Christopher Saur

In this year Christopher Saur, a German, established a press at Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the establishment was carried to considerable extent and eminence by his son. Thomas, in his History of Printing, reports of him, that “his was by far the most extensive book manufactory then, and for many years afterwards, in the British American colonies. It occasioned the establishment of several binderies, a paper-mill, and a foundry for English and German types.” At this foundry, which was one of the earliest erected throughout the whole of British America, Saur cast types, not only for himself, but for other German printers. He also manufactured his own ink. Among other works, three editions of the German Bible issued from his press; viz. in the years 1743, 1762 and 1776. The greater part of this last impression, consisting of 3000 copies, was most singularly and unfortunately disposed of “The property of Saur was much injured by the revolutionary war, particularly by the battle of Germantown, in 1777. To preserve the residue of it from being destroyed by the British, he went to Philadelphia; his estate was confiscated before the close of the war, and his books, bound and unbound, were sold: among these was the principal part of the last edition of the Bible in sheets; some copies of them had been before, and others of them were now, converted into cartridges, and thus used, not for the salvation of men's souls, but for the destruction of their bodies.” In the summer of 1739, Saur commenced a newspaper in German.