[i]

[ii]

[iii]

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
L. Johnson & Company,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by
MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

ELECTROTYPED BY
MACKELLAR, SMITHS & JORDAN FOUNDRY,
PHILADELPHIA.

[iv]

EIGHTEENTH EDITION.

This edition of the American Printer, while essentially the same as the previous one, contains some additional matter.

[v]

Usefulness rather than originality has been aimed at in the preparation of the American Printer, which is offered as an improvement on the typographical work formerly published by us. In addition to the results of actual personal experience embodied in the volume, information has been gathered and extracts have been freely made from various publications, such as Ames and Dibdin’s Typographical Antiquities, Thomas’s History of Printing, Timperley’s Dictionary of Printers and Printing, Savage’s Dictionary of Printing, Johnson’s Typographia, Chambers’s Encyclopædia, Beadnell’s Guide to Typography, as well as other books referred to in the notes. The work has been prepared amid the manifold interruptions incident to business life; yet we think nothing has been overlooked that is essential for the instruction of the learner or for the assistance of the workman.

[vi]

Besides the matter relating to practical typography, the volume contains a sketch of the discovery of printing, and notices of type-founding, stereotyping, electrotyping, and lithography. The implements employed in typography are described and their uses explained; and complete schemes for imposition are laid down. The valuable tables and the plans of cases for various languages, and for music and labour-saving rule, will be found extremely useful; as well as the extensive lists of abbreviations and of foreign words and phrases, and orthographical hints.

Special attention has been given in setting forth the functions and duties of the foreman and proof-reader, so that the operations of an office may be prosecuted with efficiency, comfort, and economy.

Authors and publishers, as well as young printers, may consult the volume with profit; and, indeed, any intelligent person will find it serviceable.

[vii]

[xi]

[xii]

[xiii]

[xiv]

Hereby, tongues are known, knowledge groweth, judgment increaseth, books are dispersed, the Scripture is read, stories be opened, times compared, truth discerned, falsehood detected and with finger pointed, and (all as I said) through the benefit of Printing.

Fox’s Martyrs.

At the very epoch when the greatness of Burgundy was most swiftly ripening, another weapon was secretly forging, more potent in the great struggle for freedom than any which the wit or hand of man has ever devised or wielded. When Philip the Good, in the full blaze of his power, and flushed with the triumphs of territorial aggrandizement, was instituting at Bruges the order of the Golden Fleece, “to the glory of God, of the blessed Virgin, and of the holy Andrew, patron saint of the Burgundian family,” and enrolling the names of the kings and princes who were to be honoured with its symbols, at that very moment, an obscure citizen of Haarlem, one Lorenz Coster, or Lawrence the Sexton, succeeded in printing a little grammar, by means of movable types. The invention of printing was accomplished, but it was not ushered in with such a blaze of glory as heralded the contemporaneous erection of the Golden Fleece. The humble setter of types did not deem emperors and princes alone worthy his companionship. His invention sent no thrill of admiration throughout Christendom; and yet, what was the good Philip of Burgundy, with his Knights of the Golden Fleece, and all their effulgent trumpery, in the eye of humanity and civilization, compared with the poor sexton and his wooden type?

Motley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic, Vol. i, 45.

[9]

The credit of inventing the art which perpetuates the history and achievements of all the arts and sciences has been obstinately contested, several cities having advanced rival claims to the honour of the discovery. This, however, should be no matter of surprise when we consider that the inventor of a new art, unprotected by law, would naturally endeavour to conceal its processes for his own use and advantage. After due consideration, we agree with Isaiah Thomas in the opinion that the probabilities point to Laurentius (sometimes called Coster, Koster, and Kustos) as the discoverer of the art of printing.[1]

[10]

Laurentius lived at Haarlem and was a man of property. He seems to have been engaged in printing books from wood blocks or plates, well known to antiquaries as the Block Books, in which the reading matter was illustrated by rude pictures. Fragments of works so printed by him are still in existence. Among others, the celebrated Biblia Pauperum, executed between 1410 and 1420, has been attributed to him. It was only natural that his thoughts should be led to the production of single types, as a means of cheapening and facilitating his work. These were first made of wood, and afterward of tin. The date of his invention of separate types is given as about the year 1429. Other dates have been stated, ranging from[11] 1422 to 1436. The first of his printed books, it is claimed, was the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, of which about ten copies are now known to be in existence. A small primer, or Abecedarium, in our opinion, shows all the marks of the first attempt of an experimenter in a new art. Koster died in 1439.

The necessity for employing workmen to assist in prosecuting the art led to the divulging of the secret. Among these men, it is supposed, was John Geinsfleisch, (or Gutenberg, Senior,) who, after learning the processes, returned to Mentz, his native place, and communicated the secret to his nephew, John Gutenberg, an ingenious artist of Strasburg. It is in evidence that the latter, in connection with two partners, spent a considerable amount of money in some private experiments. These appear to have occupied several years, from 1436 to 1439, when a legal contest arose as to the rights of one of the partners whose zealous activity had caused his death. Gutenberg continued at Strasburg till 1444, when, his means being exhausted, he rejoined his uncle at Mentz. Here he renewed his experiments, and, needing money, he procured an introduction to John Fust, a capitalist and money-lender, who seems to have been struck with the importance of the work, and who advanced a considerable amount (all the tools and presses being pledged as security) in furtherance of the enterprise. Two years were occupied in making the types and necessary machinery, when the great work of printing the Bible was begun. There can be little doubt that, during all his years of experiment, Gutenberg had executed smaller books, one of which is surmised to have been a reproduction of the Dutch Speculum of Koster. The Donatus of 1451, the Appeal against the Turks of 1454, and the Letters of Indulgence of 1454 and 1455, all appeared before the Bible,[2] which[12] was not published till 1455 or 1456. This great book marked an era in the art.[3]

It is painful to be told that about this time Fust foreclosed the mortgage, and the entire work with all the materials passed into his possession. It seems, however, that Gutenberg succeeded in re-establishing a press, and continued to practise the art, but produced no work at all comparable with the Bible. He died about 1468.

After securing possession of the establishment, Fust engaged the service of Peter Schœffer, who had been apprentice or assistant to Gutenberg, and who was distinguished for scholarship as well as mechanical skill. His skill and the improvements made by him in the art soon led Fust to take him into partnership, and the Bible, the Psalter, and other important works were produced. Schœffer was further rewarded by the hand of the grand-daughter of Fust.

From this rapid summary, we may conclude, 1. That the merit of the invention of printing, however rude it may have been, belongs to Koster of Haarlem; 2. That Gutenberg placed the art on a permanent foundation; and, 3. That its economical application was insured by Peter Schœffer’s invention of cast metal types.[4]

[13]

It was of course impossible to conceal the knowledge of an art so useful to man, and within ten years after the publication of the great Bible presses were established in several German cities, in Rome and other parts of Italy, and soon thereafter in France and England.

[14]

William Caxton acquired a knowledge of the art in Germany, and carried it into practice at Westminster in England. The year 1477 is now accepted as the date of the introduction, the first book printed with a date in England being the Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers, emprynted by me, William Caxton, at Westmestre, the yere of our Lord m.cccc.l.xxvij. He had previously printed, without a date, The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, which was followed by The Game and Playe of the Chesse, fynysshid the last day of marche the yer of our lord god. a. thousand foure honderd and lxxiiii. These were, however, printed at Bruges; so, according to Mr. William Blades, “the first indisputable date we have to stand on is the printing of The Dictes in 1477.”

Though at that time over sixty years old, Caxton was notable for his industrious habit. He was possessed of good sense and sound judgment; steady, persevering, active, zealous, and liberal in his devices for that important art which he introduced into England, labouring not only as a printer, but as translator and author. The productions of his press amount to sixty-four. In the churchwardens’ books of St. Margaret’s Parish, Westminster, his death is thus recorded: “1491. Item, atte bureyng of William Caxton, for iiii. torches vjs. viijd. Item, for the belle atte same bureyng, vjd.”

The Bible was printed in Spanish at Valencia in 1479 by Lambert Palmaert, a German; but so completely was it afterward suppressed by the Inquisition that only four leaves now remain in the archives of Valencia. The first Hebrew Bible ever printed came from the press of Abraham Colorito, at Soncino, in 1488—a very remarkable work. Iceland had its printing-office in 1530, at which a Bible was printed in 1584.

[15]

The pages were either large or small folios, but sometimes quartos, and, the early books were therefore cumbrous and unhandy. Aldus Manuccio, of Venice, was the first to introduce the octavo form.

The leaves were without running titles, direction-words, paginal numbers, or divisions into paragraphs.

The character itself was a rude old Gothic (similar to that now known as Old English or Black) mixed with Secretary, designed to imitate the handwriting of the times; the words were printed so close to one another that the matter was not easily read.

To avoid divisions, the early printers used vowels with a mark of abbreviation over them to denote that one or more letters were omitted in the word: e.g. co̅pose for compose, co̅pletio̅ for completion, &c. No punctuation-marks were used, except the colon and full point; but an oblique stroke (/) was after a while introduced, for which the comma was finally substituted. Logotypes were frequently employed.

Orthography was various and arbitrary. Proper names and sentences were often begun with small letters, as well as the first words in lines of poetry.

Blanks were left for the places of titles, initial letters, and other ornaments, to be supplied afterward by illuminators, whose calling did not long survive the masterly improvements made by the printers in this branch of their art. These ornaments were exquisitely fine, and curiously variegated with the most beautiful colours, and even with gold and silver. The margins, likewise, were frequently charged with a variety of figures, of saints, birds, beasts, monsters, flowers, &c., which sometimes had relation to the contents of the page, though frequently none at all. These embellishments were often very costly.

The name of the printer, place of his residence, &c. were either omitted or put at the end of the book, with some pious ejaculation or doxology.

The date was also omitted, or involved in some cramped design, or printed either at full length or in numerical letters, and sometimes partly one and partly the other: thus, One[16] Thousand CCCC and lxxiiii; but always placed at the end of the book.

There was no variety of character, nor intermixture of Roman and Italic, which were later inventions; but the pages were printed in a Gothic letter of the same size throughout. Catch-words at the end of the foot-line (now generally abolished) were first used at Venice, by Vindeline de Spire. The inventor of signatures is said to have been Antonio Zarotti of Milan, about 1470.

Books were often encased in massive coverings, which were ornamented with florid and arabesque designs. Jewels and precious metals, the finest stuffs, and the most gorgeous colours were sometimes employed. Scaliger says, that his grandmother had a printed Psalter, the cover of which was two inches thick. On the inner side was a receptacle, containing a small silver crucifix, with the name of Berenica Codronia de la Scala behind it.

Two or three hundred copies of a work were considered to be a large edition.

Printing was introduced into America at Mexico by the Viceroy Mendoza in 1536. The first book printed was the Escala espiritual de San Juan Climaco, of which no copy is known to exist; but the oldest American book now extant is the Manual de Adultos, dated 1540, of which only the last four leaves are to be found in the library of the Cathedral of Toledo. The name of the earliest printer is a matter of question.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is entitled to the distinction of having the first printing-press in North America, which was under the charge of Stephen Daye. For this press the colony was mainly indebted to the Rev. Jesse Glover, a nonconformist minister possessed of a considerable estate, who had left England to settle among his friends in Massachusetts. Some gentlemen of Amsterdam also “gave towards furnishing of a printing-press with letters, forty-nine pounds and something more.” This was about 1638. The first book issued was the Bay Psalm-Book, in 1640.

The first book issued in the Middle Colonies was an Almanac, printed by William Bradford in 1685, near Philadelphia.[17] Bradford was brought out from England in 1684 by William Penn. As the government of Pennsylvania became very restrictive in regard to the press, Bradford in 1693 removed to New York, and was appointed printer to that colony, where he established in 1725 the New York Gazette, the first newspaper published there. He died May 23, 1752, after an active and useful life of eighty-nine years.[5]

The first newspaper in America was the Boston News Letter, which was first issued by John Campbell on Monday, April 24, 1704: it was regularly published for nearly seventy-two years. The second was the Boston Gazette, begun December 21, 1719. The third was the American Weekly Mercury, issued in Philadelphia, by Andrew Bradford, on December 22, 1719. James Franklin, an elder brother of Benjamin, established the New England Courant, August 17, 1721.

The oldest living paper of the United States is the New Hampshire Gazette, published at Portsmouth, now (Oct. 7, 1892) one hundred and thirty-six years old.

The North American and United States Gazette leads the existing daily press of this country in point of antiquity. It is the successor of the Pennsylvania Packet, (begun in 1771 and becoming a daily paper in 1784,) and is still the chief commercial journal of Philadelphia.

The first paper-mill in America was established near Germantown, Pa., in 1690, by William Rittenhouse.[6]

[18]

For a long period after the discovery of printing, it seems that type-founding, printing, and binding went under the general term of printing, and that printers cast the types used by them, and printed and bound the works executed in their establishments. Type-founding became a distinct calling early in the seventeenth century. A decree of the Star Chamber, made July 11, 1637, ordained the following regulations concerning English founders:—

“That there shall be four founders of letters for printing, and no more.

“That the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Bishop of London, with six other high commissioners, shall supply the places of those four as they shall become void.

“That no master-founder shall keep above two apprentices at one time.

“That all journeyman-founders be employed by the masters of the trade, and that idle journeymen be compelled to work, upon pain of imprisonment and such other punishment as the court shall think fit.

“That no master-founder of letters shall employ any other person in any work belonging to the casting or founding of letters than freemen or apprentices to the trade, save only in pulling off the knots of metal hanging at the end of the letters when they are first cast; in which work every master-founder may employ one boy only, not bound to the trade.”

By the same decree, the number of master-printers in England was limited to twenty.

Regulations like the above were in force till 1693. The “polyglot founders,” as they have been called, were succeeded by Joseph Moxon and others. But the English were unable to compete with the superior productions of the Dutch founders, until the advent of William Caslon, who, by the beauty and excellence of his type, surpassed his Batavian competitors, when the importation of foreign type ceased, and his founts were, in turn, exported to the Continent.

By an act subsequently passed, no founder was to cast any letter for printing, no joiner to make any press, no smith to forge any iron-work for a press; no person to bring from parts[19] beyond the seas any letters founded or cast for printing; nor any person to buy any letters or any other materials belonging unto printing; without application to the master and wardens of the Company of Stationers.

A foundry, principally for German type, was established at Germantown, Pennsylvania, about the year 1735, by Christopher Saur, (or Sower,) a printer, who executed in German the first quarto Bible printed in America, as well as other valuable works in the German language. Three editions of the Bible were printed—viz., in the years 1743, 1763, and 1776, the latter two by his son. In 1739, Saur published a newspaper in Germantown.

An abortive attempt was made about 1768 to set up a foundry at Boston by a Mr. Mitchelson from Scotland, and another in Connecticut in 1769 by Abel Buel. In 1775, Dr. Franklin brought from Europe to Philadelphia the materials for a foundry; but little use of them was made.

John Baine, a type-founder of Edinburgh, sent a relative to this country with tools for a foundry at the close of the Revolutionary War, and soon after came over himself. They carried on the business till 1790, when Mr. Baine died, and his kinsman returned to Scotland.

A Dutch founder, Adam G. Mappa, settled at New York about 1787, and cast Dutch and German faces, as well as Roman styles and several Oriental alphabets. Want of capital prevented his success, and many of his matrices passed into the possession of Binny & Ronaldson.[7]

In 1796, type-founding was commenced in Philadelphia by Archibald Binny and James Ronaldson, natives of the city of Edinburgh, where Binny had carried on the same business. Their assortment was not extensive, but it embraced the essential founts,—Brevier, Bourgeois, Long Primer, Small Pica, Pica, and two-line letters. They were obliging and attentive, and in twenty years made a fortune. They improved their[20] foundry according to the increase of printing and the consequent demands of the trade, extending their assortment from Pearl, of 180 lines in a foot, to 12-line Pica, having 6 lines. Binny made an important improvement in the type-mould, by which a caster could cast 6000 letters in a day with as much ease as he before could cast 4000.[8]

According to Holmes’s American Annals, about 200 newspapers were printed in the United States in the year 1801, of which 17 were issued daily, 7 three times a week, 30 twice a week, and 146 weekly. There must also have been at the same time as many as 60 offices engaged in miscellaneous printing. The whole business had increased threefold in eleven years. Another type-foundry was put in successful operation in Baltimore, about 1805, by Samuel Sower & Co. It had in it some moulds and matrices which had been used by Christopher Sower, who had printed in Germantown, near Philadelphia, and cast his own types. He printed with German characters; but now the foundry was revived with excellent Roman and Italic letters, and among other extraordinary things it had the size called Diamond, with a smaller face than had ever been cast before. It was the smallest type in the world.

The demand for type was very brisk till the war of 1812 commenced, and the foundries were generally three or four months in arrears in their execution of orders.

The names of the newspapers published in the United States in April, 1810, are given in Thomas’s History of Printing, and amount to 359, of which 27 were daily papers, 38[21] were printed twice, 15 three times, and 279 once in a week. Add those required for general printing, and the whole number of offices could not be less than 500,—being an increase of 240 in nine years, and some of them using several thousand pounds of type for book-printing.

In 1811, Elihu White established a type-foundry in New York. He had been long engaged, in connection with Mr. Wing, in the manufacture of printing types at Hartford, Connecticut, upon a plan of their own invention, by which twenty or thirty letters were cast at once; but, abandoning that invention, he adopted the old plan of casting, and, having a good assortment of faces and bodies, his removal to New York was a great convenience to its printers, and they gave him a very satisfactory support. But the principal business in type-founding still continued, as formerly, to be carried on in Philadelphia.

In 1813, another type-foundry was begun in the city of New York, by D. & G. Bruce, principally to cast types for their own use. They had carried on book-printing for seven years, and had now become acquainted with the stereotype art,—Mr. David Bruce having visited England in 1812 and acquired it by purchase and actual labour. For ordinary printing, it was customary to bevel off the body of the type at the face end, or shoulder, as it is usually called, which unfitted it for making a strong stereotype plate in the most approved way: hence the necessity for casting type expressly for stereotype. Their first fount was Bourgeois, with which they cast two sets of plates of the New Testament, (the Common School Testament,) and sold one of these to Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, retaining the other for their own business. But these were not completed till 1814. In 1815, they cast the plates of the 12mo School Bible, on Nonpareil type, prepared, like the Bourgeois, at their own foundry expressly for stereotyping. They thus gave the first stereotype School Testament and School Bible to America; but not the first stereotype book. John Watts, of England, also commenced stereotyping in New York in 1813, and completed the Westminster Catechism that year, a volume of 120 pages 12mo. David Bruce invented the planing-machine for equalizing the thickness of stereotype plates, which is now used in every stereotype foundry in the United States. The process of stereotyping is, however, entirely[22] different from that of ordinary type-founding, and it is, therefore, generally carried on as a separate business, or connected with the composing department of a printing-office. Twenty compositors and two proof-readers will furnish full employment for one moulder, one caster, and three finishers, who will, among them, complete, on an average, 50 pages of octavo per day.

In 1818, or soon after, a type and stereotype foundry was established in Boston, and another in Cincinnati, principally through the enterprise of the late Elihu White, who, having the means of multiplying matrices with facility, took this method for the extension of his business. Others followed his example, and type-foundries were established in Albany, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and St. Louis, with several additional in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The business, in fact, was overdone, and failures and suppressions took place, as competition reduced the prices of types.

