| 1692 | Richard Bentley's fifty "modern novels" reprints an early example of serial installments | |
| 1698 | Edward Ward's London Spy appears in eighteen parts; inspires few successors | |
| 1732 | boom in cheap publications begins about this time | |
| 1740 | publishing in parts well established by this date | |
| 1760 | Smollett publishes Sir Launcelot Greaves in his British Magazine -- "first large piece of fiction written expressly for publication in a magazine" (Patten, 52). | |
| c. 1800 | Stanhope tests iron printing press | |
| 1803 | Gamble and Donkin's Fourdrinier cylindrical paper-making machine, which leads to cheaper, more quickly accessible paper. | |
| 1804 | First book printed by stereotype process | |
| 1810 | steel-plate prcess for printing large numbers of illustrations patented; takes a decade to become popular | |
| 1811 | Friedrich Koenig patents steam-powered cylindrical printing press | |
| 1820 | Pierce Egan devises scheme to issue monthly colored plates by the Cruikshanks. | |
| 1822 | Church's composing machine for setting type | |
| 1826 | Photographic processes used in making illustrations | |
| 1830 | Edward Chapman and William Hall establish bookselling establishment | |
| 1831 | Captain Maryat's Metropolitan Magazine "first to make a regular feature of of origibnalserial stories" (Patten, 50-51). | |
| 1831 | depression in book trade | |
| 1832 | penny weeklies built large cuirculations Charles Knight's Penny Magazine builds enormous circulation by providing illustrations | |
| 1836 | Dickens's Pickwick Papers accidentally invents Victorian boom in serial publication |
Patten, Robert L. Charles Dickens and His Publishers. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 1978.
Last modified December 2003