This square Shanck is just so long within half a Scaboard thick as to reach through the Body, Carriage, and another square Hole made through the Bottom-Plate, that so when a square Nut with a Female-Screw in it is turned on that Pin, the Nut shall draw and fasten the Body and Carriage down to the Bottom-Plate.
The Office of the Male-Gage is to fit into, and slide along the Female-Gage.
¶. 6. Of the Mouth-Piece.
Plate 19.
The Upper half of the Mold
Close to the Carriage and Body is fitted a Mouth-Piece marked d e. Letter-Founders call this altogether a Mouth-Piece: But that I may be the better understood in this present purpose, I must more nicely distinguish its parts, and take the Freedom to elect Terms for them, as first,
- c c e The Mouth.
- d The Palate.
- c c e d The Jaws.
- d d The Throat.
Altogether (as aforesaid) the Mouth-Piece.
The Mouth-Piece hath its Side returning from the Throat filed and rubb’d on the Using-File exactly straight and square to its Bottom-side, because it is to joyn close to the Side of the Carriage and Body; but its upper-side, viz. the Palate is not parallel to the Bottom, but from the Side d d, viz. the Throat falls away to the Mouth e, making an Angle greater or smaller, as the Body that the Mold is made for is bigger or less: For small Bodies require but a small Mouth, because small Ladles will hold Metal enough for small Letters; and the smaller the Ladle, the finer the Geat of the Ladle is; and fine Geats will easier hit the Mouth (in a Train of Work) than the course Geats of Great Ladles: Therefore it is that the Mouth must be made to such a convenient Width, that the Ladle to be used and its Geat, may readily, and without slabbering, receive the Metal thrown into the Mold.
But again, if the Mouth-Piece be made too wide, viz. the Jaws too deep at the Mouth, though the Geat of the Ladle does the readier find it, yet the Body of the Break of the Letter will be so great, that first it heats the Mold a great deal faster and hotter; and secondly, it empties the Pan a great deal sooner of its Metal, and subjects the Workman sometime to stand still while other Metal is melted and hot: Therefore Judgment is to be used in the width of the Mouth; and though there be no Rule for the width of it; yet this in general for such Molds as I make, I observe that the Orifice of the Throat may be about one quarter of the Body for small Bodies; but for great Bodies less, according to Discretion, and the Palate about an Inch and a quarter long from the Body and Carriage. The reason that the Orifice of the Throat is so small, is, because the Substance at the end of the Shanck of the Letter ought also to be small, that the Break may easier break from the Shanck of the Letter, and the less subject the Shanck to bowing; for the bowing of a Letter spoils it; and the reason why the Palate is so long, is, that the Break being long, may be the easier finger’d and manag’d in the breaking.