The mode of type-founding has within forty years undergone important changes, which must no doubt be considered improvements. First among them is the introduction of machine-casting, in which a pump forces the fluid metal into the mould and matrix, and gives a sharper outline to the letter than was formerly given by the most violent throw of the caster. The old practice of casting a single type only at a time remains. The first idea of this machine originated with William M. Johnson, who obtained a patent for it in 1828. Elihu White put it into use in his type-foundry, and persevered in using and trying to improve it as long as he lived; but he did not succeed in removing the greatest fault, which was a hollowness in the body of the types cast by it, that inclined them to sink under the pressure of the printing-press. The first successful type-casting machine was invented by David Bruce, Jr., of New York, and was patented March 17, 1838. The patent was sold to George Bruce, and the machines were used by him until 1845. David Bruce meanwhile patented another machine in 1843, which, with new improvements, patented two years later, gave entire satisfaction, and is now in general use in American foundries. By Bruce’s machine, three times the quantity of type that was cast by Binny & Ronaldson’s improved mould is now cast in a given time, and nearly five times the quantity that was cast by the[23] common hand-mould eighty years ago. This improvement has passed into Europe, and been adopted by most of the German type-founders; but in Great Britain for some time it found little favour. A so-called “automatic machine,” for casting and finishing type, invented by Johnson & Atkinson, is in operation in London; but its rate of production seems to be less than that of the American machine, while, from its multiform operations, the proportion of imperfect type turned out must of necessity be considerably more.

The protection now afforded by the patent laws having checked the piratical production of matrices by electrotyping, (except in plain faces, a practice still pursued by unprincipled type-founders,) the leading founders in this country have been encouraged to produce types of new styles which in beauty and ingenuity surpass those of foreign origin.

There are now three type-foundries in Boston, seven in New York, one in Buffalo, four in Philadelphia, four in Baltimore, two in Cincinnati, four in Chicago, two in Milwaukee, two in St. Louis, one in Richmond, one in St. Paul, one in Cleveland, one in Kansas City, and three in California—in all, thirty-six. Some of these foundries not only supply the printers of the United States, but most of the printers in Canada, some in the British West India Islands, Mexico, South America, China, India and Australasia. American type, in quality, style, and finish, is equal, if not superior, to any made in Europe.

The following are the prices at which plain types have been sold for the last seventy-five years, given at ten different dates, and naming only the principal and most useful sizes:—

[24]

Stereotyping is said to have been invented by J. Van der Mey, in Holland, about 1698. A quarto Bible and some other books were printed by him from plates, which were formed by soldering the bottoms of common type together. William Ged, of Edinburgh, discovered the present mode in 1725, and stereotyped parts of the Bible and Prayer-Book. He encountered malicious opposition, and the business was abandoned, the new method dying with the inventor. About 1745, Benjamin Mecom, a nephew of Dr. Franklin, cast plates for a number of the pages of the New Testament. Dr. Alexander Tilloch, of Glasgow, re-discovered the art in 1781. Stereotyping gradually spread, and soon effected a considerable reduction in the cost of books. The arguments that were advanced against its utility have a ridiculous look at the present day, when almost every important work is stereotyped or electrotyped.

Matter for stereotyping is set with high spaces and quadrates. The forms must be small, containing about two pages of common octavo. A slug type-high is put above the top line and another below the foot line of each page, to protect the ends of the plates from injury when they are passed through the shaving-machine. Beveled slugs, in height equal to the shoulder of the type, are placed on both sides and between the pages, to form the flange by which the plate is to be clasped by the hooks of the printing-block.

Before the form is sent into the foundry, the type must be carefully compared with the proof, to detect any errors which may have been left uncorrected. Care must be taken to lock up the form perfectly square and quite tight, to prevent the types from being pulled out when the mould is raised from the pages. It must be evenly planed down, and no ink or dirt or incrustations from the ley be allowed to remain on the surface.

The face of the type being clean and dry, and the bottoms free from particles of dirt, the form is laid on a clean moulding-stone, and brushed over with sweet-oil, which must be laid on as thinly as possible, care being taken that the entire surface of the types is covered. A moulding-frame, with a[25] screw at each corner, (called a flask,) and fitting neatly to the form, is next placed around it.

The material for moulding is finely ground gypsum, nine parts of which are mixed with about seven parts of water, and well stirred up. A small quantity of the liquid mixture is poured over the pages, and gently pressed into the counter of the types with a small roller, for the purpose of expelling confined air; after which, the remainder of the gypsum is poured in, until the mould is somewhat higher than the upper edge of the flask. In a few minutes the mixture sets, and the upper side is smoothed over with a steel straight-edge. In about ten minutes the mould is gently raised by means of the screws at the corners of the flask; and, after being nicely trimmed at the sides, and nicked on the surface-edges to make openings for the metal to run in, it is placed on a shelf in an oven, and allowed to remain until the moisture has quite evaporated.

The casting-pans may be large enough to hold three or four moulds. The dried moulds are placed in a pan face downward, upon a movable iron plate called a floater. The cover of the casting-pan, which has a hole at each corner for the passage of the metal, is then clamped to it, and lifted by a movable crane and gently lowered into the metal-pot,—containing, it may be, a thousand pounds of liquid metal,—till the metal begins to flow slowly in at the corners. When the pan is filled, it is sunk to the bottom of the pot. The metal should be hot enough to light a piece of brown paper held in it. After being immersed eight or ten minutes, the pan is steadily drawn out by means of the crane, and swung over to the cooling-trough, into which it is lowered and placed upon a stone so as just to touch the water, in order that the metal at the bottom of the pan may cool first. The metal contracts while cooling, and the caster occasionally pours in a small quantity at the corners from a ladle, till it will take no more. It may be here remarked that some stereotypers do not dry the moulds, but immerse them in a green condition into the metal.

The plates are carefully removed from the solid mass which comes out of the pan, and the plaster is washed from the surface. If, after examination, the face is good and sharply set, the plates are passed over to a picker, who removes any slight defects arising from an imperfection of the[26] mould. They are then trimmed and passed through the shaving-machine, till all are brought to an equal thickness. The flanges are neatly side-planed, and the plates are then boxed, ready for the printing-press.

In England, the plates are merely turned on the back, and consequently vary in thickness. This must be a source of continual expense and annoyance to the pressman. The flanges, besides, are very imperfectly made,—so imperfectly that they cannot be used on American printing-blocks; and English plates, when imported into this country, are therefore sent to a foundry here, to be brought to an equal thickness and to be properly side-planed. An order given some years ago by an English printer for a set of American printing-blocks was afterward countermanded, on account of the prejudice against the introduction of new things.

Several methods of stereotyping are now practised. Many of the leading newspapers of England and America are printed from stereotype plates cast in moulds made of prepared paper: this mode, however, yields very inferior plates, quite unfit for fine books.

Another method, styled the “mud-process,” is by spreading a thin coating of pulverized soapstone and gypsum over an iron plate, and a mould is then obtained by pressing the coated face against a page of type. Several of these mould-plates are then set on end in an iron box, separated from one another by a wire of the thickness of the stereotype desired, and hot metal is poured in. This is a very expeditious process, though not so good as the old method.

In 1804, before the introduction of stereotyping into this country, Mathew Carey, the well-known enterprising publisher in Philadelphia, had the Bible in quarto set up entire, and regularly imposed in chases, to print from at convenience, according to the demand for the volume. The type was cast by Binny & Ronaldson. Stereotyping would have saved much of the large outlay required to carry out the scheme, which, nevertheless, even under these circumstances, was doubtless highly remunerative. The weight of type must have amounted to 25,000 pounds, to say nothing of the number of chases and column-rules required.

[27]

Stereotyping has been superseded by the process of electrotyping, as described below.

The pages, after being delicately polished with plumbago, are laid in a press; a pan of prepared wax, warmed, is placed over them and pressed down into the counter of the types. The wax mould is then dusted with plumbago, and suspended in the electric bath. On this, in a few hours, is deposited a thin shell of copper, which, after being coated with tin solder, is backed up with metal to the usual thickness of a stereotype plate.

The same care in preparing the pages for electrotyping must be observed as for stereotyping. For stereotyping, high slugs are placed only at the top and foot of the page; but, for electrotyping, they must be set around on all sides, and the bevelled flange must be afterward made by side-planing.

This is the art of printing, by a chemical process, from designs made with a greasy material upon stone. It was discovered about the beginning of the present century by Alois Senefelder, an actor of Munich, Bavaria, whose patience and perseverance under the most disadvantageous circumstances were truly remarkable and praiseworthy. Differing from all other methods of printing, the impressions are obtained from a level surface.

The stone best calculated for lithographic purposes is a sort of calcareous slate found on the banks of the Danube, in Bavaria, the finest being found near Munich. A good stone is porous, yet brittle, of a pale yellowish drab, and sometimes of a gray neutral tint. The stones are formed into slabs from one and a-half to three inches in thickness. To prepare them for use, two stones are placed face to face with some fine sifted sand between them, and then are rubbed together with a circular motion, to produce the requisite granulation, which is made finer or coarser to suit the purpose of the artist.

The principal agents used for making designs on stone are[28] called lithographic chalk and lithographic ink. They are composed of tallow, virgin wax, hard tallow soap, shellac, sometimes a little mastic or copal, and enough lampblack to impart a colour to the mass. These ingredients are put into an iron sauce-pan, and exposed to a strong fire till the mass is in a state of ignition. When the quantity is reduced one-half, the pan is carefully covered, or put into water to extinguish the flame and cool the mixture. After being well worked up, it is formed into small cakes or sticks. The ingredients are the same in the chalk and the ink, but the proportions are varied, and a little Venice turpentine is often added to the latter. The chalk is used in a dry state; but the ink is dissolved by rubbing in water, and is used in a pen or with a camel-hair pencil. The presence of soap renders it soluble in water.

The artist completes a drawing with the chalk upon a grained stone as he would make a drawing in pencil or chalk upon paper. If while in this state a wet sponge were passed over the face of the stone, the drawing would wash off. To prevent this, and to make it capable of yielding impressions, a weak solution of nitrous acid is poured over it, which unites with and neutralizes the alkali or soap contained in the chalk, and renders it insoluble in water. After this, the usual course is to float a solution of gum over the whole face of the stone; and, when this is taken off, the drawing is no longer removable by the application of a wet sponge, because the chalk is now insoluble. The stone is now ready for the printer, who obtains impressions by the following process.

Having damped the surface of the stone equally with a sponge filled with water which has been slightly tinctured by acid, the printer finds that the water has been imbibed by only those parts of the stone which are not occupied by the drawing, which, being greasy, repels the water and remains dry. A roller covered with ink is now passed over the stone, which will not even be soiled where it is wet, from the antipathy of oil to water. But the parts occupied by the drawing, being dry and greasy, have an affinity for the printing-ink, which, therefore, leaves the roller and attaches itself to the drawing. In this state it is said to be charged or rolled in. A sheet of damped paper is then put over it, and, the[29] whole being passed through a press, the printing-ink is transferred from the stone to the paper, and the impression is obtained. Great nicety is requisite in the preparation of all the agents employed in this art, and in the process of printing as well as in making the drawing on the stone.

The most important application of this process is in the production of copies of coloured drawings and paintings,—a process known as chromo-lithography. The object here being to produce as nearly as possible fac-similes in colour, touch, and texture, as well as in drawing and light and shadow, of pictures from the pencils of painters of the highest standing, it has been found necessary to employ a large number of stones, in order to produce the almost infinite varieties of tints which are found united in a single picture,—every stone giving a separate impression in its own particular colour or tint. The mode of procedure is somewhat as follows. First, an outline of the entire subject is made by means of transfer paper, or otherwise, on a stone which is called the outline or keystone of the work. This stone yields impressions which are transferred as guides to all the other stones. On a second and third stone which serve as the basis of the print the general effect of the drawing is washed in, and from these are printed what may be called the chiaroscuro, in a faint tint of sepia and of a neutral colour or gray,—corresponding, in fact, very nearly to the neutral or dead colouring of a water-colour drawing in the method adopted by the early water-colour painters. The stones which follow are each charged with a particular colour or tint, and each leaves its impression on only a particular portion of the print,—one stone printing only the parts which are intended to be yellow or a modification of yellow, another red, another blue, and so on. Other stones charged in parts with grays or secondary colours serve to blend and harmonize the crude colours; others follow which modify these; and, finally, one gives the sharp dark touches, and is usually followed by another which supplies a sort of glaze or finishing wash, and subdues and harmonizes the whole. Of course, we have merely indicated the general method. It will be understood that the sequence of the colours in the printing, the special quality and strength to be given to each particular tint, the effect to be produced[30] by their super-position, and many other particulars, have all to be taken into account in planning the arrangement of the colours on the stones;—since a sequence in some respects different, and an entirely different modification of colours, have to be employed for the works of most artists; and it happens that much of the colour on each of the earlier stones is covered by that of succeeding stones, and that thus only can the broken tints of the original be imitated. It is, in fact, only by watching the progress of a print through all its stages that any clear idea can be obtained of the beauty and accuracy of the whole process, of the prevision that must be exercised, and of the skill, care, and taste required at every step to carry it to a successful termination. For some of the more elaborate prints, from thirty to forty stones have been required to produce a finished print. And in order to produce this print, it must be borne in mind that each sheet of paper has to be passed as many times through the press as there are stones, since each stone imprints upon it only its own particular section of the work. Of course, in proportion to the increase in the number of the stones, does the difficulty increase of making the work upon each fall exactly upon its proper place in the general design; for, if any one were misplaced only the fiftieth of an inch, the drawing and colour of the whole would be disturbed. Hence it is found necessary to arrange the register, or adjustment of the stones, with the utmost care and precision, and to exercise the most careful supervision in the printing, since the sheet of paper expands considerably in passing through the press, and has to be dried and re-damped before it can be passed through again. But practically this is all accomplished with seeming ease, and a large and most complex subject will be found, when the last stage has been reached, to bear the most minute scrutiny; and the result, even when the copy is placed alongside the original, will surprise and delight equally those who have followed the work through its several steps and those who may only examine the completed work.

Of late, many chromos have been beautifully printed from prepared blocks on an ordinary cylinder-press.

[31]

The invention of wood engraving has been claimed for the Chinese, whose books have certainly been printed from engraved wood blocks for ages. It is not, however, until the beginning of the fifteenth century that we find any evidence of the existence of wood engraving as we now understand it.

It is probable that Italy was the first European country to make engravings, but only for printing playing-cards. Holland and Germany soon applied the art to better ends.

The earliest print of which any certain information can be obtained is in the collection of Earl Spencer. It was discovered in one of the most ancient convents of Germany,—the Chartreuse of Buxheim, near Memmingen in Bavaria,—pasted within the cover of a Latin MS.; it represents Saint Christopher carrying the infant Saviour across the sea, and is dated 1423. We give a reduced fac-simile of this curious engraving. The inscription at the bottom has been thus translated:—

[32]

Shortly afterward, a series of books printed entirely from wood engravings, called block-books, were issued. The most important of them were the Apocalypsis, seu Historia Sancti Johannis; the Historia Virginis ex Cantico Canticorum; and the Biblia Pauperum, the last containing representations of some of the principal passages of the Old and New Testaments, with explanatory texts. The illustrations seem to be drawn with a supreme contempt for perspective and proportion, but bear evidence of the draperies and hands and faces having been carefully studied. The above is a copy of one of the cuts in the Apocalypsis. It represents St. John preaching to three men and a woman, with the inscription: “Conversi ab idolis, per predicationem beati Johannis, Drusiana et ceteri,” (By the preaching of St. John, Drusiana and others are withdrawn from their idols.) The adjoining[33] cut, from the Biblia Pauperum, is curious as showing the general manner of representing the creation of Eve during the fifteenth century. Both have the appearance of careful drawings “spoiled in the engraving.” Previous to the invention of movable types, whole books of text were also engraved on wood, and the impressions were evidently taken by rubbing on the back of the paper, instead of a steady pressure, as in the printing-press, the ink used being some kind of distemper colour.

The wood to be engraved on is carefully selected, and cut up into transverse slices seven-eighths of an inch thick. This is done by circular saws, which are necessarily very rigid, so as to insure good even cuts.

After being cut, the slices are placed in racks something like plate-racks, and thoroughly seasoned by slow degrees in gradually heated rooms. When sufficiently seasoned they are reduced to parallelograms of various sizes, the outer portion of the circular section near the bark being cut away, and all defective wood rejected; such, for instance, as knots, irregular grain, as that resulting from the position of branches, which are indicated by light-coloured markings in the wood, known in the trade as “comets,” from their resemblance in shape to those fiery bodies. They are softer than the surrounding wood, and consequently do not cut well with the graver; therefore much care and a practised eye are needed in selecting suitable wood. A section of boxwood almost always exhibits parts of widely different values; the more so as it deviates from the circle in form, for then the annual rings are compressed, and consequently closer on one side than on the other, the side with the wide open rings being usually far inferior in value to the denser and smaller side.

In former times, engravers’ blocks were cut parallel with the grain, the present system of cutting them across the grain being introduced about the middle of the last century. In the preparation of a block, say for a newspaper plate, the parallelograms before spoken of are assorted as to size and fitted together at the back by brass bolts and nuts. So accurately do the edges of the wood fit together, that after the artist has finished his drawing on the smooth face of this compound block, the screws and bolts are loosened, and the pieces separated and given to several men to engrave the design; all that is needed after they have finished their work[34] being to fit the pieces together and screw them up again, when they form one engraved block ready for the printing-press.

Turkey boxwood, from a region of country in the vicinity of the Black Sea, is used for fine engravings. The best is of a delicate yellow colour free from spots or “eyes,” and cuts smoothly without crumbling or tearing.

The tools or gravers necessary in wood-engraving are of three kinds,—viz., gravers proper (a); tint tools (b); and scoopers, or cutting-out tools, for clearing out the larger pieces (c). They are arranged in different sizes, to suit the various portions of the work.[9]

According to Vasari, the important discovery of chalcography or engraving on brass or copper was made by Tommaso Finiguerra, a Florentine goldsmith of the fifteenth century, who lived from 1400 to 1460. The manner in which he made this discovery is thus stated by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin:—

“Of engraving upon copper, the earliest known impression is that executed by one Tommaso Finiguerra, a goldsmith of Florence, with the date of 1460 upon it. One of the following circumstances is supposed to have given rise to the discovery. Finiguerra chanced to cast, or let fall, a piece of copper, engraved and filled with ink, into melted sulphur; and, observing that the exact impression of his work was left on the sulphur, he repeated the experiment on moistened paper, rolling it gently with a roller. This origin has been admitted by Lord Walpole and Mr. Landseer; but another has been also mentioned by Huber. ‘It is reported,’ says he, ‘that a washerwoman left some linen upon a plate or dish on which Finiguerra had just been engraving, and that an impression of the subject engraved, however imperfect, came off upon the linen, occasioned by its weight and moistness.’”

