[192] Smith (Printers’ Grammar, p. 8) blames the French founders of his day for the shallow cut of their punches, which being naturally reproduced in the types, was the cause of much bad printing. Some sorts, he said, as late as 1755, only stood in relief to the thickness of an ordinary sheet of paper. He contrasts English punch-cutting favourably with French in this particular.
[193] Manuel Typographique, utile aux gens de lettres. 2 tom. Paris, 1764–6. 8vo.
[194] Patents for Inventions.—Abridgments of Specifications relating to Printing (1617 to 1857). London, 1859. 8vo.
[195] This misguided reformer lived at Banbury, where, in 1804, he printed an edition of Rasselas, 8vo, in his “improved” types. The result is more curious than beautiful, and the public remained loyal still to the alphabets of Aldus, Elzevir, Caslon, Baskerville, and Bodoni. Nevertheless, Rusher’s edition of Rasselas, “printed with patent types in a manner never before attempted,” will always claim a place among typographical curiosities.
[196] This is apparently the first suggestion in England of the “hand-pump,” which was subsequently adopted by all the founders, and formed, in combination with the lever-mould, the intermediate stage between hand and machine casting.
[197] The origin of type-nicks is doubtful. Some have considered them to have resulted from a modification of the old alleged system of perforation, and to have been intended as a receptacle for the wire or string used to bind the lines together. The types of the first printers were certainly without them, and as late as 1540 French moulds had none. A nick forms part of Moxon’s moulds in 1683. In French founding the nick is at the back of the type, while in England it is always on the front. In Fournier’s day the Lyonnaise types were an exception to the general French rule, and had the nick on the front, as also did the types of Germany, Holland and Flanders. Some of the old founts procured abroad by English founders were struck in the copper inverted, so that when cast in English moulds they have always had the nick at the back.
[198] The lever mould was first used in America about 1800.
[199] Clayton issued a pamphlet printed from plates produced by this process.
[200] It was calculated that 75,000 types could be produced by two men in an hour.
[201] See post, chap. xxi. Prior to Pouchée’s introduction of this system of casting into England, Hansard informs us, Henry Caslon made trial of it, but it was not found eligible to pursue it.