4. The pressman must examine whether the frisket bites; that is, whether it keeps off the impression from any part of the pages.
5. He must consider whether the catch of the frisket stands either too far forward or backward: if forward, he may be much delayed by its falling down, and, if backward, it will come down too slowly, and thus retard the progress of the work and not unfrequently cause the sheet to slip out of its proper place. He must, therefore, place the catch so that the frisket may stand a little more than perpendicularly backward, that, when lightly tossed up, it may just stand, and not come back.
6. He must fit the gallows so that the tympan may stand as much toward an upright as he can; because it is the sooner let down upon the form and lifted up again. But yet he must not place it so upright as to prevent the white sheets of the paper from lying secure on the tympan.
7. The range of the paper-bank should not stand at right angles with the bed of the press; but the farther end of the bank should be placed so that the near side may make an angle of about seventy-five degrees with the near side of the bed.
8. The heap of paper should be set on the horse on the near end of the paper-bank, near the tympan, yet not touching it. The uppermost or outside sheet should be laid on the bank; and the pressman then takes four or five quires off his heap, and shakes them at each end, to loosen the sheets, till he finds he has sufficiently loosened or hollowed the heap. Then, with the nail of his right-hand thumb, he draws or slides forward the upper sheet, and two or three more commonly follow gradually with it, over the hither edge of the heap, to prepare those sheets ready for laying on the tympan.
9. He must next pull a revise sheet, which must be sent up to the overseer for a final revision, and for examining whether any letters have dropped out of the form in putting it on the press, &c.
10. While the sheet is undergoing a revision, the pressman should proceed to make register, if half-sheet-wise, which is done by pulling a waste sheet, and turning it, (without inking, as the sheets may afterward be used for slip sheets,) being particular not to stretch the point-holes in the least, or to draw the hand along the sheet in leaving it. In making register, the points must be knocked up or down in such a direction as will bring the first impression under the last, knocking the point only half the distance apparent on the sheet. If register cannot be made with the points, the difficulty must then be either in the furniture, the length of the pages, or in the springing of the cross-bars, from the forms being locked up by careless compositors, who commence at one quarter of the form, and lock it up tightly, and so go around, instead of gently tapping it at opposite sides till the whole is equally tightened. In locking up a form, the quoins at the feet should be gently struck first, to force up the pages and prevent their hanging; but, in unlocking, the side quoins must be first slackened.
Altering the quoins will not make good register, when the compositor has not made the white exactly equal between all the sides of the crosses. The pressman, therefore, will ascertain which side has too much or too little white, and, unlocking the form, will take out or put in as many leads or reglets as will make good register.