[35]

Photo-engravings are produced by means of photography. It is a fact worthy of note that experiments in photographic engraving gave rise to photography itself. The aim of Nicéphore Niepce, when he began his researches in 1813, was not only to fix the image obtained by the camera obscura on a plate of metal, but to convert this plate into an engraving which could be used on a printing-press. His early death prevented his perfecting the process to which he had devoted much time and study.

Three distinct methods of photo-engraving are employed in the United States, viz.: swelled gelatine, photo-etching, and wash-out. The latter is known as photo-electrotyping.

The first steps to produce a plate by any of these processes are exactly alike, i. e. a perfectly sharp negative, either in line or stipple, must be produced. If the copy furnished is a wood-cut, steel or lithographic print, in which the lines are absolutely black on white paper or card, the negative is made direct and no drawing is necessary, unless a very great reduction is required, when it becomes necessary to make a drawing, the lines of which are made open enough to stand the necessary reduction. Where the copy furnished is a photograph, or wash drawing, it is first photographed one half larger, or, where fine work is desired, twice the size the plate required. In cases where exceptionally fine work is required it is even made three times the size. The photograph thus obtained is technically termed a silver print, and is an untoned print on plain paper. On this silver print the artist makes his drawing, using the best India ink, which must be so black that the finest hair-line, when examined through a magnifying glass, appears absolutely jet black. After the drawing is made, an alcoholic solution of bichloride of mercury is poured over it, and quickly washed under the tap, leaving the drawing on perfectly white paper. The artist then does whatever retouching may be necessary, and the drawing is ready to be photographed. The advantages of this method of drawing are apparent. The artist, being able to work directly on the enlarged photograph of the object, obtains absolutely correct outlines and detail. The drawing, when finished, is sent to the gallery, where it is photographed to the required size of the plate. The[36] focus of the camera is carefully adjusted with the aid of a focusing glass, so that the negative resulting will be perfectly sharp. This must be carefully done, for unless the negative be sharp a perfect plate cannot be obtained by any process. The sensitized collodion plate is exposed in the camera from one to six minutes, after which it is taken again to the dark room, developed, and fixed. It is then intensified until the portions representing the whites of the picture are perfectly opaque. Up to this point all the processes are alike, and the differences from here will be noted.

If the plate is to be produced by the swelled gelatine process, the negative is varnished and sent to the gelatine room. Here the gelatine is dissolved and the sensitized solution of bichromate of potash is added, and it is flowed on plate glass, then placed in a drying box, where a current of air is continually passed over it. When the gelatine is dry it is placed in a printing frame, in close contact with the negative, and exposed to the light. On removing the negative the picture is plainly seen on the gelatine, the action of the light having changed the color of the exposed portions of the gelatine, besides rendering those parts insoluble, while the parts protected from the action of the light, by the opacity of the negative, remain soluble, and are swelled up by immersion in cold water. The gelatine is then an exact opposite of the plate, the whites being represented by the raised portions. From this mould, or relief, a cast is made in a preparation of wax or plaster, when it is ready for the stereotyper.

For the wash-out or photo-electrotype process, the negative, when dry, is not varnished, but is first coated with a rubber solution and then with plain collodion, after which it is immersed in a dish of acetic acid for about five minutes, when it is stripped from the glass and turned over. It is then what is termed a reversed negative. The method of preparing the gelatine is very much the same as for the swelled process, with the exception that it is cooked for about forty-eight hours, and with the addition of several preparations which are introduced at the time of sensitizing, to make it easily washed out. The negative is exposed in the same manner as described before, but the time of exposure is generally less. After being taken from the printing frame the gelatine is gently scrubbed with a line brush, and kept in tepid water[37] until a very slight relief is obtained. It is then immersed in alcohol for a few seconds, and dried with a cloth, when it is covered with a preparation of lamp black and glycerine, which is allowed to remain about five minutes, when the surface of the plate is carefully rubbed with clean muslin, exposing the surface of the lines,—all this being done in a dark room before an orange light, which is non-actinic. The gelatine is now placed in a frame and exposed to the light from five to twenty minutes, the lampblack protecting the spaces between the lines from the action of the light, so that those portions remain soluble. The gelatine is again scrubbed until the proper relief is obtained, after which it is allowed to dry for about twelve hours, when it becomes hard and is ready to be electrotyped.

The negatives for photo-etching are stripped and reversed in the same manner as for the wash-out process. The metal generally employed for this process is zinc, though copper is sometimes used for very fine work. The zinc is very highly polished, and a thin sensitizing solution is flowed over it and dried, after which it is exposed under the negative to the action of the light. It is then rolled up with lithographic ink, placed in a dish of cold water, and gently rubbed with absorbent cotton, the ink readily leaving the unexposed parts, but remaining on the exposed lines or dots. It is then quickly dried and dusted over with dragon’s-blood powder, which adheres only to the remaining inked portions. The plate is then heated and cooled, and is ready for the etching bath, which consists of a small portion of nitric acid and water. After the first bite the plate is again powdered, heated and cooled, and more acid added to the bath. This is repeated several times, after which the plate is ready for the press. The sides of the lines are protected by the manner in which the powder is applied after the first bite. The relief obtained in this way is greater than can be obtained by any other process.

In reviewing the three processes above described, it is readily seen that the photo-etching process is the shorter method, no moulding or casting being necessary, and the sharpness of the finest lines is preserved in a manner impossible by the other methods. The plates are much deeper, and are equally suitable for the finest art work, down to the roughest newspaper work. This process, of which there are several modes of operating, has become very popular in the last few[38] years, owing to the many improvements introduced by the process inventors, who have turned their attention to it. It has many advantages, among which is the fact that a plate can be put on the press within two hours from the time the copy is ready; and the wearing capacity of the plates is greater. By this process more than 300,000 impressions have been taken from plates of fine work, while swelled gelatine plates of the same character of work would not stand over 5000, and electrotypes 50,000 impressions. The main advantage of photo-etchings to the printer is, that the plates do not require constant washing up, as is the case with plates made by the other processes.

A photograph, brush drawing, or any copy that is not made up of line or stipple, can be produced without the necessity of a line drawing by the aid of the half-tone process. There are several of these processes in operation in this country; and, although originally introduced in Germany by Miesenbach, it has been so improved by American inventors that the European work is far below the standard of the United States. The principal methods of half-tone in this country are worked secretly by the inventors, each having modifications and improvements of his own. It is impossible to give a thorough description here, as none of the inventors are willing to risk patenting their processes, and a complete publication is not desirable. The copy is first photographed, giving a negative with all the details of the original. This negative is then exposed to the camera, and the result is a positive, or, as commonly called, a transparency. This positive is then placed in contact with a glass plate covered with ruled lines. This plate is termed a grating. Being placed in contact, they are then photographed together, giving a negative of the object made up of lines and dots, representing the lights and shades of the picture. Here the half-tone process ends, the resulting plate being produced by any of the photo-engraving methods; but the most satisfactory results are obtained by photo-etching. The main objection to the half-tone plates is their lack of relief. No great depth can be obtained without sacrificing the effect. In printing these plates the greatest care in making ready must be exercised, and a smooth surface paper must be used. It is also necessary that a fine grade of ink be used in small quantity, and that it should be properly distributed.

[39]

Mr. Typograph, how are you, sir? Glad to see you. How is business with you? Plenty to do, and customers paying up? You are so prompt in paying us, that we have no doubt you have a noble set of customers. You wish to add to your stock our new things? All right, sir. You have a fine office already, but you want to keep up with the times, and give your patrons the best the type-founder can invent? That’s the way, sir. The man on the lookout sees[40] the sun the earliest. Mr. Faithful, show our new things to Mr. Typograph, and take his order.

You say, Mr. Typograph, that you have never gone over a type-foundry? We shall be happy to show you every thing. This way, sir. Here is the metal-house. These piles of dull lead, these casks of sparkling antimony, this copper, and this tin go to form the grand amalgam of which type is made. The worthy and kind-hearted man who is stirring at the kettle, unites, in bonds stronger than matrimony, immense masses of these metals every week. It may appear to you, Mr. Typograph, to be an exceedingly simple thing to throw into the kettle certain amounts of lead and antimony, and copper and tin, and produce type-metal. Not so, good friend. It is not an easy matter to compose a metal that shall be hard, yet not brittle; ductile, yet tough; flowing freely, yet hardening quickly. All these conditions must be met. Break a bar in two, and examine the grain of our metal: is it not beautiful?

Now, sir, let us up-stairs and see how these bars are fitted for printers’ use. This is a punch-cutter—a man of exquisite finger and unerring eye—sitting amid keen and delicate tools and accurate gauges. There are but few of this kind of men in the world. On the end of a piece of steel he is forming a letter. A touch here and a touch there, and frequent testing by gauges,—so he proceeds, till the letter is done; then another, and another, till the alphabet is complete; all the letters harmonizing entirely in height, breadth, appearance, length of stroke, &c. A smoke-proof of the dies is taken, and if approved the dies are one by one placed in a stamping-machine, so,—and an oblong piece of copper is set under it, so,—and then this lever is brought down, so,—and a perfect impression of the die is left, as you see, deep in the copper. This is the matrix. The matrices are passed over to other workmen in the adjoining room. Observe now the carefulness and skill exercised in fitting up these bits of copper, so that, when placed in the mould, the types cast in them shall range accurately and be of uniform height. The slightest variation would give the zigzag appearance which you may[41] have noticed in badly-made type. This we endeavour sedulously to avoid, and with how much success you can judge from our Specimen Book. Look at this drawer full of matrices. You say they are triumphs of art? True saying, evincive of good judgment.

You wonder what these curious-looking instruments are which lie, in dusty repose, on the shelves around the room?[42] Those, Mr. Typograph, are hand-moulds, and at one time they provoked intense covetousness on the part of rival founders. One of our earliest predecessors, Mr. Archibald Binny (our foundry dates from 1796), added such valuable improvements to the ordinary mould, that no other foundry in the world could rival the expedition and accuracy with which types were cast in the establishment of which he was a co-proprietor. Their day has passed, however. They have been superseded by the machines which you will see in operation in another apartment. But they were capital things in their time, sir, and we regard them with somewhat of an antiquary’s reverence.

Now we enter the casting-rooms. These tiny machines, small as they are, can throw out more type in one day than you would be likely to count in a month, even if you could call off one hundred a minute, and occupy ten hours a day. Snug little fellows, are they not? They were invented by a New-Yorker, Mr. David Bruce, Jr. A very ingenious man, you say? That is true. Look at one carefully. The metal is kept fluid by a little furnace underneath, and is projected into the mould by a pump, the spout of which, you see, is in front of the metal-pot. The mould is movable, and at every revolution of the crank it comes up to the spout, receives a charge of metal, and flies back with a fully-formed type in its bosom; the upper half of the mould lifts, and out jumps a type as lively as a tadpole. You don’t see how the letter is formed on the end of the type? True, we had forgotten: well, this spring in front holds in loving proximity to the mould a copper matrix, such as you saw just now in the fitting-room. The letter a, for instance, stamped in the matrix, sits directly opposite the aperture in the mould which meets the spout of the pump; and when a due proportion of a’s is cast, another matrix with b stamped in it takes its place; and so on throughout the alphabet. Slow work, you say, one at a time? Well, the world is peopled after that fashion; and it fills up fast enough. But just time this machine: it is making small, thin type. Count the type made in a minute. One hundred and seventy-five, you say. One hundred per minute will probably be the average of the ordinary sizes of printing type.

The types are not finished yet? Oh, no. These nimble-fingered boys are breaking off the jets, or waste ends of the[43] type. Quick, a’n’t they? Now let us go up stairs into the dressing-room. An immense beehive? Yes, indeed, it looks like one. The lads clustered around the large circular stones, with leather-protected fingers, rub off the rough edges of the type. But men as well as type require their rough edges taken off before they are good for much in the world. These boys at the tables set up the type in long lines. You think that if you could pick up dollars as fast as they pick up type, you would retire an independent man in a year or two? We wish you could, Mr. Typograph; we wish you could.

The lines of type now pass into the hands of the dresser. Observe how deftly he slips them into a long stick, shakes them down on their face, screws them up, fastens them into a planing-board, and with one or two pushes with a planing tool accurately grooves the bottom of the type, removing entirely the burr left when the jet is broken off, and giving each type a pair of legs to stand upon, till it is worn out and returned to the melting kettle. What is the eye-glass used for? Why, sir, as soon as the types are grooved, the dresser narrowly inspects the face of the type, and if an imperfect letter is discovered by the aid of the magnifying glass, it is incontinently turned out. Ah, sir, if we were all inspected as severely as he criticises type, some of us, perhaps, would hardly pass muster. The immaculate types are next put up in pages of convenient size, and are ready for the purchaser.

Let us drop into the large machine-room. Does not every thing hum here! Is it not a beautiful sight to see the shafts and belts and pulleys whirling around as if they were all alive? Here we fit up our machines, make our moulds, repair damages to machinery, &c. The multifarious uses of these lathes you must be familiar with: this ponderous machine is an iron planer: how it makes the iron chips fly! What is that curiously-arranged lathe? That is for cutting Labour-Saving Rule,—the rule which you have found so convenient and economical in your job-room. We make it of many different styles of faces: some single, some dotted or hyphen-lines, and others parallel or double, of varying thicknesses. They are all cut to Pica ems in length, and are furnished with mitred corner-pieces of different angles, so contrived, in most of the sizes, as to allow the rule to be used single or double, and with the fine lines inside or outside.

[44]

Here are specimens of our new slotted brass corners, so handsome and useful to the skilled printer. See how accurately the slotted pieces fit in one another, so that you cannot detect the joint. Are they not effective? Our brass is carefully rolled by the best manufacturers in the country, and is sent to us in strips or in sheets. That wicked-looking shears yonder cuts up the thinner brass with as much unction as Commissioner Yeh’s executioner slices off heads: the thick brass goes under a circular steam-saw.

Now, sir, while we are up here, we will peep into the printers’ furnishing-room. Isn’t this a beautiful stereotype-block? Doesn’t it do your eyes good to look at such perfect workmanship? And these brass galleys, and mahogany galleys and composing sticks, are they not admirable? Our effort in this department, as in all others, is to do our work well. All our miscellaneous wood-work is done here,—stands, racks, drawers, stereotype and packing boxes, &c. Some curious work has been designed and executed for the Smithsonian Institution, as well as brass ciphering-frames for the blind.

Ah, we forgot to show you our large-type room. On our way to the electrotype department, we will glance in it. The types you see here cool too slowly to be cast in a machine, so we continue to pour them. Look over the drawers, and see the multitude of patterns. Some men fancy one style, and some another. So we try to meet all tastes. Feel how[45] solid the type is. You can’t squeeze the life out of that type on a power-press. No, indeed. It is made for wear.

Now, Mr. Typograph, we enter the grimed and murky electrotype-room. Electrotyping, you are aware, is simply stereotyping in copper. Its advantages over stereotyping are, sharpness of outline in plates from wood-cuts, and great durability. Plates for books of large circulation are always electrotyped, as well as cuts, engravings, binders’ stamps, &c. The thing to be electrotyped, after being carefully and almost imperceptibly glazed with plumbago, is laid upon a press, and a prepared mould is placed over it, and an exact impression taken. This is well dusted with plumbago, and then deposited in the electric bath. Nature immediately takes up her part of the work, and a brilliant coating of copper is deposited upon the mould. When sufficiently thick, it is taken out of the battery, and, as you may notice, presents on the wrong side the appearance of a printed sheet of copper. This sheet is then filled up on the back to the requisite degree of thickness, and fastened to a block, ready to be used with type on a common printing-press. Plumbago, you remark, does not improve the countenances of the operatives? True; but a little soap and water, vigorously applied, proves the title of these intelligent workmen to rank among white folk.

To you, Mr. Typograph, our composing-rooms present nothing new, except, perhaps, in its vast number of job founts, due to the fact that we now mainly confine our work in this department to all kinds of jobbing; and yet in ten years we have set up in these rooms and stereotyped more than eight hundred considerable works,—most of them consisting of a single volume, but some of from two to twelve volumes each,—besides a multitude of smaller books, tracts, &c. Among the rest we may mention two Quarto Bibles, (one of them, now published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., the grandest ever got up in America,) Lippincott’s two great Gazetteers, Dr. Kane’s Explorations, The North American Sylva, Thiers’ Napoleon, and Macaulay’s England: Allibone’s magnificent Dictionary of Authors and Books among the number.

After the pages have been set and carefully read, they are sent down to the casting-room. In the electrotype-room, every thing is as black as the brow of a coal-heaver: in the casting-room, all is as white as the neck of a belle. Take[46] care, sir, or your coat will commit a larceny of our plaster. The form of type is laid on this stone, and nicely oiled: and then a mixture of plaster and water—doesn’t it look like a good wife’s buckwheat batter?—is poured over it, and gently rolled in. In a short time the plaster sets, and the mould is removed by screws as tenderly as a nurse handles a baby. It is then dried in this hot-tempered oven, and, after the moisture is all evaporated, it is laid in a pan and fastened tightly, as you see, and plunged into this terrible bath of a thousand pounds of molten type-metal. Phew! you exclaim, what warm work! Yes, sir; but from that fiery sea of lead soon emerges the pan, and its hissing heat is gradually overcome by the water in the trough into which the pan is lowered. Now, caster, break it out. There, Mr. Typograph, is the plate, fixed,—immovable,—stereotyped. The mould is ruined; but the plate is comparatively immortalized. It is rough yet, and, like an uncouth boy, needs polishing.

This next room is the finishing-room. Here the plates are carefully examined, picked, shaved, trimmed, and boxed, ready for the printer. Take a plate in your hand and examine it: it will bear inspection. You say it is far better than the untrimmed, uneven plates of English founders? We know that, sir; for we have often had to re-finish English plates imported by some publisher who imagined he could save a little by ordering a duplicate set of plates of a popular foreign[47] book. A mistake, sir. Both in type-founding and in stereotyping the Americans have driven the foreigner from the field,—and in the only legitimate way, too: simply by surpassing him.

In this nook below, our engraving is done. The drawing is made on the block by the designer, as you see: then patiently and skilfully the engraver cuts and digs out, till the lines and shapes and lights and shades are all revealed in the beautiful picture. Our work in this department gives so much satisfaction that we are seldom without orders.

Now, Mr. Typograph, we shall admit you into our editorial parlour. Walk in, sir. It is not carpeted, and its principal furnishings comprise a desk or two, a few presses, stands and cases, with multitudinous type-surroundings. Here, sir, we edit and print our Specimen Books and our Typographic Advertiser. Don’t you see poetical flies buzzing around, and atoms of wit-dust floating in the air, and odours of sentiment stealing out at the key-holes, and grains of common sense sprinkled all over the floor. Will you have a few specimens as curiosities? You say you have already a good assortment in our Advertiser and our Book? Very well, sir: we hope you will treasure them up. You say truly when you remark, that the printing done in this room is seldom, if ever, surpassed in America. We know that; and we intend to stand on the topmost round of the typographical ladder, and to show our fellow-artists what can be done with type such as we manufacture.

