Early life

The son of John Tilloch, a tobacco merchant and magistrate of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, he was born there on 28 February 1759. He was educated at Glasgow University, and turned his attention to printing

Printing

Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....

. In 1781 he began work on stereotypes

Stereotype (printing)

In printing, a stereotype, also known as a cliché, stereoplate or simply a stereo, was originally a "solid plate or type-metal, cast from a papier-mâché or plaster mould taken from the surface of a forme of type" used for printing instead of the original...

. In 1725 William Ged

William Ged

William Ged was a Scottish goldsmith who invented stereotyping.Ged was born in Edinburgh, where he carried on business as a goldsmith...

 had obtained a privilege for a development of Van der Mey's process, but encountered practical difficulties. Tilloch independently developed a process by 1782, and worked with Andrew Foulis the younger, printer to the university of Glasgow. On 28 April 1784 they took out a joint patent for England (No. 1431) for ‘printing books from plates instead of movable types,’ and another for Scotland about the same time. They made no great use of it, however. From Tilloch Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope

Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope

Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope aka Charles Mahon, 3rd Earl Stanhope FRS was a British statesman and scientist. He was the father of the great traveller and Arabist Lady Hester Stanhope and brother-in-law of William Pitt the Younger. He is sometimes confused with an exact contemporary of his,...

 derived knowledge of the process of making stereotype plates.

In London

In 1787 Tilloch moved to London, and in 1789, in connection with others, purchased the ‘Star,’ an evening daily paper, of which he remained editor until 1821. At that time forgery

Forgery

Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...

 of Bank of England

Bank of England

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

 notes was common, and Tilloch in 1790 laid before the British ministry a mode of printing which would render forgery impossible. Receiving no encouragement, he brought his process before the notice of the Commission d'Assignats at Paris, but then came the outbreak of war. In 1797 he submitted to the Bank of England a specimen of a note engraved after his plan, accompanied by a certificate signed by Francesco Bartolozzi

Francesco Bartolozzi

Francesco Bartolozzi was an Italian engraver, whose most productive period was spent in London.He was born in Florence...

, Wilson Lowry

Wilson Lowry

Wilson Lowry FRS was an English engraver. He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, the son of Strickland Lowry, a portrait painter. The family settled in Worcester, and Wilson Lowry, as a boy, left home to work as a house painter in London and Arundel, Sussex...

, William Sharp

William Sharp (engraver)

William Sharp , was an English line-engraver and artist.-Life and work:Sharp was the son of a reputable gunsmith who lived at Haydon's Yard, Minories in central London...

 and other engravers, to the effect that they did not believe it could be copied by any of the known arts of engraving. He could not, however, persuade the authorities to accept it, though in 1810 they adopted the process of Augustus Applegath

Augustus Applegath

Augustus Applegath was the inventor of the vertical printing-press.He was born in Stepney but carried out most of his work in the Dartford and Crayford areas of Kent...

, which Tilloch claimed in 1820, in a petition to parliament, to be virtually his own.

In 1797 he projected and established the Philosophical Magazine

Philosophical Magazine

The Philosophical Magazine is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. Initiated by Alexander Tilloch in 1798, in 1822 Richard Taylor became joint editor and it has been published continuously by Taylor & Francis ever since; it was the journal of choice for such luminaries as...

, a journal devoted to scientific subjects, and intended for the publication of new discoveries and inventions. He devoted much of his time to the conduct of the magazine, of which he remained sole proprietor until 1822, when Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor (editor)

Richard Taylor was an English naturalist and publisher of scientific journals. He became joint editor of the Philosophical Magazine in 1822 and went of to publish the Annals of Natural History in 1838. He edited and published Scientific Memoirs, Selected from the Transactions of Foreign Academies...

 became associated with him. The only previous journal of this nature in London was the Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts, founded by William Nicholson

William Nicholson (chemist)

William Nicholson was a renowned English chemist and writer on "natural philosophy" and chemistry, as well as a translator, journalist, publisher, scientist, and inventor.-Early life:...

 in 1797. It was incorporated with Tilloch's Magazine in 1802.

On 20 August 1808 Tilloch took out a patent (No. 3161) for ‘apparatus to be employed as a moving power to drive machinery and mill work.’

Later life

In later life Tilloch devoted attention to scriptural prophecy, joined the Sandemanians, and occasionally preached to a congregation in Goswell Street. On 11 January 1825 he took out a patent (No. 5066) for improvements in the ‘steam engine or apparatus connected therewith,’ and it is stated that the engineer, Arthur Woolf

Arthur Woolf

Arthur Woolf was a Cornish engineer, most famous for inventing a high-pressure compound steam engine. As such he made an outstanding contribution to the development and perfection of the Cornish engine.Woolf left Cornwall in 1785 to work for Joseph Bramah's engineering works in London...

 took up his suggestions. Tilloch was a member of numerous learned societies at home and on the continent, among others of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, and of the Regia Academia Scientiarum of Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. He collected manuscripts, coins, and medals, of which he left a considerable number.

He died in Barnsbury Street, Islington

Islington

Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...

, on 26 January 1825. His wife, Elizabeth Simpson, died in 1783, leaving one daughter, Elizabeth, who married John Galt.

Works

Tilloch was the author of:

• ‘Dissertation on the opening of the Sealed Book,’ Arbroath; 2nd edit. Perth, 1852; printed from a series of papers published in the ‘Star’ in 1808–9, signed ‘Biblicus.’ From the introduction it appears that the papers were intended to deal with the whole Book of Revelation
  Book of Revelation
  The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
  
  .
• ‘Dissertations introductory to the Study and right Understanding of the Apocalypse,’ London, 1823.

Tilloch also edited the ‘Mechanic's Oracle,’ commenced in July 1824 and discontinued soon after his death.