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

LAYING TYPE.

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.

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.