We are afraid, Mr. Typograph, that your long excursion over the house has wearied you. Let us go down-stairs again. These, sir, are our warerooms. On these numerous shelves are ranged founts of all the various sorts of types made by us, carefully put up, labelled and classified, and all accessible at a minute’s notice. Our customers throughout the country keep actively employed all these porters, packers, clerks, salesmen, and bookkeepers. Many of our customers have never visited us; but we put up their orders with as conscientious fidelity and care as if they were standing before us and watching our every movement. We are happy to see them, and hope none will visit our city without calling in and taking us by the hand. We like to see them face to face, so that we can hang up their portraits in our mental gallery; and, when we[48] afterward receive a letter from them, we can imagine that we are hearing them talk to us rather than reading their writing.

The side-door on which your eye has just rested leads to one of our fire-proofs. Enter it. Here, sir, are safely stored many thousand matrices, as well as moulds, when not in use. As it would require the labour of many weary years to replace them if destroyed, we endeavour to keep them secure from the danger of ruin by fire. The upbuilding of a complete type-foundry is a work of generations.

You will hardly care to look into the basement,—the storehouse of ink and other typographical appliances? Your time is exhausted? Then, sir, we bid you good-day. A safe return to your pleasant family, Mr. Typograph.

[49]

The types or letters generally used for printing in Europe and America are termed Roman, Italic, and Old English, or Black Letter.

Roman letters were employed in MSS. from the fifth to about the close of the twelfth century, when what are called Gothic letters (afterward Old English) came gradually into use; these continued for several centuries, when, in most countries, they were superseded by the Roman characters. All printing was in black letter down to 1465, when Sweinheim & Pannartz, in Subiaco near Rome, produced a volume entitled Lactantius, in a character approaching to the actual forms of our modern types. In 1467, they made an improved set of characters, and printed about forty volumes within the five years following. About 1469 John of Spires, in Venice, made a great advance in improving the form of the Roman character, and printed the Natural History of Pliny: the execution of this work is very remarkable. But Nicholas Jenson may fairly be considered the father of the style of Roman letter now in vogue. He printed in Venice four works[50] in the year 1470, the first of which was Eusebii Præparatio Novorum, &c., in types which were cut by him, more perfect in form than those of any earlier printer. The printers named above were all of them Germans.

The Roman letters consist of circles, arcs of circles, and straight lines; and, therefore, on the score of simplicity, precision, and elegance, they certainly deserve to be adopted as the standard for all nations.

A printer, in choosing type, should not only attend to the cut of the letter, but should also observe that its shank is perfectly true, and that it lines or ranges with accuracy, and is of equal height. The quality of the metal of which it is composed and the finish of the letter demand particular attention, as the competition among some of the smaller foundries (which have sprung into existence through the facilities afforded of multiplying matrices by the electrotype process) has led them to use an inferior metal, and produce types without due regard to nicety of finish and exactness of body and standing.

It is important that types should have a deep face, with strong, bevelled bases or foundations under the ceriphs or hairlines, and that the letters should have a deep nick, which should be different from other founts of like body in the same house.

Aldo Manuccio, born at Bassano, succeeded Jenson at Venice and turned to good account the latter’s admirable founts of type. He also made many advances in the art of printing, the most notable of which is the invention of the style of type now known as Italic. It was first used in an octavo edition of Virgil issued by him in 1501, and Pope Leo X. gave him a letter of privilege, entitling him to the sole use of the type he had invented. It was said to be founded on the handwriting of Petrarch, which it closely resembles.

Italic was largely employed to distinguish such parts of a book as might be considered appendages, as Prefaces, Introductions, Annotations, &c., all of which were formerly printed in this character; so that perhaps two-fifths of a fount was composed of Italic letter.

At present it is used more sparingly, being superseded by[51] the more elegant mode of enclosing extracts within inverted commas, and by setting poetry and annotations in a smaller-sized type. It is very appropriately used to distinguish the head or subject-matter of a chapter, and is serviceable in grammars and other school-books as well as scientific works. The frequent use of Italic words among Roman in ordinary matter impairs the beauty of the page, and ought to be avoided; yet authors sometimes stubbornly insist on the gratification of their whimsies, even at the sacrifice of every principle of correct taste.

In Germany, the letters in common use are founded on the Gothic character; but even there scientific works are printed in the German language with Roman letters.

The Dutch adhere to the black letter in books of devotion and religious treatises; while they make use of the Roman in their curious and learned works.

The Saxon characters originated probably from the Gothic, but were altered or modified after the Latin ones which the Saxons found in use in England in the fifth century. The first Saxon types were cut by John Daye, under the patronage of Archbishop Parker, about the year 1567. We give the Lord’s Prayer in modern Anglo-Saxon types:

[52]

The principal bodies to which printing letters are cast in England and America are the following:—

Besides the foregoing, a smaller size than Diamond, called Brilliant, is now cast in the foundry of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan of Philadelphia, the body of which is just one-half of Minion. Even this is surpassed in smallness by a music type cast in the same foundry, named Excelsior, which is precisely one-half the size of Nonpareil. Another size omitted in the list is Minionette, (equivalent to six of the Didot points,) which is next above Nonpareil.

Canon is conceded to have been first produced by a French artisan, and was probably used in some work relating to the canons of the church; to which the German title, Missal, alludes.

Two-line Great Primer, Two-line English, and Two-line Pica, owe their names to the respective bodies of which the depth of two em quadrates answers to one of the double sizes.

Paragon was probably first cut in France. It is known as Text by the Germans.

Pica is universally considered as the standard type, and by it furniture, quotations and labour-saving rules are graduated. A line 83 Pica ems long is equivalent to 35 centimeters. The twelfth part of Pica is the unit, called a Point, by which type-bodies are measured. MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan cast their new borders, ornaments, and job type on Pica, and its subdivisions of Nonpareil, (½ Pica,) and Excelsior, (¼ Pica,) and their multiples.

[53]

[55]

The following specimen shows the proportion which one size of type bears to another in width; but it is necessary to observe that it must be taken with certain limitations, because each founder has letter of every size that will either drive out or get in with others of the same body, some faces being more extended and others being more condensed than the standard width of type. The scale contains thirteen sizes in order of gradation, viz., Great Primer, English, Pica, Small Pica, Long Primer, Bourgeois, Brevier, Minion, Nonpareil, Agate, Pearl, Diamond, and Brilliant.

In 1882, MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan began to make type on the proportional system of bodies. The Pica em, being the eighty-third part of thirty five centimetres, was divided into twelve parts, or points. This system of exact proportional type-bodies was approved of and adopted by the American type-founders generally. It has been favourably received by printers in this country, and all printing offices will in due time be fully equipped with types of this description.

The standard for the height of type was fixed at 2⅓ centimetres.

[56]

In some European countries printing offices had their types cast to a height to suit the proprietor’s whim. Some of the foreign founders have sent young men to Philadelphia to be educated in the American system of heights and bodies, and at least two foundries in Germany have adopted the American plan.

The following table shows the systematic gradation of bodies and position of nicks in the point system, one point being equivalent to 1/12 of a Pica em.

[57]

The following is reckoned by the founders a regular fount, complete in all its sorts:—

A BILL OF 800 LBS. OF PICA.

Italic, one-tenth of Roman.

Owing to the varying styles of authors and the diverse subjects of books, some letters will now and then run short in a[58] fount, whatever the proportions may have been at first. A new fount of type may run evenly on a work in general literature written in the third person, while a novel filled with dialogues in the first person will rapidly exhaust certain letters, and require sorts to render the fount serviceable to its full general capacity. So with scientific and other books. Even in the case of two authors writing on the same subject, there is no certainty that the fount will run alike. The master-printer, therefore, to keep the entire letter in use, is compelled to order sorts, and his fount is thus constantly growing larger.

A complete fount of type may be comprised under the following heads:—

CAPITALS.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ Œ &

SMALL CAPITALS.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ Œ &

LOWER CASE.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ œ ff fi ffi fl ffl

ITALIC CAPITALS.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ Œ &

ITALIC LOWER CASE.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ œ ff fi ffi fl ffl

FIGURES AND FRACTIONS.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ¼ ½ ¾ ⅓ ⅔ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞

POINTS AND REFERENCES.

, ; : ? ! - ’ ( ) [ ] * † ‡ § ∥ ¶

BRACES, DASHES AND COMMERCIAL SIGNS.

$ £ ° ` ´ - – — ⸺ ☞ ☜ @ ⅌ ℔

Four kinds of spaces; en, em, two and three em quadrates.

Accents.

These are the ordinary sorts cast to a fount, and are classified by founders as long, short, ascending, descending, kerned, and double letters.

[59]

Long Letters fill the whole depth of the face of the body, and are both ascending and descending, such in the Roman as Q and j, and in the Italic f.

Short Letters have the face cast on the middle of the body, (by founders called shank,) as a, c, e, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, z, all of which will admit of being bearded above and below the face, both in Roman and Italic.

Ascending Letters are all the Roman and Italic capitals; in the lower case, b, d, f, h, i, k, l, t.

Descending Letters are g, p, q, y, in Roman and Italic.

Kerned Letters are types that have part of the face hanging over either one or both sides of the body. In Roman, f and j are the only kerned letters; but, in Italic, d, g, j, l, y are kerned on one side, and f on both sides of its face. Most Italic capitals are kerned on one side of the face.

The Double Letters in modern use are ff, fi, ffi, fl, ffl; and these are so cast to prevent the breaking of the beak of the f when used before a tall letter. The diphthongs æ and œ may be classed among double letters.

Printers divide a fount of letter into two classes.

The upper case sorts are capitals, small capital letters, references, dashes, braces, commercial signs and fractions.

The lower case consists of small letters, double letters, figures, points, spaces and quadrates.

Lindley Murray gives the following judicious directions in regard to the use of capital letters:—

It was formerly the custom to begin every noun with a capital; but as this practice was troublesome, and gave the writing or printing a crowded and confused appearance, it has been discontinued. It is, however, very proper to begin with a capital,—

1. The first word of every book, chapter, letter, note, or any other piece of writing; and,

2. The first word after a period; and, if the two sentences are totally independent, after a note of interrogation or exclamation. But if a number of interrogative or exclamatory sentences[60] are thrown into one general group, or if the construction of the latter sentences depends on the former, all of them, except the first, may begin with a small letter: as, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning? and fools hate knowledge?—Alas! how different! yet how like the same!

3. The appellations of the Deity: as, God, Jehovah, the Almighty, the Supreme Being, the Lord, Providence, the Messiah, the Holy Spirit.

4. Proper names of persons, places, streets, mountains, rivers, ships: as, George, London, the Strand, the Alps, the Thames, the Seahorse.

5. Adjectives derived from the proper names of places: as, Grecian, Roman, English, French, Italian.

6. The first word of a quotation, introduced after a colon, or when it is in a direct form: as, Always remember this ancient maxim: “Know thyself.”—Our great Lawgiver says, “Take up thy cross daily, and follow me.” But when a quotation is brought in obliquely after a comma, a capital letter is unnecessary: as, Solomon observes, “that pride goes before destruction.”

The first word of an example may also very properly begin with a capital: as, Temptation proves our virtue.

7. Every substantive and principal word in the titles of books: as, Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language; Thomson’s Seasons; Rollin’s Ancient History.

8. The first word of every line in poetry.

9. The pronoun I and the interjection O are written in capitals: as, I write: Hear, O earth!

Other words, besides the preceding, may begin with capitals when they are remarkably emphatical, or the principal subject of the composition.

The method of denoting capital letters in manuscript is by underscoring them with three distinct lines.

Small Capitals are in general cast to Roman founts only, and are used for the purpose of giving a stronger emphasis to a word than that conveyed by Italic. They are likewise used for running heads, heads of chapters, &c. The first[61] word of every section or chapter is commonly put in small capitals; but when a two-line initial letter is used, the remainder of the word should be in capitals.

The small capitals C, O, S, V, W, X, Z so closely resemble the same letters in the lower case, that care is required to prevent intermixing.

In manuscript, small capitals are denoted by two lines drawn under the words.

Italic words are designated by a single stroke underneath.

Points consist of a comma, semicolon, colon, period or full-point, mark of interrogation, and mark of admiration. Shortly after the invention of printing, the necessity of stops or pauses in sentences for the guidance of the reader produced the colon and full-point. In process of time, the comma was added, which was then merely a perpendicular line, proportioned to the body of the letter. These three points were the only ones used till the close of the fifteenth century, when Aldo Manuccio gave a better shape to the comma, and added the semicolon; the comma denoting the shortest pause, the semicolon next, then the colon, and the full-point terminating the sentence. The marks of interrogation and admiration were introduced many years after.

Perhaps there never existed on any subject a greater difference of opinion among men of learning than on the true mode of punctuation. Some sprinkle the page with commas almost as promiscuously as if from a pepper-box, and make the pause of a semicolon where the sense will bear only a comma; while others are extremely careless, and omit points even when they are needed to give the true sense of a passage at the first reading.

The lack of an established practice is much to be regretted. The loss of time to a compositor occasioned by altering points arbitrarily is a great hardship. Manuscripts are often placed in the printer’s hands without being properly prepared: either the writing is illegible, the spelling incorrect, or the punctuation defective. Unless the author will take entirely on himself the responsibility of the pointing, it will be better to omit every point in the copy, except at the end of a sentence, rather[62] than confuse the mind of the compositor by commas and semicolons placed indiscriminately, in the hurry of writing, without any regard to propriety.[10]

The Comma [,] divides the clauses of a long or involved sentence, and commonly marks the shortest pause in reading.

Commas are used to denote extracts or quotations from other works, dialogue matter, or passages or expressions not original, by placing two of them inverted before the first word of the passage quoted, the ending being denoted by two apostrophes. A thin space is used to keep the inverted commas free from the matter. The method of running them down the sides to the end of the quotation has been found inconvenient, especially where a quotation occurs within a quotation, or a speech within a speech: the proper method of distinguishing these is by placing a single inverted comma before the extra quotation, and concluding with a single apostrophe. Where both quotations end together, put three apostrophes, observing after the first to place a thin space.

Inverted commas were first used by Guillemet, a Frenchman, to supersede the use of Italic letter in emphasized words. As an acknowledgment, his countrymen call them after his name. French founders cast them double, thus [«»]. MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, Philadelphia, furnish them in this way when desired.

A single comma inverted is improperly used as an abbreviation of the word Mac, as in M’Gowen: c is preferable, as McGowen.

The Semicolon [;] denotes a pause greater than that of a comma, and is used between dependent clauses of compound sentences.

The Colon [:] is employed in a sentence between clauses less connected than those which are divided by a semicolon, but not so independent as separate, distinct sentences.

The Period or Full-Point [.] serves to indicate the end of a complete sentence. When used in abbreviations, it has no effect as a full stop in the punctuation, unless at the end of a sentence. In some works this point is discarded as a mark of abbreviation, as in Mr Dr &c.

[63]

Full-points are sometimes used as leaders in tables of contents, figure-work, &c.; but dotted rules or leaders are more economical for this purpose, as they save considerable time in the composition.

The sign of Interrogation [?] is used to denote a question. Every interrogation or question should begin with a capital letter, (unless several questions follow one another in connected succession,) according to the method observed in the Bible, where questions and responses, and the beginning of sayings, &c. are denoted by a capital letter.

The sign of Admiration or Exclamation [!] denotes surprise, astonishment, rapture, and other sudden emotions of the mind, whether of joy or sorrow. This sign is put after the interjections Ah! Alas! Oh! &c.; but there are exceptional cases, as, Ah me! Alas the day! &c.

All the points, except the comma and the period, should be preceded by a hair-space; the comma and full-point do not require any space to bear them off.

The em dash [—], though not ranked as a point, is often used by careless writers as a substitute for a comma or semicolon. It may be properly employed in parenthetical sentences, and in rhapsodical writing abounding in disconnected sentences.

A dash stands for a sign of repetition in catalogues of goods, where it implies ditto; and in catalogues of books, where a dash signifies ejusdem, instead of repeating the author’s name with the title of every separate treatise of his writing. A sign of repetition should never appear at the top of a page, but the name of the author, or of the merchandise, should be set out again at length.

A dash likewise stands for to; as, chap. xvi. 3-17; that is, from the third to the seventeenth verse inclusive. At other times it serves for an index, to give notice that what follows it is a corollary of what has preceded; thus:—

The apostrophe [’] is a comma cast on the upper edge of a type, and is used as a sign of contraction or abbreviation of words in poetry or familiar conversation, as We’re, o’er, don’t, &c. In poetry, it should not be employed where the[64] verb ends with e, as love, change, &c., but only in cases where the verb concludes with a consonant, as, reign, obtain, &c. It also marks the elision of a vowel at the beginning of words, as, ’scape, or of a syllable, as, ’prentice.

The monosyllables though and through are sometimes shortened to tho’ and thro’, but very improperly, as they retain the same sound, and the abbreviation cannot in the slightest degree assist the versification.

Words in the possessive case are generally known by having ’s for their termination.

All quotations which are denoted at the beginning by inverted commas are closed with apostrophes. There is no space required between the apostrophe and the matter.

A hyphen is a sign of connection, and denotes that the part of a word at the end of a line belongs to the portion at the beginning of the next line.

A compositor who studies propriety and neatness in his work will not allow an unnecessary division, even in a narrow measure, if he can avoid it by overrunning two or three lines of matter. In large type and narrow measures, the division of words cannot be avoided; but care should be taken that hyphens do not occur at the end of successive lines. In small type and wide measures, the hyphen may frequently be dispensed with, either by driving out or getting in the word, without interfering with the regularity of the spacing. The compositor who is careful on this point will find his advantage in the preference given to his work, and in the respect attached to his character as a master of his business. Numerous divisions down the side of a page and irregular spacing are the two greatest defects in composition.

It is proper, if possible, to keep the derivative or radical word undivided: as, occur-rence, gentle-man, respect-ful, &c. In other cases, printers generally divide on the vowel, which is an excellent method.

The hyphen is also used to connect compound words, which are formed of two substantives, as, bird-cage, love-letter, &c.; also what are termed compound adjectives, as, well-built house, handsome-faced child, &c.

[65]

The prepositions after, before, over, &c. are often connected with other words, but do not always make a proper compound: thus, before-mentioned is a compound when it precedes a substantive, as, in the before-mentioned place; but when it comes after a noun, as, in the place before mentioned, it should be two distinct words.[11]

The use of the Parenthesis ( ) is to enclose interpolated words or sentences which serve to strengthen the argument, although the main sentence would be complete without the interpolated matter.

[66]

Parentheses are not as much used as formerly: authors place their intercalations between commas,—frequently with a dash at the beginning and ending,—which make them quite as intelligible as though they were enclosed between parentheses.

Brackets [ ] are seldom made use of, except to indicate that the word enclosed within them had been carelessly omitted in the old MS. or copy, and was now inserted by the editor.

References are marks and signs employed to direct the attention of the reader to notes in the margin or at the bottom of a page.

The characters technically known by printers as references are the following, which are used in the order here given:—

In Roman church-books, the Asterisk divides each verse of a psalm into two parts, and marks the place where the responses begin: this in the Book of Common Prayer is denoted by a colon placed between the two parts of each verse. Asterisks also denote an omission, or an hiatus in the original copy; the number of asterisks being multiplied according to the extent of the omission.

The Dagger, originally termed the Obelisk, or Long Cross, is frequently used in Roman Catholic church-books, prayers of exorcism, at the benediction of bread, water, and fruit, and upon other occasions, where the priest is to make the sign of the cross; but the square cross (✠) is the proper symbol for the purpose. The square cross is used, besides, in the pope’s briefs, and in mandates of archbishops and bishops, immediately before the signature of their names. It is not placed among references.

