The American Printer: A Manual of Typography / Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office, as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables, numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variety, hints to authors, etc.

by Thomas MacKellar

CORRECTING IN THE METAL.

Correcting is the most disagreeable part of a compositor’s business, diminishing as it does his earnings, and causing great fatigue, and, by leaning over the stone, endangering his health. A foul proof, however, is a fault without extenuation, and seems to deserve some punishment. The noise and confusion which prevail in badly governed printing-offices, from light and frivolous conversation, not only retard business, but distract the attention of the compositor from the subject he has in hand, and cause him to make many mistakes. Some men, no doubt, can support a conversation and at the same time compose correctly; but their noise confuses those who are unable to preserve accuracy except by close attention to their copy in silence.

The first proof should contain merely the errors of the compositor; but it frequently happens that the corrector heightens them by his peculiarities. When this is unnecessarily done, it is an act of injustice to the compositor: it is sufficient for him to rectify such mistakes as arise either from inattention to his copy or want of judgment. The compositor ought not to suffer from the humour of a reader in capriciously altering commas and semicolons in the first proof, which he not unfrequently re-alters in the second, from a doubt as to the propriety of the points to be adopted.

When a proof is handed to the compositor, he should immediately correct it; and the reader, correlatively, should be equally prompt in his department. Can it reasonably be expected that the compositor will feel inclined to forward his proof, when he knows that the reader will delay it for hours?

Should a compositor have transposed two or more pages, either from an error in the folios or any other cause, he must unlock the quarter containing them, and, loosening the cross or crosses from the furniture, lift the chase and the remaining quarters off the stone. Should he have furniture sufficient round each page, he may move them into their proper stations by pressing the balls of his thumbs and fingers against the furniture at the head, foot, and sides of each page. If the letter be small, it will be advisable to wet the pages, because few imposing-stones are horizontal, or so steady that they will not shake when touched, or by the motion of the floor occasioned by persons walking or dragging forms along.

Should a compositor find that his pages hang, he must unlock the quarter, and pat the face of the type with the balls of his fingers until he gets it into a square position.

When a compositor unlocks a form, he should be careful not to leave the unlocked quoins too slack, as the force necessary to loosen the others may squabble the matter, or occasion it to hang.

It has been aptly said, “What is required of a compositor when he goes about correcting a foul proof, is a sharp bodkin and patience; because, without them, the letter cannot escape suffering by the steel, and hurrying will not permit him to justify the lines true. No wonder, therefore, to see pigeon-holes in one place, and pi in another.”[16]

When the compositor has as many corrections between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand as he can conveniently hold, or, what is better, in his composing-stick, (beginning at the bottom of the page, in order that they may follow regularly,) and an assortment of spaces on a piece of paper, or, what is more convenient, in a small square box with partitions in it,—let him take the bodkin in his right hand, and, instead of raising each letter he may have to alter, place the point of the bodkin at one end of the line, and, with the forefinger of his left hand against the other, raise the whole line sufficiently high to afford him a clear view of the spacing; he may then change the faulty letter and alter his spacing before he drops the line. By this method he will not injure the type, which he must do if he force the bodkin into their sides or heads; a greater degree of regularity is insured where there may be occasion to alter the spacing, and no more time is taken up than by the other method.

In tables, and other matter, where rules prevent the lines from being raised, the letters must be drawn up by the bodkin. This is done by the compositor holding the instrument fast in his right hand, with the blade between his forefinger and thumb, within about three-quarters of an inch from the point: thus guiding it steadily to the faulty letter, he sticks the point of the bodkin into the neck of the letter between the beard and the face, and draws it up above the other types, so that he can take it out with the forefinger and thumb of his left hand. In performing this operation, the blade of the bodkin should be kept as flat as possible on the face of the type, but it should not touch any of the surrounding types, as the slightest graze imaginable will injure their face, and they will consequently appear imperfect in the next proof, when he will have the trouble of altering them, his employer suffering the loss of the type.

The bodkin blade being held almost flat to the form, a small horizontal entrance of its point into the neck of the letter will raise it above the face of the form; but, if the bodkin be held nearly upright, it will not have sufficient purchase to draw the letter up, because the weight of the letter and the pressure of the surrounding types will have greater power than the sharp point of the steel. By pressing sidewise, the bodkin blade acts as a lever, even though it has no other purchase than the slight motion of the hand.

COMMON BODKIN.

POCKET SPRING BODKIN.

In the olden times the printer made his own bodkin by inserting the blunt end of a large steel needle in a piece of wood or cork. At the present day, when every thing is prepared to the workman’s hand, bodkins are manufactured by printers’ furnishers, and he may take his choice of styles. The above cut shows a common form; but in some cases (as in table work) tweezers or a spring bodkin may be preferred. Knives may also be had with bodkin attached, which serve a double purpose. The objection to the knife-bodkin is that the handle is too heavy and cumbersome, and it is sure to injure type should it happen to slip from the fingers and fall on the page.

TWEEZERS.

SPRING BODKIN.

The most careful compositor cannot at all times avoid leaving a word out, or composing the same word twice. When this happens, he should consider the best mode of rectifying the accident, by driving out or getting in, either above the error or below it. This ascertained, let the matter be taken upon a galley, and overrun in the composing-stick. Overrunning on the stone is an unsafe, unworkmanlike, and dilatory method, destroying the justification and rendering the spacing uneven.

KNIFE AND BODKIN.

In correcting, care should be taken to avoid hair-spacing a line, by overrunning either back or forward. In overrunning the matter, the division should be used as little as possible; for, though the compositor may carefully follow the instructions laid down in this work on the subject of spacing and dividing, yet the effect of his attention will be completely destroyed if not followed up at the stone.

We here emphatically remark that, if authors were careful to spell properly the names of persons and places, technical and scientific terms, &c., and to write legibly, marking the end of sentences clearly, the work of the compositor would be facilitated, many errors would be prevented, and time, temper, and expense greatly economized.

Further. Let us remind authors that every correction made on their proof that is a variation from the copy as furnished to the printer is charged for according to the time required to make it. The justice of the charge is obvious; yet, strange to say, there is probably no item so frequently disputed by publishers. A man employs a mechanic to build a house according to fixed specifications; but, in the course of its erection, he improves or changes the plan, and orders certain portions to be torn down and rebuilt: is the mechanic to bear the loss? Certainly not. So, when a compositor builds up his page of type according to the copy furnished, he is right in requiring compensation for alterations made in it. He is not to suffer for the author’s desire to improve his intellectual edifice.

PRINTER’S KNIFE.