel Wicks (1790-1854), a corn dealer, & Mary Wicks (née Groves) (1797-1868).Frederick Wicks, who in the 1870s became proprietor of the "
Glasgow Daily News", was in 1878 [ [http://web.utk.edu/~wrobinso/430studyguide.html Chronology of development of printing] ] the inventor of the Wicks Rotary Typecasting Machine. It is recorded [ [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Newspapers Article on newspapers in 1911 Encyclopedia] ] that "for many years he had been working at a machine which would cast new type so quickly and so cheaply as to do away with the old system of distribution and substitute new type every day. In 1899 his machine was practically perfect, and "The Times " entered into a contract with him to supply any quantity of new type every day. The difficult question of distribution was thus surmounted, and composition by machines placed on a satisfactory basis".Wicks also wrote several novels, including "Golden Lives", "The Veiled Hand", and "The Infant". He retired to
Hersham ,Surrey , where he died on 30 March 1910, aged 70.References
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*worldcat id|lccn-n91-12474
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