Part 7

The _Flat-Gage_ is described in _Plate_ 10. at A. It is made of a flat piece of Box, or other Hard Wood. Its Length is three Inches and an half, its Breadth two Inches and an half, and its Thickness one Inch and an half. This is on the Flat, first made Square, but afterwards hath one of its Corners (as _h_) a little rounded off, that it may the easier comply with the Ball of the Hand. Out of one of its longest Sides, _viz._ that not rounded off, is Cut through the thickness of it an exact Square, whose one side _b f_, _c g_ is about an Inch and three quarters long; and its other side _b d_, _c e_ about half an Inch long. The Depth of these Sides and their Angle is exactly Square to the top and bottom of the upper and under Superficies of the _Flat-Gage_.

Its Use is to hold a Rod of Steel, or Body of a _Mold_, _&c._ exactly perpendicular to the Flat of the _Using-File_, that the end of it may rub upon the _Using-File_, and be Filed away exactly Square, and that to the Shank; as shall more at large be shewed in §. 2. ¶. 3.

¶. 4. _Of the_ Sliding-Gage.

The _Sliding-Gage_ is described in _Plate_ 10. at _Fig._ B. It is a Tool commonly used by _Mathematical Instrument-Makers_, and I have found it of great use in _Letter-Cutting_, and making of _Molds_, _&c._ _a a_ the Beam, _b_ the Tooth, _c c_ the Sliding Socket, _d d d d_ the Shoulder of the Socket.

Its Use is to measure and set off Distances between the Sholder and the Tooth, and to mark it off from the end, or else from the edge of your Work.

I always use two or three of these _Gages_, that I need not remove the Sholder when it is set to a Distance which I may have after-use for; as shall in Working be shewed more fully.

¶. 5. _Of the_ Face-Gages, _marked_ C _in Plate 10._

The _Face-Gage_ is a Square Notch cut with a File into the edge of a thin Plate of Steel, Iron, or Brass, the thickness of a piece of common Latton, and the Notch about an _English_ deep. There be three of these Gages made, for the Letters to be cut on one Body; but they may be all made upon one thin Plate, the readier to be found, as at D. As first, for the Long-Letters; Secondly, for the Assending Letters; And Thirdly, for the Short-Letters. The Length of these several Notches, or Gages, have their Proportions to the Body they are cut to, and are as follows. We shall imagine (for in Practice it cannot well be perform’d, unless in very large Bodies) that the Length of the whole Body is divided into forty and two equal Parts.

The _Gage_ for the Long-Letters are the length of the whole Body, _viz._ forty and two equal Parts. The _Gage_ for the Assending Letters, _Roman_ and _Italica_, are five Seventh Parts of the Body, _viz._ thirty Parts of forty-two, and thirty and three Parts for _English_ Face. The _Gage_ for the Short-Letters are three Seventh Parts of the whole Body, _viz._ eighteen Parts of forty-two for the _Roman_ and _Italica_, and twenty two Parts for the _English_ Face.

It may indeed be thought impossible to divide a Body into seven equal Parts, and much more difficult to divide each of those seven equal Parts into six equal Parts, which are forty-two, as aforesaid, especially if the Body be but small; but yet it is possible with curious Working: For seven thin Spaces may be Cast and Rubb’d to do it. And for dividing each of the thin Spaces into six equal Parts, you may Cast and Rub Full Point . to be of the thickness of one thin Space, and one sixth part of a thin Space: And you may Cast and Rub : to be the thickness of one thin Space, and two sixth parts of a thin Space: And you may Cast and Rub , to be the thickness of one thin Space, and three sixth parts of a thin Space: And you may Cast and Rub - to be the thickness of one thin Space, and four sixth parts of a thin Space: And you may Cast and Rub ; to be the thickness of one thin Space, and five sixth parts of a thin Space.

The reason why I propose . to be Cast and Rubb’d one sixth part thicker than a thin Space, is only that it may be readily distinguished from : , - ; which are two sixth parts, three sixth parts, four sixth parts, five sixth parts thicker than a thin Space. And for six sixth parts thicker than a thin Space, two thin Spaces does it.