Besides its use as a reference mark, the Paragraph is now employed chiefly in Bibles, to show the parts into which a chapter is divided. In Common Prayer Books, paragraphs are put before the lines that direct the order of the service, and which are called the Rubrics because they were formerly printed in red.

[67]

The neatest references, when many are required in books, are either superior letters or superior figures,—thus, ¹, ², ³, or thus, ᵃ, ᵇ, ᶜ. Superior letters are used chiefly in Bibles and other books which have more than one sort of notes, and therefore require different references. When thus used, the letter ʲ should be omitted, as, from its similarity to the ⁱ, the reader might at times be led into error.

Letters called accented by printers are the five vowels, marked thus:—

We may include the French ç, the Spanish ñ, the Portuguese ã and õ, the Swedish and Norwegian å and ö, and the Welsh ŵ and ŷ.

The Greeks at first employed the letters of the entire alphabet to express the first twenty-four numbers; but the system was cumbrous, and they adopted the happy expedient of dividing their alphabet into three portions, using the first to symbolize the 9 digits, the second the 9 tens, and the third the 9 hundreds; and, as their alphabet contained only twenty-four letters, they invented three additional symbols. Their list of symbols then stood as follows:—

[68]

By these symbols, only numbers under 1000 could be expressed; but, by putting a mark called iota under any symbol, its value was increased a thousand-fold: thus, ᾳ = 1000, κͅ = 20,000; or, by subscribing the letter Μ, the value of a symbol was raised ten thousand-fold. For these two marks, single and double dots were afterward substituted. This improvement enabled them to express with facility all numbers as high as 9,990,000,—a range sufficient for all ordinary purposes.

It has been supposed that the Romans used M to denote 1000 because it is the first letter of Mille, which is Latin for 1000; and C to denote 100, it being the first letter of Centum, the Latin term for 100. Some also suppose that D, being formed by dividing the old M in the middle, was therefore appointed to stand for 500,—that is, half as much as the M stood for when it was whole; and that L being half a C, was, for the same reason, used to denominate 50. But the most natural account of the matter appears to be this:—

The Romans probably put down a single stroke, Ⅰ, for one, as is still the practice of those who score on a slate, or with chalk; this stroke they doubled, trebled, and quadrupled, to express two, three, and four: thus, ⅠⅠ, ⅠⅠⅠ, ⅠⅠⅠⅠ. So far they could easily number the strokes with a glance of the eye; but they found that if more were added it would be necessary to count the strokes one by one: for this reason, when they came to five, it was expressed by joining two strokes together in an acute angle, thus, Ⅴ.

After they had made this acute angle, Ⅴ, for five, they then added single strokes to the number of four, thus, ⅤⅠ, ⅤⅠⅠ, ⅤⅠⅠⅠ, ⅤⅠⅠⅠ, and then, as the strokes could not be further multiplied without confusion, they doubled their acute angle by prolonging the two lines beyond their intersection, thus, Ⅹ, to denote two fives, or ten. After they had doubled, trebled, and quadrupled this double acute angle, thus, ⅩⅩ, ⅩⅩⅩ, ⅩⅩⅩⅩ, they then, for the same reason which induced them to make a single angle first, and then to double it, joined two single strokes in another form, and, instead of an acute angle, made a right angle, Ⅼ, to denote fifty. When this was doubled, they then doubled the right angle, thus, ⊏, to denote one hundred, and, having numbered this double right angle four times, thus, ⊏⊏, ⊏⊏⊏, ⊏⊏⊏⊏, when they came to the fifth number, as before, they reverted it, and put a single stroke before it, thus,[69] Ⅰ⊐, to denote five hundred; and, when this five hundred was doubled, then they also doubled their double right angle, setting two double right angles opposite to each other, with a single stroke between them, thus, ⊏Ⅰ⊐, to denote one thousand: when this note for one thousand had been repeated four times, they then put down Ⅰ⊐⊐ for five thousand, ⊏⊏Ⅰ⊐⊐ for ten thousand, and Ⅰ⊐⊐⊐ for fifty thousand.

The corners of the angles being cut off by transcribers for despatch, these figures were gradually brought into what are now called numerical letters. When the corners of ⊏Ⅰ⊐ were made round, it stood thus, ⅭⅠↃ, which is so near the Gothic ന that it soon deviated into that character; so that Ⅰ⊐ having the corners made round stood thus, ⅠↃ, and then easily deviated into D. ⊏ also became a plain C by the same means: the single rectangle, which denoted fifty, was, without any alteration, a capital L; the double acute angle was an X; the single acute angle, a V; and a plain single stroke, the letter I. And thus these seven letters, M, D, C, L, X, V, I, became numerals. As a further proof of this assertion, let it be considered that ⅭⅠↃ is still used for one thousand, and ⅠↃ for five hundred, instead of M and D; and this mark, ന, is sometimes used to denote one thousand, which may easily be derived from this figure, ⊏Ⅰ⊐, but cannot be deviations from, or corruptions of, the Roman letter M. The Romans also expressed any number of thousands by a line drawn over any numeral less than one thousand: thus, V̅ denotes five thousand, L̅X̅ sixty thousand; so, likewise, M̅ is one million, M̅M̅ two millions, &c.

Upon the discovery of printing, and before capitals were invented, small letters served for numerals; not only when Gothic characters were in vogue, but when Roman had become the prevailing character. Thus, in early times, i b x l c d m were, and in Roman type are still, of the same signification as capitals when used as numerals. Though the capital J is not a numeral letter, yet the lower-case j is as often and as significantly used as the vowel i, especially where the former is employed as a closing letter, in ij iij bj bij biij dcij, &c. In Roman lower-case numerals, the j is not regarded, but the i stands for figure 1 wherever it is used numerically.

During the existence of the French Republic, books were dated in France from the first year of the Republic: thus An. XII. (1803,) or twelve years from 1792.

[70]

The arithmetical or Arabic numerals are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Properly they should be styled Hindu or Indian numerals; for the Arabs borrowed them, along with the decimal system of notation, from the Hindus. They were probably first introduced from the East into Italy about 1202; yet they did not come into general use before the invention of printing. Accounts were kept in Roman numerals up to the sixteenth century. Figures are usually made one en thick; but of late a broader figure is cast for newspaper use, which is two-thirds or six-sevenths of an em in width.

Though uniform in height and appearance, we do not deem the modern figures an improvement on the variously-lining figures formerly in vogue, and now happily coming again into use. The latter can be caught by the eye with greater ease and certainty, just as lower-case letter can be read with more facility than continuous lines of capitals. In the new style the 3 and 8 may easily be mistaken for each other, and so with the 6, 9, and 0; but in the old style figures such errors are quite unlikely to happen, as some of them occupy the centre of the body only, and others are ascending or descending characters. The example here given will show the justice of our remarks:

1̷ 2̷ 3̷ 4̷ 5̷ 6̷ 7̷ 8̷ 9̷ 0̷

Are used in arithmetical matter when certain figures require to be crossed over in an operation.

Common Fractions, or broken numbers in arithmetic, are cast solid to all sizes of type. A great improvement has been introduced by casting the numerator and denominator separately, on bodies of half size, with the line on the under figure, so that odd fractions of any amount may be readily formed, thus: ¹ ² ³ ⁄₂ ⁄₃ ⁄₄ ½ ⅔ ¾.

[71]

+ plus, or more, is the sign of real existence of the quantity it stands before, and is called an affirmative or positive sign. It is also the mark of addition: thus, a+b, or 6+9, implies that a is to be added to b, or 6 added to 9.

− minus, or less, before a single quantity, is the sign of negation, or negative existence, showing the quantity to which it is prefixed to be less than nothing. But between quantities it is the sign of subtraction: thus, a−b, or 8−4, implies b subtracted from a, or 8 after 4 has been subtracted.

= equal. The sign of equality, though Des Cartes and some others use this mark, ∝: thus, a=b signifies that a is equal to b. Others use the mark = to denote identity of ratios.

× into or with. The sign of multiplication, showing that the quantities on each side the same are to be multiplied by one another: as, a×b is to be read, a multiplied into b; 4×8, the product of 4 multiplied into 8. Wolfius and others use a dot between the two factors: thus, 7·4 signifies the product of 7 and 4. In algebra the sign is commonly omitted, and the two quantities put together: thus, bd expresses the product of b and d. When one or both of the factors are compounded of several letters, they are distinguished by a line drawn over them: thus, the factum of a+b-c into d is written, d × a̅+̅b̅-̅c̅. Others distinguish the compound factors by including them in parentheses: thus, (a+b-c)d.

÷ by. The sign of division: thus, a÷b denotes the quantity a to be divided by b. Wolfius makes the sign of division two dots; 12:4 denotes the quotient of 12 divided by 4 = 3.

> or ⫍ are signs of majority: thus, a>b expresses that a is greater than b.

< or ⫎ are signs of minority,—when we would denote that a is less than b.

[72]

∞ is the character of similitude used by Wolfius, Leibnitz, and others. It is used in other authors for the difference between two quantities when it is unknown which is the greater of the two.

∷ so is. The mark of geometrical proportion disjunct, and is usually placed between two pair of equal ratios: as, 3∶6∷4∶8 shows that 3 is to 6 as 4 is to 8.

∶ or ∴ is an arithmetical equal proportion: as, 7.3∶13.9; i. e. 7 is more than 3, as 13 is more than 9.

⬜ quadrate, or regular quadrangle,—viz. ⬜AB=⬜BC; i. e. the quadrangle upon the line AB is equal to the quadrangle upon the line BC.

△ triangle: as, △ABC=△ADC.

∠ an angle: as, ∠ABC=∠ADC.

⟂ perpendicular: as, AB⟂BC.

▭ rectangled parallelogram, or the product of two lines.

∥ the character of parallelism.

⧧ want of parallelism.

≚ equiangular, or similar.

⫨ equilateral.

▱ rhomboid.

◠ concentrix.

○ circle.

∟ right angle.

∫ integration, (summa or sum).

° denotes a degree: thus, 45° implies 45 degrees.

´ a minute: thus, 50´ is 50 minutes; ´´, ´´´, ´´´´, denote seconds, thirds, and fourths; and the same characters are used where the progressions are by tens, as it is here by sixties.

∺ the mark of geometrical proportion continued, implies the ratio to be still carried on without interruption: as, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 ∺ are in the same uninterrupted proportion.

√ When used without a figure above it, indicates the square root, and is called the radical sign. Any other root is expressed by the index figure placed above the sign. √16 is the square root of 16, ∛27 the cube root of 27, &c.

≅ difference equal.

∹ the difference, or excess.

Q or q, a square.

C or c, a cube.

QQ, the ratio of a square number to a square number.

[73]

In algebraical work, authors should be very exact in their copy, and compositors as careful in following it, so that no alterations may be necessary after it is composed, the over-running of this kind of matter being troublesome and costly.

⚳ Ceres, ⚴ Pallas, ⚵ Juno, ⚶ Vesta, Astræa, Hebe, Iris, and the other asteroids, or minor planets, are now commonly designated by a circle enclosing a number which indicates the order of their discovery: thus, ①, ②, ③, &c.

☌ Conjunction; happens when two planets stand under each other in the same sign and degree.

☍ Opposition; happens when two planets stand diametrically opposite each other.

△ Trine; happens when one planet stands from another four signs, or 120 degrees, which make one-third of the ecliptic.

□ Quartile; happens when two planets stand three signs from each other, which make 90 degrees, or the fourth part of the ecliptic.

⚹ Sextile; is the sixth part of the ecliptic, which is two signs, and make 60 degrees.

[74]

☊ The Dragon’s Head, or ascending node, and

☋ The Dragon’s Tail, or descending node, are the two points in which the eclipses happen.

Many signs and symbols have been invented by pseudo-astronomers to impose upon the credulity of the ignorant; among which are signs to give notice on what day it is proper to let blood, to bathe and to cup, to sow and to plant, to take physic, to have one’s hair cut, to cut one’s nails, to wean children, and many other absurdities; as well as symbols that serve to indicate hail, thunder, lightning, or any occult phenomena.

℟ Response, used in prayer-books.

℣ Versicle, used in prayer-books to denote the part recited by the priest.

✠ or ✝ A sign of the cross employed by Roman Catholic ecclesiastical dignitaries before their signatures. In Roman Catholic prayer-books, it also denotes the place where the priest is to make the sign of the cross.

* Used in Roman Catholic prayer-books to denote the place in a single verse where the response begins.

℞ stands for Recipe, or Take.

ā, aa, of each a like quantity.

℔ a pound.

℥ an ounce.

ʒ a drachm.

℈ a scruple.

j stands for 1; ij for 2; iij for 3; and so on.

ss. signifies semi, or half.

gr. denotes a grain.

[75]

P. stands for particula, a little part, and means so much as can be taken between the ends of two fingers.

P. æq. stands for partes æquales, or equal parts.

q. s. quantum sufficit, or as much as is sufficient.

q. p. quantum placit, or as much as you please.

s. a. secundem artem, or according to art.

Metal Rules or dashes, [⸺] like quadrates, are commonly cast from one em to three ems in length. When cast to line and join accurately, they may be used instead of brass rule.

Braces [⏞] are used chiefly in tables of accounts, botanical and geological tables, and similar matter. They are placed before or after a series of items of similar import; and are sometimes used horizontally in the margin, to cut off a chronological or other series from the proper notes or marginal references of the work. Braces, two, three, and four ems in length, are now cast for all sizes of common type.

Middles and ends are also cast, [] which can be filled out with dashes to any length required for the brace. Middles and ends are convenient in genealogical tables, in which they are used the flat way, and in which the directing point is not always in the middle.

Brass braces of any length, for music and jobbing purposes, are furnished by type-founders.

Spaces are short blank types, and are used to separate one word from another. To enable the compositor to space even and to justify with nicety, they are cast to various thicknesses,—viz. five to an em, [] or five thin spaces; four to an em, [] or four middle spaces; three to an em, [] or three thick spaces; and two to an em, [] or two en quadrates, which may with propriety be reckoned among the number of spaces. Besides these, there is what is called the hair-space, which is cast extremely thin, and is found useful in justifying lines and assisting uniformity in spacing.

[76]

Are equal in depth to two lines of the type in which they are to be used, and of proportionate width. They form the almost only proper type for principal lines in title-pages, and are used at the beginning of chapters and newspaper advertisements.

An em quadrate [■] is a short blank type, in thickness equal to the square of the letter of the fount to which it belongs; an en quadrate [▮] is half that size.

The first line of a paragraph is usually indented an em quadrate; but when the matter is leaded or the measure is wide, an em and en, or two or even three ems may be used. An em quadrate is the proper space after a full-point when it terminates a sentence in a paragraph.

En quadrates are generally used after the semicolon, colon, &c., and sometimes after an overhanging letter. They are useful in spacing.

Em and en quadrates, and figures as well, should be entirely exact and uniform in body, as even a trifling variation will be apparent when they are arranged in table or figure-work; and no ingenuity on the part of a compositor can rectify the zigzag appearance caused by irregular types.

The inconvenience arising from founts of the same body not agreeing in depth is great, where the quadrates, through necessity, are sometimes mixed. The founts cast by MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan are not liable to this charge, as their moulds for all regular type of a specific size harmonize perfectly, and the quadrates and spaces work together.

Quotations are large blank type used for filling up considerable spaces at the beginning or end of a chapter, and also for job-work. They are cast to two sizes, and are called broad and narrow. They vary in size according to the standard of the foundry where they are cast. They are being superseded, however, by

[77]

This is cast with great accuracy to Pica, of assorted widths and lengths; and, as its name imports, it serves not only for quotations in general job-work, but also for furniture.

Owing to the large assortment of sizes contained in this furniture, it is useful for blanking out all varieties of work, from the card or circular to the large hand-bill or poster. As the above metal furnitures are not liable to warp or shrink, they form a highly economical substitute for wooden reglet.

Answer many of the purposes of quotations, but are principally useful as frames or miniature chases for circular or oval jobs. The sizes are graduated from 5 × 8 to 12 × 18 Pica ems.

[78]

These are made of various sizes, so as to form circles or parts of circles from one to twenty-four inches in diameter. Each piece is exactly one-eighth of a full circle, and, when combined with similar pieces, will form quarter, half, three-quarter, and full circles. By reversing the combination of some of the pieces, serpentine and eccentric curves may be made of any length or depth.

There are two kinds: inner quadrates, with convex surface, and outer quadrates, with concave surface. The curved line is produced by placing the convex and concave surfaces parallel to each other, so that when locked up firmly they hold the type inserted between them. The other sides of the quadrates are flat and right-angled, to allow a close introduction of type, and an easy justification with common quadrates.

As these quadrates are perfect segments of a large circle, they cannot be increased or diminished without destroying the truth of the curve. If the thin ends are pieced out with common quadrates, good justification will be rendered impossible; if they are shortened by cutting off, they are ruined. Bits of[79] lead or short pieces of card between the curved surfaces are also wrong: they destroy that exact parallelism which is necessary for the security of the type. Very accurate justification of the outer extremities of the quadrates is also indispensable. If the curved surfaces are kept parallel, and the flat surfaces kept square, no difficulty will be found in using them, and they will prove a valuable aid in ornamental printing.

Morris’s Adjustable Line Formers, or Labour-Saving Curvatures, do away with bent leads, plaster, wax, and other methods of making curved lines. Their economical advantages, and the neatness and exactitude of curve secured by their use, will be appreciated at a glance by all practical job printers.

[80]

Leads form an essential part of a printer’s outfit, since it is scarcely possible to set up a single page or job in which they may not be usefully employed; but their chief purpose is for spreading the lines apart so as to reduce the amount of matter in a page. Fine works are always thus leaded. They are usually cast by letter-founders in a long mould, and then cut to the required lengths. The bodies are regulated by Pica standard, and they are usually cast four, six, or eight to Pica, but are occasionally varied from one down to fourteen to Pica. Leads for jobbing purposes are now cut to graduated lengths, like labour-saving rule.

The flowers and borders designed and cast at the present time far surpass any made by founders of earlier days. Their richness and variety enable printers to execute delicate and elaborate work, rivalling plate engraving, and afford a wide scope for the display of taste and artistic skill. The combination borders are especially valuable from being cast on uniform bodies, thus rendering them susceptible of a vast number of changes.

The ancient practice of ornamenting pages with head and tail pieces of flowers and odd designs seems to be coming in vogue again, particularly in works printed in the old-style type.

Rules are required mainly for table-work, and for pages which contain two or more columns. They are also useful in titles and jobs. Brass rules should never be more than type height, unless for perforating purposes, to divide railroad checks, &c. A shade lower would be often better, as the pressman would be enabled to bring off their impression more clearly. In table-work, the rule and figures should be separated by a lead, and all the rules should fit closely and accurately.

The lately-invented

[81]

BRASS LABOUR-SAVING RULE

is of immense economical advantage to the printer. Being cut to a graduated scale, from one em to fifty ems Pica in length, advancing in the shorter pieces by ens and in the longer by ems, all waste in cutting is avoided by the printer, as rules of any length can be formed by employing two or more pieces. This rule is put up in regular founts, of various styles, with sufficient mitred pieces for outside bordering.

