I made the Rails and Stiles of well-seasoned fine Oak, clean, (that is free from Knots and Shakes) the Stiles and Rails two Inches and an half square, the Top and Bottom Fore-Rails and the Bottom Hind-Rail four Foot three Inches long, besides their Tennants; And the Top Hind-Rail five Foot three Inches long. The two Fore-Rails and Bottom Hind-Rail had Iron Female-Screws let into them, which, through an hole made in the Stiles, received a Male-Screw with a long shank, and a Sholder at the end of it to screw them tight and firm together, even as the Rails of a Bedsted are screwed into the Mortesses of a Bed-Post.
Each Back-Stile was four Foot one Inch and an half high besides their Tennants, and each Fore-Stile three Foot three Inches high, each Fore and Back-Stile had two Rails one Foot seven Inches long, besides their Tennants Tennanted and Pin’d into them, because not intended to be taken assunder.
It must be considered, that the Fore-stiles be of a convenient height for the pitch of an ordinary Man to stand and work at, which the heighth aforesaid is; And that the Hind stiles be so much higher than the Fore-stiles, that when the Cross-Bearers are laid upon the upper Fore and Hind-Rail, and the Cases laid on them, the Cases may have a convenient declivity from the upper-side the Upper-Case, to the lower side the Lower-Case.
The Reason of this declivity is, because the Cases standing thus before the Workman, the farther Boxes of the Upper-Case are more ready and easie to come at, than if they lay flat; they being in this position somewhat nearer the hand, and the Letters in those Boxes somewhat easier seen.
If the Workman prove taller than Ordinary, he lays another or two pair of Cases under the Cases he uses, to mount them: If the Workman be short, as Lads, &c. He lays a Paper-board (or sometimes two) on the floor by the Fore-side of the Frame, and standing to work on it, mounts himself.
The Bearers are made of Slit-Deal, about two Inches broad, and so long as to reach from the Fore-Rail through the Upper-Rail, and are let in, so as to lye even with the superficies of the Fore and Hind-Rail, and at such a distance on both the Rails, as you may see in the Figure.
Plate 2.
On the Superficies of the Fore-Rail, even with its Fore-Edge is nailed a small Riglet about half an Inch high, and a quarter and half quarter of an Inch thick, that the Cases set on the Frame having the aforesaid declivity, may by it be stop’t from sliding off.