The manner of adjusting these several Sixth Parts of Thicknesses is as follows. You may try if six . exactly agree, and be even with seven thin Spaces; (or, which is all one, a Body) for then is each of those six . one sixth part thicker than a thin Space, because it drives out a thin Space in six thin Spaces. And you may try if six : be equal to a Body and one thin Space; for then is each : two sixth parts thicker than a thin Space. If six , be equal to nine thin Spaces, then each , is three sixth parts of a thin Space thicker than a thin Space. If six - be equal to ten thin Spaces, then each - is four sixth parts of a thin Space thicker than a thin Space. If six ; be equal to eleven thin Spaces, then each ; is five sixth parts of a thin Space thicker than a thin Space.

Now, as aforesaid, a thin Space being one seventh part of the Body, and the thin Space thus divided, you have the whole Body actually divided into forty and two equal parts, as I have divided them in my Drafts of Letters down the Sides, and in the Bottom-Line.

Though I have thus shewed how to divide a thin Space into six equal Parts, yet when the Letter to be Cut proves of a small Body, the thin Space divided into two equal Parts may serve: If it prove bigger, into three or four equal Parts: And of the largest Bodies, they may be divided into six, as aforesaid.

If now you would make a _Gage_ for any number of thin Spaces and Sixth Parts of a thin Space, you must take one thin Space less than the number of thin Spaces proposed, and add . : , - ; according as the number of sixth Parts of a thin Space require; and to those complicated Thicknesses you may file a square Notch on the edge of the thin Plate aforesaid, which shall be a standing Gage or Measure for that number of thin Spaces and sixth Parts of a thin Space.

All the Exception against this way of Measuring is, that thin Spaces cast in Metal may be subject to bow, and so their Thicknesses may prove deceitful. But, in Answer to that, I say, you may, if you will, Cast I for two thin Spaces thick, e for three thin Spaces thick, S for four thin Spaces thick, L for five thin Spaces thick, D for six thin Spaces thick, or any other Letters near these several Thicknesses, as you think fit; only remember, or rather, make a Table of the number of thin Spaces that each Letter on the Shank is Cast for. And by complicating the Letters and Points, as aforesaid, you will have any Thickness, either to make a Gage by, or to use otherwise.

On the other Edge of the _Face-Gage_ you may file three other Notches, of the same Width with those on the former Edge, for the Long, the Assending, and Short-Letters. But though the two sides of each of these Notches are parallel to each other, yet is not the third side square to them, but hath the same Slope the _Italick_ hath from the _Roman_; as you may see in the Figure at _b b b_.

¶. 6. _Of_ Italick, _and other_ Standing Gages.

These _Gages_ are to measure (as aforesaid) the Slope of the _Italick_ Stems, by applying the Top and Bottom of the _Gage_ to the Top and Bottom-Lines of the Letters, and the other Side of the _Gage_ to the Stem: for when the Letter complies with these three sides of the _Gage_ that Letter hath its true Slope.

The manner of making these _Gages_ (and indeed all other _Angular Gages_) is thus.

Place one Point of a Pair of Steel _Dividers_ upon the thin Plate aforesaid, at the Point _c_ or _d_ (in _Fig._ D in _Plate_ 10.) and with the other Point describe a small fine Arch of a Circle; as, _e f_ or _g h_. In this Arch of the Circle must be set off on the _Gage_ _a_ 110 Degrees, and on the _Gage_ _b_ 70 Degrees, and draw from the Centres _c_ and _d_ two straight Lines through those numbers of Degrees: Then Filing away the Plate between the two Lines, the _Gages_ are finished.

To find the Measure of this, or any other number of Degrees, do thus; Describe a Circle on a piece of Plate-Brass of any Radius (but the larger the better) draw a straight Line exactly through the Centre of this Circle, and another straight Line to cut this straight Line at right Angles in the Centre, through the Circle; so shall the Circle be divided into four Quadrants: Then fix one Foot of your Compasses (being yet unstirr’d) in one of the Points where any of the straight Lines cuts the Circle, and extend the moving Foot of your Compasses where it will fall in the Circle, and make there a Mark, which is 60 Degrees from the fixed Foot of the Compasses: Then fix again one Foot of your Compasses in the Intersection of the straight Line and Circle that is next the Mark that was made before, and extend the moving Foot in the same Quadrant towards the straight Line where you first pitch’d the Foot of your Compasses, and with the moving Foot make another Mark in the Circle. These two Marks divide the Quadrant into three equal Parts: The same way you may divide the other three Quadrants; so shall the whole Circle be divided into twelve equal Parts; and each of these twelve equal parts contain an Arch of thirty Degrees: Then with your Dividers divide each of these 30 Degrees into three equal Parts, and each of these three equal Parts into two equal Parts, and each of these two equal Parts into five equal Parts, so shall the Circle be divided into 360 equal Parts, for your use.

