He Dumped an Entire Font into the Thames So No One Else Could Use It
Over 173 nights, Thomas Cobden-Sanderson dumped 2,600 pounds of Doves Type into the Thames, because metal type is a physical object — dump it and you own it exclusively.
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The argument · tap a timestamp to hear it
Font stories always set listeners off
Roman Mars opens by saying 99PI has done stories about architecture, transit, history and even sports, but stories about fonts and type always draw a huge, extremely passionate response from listeners. This episode came out of a segment Helen Zaltzman and Martin Austwick developed for the live stage show Souvenirs, later adapted for radio.
— Roman MarsFriends who live too close fall apart faster
Emery lived at 3 Hammersmith Terrace; in 1897 the Thomas family moved to number 7 on the same street, and Emery even rented commercial space from Thomas. The two took family holidays together and stayed in neighboring cottages. In 1899 they decided to go further and start Doves Press as partners. Helen says they had been very important friends for more than a decade, but the relationship fell apart in only about two years.
— Helen ZaltzmanComplementary skills couldn't save the partnership
Thomas was the perfectionist who cared only about the art of printing; Emery was the pragmatist who ran the business. On paper it was a perfect match, but things soured almost from the start. Thomas felt he did all the printing and proofreading himself, that Emery was almost never there and never responded to his long arguments about how the letters of a word should be designed. Emery, meanwhile, had another business to run and money to make, and had no time to spend weeks or months with Thomas fussing over a single letter.
— Helen ZaltzmanType is a physical object, so ownership can be fought over
The breakup dragged on for seven years, and the core issue was who owned Doves Type. At the time a typeface was thousands upon thousands of physical objects that couldn't be copied infinitely — without that set of metal type, you didn't have that typeface. Thomas wanted it exclusively and didn't want Emery, or anyone else he couldn't control, printing anything in Doves. He offered a small sum for Emery to give up his rights; Emery wouldn't accept, and the tug-of-war went back and forth for years.
— Helen ZaltzmanDumping it in the river was a revenge seven years in the planning
Thomas dumping Doves Type into the Thames was not a sudden impulse. He waited seven years and wrote a 116-page apologia — the word doesn't mean an apology, it means a defense. He had meant to publish it in 1913, but realized it might incriminate him, so he kept waiting, until he was about to shut down Doves Press and print its last book, and only then acted on an evening in August 1916.
— Helen Zaltzman173 nights, at most 15 pounds at a time
Thomas could carry at most 10 to 15 pounds of type at a time, and the full set weighed at least 2,600 pounds. By that math he made at least 173 trips to the bridge. Each night he wrapped the type from the page he had just printed in white paper, bagged it, stuffed it into his pockets or into a wooden toolbox with a sliding lid, and sprinkled it gently off the bridge — he didn't want a splash, and he didn't want to be seen. He was afraid of being caught, because the type had legally been promised to Emery.
— Helen ZaltzmanNearly a hundred years later, someone found it on the riverbed
Emery had asked the original engraver, Edward Prince, to remake Doves Type, but Prince was nearly eighty and his eyes and hands could no longer do such fine work. Then in 2010 the type designer Robert Green began redrawing it. He spent three years making a digital version but wasn't satisfied, and in 2014 he went himself to the exposed riverbed under Hammersmith Bridge at low tide; within 20 minutes he found a lowercase v, and later, with a dive team, recovered 151 pieces of Doves Type in total.
— Robert GreenWhoever leaves more writing controls the narrative
Helen says Thomas left behind a huge number of letters and diaries, while Emery's letters are far fewer, so Thomas had a stronger grip on the narrative. For decades people assumed Emery was the jerk, because he complained less. In the diaries of his last forty years, Thomas edited Emery out entirely, and when Annie published those diaries on the fourth anniversary of his death, Emery wasn't in them.
— Helen ZaltzmanIn their own words · checked verbatim
But one kind of story that always elicits a huge response from a very vocal constituency are stories about type.
Roman Mars0:00
after at least a decade of friendship, in 1899 you decided to take your relationship to the next level. You set up a printing press together.
Helen Zaltzman5:20
And if you didn't have the type, then you didn't have the type.
Helen Zaltzman13:47
Throwing something away into a body of water sounds spontaneous, doesn't it?
Helen Zaltzman15:58
Let's not forget, the word apologia does not mean an apology. It's a defence argument.
Helen Zaltzman17:04
Metal that you loved so much, you must destroy it rather than let it live without you.
Helen Zaltzman20:12
A hole where a memory used to be is still a memory-shaped hole.
Helen Zaltzman23:21
When you're handling something that nobody's touched for, in this case it was nearly 100 years, it's like for a second time collapses.
Robert Green26:26
Figures
| Pages in the defense Thomas wrote | 116 pages | 17:04 |
| Weight of type Thomas could carry at one time | 10 to 15 pounds | 18:11 |
| Total weight of Doves Type | at least 2,600 pounds | 18:11 |
| Number of trips Thomas made to the bridge to dump type | at least 173 | 18:11 |
| How long Thomas's dumping went on | five months, until the end of January 1917 | 20:12 |
| Pieces of Doves Type Robert Green found on the riverbed | 151 | 26:26 |
| Time Robert Green spent redrawing Doves Type | three years | 24:24 |
Glossary
- Doves Type
- The exclusive typeface of Doves Press, based on a design by the 15th-century French printer Nicholas Jensen.
- apologia
- Not an apology, but a written argument defending one's own actions.
- photo-engraving
- A method of making printing plates using photography, which is what Emery's company was known for.
How to listen
Listeners who like narrative podcasts and are interested in type design or Victorian publishing history; good for commuting or doing chores.
The interview segment after 28:35 can be skipped; it's mostly background on how the piece was made, with little information.