Disputes sometimes arise in a printing-office upon trifling as well as important points, which should be settled by a reference to the general custom and usage of the trade. These annoying misunderstandings take place in companionships consisting of several compositors; it is therefore highly desirable that the generally received rules and regulations in this regard should be explicitly laid down for the comfort and government of the compositor.
TAKING COPY.
STEEL COMPOSING RULE.
When the work to be taken in hand is a reprint which is to be followed page for page, a fixed number of pages should be given to each compositor as he comes in turn for copy; or, if the work be in manuscript, an equal average amount should be allowed as a take for each compositor. None of the hands should have access to the copy, but the foreman should deal it out as wanted with perfect impartiality, fat or lean as it may happen to run. Otherwise, a compositor who has an acquaintance with the copy may be tempted to loiter if the next take to be given out be lean, or, if it be fat, to apply for copy before his work in hand is finished. By this course, the foreman will prevent all such sorts of sharp practice, and secure harmony in the companionship. When the foreman gives out copy, he should plainly mark the name of the compositor at the head of the first page of the take if the work be a page-for-page reprint; if it be manuscript, or a reprint in a different measure from that of the copy, he should write the name at the beginning of the first paragraph of the take. Most compositors desire to have a large portion of copy, under the erroneous idea that it will be to their advantage to make up many pages at once. Small takes insure a more rapid execution of the work and bring a quicker return of letter, and so tend to the profit of the hands.
If one of the companionship absent himself, the man next in order should close his copy, whether it be good or bad, unless the larger portion of it be not set, in which case the person who has the last take must go on with it.
MAKING UP.
The compositor who has the first take on the work proceeds without delay to make it up as soon as he has completed it. Having completed as many pages as his matter will make, he passes the overplus, if less than half a page, with the correct head and folio, to the compositor whose matter follows his, at the same time taking an account of the number of lines loaned; if, on the contrary, the overplus makes more than half a page, he borrows a sufficient number of lines to complete his page; each compositor keeping an account of the number of lines borrowed and loaned. The second compositor, following the same course, passes the make-up to the next in succession; each man passing the make-up in like manner without unnecessary delay.
STEEL MAKE-UP RULE.