To use it, describe on the Centre of the Circle an Arch of almost a Semi-Circle: This Arch must be exactly of the same Radius with that I prescribed to be made on the _Gages_ _a b_, from _e_ to _f_ and from _g_ to _h_; then count in your Circle of Degrees from any Diametral Line 110 Degrees; and laying a straight Ruler on the Centre, and on the 110 Degrees aforesaid, make a small Mark through the small Arch; and placing one Foot of your Compasses at the Intersection of the small Arch, with the Diametral Line, open the other Foot to the Mark made on the small Arch for 110 Degrees, and transfer that Distance to the small Arch made on the _Gage_: Then through the Marks that the two Points of your Compasses make in the small Arch on the _Gage_, draw two straight Lines from the Centre _c_: and the Brass between those two straight Lines being filed away, that _Gage_ is made. In like manner you may set off any other number of Degrees, for the making of any other _Gage_.

In like manner, you may measure any Angle in the Drafts of Letters, by describing a small Arch on the Angular Point, and an Arch of the same Radius on the Centre of your divided Circle: For then, placing one Foot of your Compasses at the Intersection of the small Arch with either of the straight Lines proceeding from the Angle in the Draft, and extending the other Foot to the Intersection of the small Arch, with the other straight Line that proceeds from the Angle, you have between the Feet of your Compasses, the Width of the Angle; and by placing one Foot of your Compasses at the Intersection of any of the straight Lines that proceed from the Centre of the divided Circle, and the small Arch you made on it, and making a Mark where the other Foot of your Compasses falls in the said small Arch, you may, by a straight Ruler laid on the Centre of the divided Circle, and the Mark on the small Arch, see in the Limb of the Circle the number of Degrees contained between the Diametral, or straight Line and the Mark.

If you have already a dividing-Plate of 360 Degrees, of a larger Radius than the Arch on your _Gage_, you may save your self the labour of dividing a Circle (as aforesaid,) and work by your dividing-Plate as you were directed to do with the Circle that I shewed you to divide.

In these Documents I have exposed my self to a double Censure; First, of _Geometricians_: Secondly, of _Letter-Cutters_. _Geometricians_ will censure me for writing anew that which almost every young Beginner knows: And _Letter-Cutters_ will censure me for proposing a Rule for that which they dare pretend they can do without Rule.

To the _Geometricians_ I cross the Cudgels: yet I writ this not to them; and I doubt I have written superfluously to _Letter-Cutters_, because I think few of them either will or care to take pains to understand these small Rudiments of _Geometry_. If they do, and be ingenious, they will thank me for discovering this Help in their own Way, which few of them know. For by this Rule they will not only make Letters truer, but also quicker, and with less care; because they shall never need to stamp their _Counter-Punch_ in Lead, to see how it pleases them; which they do many times, before they like their _Counter-Punch_, (be it of A _A_ V v W w _V_ _W_, and several other Letters) and at last finish their _Counter-Punch_ but with a good Opinion they have that it may do well, though they frequently see it does not in many Angular Letters on different Bodies Cut by the same Hand. And were _Letter-Cutting_ brought to so common Practice as _Joynery_, _Cabinet-making_, or _Mathematical Instrument-making_, every young Beginner should then be taught by Rules, as they of these Trades are; because _Letter-Cutting_ depends as much upon Rule and Compass as any other Trade does.

You may in other places, where you find most Convenience (as at _i_) make a Square, which may stand you in stead for the Squaring the Face and Stems of the _Punch_ in _Roman_ Letters, and also in many other Uses.

And you may make _Gages_, as you were taught before to try the _Counter-Punches_ of Angular Letters; as, A K M N V X Y Z, _Romans_ and _Italicks_, _Capitals_ and _Lower-Case_. But then, that you may know each distinct _Gage_, you may engrave on the several respective _Gages_, at the Angle, A _A_ 4 _&c._ For by examining by the Drafts of Letters, what Angle their Insides make, you may set that Angle off, and make the _Gage_ as you were taught before, in the _Gage_ for the Slope of _Italicks_.