Metal space-rules, cast by type-founders, are commonly used for cross-rules in table-work; but the shorter pieces of labour-saving rule will answer as well.

On the next page we insert a plan of a case for labour-saving rules, with boxes suited for the various sizes, in which the rule should be kept when not in use.

[82]

[83]

The hieroglyphic is the most ancient form of written sounds. The earliest known monuments containing phonetic hieroglyphics date about forty centuries ago, or six hundred years before the time of Moses, who is supposed to have been versed in the knowledge of the hieroglyphs. Yet nothing worthy of the name of an alphabet existed till a later period, when the Phœnicians invented a purely alphabetic system, but suppressing the vowels, and from this has originated all the modes of alphabetic writing now used.[12] The Greeks introduced the vowels into their graphic system, and so brought to perfection the invaluable invention of alphabetic writing.

The discovery of the Rosetta stone furnished a clue to the method of deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphics; and Dr. Young and Champollion were the first to make use of the suggestive opportunity. The words Ptolemy and Cleopatra were made out; and these served as a key or incentive to further investigations; and extensive and curious volumes have been devoted to the interpretation of Egypt’s mysterious inscriptions on monuments and writings on papyrus.

Among those who have investigated the Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mr. R. Lepsius is one of the most practical, for he has reduced the ancient characters to typographical uses for the behoof of the delvers into the earth’s earliest lore. He began the work soon after his return from a scientific expedition to Egypt during the years 1842-46, and his hieroglyphic types now completed number more than thirteen hundred. The Prussian government furnishing the needful pecuniary means, his first task was to ascertain the forms of hieroglyphic signs which would be most suitable for typographical purposes, and here the labour was immense. After laborious research, he reached the conclusion, that as European print had been formed, not from the monumental characters of the Greeks and Romans, but essentially from the current handwriting of documents on parchment and paper, so the hieroglyphic type should follow, not the chiseled or painted characters on the[84] monuments, but the style of those written on papyrus. The style and proportions having been established, the punch-cutting was mostly executed by Mr. Ferdinand Theinhardt, the excellent Prussian type-founder, who for a series of years has been skilfully engaged in producing the matrices. We are indebted to Mr. Theinhardt for the specimens here given; the first of which is the hieroglyphic alphabet, and the second is the beginning of an ancient text found in a leather roll of the Royal Museum of Berlin, referring to the foundation of the temple of the Sun at On or Heliopolis in Egypt.

[85]

[86]

Runes were the earliest alphabets in use among the Teutonic and Gothic nations of Northern Europe. The exact period of their origin is not known. The name is derived from the Teutonic rûn, a mystery; whence runa, a whisper, and helrûn, divination; and the original use of these characters seems to have been for purposes of secrecy and divination. Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon tradition agree in ascribing the invention of runic writing to Odin or Wodin. The countries in which traces of the use of runes exist include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, Britain, France, and Spain; and they are found engraved on rocks, crosses, monumental stones, coins, medals, rings, brooches, and the hilts and blades of swords. Runic letters were also often cut on smooth sticks called rûn-stafas, or mysterious staves, and used for purposes of divination. But there is no reason to believe that they were at any time in the familiar use in which we find the characters of a written language in modern times, nor have we any traces of their being used in books or on parchment. We have an explanation of the runic alphabet in various MSS. of the early middle ages, prior to the time when runes had altogether ceased to be understood.

The systems of runes in use among the different branches of the Teutonic stock were not identical, though they have a strong general family likeness, showing their community of origin. The letters are arranged in an order altogether distinct from that of any other alphabetical system, and have a purely Teutonic nomenclature. Each letter is, as in the Hebrew-Phœnician, derived from the name of some well-known familiar object, with whose initial letter it corresponds. Runes, being associated in the popular belief with augury and divination, were to a considerable extent discouraged by the early Christian priests and missionaries, whose efforts were directed to the supplanting of them by Greek and Roman characters. But it was not easy suddenly to put a stop to their use, and we find runes continuing to be employed in early Christian inscriptions. This was to a remarkable extent the case in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, where we have traces of runic writing of dates varying from the middle[87] of the seventh to the middle of the tenth century. Runes are said to have been laid aside in Sweden by the year 1001, and in Spain they were officially condemned by the Council of Toledo in 1115.

The different systems of runes, all accordant up to a certain point, have been classed as the Anglo-Saxon, the German, and the Norse, each containing different subordinate varieties. The Norse alphabet is generally considered the oldest, and the parent of the rest. It has sixteen letters corresponding to our f, u, th, o, r, k, h, n, i, a, s, t, b, l, m, y, but has no equivalent for various sounds which exist in the language, in consequence of which the sound of k was used for g, d for t, b for p, and u and y for v: o was expressed by au, and e, by ai, i, or ia; and the same letter otherwise was made to serve for more than one sound. Other expedients came, in the course of time, to be employed to obviate the deficiency of the system,—as the addition of dots, and the adoption of new characters. But the runic system received a fuller development among the Germans and Anglo-Saxons, particularly the latter, whose alphabet was extended to no fewer than forty characters, in which seem to have been embraced, more nearly than in any modern alphabets, the actual sounds of a language. The table on the following page exhibits the best known forms of the Anglo-Saxon, German, and Norse runic alphabets, with the names and the power of the several letters.

[88]

The Anglo-Saxon runes, as here given, are derived from a variety of MS. authorities, the most complete containing forty characters, while some only extend as far as the twenty-fifth or twenty-eighth letter. Neither the name nor the power of some of the later letters is thoroughly known, and they are without any equivalents in the Norse runic system. The German runes are given from a MS. in the conventual library of St. Gall, in Switzerland. Though the various runic alphabets are not alike copious, the same order of succession among the letters is preserved, excepting that, in the Norse alphabet, laugr precedes madr, although we have placed them otherwise, with the view of exhibiting the correspondence of the three systems. The number of characters in the Anglo-Saxon alphabet is a multiple of the sacred number eight; and we have the evidence both of a Swedish bracteate containing twenty-four characters, and of the above mentioned St. Gall MS., that there was a [89]recognized division of the alphabet into classes of eight letters,—a classification which forms the basis of a system of secret runes, mentioned in that MS. Of these secret runes, there are several varieties specified: in particular, 1. Iis-runa and Lago-runa (of which specimens exist in Scandinavia), consisting of groups of repetitions of the character iis or lago, some shorter and some longer, the number of shorter characters in each group denoting the class to which the letter intended to be indicated belonged; the number of longer ones, its position in the class. 2. Hahal-runa, where the letters are indicated by characters with branching stems, the branches to the left denoting the class, and those to the right the position in that class. There is an inscription in secret runes of this description at Hackness, in Yorkshire. 3. Stof-runa, in which the class is indicated by points placed above, and the position in the class by points below, or the reverse.

The best-known inscriptions in the Anglo-Saxon character are those on two grave-stones at Hartlepool, in Northumberland, on a cross at Bewcastle, in Cumberland, and on another cross at Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire. The inscription on the west side of Bewcastle cross, which we give as a specimen of Anglo-Saxon runes, is a memorial of Alcfrid, son of Oswiu, who was associated with his father in the government of the kingdom of Northumbria, in the seventh century.

It has been thus deciphered into the Anglo-Saxon dialect of the period:—

Or, in Modern English:—

[90]

The inscription on the Ruthwell cross, after being long a puzzle to antiquaries, was first deciphered in 1838 by Mr. John M. Kemble, an eminent Anglo-Saxon scholar. It is written alternately down one side of the stone and up another, and contains a portion of a poem on the subject of the Crucifixion. Mr. Kemble’s interpretation received a very satisfactory confirmation by the discovery of a more complete copy of the same poem in a MS. volume of Anglo-Saxon homilies at Vercelli.

Mr. D. M. Haigh, whose researches have added much to our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon runes, has endeavoured to set up for them a claim of priority over the Norse characters. Instead of considering the additional Anglo-Saxon letters as a development of the Norse system, he looks on the Norse alphabet of sixteen letters as an abridgment of an earlier system, and finds occasional traces of the existence of the discarded characters in the earliest Norse inscriptions, and in the Scandinavian Iis-runa and Hahal-runa, where the letters are classified in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon groups of eight.

The Scandinavian kingdoms contain numerous runic monuments, some of them written boustrophedon, or with the lines beginning alternately from the right and left; and there are many interesting inscriptions on Swedish gold bracteates. The Celtic races, from their connection with the Scandinavians, became acquainted with their alphabet, and made use of it in writing their own language; and hence we have, in the Western Islands of Scotland and in the Isle of Man, runic inscriptions, not in the Anglo-Saxon, but in the Norse character, with, however, a few peculiarities of their own. Some of the most perfect runic inscriptions are in Man; others of similar description exist at Holy Island, in Lamlash Bay, Arran; and there is an inscription in the same character on a remarkable brooch dug up at Hunterston, in Ayrshire. Dr. D. Wilson considers that the Celtic population of Scotland were as familiar with Norse as the Northumbrians with Saxon runes.

We sometimes find the Norse runes used to denote numerals, in which case the sixteen characters stand for the numbers from 1 to 16; ar combined with laugr stands for 17, double madr for 18, and double tyr for 19. Two more letters are used to express higher numbers, as ur ur, 20; thurs thurs os, 34.[13]

[91]

The Anglo-Saxon alphabet, and the forms and sounds of the letters, are shown in the following table:—

Two useful Anglo-Saxon letters have disappeared from modern English,—namely, Þ or þ th (thin), and Ð or ð th (thine).

The Anglo-Saxon letters which vary from those now used were doubtless mere corruptions of the Roman forms,—viz. the capitals A, C, E, G, H, M, S, and W, and the small letters d, f, g, i, r, s, t, and w. Several marks of abbreviation were used by the Saxons, as ꝥ that, ⁊ and, &c. These were not original members of the alphabet, but were introduced probably for despatch.

About the year 1567, John Daye, who was patronized by Archbishop Parker, cut the first Saxon types which were used in England. In this year, Asserius Menevensis was published by the direction of the archbishop in these characters; in the same year, Archbishop Ælfric’s Paschal Homily; and in 1571, the Saxon Gospels.

On the two following pages will be found a plan of cases for Saxon types.

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Outside of Germany, there is perhaps no country in which German printing is so extensively carried on as in the United States. We present a table of German characters, with their names, and their corresponding forms in English.

Several of the German letters, being somewhat similar in appearance, are liable to be mistaken one for another. To aid the learner, we give such letters together, and point out the difference.

The latter is open in the middle, the former joined across.

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E (E) has a little stroke in the middle, projecting to the right, which C (C) has not.

S (S) has an opening above, G (G) is closed, and has besides a perpendicular stroke within.

K (K) is rounded at the top, N (N) is open in the middle, R (R) is united about the middle.

M (M) is opened at the bottom, W (W) is closed.

b (b) is entirely closed below, h (h) is somewhat open, and ends at the bottom, on one side, with a projecting hair-stroke.

f (f) has a horizontal line through it, ſ (s) on the left side only.

m (m) is entirely open at the bottom, w (w) is partly closed.

x (x) has a little hair-stroke below, on the left.

v (v) is closed, y (y) is somewhat open below, and ends with a hair-stroke.

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A small amount of Greek types is indispensable in every considerable book printing-office. The Greek alphabet contains twenty-four letters, which we give in the following table, with the name of each character expressed in Greek and English, and its sound and numerical value.

From a desire, probably, to imitate Greek manuscript, a multitude of ligatures, abbreviations, and contractions of letters, as well as duplicates, were cast by the early type-founders. These, however, with two or three exceptions, have been quite discarded; and a fount of modern Greek is readily accommodated in a single pair of cases. The only duplicated[99] characters in the preceding table are β and ϐ, ϑ and Θ, and σ and ς. β looks best when used as an initial letter, and ϐ as a medial. ϑ and Θ are used indiscriminately; but ς is employed as a final letter only.

There are twelve diphthongs or compound vowels in Greek, viz.:—

Six proper,—αι, αυ, ει, ευ, οι, ου; and

Six improper,—ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ, ηυ, υι, ωυ. The point under the first three letters denotes the iota, and is therefore called the subscript iota.

Accents are nothing more than small marks which have been introduced into the language to denote the pronunciation of words, and aid its acquisition by learners. The ancient Greeks never used them, as is demonstrated from Aristotle, old inscriptions, and ancient medals. It is not easy to tell the date when the practice of writing with accents first obtained, though it is probable not till after the Romans began to learn the Greek tongue and to send their children to study at Athens,—that is, about or a little before the time of Cicero.

Accents—by the Greeks called τόνοι, tones—show the rising or falling of the voice in pronouncing; either separately in distinct syllables, or conjunctively in the same syllable.

Wherefore there are two sorts of accents: two simple, viz. the acute, ὀξύς, figured thus [´], which denotes the elevation of the voice; and the grave, βαρὺς, shaped thus [`], to signify the falling or depression of the voice: and the circumflex, περισπώμενος which was formed first of these two lines or points joined together thus [῍] and afterward was changed into a round sort of a figure like an inverted upsilon, thus [], but at length came to be figured like an s drawn crosswise [῀].[14]

The acute accent raises the voice, and affects one or more of the last three syllables of a word, if it has so many.

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The grave depresses the voice, and affects the last syllable only.

The circumflex lengthens the sound, and affects either the last syllable of a word or the last but one.

There are two spirits, or breathings: the asper [῾], which is equivalent to the modern letter h; and the lenis [᾿], which has no perceptible power, and indicates the bare opening of the mouth and simple emission of the voice.

All the words that begin with a vowel have one of these breathings over them; but the vowel upsilon admits of no other than the spiritus asper at the beginning of a word.

In diphthongs the spiritus is put over the second vowel: as αὐτὸς, not ἀυτὸς.

The letter ρ, at the beginning of a word, has an asper over it, as, ῥέω; and where two ρs meet in a word, the first has a lenis, and the other an asper.

The apostrophe [’] is used for cutting off the vowels α, ε, ι, ο, and the diphthongs αι and οι, when they stand at the end of a word and the next word begins with a vowel: as, παρ’ αὐτῷ for παρὰ αὐτῷ; πάντ’ ἔλεγον for πάντα ἔλεγον.

Sometimes the apostrophe contracts two words into one: as, κᾳ’γὼ for καὶ ἐγὼ; ἐγῶ’μαι for ἐγῶ οἴμαι; κᾳ’κεῖνος for καὶ ἐκεῖνος.

Sometimes an apostrophe supplies the place of the first vowel beginning a word: as ὦ ’γαθὲ for ὦ ἀγαθὲ; ποῦ ’ςι for ποῦ ἐςι. This is chiefly used in poetry.

But the prepositions περὶ and πρὸ suffer no apostrophe though the next word begin with a vowel; for we write περὶ υμῶν, πρὸ ἐμοῦ; περὶ αὐτον, πρὸ ἐτῶν, &c.

The diæresis [¨] is put over the last one of two vowels that come together, to show that they must be pronounced separately, and not as a diphthong: thus, ἀϋτὴ with a diæresis makes three syllables; but without a diæresis αυ is a diphthong, and makes αὐτὴ two syllables.

Diastole [,] is put between two particles that would bear a different sense without it: thus, ὄ,τε ὄ,τι signify whatever; whereas ὁτε stands for as, and ὁτι for that. Τό,τε with a diastole[101] implies and this; but when without, it answers to the adverb then.

The sign of interrogation, in Greek, is made by a semicolon [;].

The colon is made by an inverted full-point [·].

All other points are the same as in English.

The compositor will find it advantageous to bear in mind the following rules:—

1. No accent can be placed over any other than one of the last three syllables of a word.

2. The grave accent never occurs but on the last syllable; and, this being the case, the asper grave ῝ and lenis grave ῍ can be wanted only for a few monosyllables.

3. No vowel can have a spirit, or breathing, except at the beginning of a word.

4. The letter ρ is the only consonant marked by a breathing.

5. Almost every word has an accent, but very seldom has more than one; and, when this happens, it is an acute thrown back upon the last syllable from one of those words called enclitics (leaning back), which in that case has none, unless it be followed by another enclitic. In no other case than this can a last syllable have an acute accent, except before a full-point, colon, or note of interrogation, when the grave accent of the last syllable is changed to an acute,—a circumstance which has often led printers, who were ignorant of the reasons for accenting the same word differently in different situations, to think that there was an error in their copy, and thus to make one in their proof. Most errors, however, proceed from those who do not think at all about the matter.

The following plan of cases for Greek type is probably more convenient than any other. A Roman case may readily be altered to accommodate the lower-case sorts. Compositors who aspire to a full knowledge of their art should by all means make themselves familiar with Greek and Hebrew letters and cases.

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The Hebrew alphabet has twenty-two letters. Column No. 1 of the following table indicates the force of Hebrew letters when read without points. Column No. 2 gives their force when the language is printed with the Masoretic points or vowels, which are of later date than the letters. The names and numerical value of the characters are also shown.

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The dividing of Hebrew words not being permitted, the five following letters are cast broad to enable the compositor to justify the lines without irregular spacing:—

Hebrew has no capitals, and therefore letters of the same shape, but of a larger body, are used at the beginning of chapters and other parts of Hebrew works.

Hebrew reads from the right to the left, which is the case with all other Oriental languages, except Ethiopic and Armenian. In composing it, the general method is to place the nick of the letter downward, and after putting the points to the top,[106] to turn the line and set the points that come under the letters. If the letter has but one leg, the point is placed immediately under it; but where the letter has two legs, it is put under the centre.

The Masoretic points or vowels are subjoined under the consonant ‎בּ‎ (beth).

1. The Long Vowels.

2. The Short Vowels.

3. Shevas, which imply a Vowel to be wanting.

The last three are called compound shevas; and, in fact, they are only the short vowels, to which the simple sheva [ְְ‎] is joined.

Hebrew accents are either mere points, or lines, or circles.

Those which are mere points or dots consist of one or two or three such points, and are always placed above the middle of the accented letter, thus,

The lines are either upright, inclined, or transverse.

The upright is either solitary or with points or dots.

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Inclined lines hang either above or below.

The transverse line is either right or curved: thus, ־ ֮ .

The right line is placed between two words, connecting them together, thus, ‎ב־ב‎, and is called maccaph, i.e. connection.

The curved or waved line, ‎ב֮‎, is called leader, zarka, or the disperser, from its modulation and figure.

Circles are either entire or semi.

The entire circle is placed always above, and has a small inclined line attached to it.

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Either on the left, when it is placed at the head of the word, ‎ב֠‎, and is called leader telisha the greater, or the great evulsion.

Or on the right, when it is placed at the end, ‎ב֩‎, and is called subservient telisha the less.

On both together, ‎ב֟‎, called leader karne para, the horns of the heifer, from its modulation and figure.

The semicircle is either solitary or pointed.

The solitary is either angular or reflected.

When joined with other points, it is either above or below the letter.

When above the letter, it has a small line attached to it on the left, ‎ב֡‎, leader paser, the disperser from the diffusion of the note.

When below the letter, it is pointed either downward, ‎ב֑‎, called royal athnach, respiration, as the voice must rest upon it, and respire; or upward, ‎ב֢‎, subservient, jerah-ben-jomo, the moon of its own day, from its figure.

The first plan shows a common case for Hebrew without points; the second exhibits a pair of cases with points.

