Letter-Ladles differ nothing from other common Ladles, save in the size: Yet I have given you a Draft of one in Plate 20 at A. Of these the Caster has many at Hand, and many of several sizes that he may successively chuse one to fit the several sizes of Letters he has to Cast; as well in Bodies as in Thicknesses.
§. XIX. ¶. 1. Of Casting, Breaking, Rubbing, Kerning, and setting up of Letters.
BEfore the Caster begins to Cast he must kindle his Fire in the Furnance, to Melt the Mettal in the Pan. Therefore he takes the Pan out of the Hole in the Stone, and there lays in Coals and kindles them. And when it is well kindled, he sets the Pan in again, and puts Mettal into it to Melt. If it be a small Bodyed-Letter he Casts, or a thin Letter of Great Bodies, his Mettal must be very hot; nay, sometimes Red-hot to make the Letter Come. Then having chose a Ladle that will hold about so much as the Letter and Break is, he lays it at the Stoking-hole, where the Flame bursts out to heat. Then he ties a thin Leather cut into such a Figure as is described in Plate 20 at B with its narrow end against the Face to the Leather-Groove of the Matrice, by whipping a Brown Thread twice about the Leather-Groove, and fastning the Thread with a Knot. Then he puts both Halves of the Mold together, and puts the Matrice into the Matrice Cheek, and places the Foot of the Matrice on the Stool of the Mold, and the broad end of the Leather upon the Wood of the upper half of the Mold, but not tight up, lest it might hinder the Foot of the Matrice from Sinking close down upon the Stool in a train of Work. Then laying a little Rosin on the upper Wood of the Mold, and having his Casting Ladle hot, he with the bolling side of it Melts the Rosin; And when it is yet Melted presses the broad end of the Leather hard down on the Wood, and so fastens it to the Wood. All this is Preparation.
Now he comes to Casting. Wherefore placing the under-half of the Mold in his left hand, with the Hook or Hag forward, he clutches the ends of its Wood between the lower part of the Ball of his Thumb and his three hind-Fingers. Then he lays the upper half the Mold upon the under-half, so as the Male-Gages may fall into the Female-Gages, and at the same time the Foot of the Matrice place it self upon the Stool. And clasping his left-hand Thumb strong over the upper half of the Mold, he nimbly catches hold of the Bow or Spring with his right-hand Fingers at the top of it, and his Thumb under it, and places the point of it against the middle of the Notch in the back-side of the Matrice, pressing it as well forwards towards the Mold, as downwards by the Sholder of the Notch close upon the Stool, while at the same time with his hinder-Fingers as aforesaid, he draws the under-half of the Mold towards the Ball of his Thumb, and thrusts by the Ball of his Thumb the upper part towards his Fingers, that both the Registers of the Mold may press against both sides of the Matrice, and his Thumb and Fingers press both Halves of the Mold close together.
Then he takes the Handle of his Ladle in his right Hand, and with the Boll of it gives a stroak two or three outwards upon the Surface of the Melted Mettal to scum or clear it from the Film or Dust that may swim upon it. Then takes up the Ladle full of Mettal, and having his Mold as aforesaid in his left hand, he a little twists the left side of his Body from the Furnance, and brings the Geat of his Ladle (full of Mettal) to the Mouth of the Mold, and twists the upper part of his right-hand towards him to turn the Mettal into it, while at the same moment of Time he Jilts the Mold in his left hand forwards to receive the Mettal with a strong Shake (as it is call’d) not only into the Bodies of the Mold, but while the Mettal is yet hot, running swift and strongly into the very Face of the Matrice to receive its perfect Form there, as well as in the Shanck.
Then he takes the upper half of the Mold off the under-half, by placing his right-Hand Thumb on the end of the Wood next his left-Hand Thumb, and his two middle-Fingers at the other end of the Wood, and finding the Letter and Break lie in the under-Half of the Mold (as most commonly by reason of its weight it does) he throws or tosses the Letter Break and all upon a Sheet of Waste-Paper laid for that purpose on the Bench just a little beyond his left hand, and is then ready to Cast another Letter as before, and also the whole number that is to be Cast with that Matrice.
But sometimes it happens that by a Shake, or too big a Ladle, the Mettal may spill or slabber over the Mouth of the upper Half of the Mold, so that the spilt Mettal sticking about the outsides of the Mouth, may lift the Letter off the under-half of the Mold, and keep it in the upper half. Therefore he with the point of the Hag in the Wood of the under-half of the Mold, picks at the hollow in the fore part of the Break made by the Shaking out of the Mettal, and draws Break and Letter both out. It sometimes sticks in the under-half of the Mold by the same cause, and then he uses the point of the Hag in the upper half of the Mold, to pick or hale it out, as before.
It also sometimes sticks when any of the Joynts of the Mold open never so little, the Mettal thus getting in between those Joynts: But this fault is not to be indured, for before he can Cast any more, this fault must be mended.
But besides Letters, there is to be Cast for a perfect Fount (properly a Fund) Spaces Thick and Thin, n Quadrats, m Quadrats and Quadrats. These are not Cast with Matrices but with Stops (as we may call them) Because when these are Cast they are all shorter than the Shanck of the Letter, that they may not Print. Therefore they take off the Register of the under-Half Mold, and fit a piece of Plate-Brass about a Brevier Thick and a Brevier longer than to reach to the edge of the Body in the place of the Register, and drill a hole in this Plate-Brass right against the Hole in the Carriage that the Female-Screw lies in: This Hole is made so wide that the Male-Screw which screwed the Register close to the Carriage and Body may enter in at it, and screw this Plate-Brass close to them, as it did the Register: Then they make a mark with the point of a Needle on the Plate-Brass just against the side of the Edge of the Body, and at this mark they double down the end of the Plate-Brass inwards to make a perfect Square with the inside of the whole Plate. This doubling down is called the Stop aforesaid, and must be made just so thick as they design the Thin or Thick Space to be, and must have its Upper and Under-Edges filed so exactly to the Body, that it may lie close upon the Under-Carriage, and just even so high as the upper-side of the Body. So that when the Upper half of the Mold is placed on the under-Half, and Mettal Cast in at the Mouth (as before) the Mettal shall descend no deeper between the two Bodies then just to his Stop: You must note that this Stop must be filed exactly true as to Body and Thickness: For if it be never so little too big in Body, the Carriage of the Mold will ride upon it and make the Body of the Space bigger. Or if the Body be never so little too little, the Hot Mettal will run beyond the Stop; both which Miscarriages in making the Stop, spoil the Space.
If the Space be too short, they File the end of the Stop shorter.