¶. 7. _Of the_ Liner.

The _Liner_ is marked E in _Plate_ 10. It is a thin Plate of Iron or Brass, whose Draft is sufficient to express the Shape. The Use of it is on the under-edge _a b_ (which is about three Inches long) and is made truly straight, and pretty sharp or fine; that being applied to the Face of a _Punch_, or other piece of Work, it may shew whether it be straight or no.

¶. 8. _Of the_ Flat-Table.

The _Flat-Table_ at F in _Plate_ 10. The Figure is there sufficient. All its Use is the Table F, for that is about one Inch and an half square, and on its Superficies exactly straight and flat. It is made of Iron or Brass, but Brass most proper. Its Use is to try if the Shank of a _Punch_ be exactly Perpendicular to its Face, when the Face is set upon the _Table_; for if the Shank stand then directly upright to the Face of the _Table_, and lean not to any side of it, it is concluded to be perpendicular.

It hath several other Uses, which, when we come to _Casting_ of _Letters_, and _Justifying_ of _Matrices_, shall be shewn.

¶. 9. _Of the_ Tach.

The _Tach_ is a piece of Hard Wood, (Box is very good) about three Inches broad, six Inches long, and three quarters of an Inch thick. About half its Length is fastned firm down upon the _Work-Bench_, and its other half projects over the hither Edge of it. It hath three or four Angular Notches on its Fore-end to rest and hold the Shank of a _Punch_ steady when the End of the _Punch_ is screwed in the _Hand-Vice_, and the _Hand-Vice_ held in the left hand, while the _Workman_ Files or Graves on it with his Right Hand.

Instead of Fastning the _Tach_ to the _Bench_, I _Saw_ a square piece out of the further half of the _Tach_, that it may not be too wide for the Chaps of the _Vice_ to take and screw that narrow End into the Chaps of the _Vice_, because it should be less cumbersome to my _Work-Bench_.

¶. 10. _Of Furnishing the_ Work-Bench.

The _Workman hath all his great _Files_ placed in Leather Nooses, with their Handles upwards, that he may readily distinguish the _File_ he wants from another _File_. These Nooses are nailed on a Board that Cases the Wall on his Right Hand, and as near his _Vice_ as Convenience will admit, that he may the readier take any _File_ he wants.

He hath also on his Right Hand a Tin Pot, of about a Pint, with small _Files_ standing in it, with their Handles downwards, that their Blades may be the readier seen. These small _Files_ are called _Watch-makers Files_, and the _Letter-Cutter_ hath occasion to use these of all Shapes, _viz._ _Flat_, _Pillar_, _Square_, _Triangular_, _Round_, _Half-Round_, _Knife-Files_, _&c._

He also provides a shallow square Box, of about five Inches long, and three Inches broad, to lay his small Instruments in; as, his _Gages_, his _Liner_, some common _Punches_, _&c._ This Box he places before him, at the further side of the _Work-Bench_.

He also provides a good _Oyl-Stone_, to sharpen his _Gravers_ and _Sculpters_ on. This he places at some distance from the _Vice_, on his Left-Hand.

§. 13. ¶. 1. _Of_ Letter-Cutting.

The _Letter-Cutter_ does either Forge his _Steel-Punches_, or procures them to be forged; as I shewed, _Numb._ 1. _Fol._ 8, 9, 10. in _Vol._ I. _&c._ But great care must be taken, that the Steel be sound, and free from Veins of Iron, Cracks and Flaws, which may be discerned; as I shewed in _Numb._ 3. _Vol._ I. For if there be any Veins of Iron in the Steel, when the Letter is Cut and Temper’d, and you would Sink the _Punch_ into the Copper, it will batter there: Or it will Crack or Break if there be Flaws.

If there be Iron in it, it must with the Chissel be split upon a good Blood-Red-Heat in that place, and the Iron taken or wrought out; and then with another, or more Welding Heat, or Heats, well doubled up, and laboured together, till the Steel become a sound entire piece. This Operation _Smiths_ call _Well Currying of the Steel_.

If there be Flaws in it, you must also take good Welding Heats, so hot, that the contiguous sides of the Flaws may almost Run: for then, snatching it quickly out of the Fire, you may labour it together till it become close and sound.