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г, х, е, л, щ, ъ, ы, ь, ѣ, я, о, й, are the only letters whose pronunciation offers any difficulty.

Г has a sound nearly like g in the English word goose, as in гру́ша, a pear; read groòshah. But it has a guttural sound not found in English, and which nearly resembles that of the German ch. This sound is especially perceivable in the middle of a word when the г is followed by a consonant, also at the end of a word, as in но́гти, the nails; read nòchtee. In inflections аго, яго, ого, его, of adjectives and pronouns, the letter г is pronounced as v; as in кра́снаго, of beautiful; read kràsnavah.

Е has three different sounds: 1. In Russian words, and in all syllables in which it is preceded by a vowel, е has a sound like that of yai, when the y is nearly sunk in the pronunciation, as in ему́, to him; read yaimoò. 2. At the beginning of words from foreign languages, and at the middle and end of a word when preceded by a consonant, it has the sound of e in met, as in берегу́, I guard; read bayregoò. 3. In the termination екъ of diminutives, in all the characteristic inflections of cases in the nouns, and of persons in the verbs, in fact, in almost all words, this letter when accented has a sound nearly like that of short yo or o; as in куле́къ, a little sack; веде́шь, thou leadest; медъ, the honey; read koolyòk, vaidyòsh, myod. This[113] sound yo or o of the letter е is commonly distinguished by a diæresis over the vowel, as кулёкъ, ведёшь, мёлъ.

Л has a guttural sound nearly analogous to the English w. Писарлъ, he wrote, read pisaw or pisou.

Ль has a soft sound, as in the French word bouillon.

Х corresponds to the German ch. It is a strong aspiration that nearly resembles the sound k when pronounced hastily from the throat; as in хвала́, the praise; read khvahlàh.

Щ unites the sound of ш and ч, as in щитъ, the shield; read shtcheet.

Ъ. This letter has no sound; the preceding consonant, the last letter of the word, ought to be pronounced a little hollow, as in боо́ъ, a bean; read bop.

Ы has a sound nearly like we when the w is pronounced rapidly; as in бу́квьшы, the letters, read boòkwe. It has this sound after the consonants б, в, м, п, ф; but after another consonant it is a thick e, as in сынъ, the son; read seen.

Ь. This letter at the end of a word has a sound nearly like that of the very short e. When followed by a consonant in the middle of a word it is mute, but is pronounced when followed by a vowel; as in знатъ, to know; read znaht.

Ѣ at the beginning of a word has the sound of yai; as in Ѣсть, to eat; read yaist. In the middle of a word it is pronounced yai, the sound of y being almost sunk; as in нѣтъ, no; read nyaitt. At the end of a word it is sounded ay.

Я when accented has the sound of the diphthong yah; as in я́ма, a pit; read yàhmah. But if not accented it is pronounced yai, as in ядро́, a ball; read yaidrò. The pronoun ея́, of her, is pronounced yaiyò, and the syllable ся of pronominal verbs is pronounced sah, as in стара́ться, to exert one’s self; read stahràhtsah.

О is pronounced as English o; but if unaccented it takes the sound of ah, as in ко́локолъ, a bell; колокола́, bells; read kòlahkall, kahlakahlà.

Й is a short e, pronounced very rapidly, as in дай, give; read dàï or die, giving utterance to a short e after the vowel.

In general the pronunciation of Russian words depends especially upon the tonic accent, which is no longer printed in Russian books, except to distinguish some homonymous words, or some grammatical inflections of similar forms; as за́мокъ, a castle, and замо́къ, a lock; read zàhmok and zahmòk.

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In no department of letter-founding has the progress of improvement been more decided and satisfactory than in the production of music type. The finest work of the music-stamper cannot surpass the ingenious combinations of the type-founder and printer. The music of which specimens are here given is cast on the centre of the body, and any intelligent workman may learn to compose it with facility. Brass lines are now furnished with founts when desired.

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A knowledge of the rudiments of the art of music is essential to the correct composition of music type; for, unless the compositor is acquainted with the relative time-values of the notes and rests, he cannot space them properly.

The manuscript copy is given to the compositor, with directions regarding the dimensions of the page required and the size of type to be employed. He counts the number of measures in the piece, and allots to each measure the amount of ems in length which the page will permit, so that there shall be a general equality of space throughout the piece.

In instrumental music, and in pieces which are not interlined with poetry, the compositor will set two or more staves simultaneously, ranging the leading notes in the lower staves precisely under the corresponding ones in the upper staff; that is, a certain amount of space in each staff, in a brace, must contain the same amount of time-value. Where lines of poetry are interspersed, as in ballads and in church music, the staves are necessarily set singly; and in composing the second, third, and fourth staves the workman must therefore constantly refer to the first, in order to make the staves correspond.

A good compositor will be careful to make the lines overlap each other, brick-wise, and not allow a joint to fall directly under another. Masters who aim to do cheap rather than good work have the music lines cast double or triple, to expedite composition. Such work has a very slovenly look, as the joints of the lines, coming under one another, are apparent in the entire depth of the staff. We have seen books set in this manner, in which all the lines seem to be composed of dotted rule, instead of a continuous stroke.

The compositor should be careful to make the stems of all the notes in a page of the same length, except those of grace-notes, which should be about half as long.

The following plan of cases was arranged by the music typographer, J. M. Armstrong of Philadelphia, expressly for the founts of music cast by The MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co., specimens of which are shown on page 114. A table of comparative bodies is given on page 115.

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At no time since the invention of their art have printers been so fully supplied as at present with typographic implements for producing exact and beautiful work. In height of body, harmony and style of face, and excellence of material, modern type is doubtless superior to any heretofore made; but the most striking progression of type-founding is in the beauty and variety of ornamental letters and borders, and in these the American founders have taken the lead. A glance at their late Specimen Books proves the truth of this assertion. Among late novelties produced by The MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co. are several beautiful series of ingenious adjustable characters for the ornamentation of display lines, both straight and elliptical. A specimen is given below. Other appliances for job-printing are noted on pages 300-310.

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Experience proves that the apprentice foreshadows the workman, just as surely as the bend of the twig foretells the inclination of the tree. The upright, obedient, industrious lad will become a steady, skilful, and capable man, as unmistakably as the perverse, idling, careless boy will ripen into a lazy, dissolute, and worthless fellow. The fact is, a boy is measurably the maker of his own destiny; and if he fails to acquire a master-knowledge of the trade to which he is put, it will mainly be because he did not at his outset determine to be a master-workman. Good morals and steady industry are indispensable.

When a lad who possesses these qualities proposes to learn the art and mystery of printing, it should be inquired of him, Has he had a fair common-school education? Is he a perfect speller? Has he a turn for reading? Is his eyesight good? Is he under fifteen years of age? A true affirmative answer to all these queries will entitle him to the position of reading and errand-boy. He is told the hours at which he is to come and go, and a strict punctuality is enjoined upon him. He sweeps the room,—he sorts out the pi,—he learns the position[122] of the various letters in the case. A year spent in this way is an excellent preparative for “going to case,” or learning the art of composing type.

When he is put to composition, he is told to set up one line and show it to the foreman or to the journeyman under whose care he may be placed. The errors in the line are pointed out to him, and he is required to correct them himself. When the words are perfectly correct, he justifies the line tight enough to prevent it from falling down when the composing-stick is slightly inclined, and yet sufficiently loose to enable him to lift it out with ease. In thus spacing out the line, the blanks between the words must be so graduated that, when the matter is printed, all the words will appear at equal distances apart. No matter how impatient he may be to get on, he must be drilled at this exercise till he becomes a thorough master of it. The grand doctrine to be instilled into him at first is, to do his work well and correctly; swiftness will follow as a natural consequence. He sets a second line; and after it has been made faultless he proceeds with the third, and so on till the stick is full. The utmost care must be taken to keep every letter and every line in an exact vertical position; and when he essays to empty the stick he must be taught to lift the entire mass in one square solid body, and to place it squarely and vertically on the galley. If the lines are allowed to slant either backward or sidewise, it is difficult afterward to make them stand accurately.

After the apprentice has become thoroughly conversant with the shape of every type, and can distinguish “u” from “n,” “b” from “q,” and “d” from “p,” he is allowed to distribute type for his own use. He is taught to take up at one time no more matter than he can conveniently grasp in his left hand, which he holds so that the light falls on the face of the type, and his eye can readily read it. In distributing the various letters, he takes a word or two between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, and the types are lightly dropped into their respective boxes.

At the outset, and as he proceeds, the novitiate must be cautioned against the acquisition of bad habits; such as swinging the body as the types are picked up, nicking the type against the stick several times before placing it in line, standing on one leg, &c.

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While avoiding these ridiculous practices, a learner must acquire (if he does not possess them already) certain habitudes or principles which lie at the foundation of successful effort. The first is

Punctuality. He must conscientiously observe the time-rules of the office in coming and leaving. The early hours are the best for work; and the mind being cheered by the consciousness of doing right, the body feels the influence, and is strengthened; and when the quitting hour arrives, the amount of work accomplished will satisfy himself and his master too. The most successful masters have been distinguished for punctuality. The apprentice’s time is not his own, but his master’s property; and wasting it by want of punctuality, or idling during his master’s absence, is simply equivalent to stealing. The second point is

Obedience. The apprentice has no right to question orders given by the master or his deputy. His duty is promptly to do as he is told, without grumbling or dissatisfaction. Let him remember that he is under orders, and that, if he ever expects to learn how to command, he must learn in his youth how to obey. He will promote his own interests by seeking to anticipate his master’s wishes, and by endeavouring to make himself so useful that his services cannot well be dispensed with. Akin to this is

Courtesy. Good manners in a youth are wonderfully pleasing, and effectively aid in his advancement. Courtesy toward his master is a matter of course, and deserving of little commendation; but he must be courteous to customers when sent out on an errand, and courteous to the workmen in the office. By this means he will secure good-will, and many a friendly hint will be given to him in acquiring a knowledge of the art. The habit when fixed will bless him and others as long as he lives.

The following schemes show the order in which the letters are kept in cases in this country. In some offices, however, slight deviations will be found,—such as the transposition of the comma and w, y, p, &c.

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The standing position of a compositor should be perfectly upright, without stiffness or restraint; the shoulders thrown back, the feet firm on the floor, heels nearly closed, and toes turned out to form an angle of about forty-five degrees. The head and body should be kept perfectly steady, except when moving from the Roman to the Italic case, the operations of distributing and composing being performed by the various motions of the arm, from the shoulder-joint alone; and if, to reach a box placed in the further part of the cases, to put in or take out a letter, he should incline the body by a slight motion, he should immediately resume his erect position. The height of a compositor and his frame should be so adjusted that his right elbow may just clear the front of the lower case by the a and r boxes, without the smallest elevation of the shoulder-joint; his breast will then be opposite the space, h, and e boxes. Sitting at work should be rarely permitted, except for lameness, weakness, old age, or other infirmity; and then the stool should be a small piece of board fastened to a single leg. Habit will render a standing position familiar and easy; perseverance in conquering a little fatigue will be amply repaid by the prevention of knock knees, round shoulders, and obstructed circulation of the blood and respiration of the lungs.

Unwrap carefully the page received from the type-founder, and, laying it on a galley, soak it thoroughly with thin soap-water, to prevent the types from adhering to one another after they have been used a short time. Then, with a stout rule or reglet, lift as many lines as will make about an inch in thickness, and, placing the rule close up on one side of the bottom of the proper box, slide off the lines gently, taking care not to rub the face of the letter against the side of the box. Proceed thus with successive lines till the box is filled.

Careless compositors are prone to huddle new types together, and, grasping them up by handfuls, plunge them pell-mell into the box, rudely jostling them about to crowd more in. This is an intolerable practice.

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The type left over should be kept standing on galleys, in regular order, till the cases need replenishment. A fount of five hundred pounds of Pica may have, say, four cases allotted to it; the same amount of Nonpareil, from eight to ten cases.

When a learner can infallibly distinguish from each other the letters b and q, d and p, n and u, and l and I, he may be allowed to distribute type for himself.

The head of the page being turned toward him, the learner sets a composing-rule behind the portion to be lifted, and then, placing his thumbs against the rule and his forefingers against the top line, while his remaining fingers press together both sides, he raises the matter quickly. Then, inclining sidewise his right hand, he removes the left, and allows the matter to balance momentarily in his right, while he doubles in the third finger and stretches out the thumb of the left for the reception of the matter, which he at once places in it, the rule lying as a support on the third finger, while the thumb and other fingers embrace the sides. He should take up but a few lines at a time, until he acquires facility in lifting. Large handfuls should always be avoided, as the weight is fatiguing and weakening to the wrist.

Keeping the handful in an inclined position, so that he may readily read the lines, he takes up as many letters as he can conveniently hold between his fingers,—an entire word, if practicable,—and drops the types slantingly, but with face upward, into the several boxes.

The first aim of the learner must be accuracy, even though his progress be slow. Correct distribution aids in clean composition. In time he will be able to drop his types rapidly, with hardly a glance at the boxes; and, while his fingers are flying about correctly and expeditiously, his eyes will take in the next word to be distributed; thus proceeding till the case is filled.

In distributing, the utmost care should be taken in placing the various spaces in their appropriate boxes. A mixing of spaces characterizes the botch.

The letter-board should always be kept clean, and the bottom as well as the face of the form well washed before it is[129] laid on the board and unlocked; for, if any dirt remain in the type after the form is unlocked, it will sink into the matter. This precaution taken, the pages should be well opened, and the whole form washed till the water appears to run from it in a clean state. If the form is very dirty, it is best to lock it up again and rinse the bottom of it, and proceed as before.

It is sometimes necessary to dry the letter at the fire after distributing. In this case, the type should not be used until it is perfectly cold, as very pernicious effects arise from the antimony in the composition of which the type is made. The noxious vapour which arises is sufficient warning of the effects. The compositor ought always to avoid it as a pestilence which will affect his respiration and his sinews, inducing lung-complaints, and causing paralysis of the hand or contraction of the fingers. Where it can be conveniently managed, it is better to distribute at night, or before meals, so that the letter may dry without artificial heat.

When copy is put into the hands of the compositor, he should receive directions respecting the width and length of the page; whether it is to be leaded, and with white lines between the breaks; and whether any particular method is to be followed in the punctuation and in the adoption of capitals. These instructions being given, the compositor will make his measure to the number of ems directed, which is done by laying them flatwise in the composing-stick, and then screwing it up sufficiently tight to prevent the slide from moving. He then fits a composing-rule to the measure, and, his case being supplied with letter, he commences his work.

The left hand, which contains the composing-stick, should always follow the right, which takes up the letters. If the left be kept stationary, considerable time is lost in bringing each letter to the stick, because the right hand has, consequently, to traverse a much greater space than is necessary. The eye should always precede the hand, constantly seeking for the next letter while the fingers are picking up one just selected. Each letter should be taken up by the upper end. This method will effectually prevent any false motion, and preclude[130] the necessity of turning the letter when in the hand. If possible, a sentence of the copy should be taken at one time, and, while putting in the point and quadrate at the end of the sentence, the eye may revert to the copy for the next. It is to dexterity in these particulars that compositors are indebted for swiftness. The time thus gained is very considerable, while all appearance of bustle or fatigue is avoided. By taking a sentence into the memory at one time, the connection of the subject is preserved, and the punctuation rendered less difficult.

Those who are careful in distribution find the advantage of it in composition. Foul or slovenly workmanship is disgraceful. To avoid this, a compositor should accustom himself to glance over each line as he justifies it, and correct any error as he proceeds, which he may do with little impediment to his progress.

Uniformity in spacing is, unquestionably, a most important part of a compositor’s occupation; this requires both care and judgment, and, therefore, cannot be too strongly impressed upon the mind of the beginner. Close spacing is as unworkmanlike as wide spacing, and neither ought to be permitted except in very narrow measures; and, frequently, even then with care it might partly be prevented. What is commonly called the thick space is the proper separator between words; though this rule cannot always be adhered to in narrow measures when large type is used. It is not sufficient merely to have a line here and there uniformly spaced: a careful compositor will give every page that uniformity of appearance which is a chief excellency. The beginner should remember that it is better to do little, and do that little well, than to put together a great number of letters without any regard to accuracy and uniformity.

Where a line is evenly spaced, and yet requires justification, the additional space should be put between those words in the line where it will be least observable: viz. a d and an h, being tall, perpendicular letters, will admit an increase of space between them, but not more than a middle and thin space to a thick-spaced line; and an additional space may be placed after a kerned letter, the beak of which may bear upon the top of an ascending letter,—as the f followed by h, &c.

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The same rule should be observed where it is necessary to reduce the spacing of a line, less space being required after a sloping letter than after a perpendicular one. The comma requires only a thick space, but the other points should have a hair space before and an en quadrate after them, except the full-point, which should have an em quadrate, as terminating a sentence. Should it be necessary to reduce the spacing generally, the spaces after the points must be altered in the same proportion. Spaces are cast to such regular gradations that the compositor can urge no reasonable excuse either for bad justification or improper spacing.

In matter to be stereotyped, a hair space should be placed after the letter f and other kerned letters when they stand at the end of the line.

Accurate justification is absolutely essential, as the letters will be warped sidewise in a loose line, making it impossible to get a fair impression from the type. Besides, the letters are liable to be drawn out by the suction of the rollers, to the detriment of the form and the press. The instructor of an apprentice should occasionally pass his finger along the side of matter set by him; and if the lines should not prove evenly justified, they should be put into the composing-stick again and properly corrected.

Head-lines are generally set in small capitals of the same fount, or in Italic, and sometimes in capitals. Italic capitals of letter somewhat smaller than the body of the work, with folios of a proportionate size, have a neat appearance.

The usual rule for note-type is two sizes less than the text of the work: thus, to Pica work, Long Primer; Small Pica, Bourgeois; Long Primer, Brevier. Side-notes are usually smaller in proportion. When side-notes or references drive down below the lines of the text to which they refer, the expedient of cut-in notes must be resorted to. This is a difficult[132] part of a compositor’s business, and requires skill and patience to adjust all parts, so that every line of note and text may have proper and equal bearing. The reglet or lead between the lines of matter and the side-note must be cut with as much nicety as possible to the length of the text, as far as where the note is to run under; and, having accurately adjusted, by means of the quotations and justifiers, the situation of the first line of the note, such lead or reglet is added to the text as will make it precisely correspond in depth with the lines of note that stand on the side before turning: the remainder of the note is then set in a long measure, to correspond in width with the text, reglet, and side-note; and the page is made up with note, or the text begun again after the note is finished. In Bibles with notes and annotations, in law-books, and other works, it frequently happens that a page exhibits several of these alternate frameworks of note and text, which, if done well, display a workman’s skill to great advantage.

If the work is very open, consisting of heads, whites, &c., the compositor must be particularly attentive to their depth; so that though the white may be composed of different-sized quadrates, yet their ultimate depth must be equal to the regular body of the type the work is done in; otherwise the register of the work will be incomplete. The pressman cannot make the lines back if the compositor is not careful in making up his matter.

The first line of a new paragraph is indented an em quadrate, of whatever type the work may be; though, when the measure is very wide, two or even three ems are preferable. By this means the paragraph is more strongly marked, the indention of an em only being scarcely perceptible in a long line. Authors vary materially in the mode of making paragraphs. Some carry the argument of a position to a great length before they relieve the attention of the reader; while others break off at almost every place that will admit only of a full-point. But the author’s plan is to be followed, unless he direct otherwise. Authors should always make the beginning of a new paragraph conspicuous to the compositor, by[133] indenting the first line of it far enough to distinguish it from the preceding line in case it should be quite full.

It is a practice too prevalent among compositors to drive out a word at the close of a paragraph, or even to divide it, in order to reap the advantage of a break-line. Part of a word, or a complete word, in a break-line, if it contain no more than three or four letters, is improper. It should be the business of the proof-reader to notice and check this irregularity.

The last line of a paragraph should not on any account begin a page, neither should the first line of a paragraph come at the bottom of a page if the work has white lines between the breaks: to prevent this, the compositor may make his page either long or short, as most convenient, always taking care that the odd and even pages back, so that the extra length or shortness of the page may escape observation.

The index is generally placed at the end of the volume, and set in letter two sizes less than that of the work. It is always begun upon an uneven page. In setting an index, the subject-line should not be indented; but, if the article make more than one line, all but the first should be indented an em.

In preparing the copy of an index, care should be taken that the subject-words are arranged alphabetically, as the compositor will not transpose his matter afterward without remuneration.

Where several index-figures are used in succession, a comma is put after each folio; but, to save figures and commas, the succession of the former is noted by putting a dash between the first and last figures: thus, 4-8. Again, if an article has been collected from two pages, the folio of the second is supplied by sq., or sequente, and by sqq., or sequientibus, when an article is touched upon in succeeding pages. A full-point is not put after the last figures, because it is thought that their standing at the end of the line is a sufficient stop. Neither is a comma or a full-point placed to the last word of an article in a wide measure and open matter with leaders; but it is proper to use a comma at the end of every article where the figures are put close to the matter, instead of running them to the end of the line.

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Ornamental type may be used to good purpose in fancy jobs, and without violating any of the canons of a correct taste. The universal eye is pleased with ornament; and it is well to foster this fancy, just as we cultivate a poetical feeling, or a passion for music, or flowers, or any beautiful thing that God has made. But, as life should not be all music, or flowers, or poetry, so printing should not be all ornament. And as men whom nature puts in the fore-front of all other men are noted for a becoming simplicity of life and style, so the title-page that heralds all the inner pages of a book should be printed in a style of elegance severe and unadorned: no fancy type, except a line of Scribe Text, or Old English,—no italics, unless perchance a single-line motto in Pearl caps,—no bold-face type, nor Antique, nor Gothic,—but plain, clear, light-faced letters that seem the embodiment of the soul of thought. All experienced printers incline to this simple style; but publishers sometimes interfere with this province of art legitimate only to a typographer, and insist on the indulgence of a taste which certainly owes no allegiance to any of the laws of beauty; and the printer or stereotyper who executes the book receives credit for a title-page which he would fain utterly repudiate.

We add a few hints which may assist the learner. 1st. Having divided the title into lines, and decided upon the size of type suitable for the principal one, begin by composing those of the second and third class, both in ascending and descending order. 2d. Avoid having two lines of equal length to follow or come in contact with each other. 3d. Catch-words should be set on quite a reduced scale, and proportioned according to the strength of the preceding and succeeding lines; for bold catch-words detract from the general effect of the title. 4th. Close attention should be given to those title-pages which are acknowledged to be displayed with true taste and judgment.

Authors should endeavour to make their title-pages as concise as possible; for a crowded title can never be displayed with elegance or taste.

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The dedication generally follows the title, and seldom exceeds one page. It should be set in capitals and small capitals, neatly displayed. The name of the person to whom the work is dedicated should always be in capitals, and the terms, Your very humble and very obedient, &c., should be in a smaller type, and the signature or name of the author in capitals of a smaller size than that in which the name of the personage is printed to whom the book is dedicated.

The contents follow the preface or introduction, and may be set either in Roman or Italic, generally two sizes smaller than the body of the work; the first line of each summary full, and the rest indented an em quadrate, with the referring figures justified at the ends of the respective lines.

Formerly, the preface was uniformly set in Italic; at present Roman is used, one size larger or smaller than the body of the work. The running title to the preface is commonly set in the same manner as that of the body of the work. If the work has been printed without a running title, and paged in the centre of the line only, then the preface should be treated in like manner.

The title, preface, &c. of a volume are commonly left till the body of the work is finished, as circumstances may arise in the course of its progress through the press which will induce the author to alter his original preface, date, &c., or the work may conclude in such a manner as to admit of their being brought in at the end, in order to fill out a sheet, and thus save both paper and press-work. For this reason, it is well to begin the first sheet of every work with signature B (or 2), leaving A (or 1) for the title-sheet.

It was formerly the custom to omit the letters J, V, and W in the list of signatures. But the greater convenience attending the use of twenty-five letters has recently induced several of our largest establishments to omit the letter J only.

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The errata are put immediately before the body of the work, or at the end of it. They should consist only of such corrections as are indispensably necessary, without noticing any defects in the punctuation, unless where the sense is perverted. It is strongly to be wished that works could be produced perfectly free from errors; but this is almost a vain hope while imperfection clings to humanity, and while every form is exposed to accident and every additional proof may be productive of fresh error.

When you lay a fount of new type, don’t open the papers carefully, and place the lines evenly with a brass rule in the cases, nick up; but show your skill by tumbling over each package rapidly, and bringing it down with a rush on the imposing-stone; then, roughly throwing the a’s into a chaotic pile, grab them up by handfuls and work them well down in the appropriate box. The harder you jostle them down, the more you will get in. Proceed thus with each letter; and, if the operation has been vigorously performed, the value of the fount will have been reduced, say ten per cent.

2. While you set out one case, let your galley lie on the overheaped type of another case.

3. If a line is rather too tight to permit the last letter to get in easily, push it down hard with your rule or a quadrate. The type may be injured; but why didn’t it fit in just right at first?

4. Empty your matter at a gentle inclination on the galley, and make it up at the same angle. You can bring it right afterward—perhaps—by the energetic application of mallet, shooting-stick, and planer.

5. When the case is half set out, shake up the type energetically, and do so very often. The exercise will strengthen your muscles.

6. Don’t brush off the stone before you lay the matter down. If any sand happens to get under, the type will show its impression beautifully deep and clear on the face of the planer,—perhaps a whole word or two.

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7. Don’t plane till the form is locked up, as thus you save the trouble of the first planing. But, now that you do plane, hammer away, and show your musical ability in playing a tattoo on the form. Don’t lay the planer tenderly and lovingly on the types, as if you were afraid to hurt their feelings, and gently tap it; but hold it off about a quarter or three-eighths of an inch, and then bring down the mallet with a will. Phew! how the planer will descend obedient to the stroke, and rebound again, and perhaps again. If the form is not smooth on the surface now, it is not your fault. Repeat this each time when the form is locked up, till it goes to press; and you may depend on it the impression will gain in boldness, if not in looks.

8. When correcting your numerous errors, don’t trouble yourself to lift the lines carefully at the ends, but dig right into the head of the erring letter, and, resting your bodkin on the type below it, pry up the sinner: it does not matter if you demolish two or three types in the under line.

9. Wash your form energetically, and apply the ley bountifully with a good stiff wiry brush. Never mind rinsing: clean type is an old-fogy notion.

10. When the type is out of use, let it lie around promiscuously,—on a table, or board, or any place where it will be occasionally convenient to lay on it a mallet or tin basin. If one strip of matter is placed on another, room will be economized. Moreover, the under layers will be safe from dust.

11 (comprehensively). Do every thing in a loose way generally, letting matters go as they list, throwing your pi into spare boxes or secretly placing it on the letter-table or some out-of-the-way place, stealing sorts from your neighbour, overcharging time-work and extras, fishing for fat takes, &c.

12. If you observe these things faithfully and constantly, and your employer does not kick you out of his office, why—you do not get your deserts.

Aspiring apprentice, a word or two in your ear. If you desire success in any matter pertaining to this life or the coming, you must have a purpose,—a determination that, God helping you, you will achieve success. You may be poor,[138] friendless, unknown,—your clothing scant, your stomach half filled,—your place may be at the foot of the ladder: no matter. Whatever your position may be, do your duty in it, stoutly and perseveringly, with your eye fixed far ahead and upward.

Keeping the purpose before you that you will rise, be obedient to your employer, attentive to your business, obliging to your shopmates, and courteous to strangers; and seize every opportunity to improve your heart, your mind, and your workmanship. Do every thing well,—no slighting, no hiding defects, aiming always at perfection. Watch those who are skilful, and strive to equal and excel them. Secure the friendship of all by deserving it. Allow no opportunity of rendering a service to pass without improving it, even if it cost you some labour and self-denial. Be of use to others, even if in a small way; for a time may come when they may be of service to you. A selfish man may get ahead faster than you; but selfishness is contemptible,—and you need not envy his success: when you achieve your object nobly, you will enjoy it, and be respected.

Always bear in mind that character is capital. To gain this, you must be so scrupulously honest that you would be as willing to put live coals in your pocket as a penny that is not yours. Never run in debt: do without what you cannot at once pay for, even though you should suffer somewhat. No matter what the amount of your earnings may be, save a portion every week, and invest it in a savings-bank of good standing: it will grow, and will stand you in good stead some day. Better temporary abstinence and constant plenty afterward, than unearned present comfort and future perpetual want. Never lie, openly or covertly, by word or action. A liar may deceive his fellows,—God and himself never. Conscious of falsity, a liar can have no self-respect; without self-respect, reputation cannot be achieved.

With a noble purpose as the end of all your actions, and with actions becoming your purpose, your success is merely a question of time,—always provided you have some brain and abundant common sense.

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Sanguine beginners sometimes fail in their attempts to establish themselves in business; and in many cases are disposed to lay the blame on every thing and on everybody except themselves. So we here give some rules—(in an ironical way, to make them stick in the memory)—

1. Get from your father, uncle, aunt, grandmother, or somebody, four or five thousand dollars. You need not give notes or any written obligations, as they may prove troublesome some day.

2. Rent a comfortable room somewhere, no matter whether in a business centre or not, but let it be showy and pleasant.

3. Spend one-fourth of your capital in furnishing the room with matters of personal comfort. Provide an elegant desk, a luxurious lounge, and a pivot-chair: why shouldn’t the master of a printing office “take it easy”? Have a closet in your desk, it is so handy for your whisky-bottle and cigar-boxes.

4. Get all you can from the type-founder, press-maker, and paper-manufacturers. If they will give you credit for one-half of what you buy, well and good: if they trust you for the whole amount, all the better for you, and the more money you will have on hand for jollifications.

5. Put up your sign—a handsome one—

B. Sipwell Lovepunch,
Printer.

and signalize its erection by keeping “open house” for all comers between 11 A.M. and midnight. The mothers and wives of all who become tight and go home loose will long remember your public spirit.

6. Be at your office by nine in summer and ten in winter; and, following Charles Lamb’s witticism, that he who goes to work late should quit early, you need not return after dinner. Let your foreman attend to the business: isn’t he paid for it?

7. When you do go into your office, curse and grumble[140] promiscuously, and be sure to swear at the apprentices, to show your spirit, and to let them know that you are master. Be careful never to praise them or any of the hands, or they may think they are worth higher wages.

8. Take work at any price that will keep it from a competitor, no matter whether it pays or not. Perhaps you can save something by giving short numbers, counting in imperfect copies, using very common ink, &c. The style is of no consequence: you want to make money if you can, let others improve the typographical art if they choose.

9. Cultivate the acquaintance of fancy folk, politicians, and wit-livers. A fast horse or two wouldn’t be a bad thing to bind their friendship; and, besides, you will never be at a loss for a companion in your rides.

10. If you want new type, and the founder who made your outfit won’t sell to you unless you pay off the old score, transfer your patronage to another foundry. How can you expect to get along if you pay your debts? Such a course would compel you to sell your horse and to taboo rum-shops and gay saloons, and to live economically; and this, you know, wouldn’t do at all.

11. Get out a newspaper, and advocate the principles of the strongest party, swearing thick and thin through every thing. You need not bother yourself about writing original matter; crib wherever you can. There are plenty of fellows who want office,—lawyers particularly,—and they will write slang enough to fill your columns. You might quietly levy a little black-mail or hush-money from neighbours guilty of indiscretions: dirty money will buy as much as clean.

12. You needn’t marry, unless some fond rich girl should happen to fancy a fool. You know, you need not trouble yourself much about her after you have secured her money: let her father look after her welfare. If she dies broken-hearted, why—she ought not to have been so sensitive.

13. You may be troubled occasionally by a qualm of conscience; but this can be settled by a dram or two. After a few doses, conscience will go to sleep, and trouble you no more, unless you should happen to see a Bible or hear a sermon, which as a matter of course you will try to avoid. It is true, wreck and ruin will be sure to overtake you, and the devil will catch you at last; but why worry yourself before the time?

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Comprehends a knowledge of placing the pages so that they may regularly follow each other when printed and the sheet is folded up; and also the mode of dressing chases and the manner of making the proper margin. As many pages as are required for a whole or half sheet being made up, the compositor lays them upon the imposing-stone, placing the first page with the signature to the left hand facing him, and then proceeds according to one of the schemes on pp. 150-199. These will be found to contain every necessary imposition,—viz. folios, quartos, octavos, twelves, sixteens, eighteens, twenties, twenty-fours, thirty-twos, thirty-sixes, forties, forty-eights, sixty-fours, seventy-twos, ninety-sixes, and one hundred and twenty-eights. We also introduce schemes for imposing from the centre, by which means the blank or[142] open pages may be thrown in the centre of the form, leaving the solid pages on the outside to act as bearers for the rollers, as well as for the better regulation of the impression.

All odd matter, for any form, should be divided into fours, eights, twelves, and sixteens, which is the groundwork of all the impositions except the eighteens, which differ from all the others; for instance, sixteens, twenty-fours, and thirty-twos are only octavos and twelves doubled, or twice doubled, and imposed in half sheets: for example, the sixteens are two octavos imposed on one side of the short cross; the twenty-fours are two twelves imposed on each side of the long cross; and a thirty-two is four octavos imposed in each quarter of the chase. Thus, a sheet may be repeatedly doubled. By this division, any form or sheet may be imposed, always bearing in mind that the first page of each class must stand to the left hand, with the foot of the page toward you. Having set down the first page, then trace the remainder according to the scheme which applies to its number; in proof of which, the standard rule for all other impositions may be adopted,—namely, the folios of two pages, if placed properly beside each other, will when added together make one more than the number of pages in the sheet; that is, in a sheet of sixteens, pages 1 and 16 coming together will add up 17, and so 9 and 8 will make 17, &c.

In half sheets, all the pages belonging to the white paper, and reiteration, are imposed in one chase. So that when a sheet of paper is printed on both sides with the same form, that sheet is cut in two in the short cross if quarto or octavo, and in the short and long cross of twelves, and folded as octavo or twelves.

In tying up a page, use fine twine, winding it four or five times round it, and fastening at the right-hand corner, by thrusting a noose of it between the several turnings and the matter with the rule, and drawing it perfectly tight, taking care always to keep the end of the cord on the face of the page. While tying it, keep the forefinger of the left hand tight on the corner, to prevent the page from being drawn aside.

The twine being fastened, the compositor removes the page from the ledges of the galley, to see if the turns of cord lie[143] about the middle of the shank of the letter; if they lie too high,—as most commonly they do,—he thrusts them lower; and if the page be not too broad, he places the fore and middle finger of his right hand on the off side of the head of the page, and his thumb on the near; then, bending his other fingers under, he presses them firmly against the head of the page; he next places the fingers of his left hand in the same position at the foot of the page, and, raising it upright, lays it on a page-paper; then, with his right hand he grasps the sides of the page and the paper, which turns up against the sides of the page, and sets it in a convenient spot under his frame, placing it on the left hand, with the foot toward him, that the other pages that are in like manner set down afterward may stand by it in an orderly succession until he comes to impose them.

If the page be a quarto, folio, or broadside, it is, of course, too wide for his grasp; and he therefore carries the galley and page to the imposing-stone, and turns the handle of the galley toward him, and, taking hold of the handle with his right hand, he places the ball of the thumb of his left hand against the inside of the head ledge of the galley, to hold it and keep it steady, and by the handle draws the slice with the page upon it out of the galley, letting the slice rest upon the imposing-stone; he then thrusts the head end of the slice so far upon it, that the foot of the page may stand an inch or two within the outer edge of the stone, and, placing his left hand against the foot of the page, he quickly draws the slice from under the bottom of the page.

In taking up his pages for imposition, the compositor tightly grasps the paper on both sides of the page, in order that it may be kept firm to the bottom of the page; for if it be left slack, the letters will be liable to slip out, unless it be particularly well tied up. Having conveyed it to the stone, he next places the last two fingers of his right hand under the head of the page, but not under the page-paper at the head of it, still grasping the sides with his forefingers and thumb; he then slips his left hand so that the palm of it may turn toward the bottom, and, lifting the page upright on his right hand,[144] with the left he removes the paper; he next grasps again the foot-end of the page with his left hand, in the same manner as the right holds the head of it, and, turning the face of the type toward him, lays it squarely and quickly down, so that the whole page may come in contact with the face of the stone at the same time.

As this method, in inexperienced or careless hands, would frequently endanger a page containing intricate matter, it will be safer to place the pages at first on good, strong, but not coarse and rough papers, and, when they are brought to the stone, instead of lifting them up as just noticed, slide them off the papers in the same manner as before directed respecting a folio page on the slice galley, being careful that no particles of dirt remain under the page.

Having ascertained that his pages are laid down right, the compositor proceeds to dress the chases, which we will suppose to be for a sheet of octavo. Accordingly he selects a good pair of chases that are fellows in all respects; and, having laid them over the pages for the two different forms, he puts such gutter-sticks between page and page, and such reglets along the sides of the two crosses, as will give the book proper margins after it is bound.

To ascertain the proper distance, and to prevent wastage of furniture, he takes short pieces of furniture, or quotations, and quadrates or reglets, to fit the space between two pages; then, pushing the pages close to them, he finds the exact width of the furniture necessary, by trying the ends of various pieces, always measuring from the edge of the lines of type above the page-cords.

By observing a proper method in cutting up new furniture, the same will be serviceable for other works as well as the one for which it is intended, even though the size of the page may differ, provided it agrees with the margin of the paper. The gutters should be cut two or three lines longer than the page; the head-sticks wider; the back furniture may run nearly down to the rim of the chase, but must be level with the top of the page, which will admit of the inner head-stick running[145] in; the difference of the outer head-stick may go over the side-stick, and the gutter will then run up between them. The side-stick only need to be cut exact, and the furniture will completely justify.

Wood and metal furniture, cut or cast to specific lengths and widths, may now be had from the type-founders, the use of which will save time, waste, and labour.

The next business is to arrange the margin, so that each page may occupy one side of a leaf, and have the proper proportion of white paper left at the sides as well as at the head and foot. The page when printed should be a little higher than the middle of the leaf, and have a little more margin on the outside than in the back. This rule is often neglected by careless or ignorant printers, and the appearance of the book when bound is repulsive to the eye of taste.