Mr. _Robinson_, a _Black-Smith_ of _Oxford_, told me a way he uses that is ingenious, and seems rational: For if he doubts the Steel may have some small Flaws that he can scarce discern, he takes a good high Blood-Red Heat of it, and then twists the Rod or Bar (as I shewed, _Numb._ 3. _Vol._ I.) which Twisting winds the Flaws about the Body of the Rod, and being thus equally disposed, more or less, into the Out-sides of the Rod, according as the Position of the Flaw may be, allows an equal Heat on all sides to be taken, because the Out-sides heat faster than the Inside; and therefore the Out-sides of the Steel are not thus so subject to Burn, or Run, as if it should be kept in the Fire till the Middle, or Inside of it should be ready to Run. And when the Steel is thus well welded, and soundly laboured and wrought together with proper Heats, he afterwards reduces it to Form.

Now, that I may be the better understood by my Reader as he reads further, I have, in _Plate_ 10. at _Fig._ G described the several Parts of the _Punch_; which I here explain.

G The Face. _a a_, _b b_ The Thickness. _a b_, _a b_ The Heighth. _a c_, _b c_, _b c_ The Length of the Shank, about an Inch and three quarters long. _c c c_ The Hammer-End.

This is no strict Length for the Shank, but a convenient Length; for should the Letter Cut on the Face be small, and consequently, the Shank so too, and the Shank much longer, and it (as seldom it is) not Temper’d in the middle, it might, with Punching into Copper, bow in the middle, either with the weight of the Hammer, or with light reiterated Blows: And should it be much shorter, there might perhaps Finger-room be wanting to manage and command it while it is Punching into the Copper. But this Length is long enough for the biggest Letters, and short enough for the smallest Letters.

The Heighth and Thickness cannot be assign’d in general, because of the diversity of Bodies, and Thickness of Letters: Besides, some Letters must be Cut on a broad Face of Steel, though, when it is Cut, it is of the same Body; as all Letters are, to which _Counter-Punches_ are used; because the Striking the _Counter-Punch_ into the Face of the _Punch_ will, if it have not strength enough to contain it, break or crack one or more sides of the _Punch_, and so spoil it. But if the Letter be wholly to be Cut, and not Counter-Punch’d, as I shall hereafter hint in general what Letters are not, then the Face of the _Punch_ need be no bigger, or, at least, but a small matter bigger than the Letter that is to be cut upon it.

Now, If the Letter be to be Counter-punch’d, the Face of the _Punch_ ought to be about twice the Heighth, and twice the Thickness of the Face of the _Counter-Punch_; that so, when the _Counter-Punch_ is struck just on the middle of the Face of the _Punch_, a convenient Substance, and consequently, Strength of Steel on all its Sides may be contained to resist the Delitation, that the Sholder or Beard of the _Counter-Punch_ sinking into it, would else make.

If the _Letter-Cutter_ be to Cut a whole Set of _Punches_ of the same Body of _Roman_ and _Italica_, he provides about 240 or 260 of these _Punches_, because so many will be used in the _Roman_ and _Italica_ _Capitals_ and _Lower-Case_, _Double-Letters_, _Swash-Letters_, _Accented Letters_, _Figures_, _Points_, _&c._ But this number of _Punches_ are to have several Heighths and Thicknesses, though the Letters to be Cut on them are all of the same Body.

What Heighth and Thickness is, I have shewed before in this §, but not what Body is; therefore I shall here explain it.

By Body is meant, in _Letter-Cutters_, _Founders_ and _Printers_ Language, the Side of the Space contained between the Top and Bottom Line of a Long Letter. As in the Draft of Letters, the divided Line on the Left-Hand of A is divided into forty and two equal Parts; and that Length is the Body, thus: J being an Ascending and Descending Letter, _viz._ a long Letter, stands upon forty-two Parts, and therefore fills the whole Body.

There is in common Use here in _England_, about eleven Bodies, as I shewed in §. 2. ¶. 2. of this Volumne.

I told you even now, that all the _Punches_ for the same Body must not have the same Heighth and Thickness: For some are Long; as, J j Q, and several others; as you may see in the Drafts of Letters: and these long Letters stand upon the whole Heighth of the Body.

The Ascending and Descending Letters reach from the Foot-Line, up to the Top-Line; as all the Capital Letters are Ascending Letters, and so are many of the Lower-Case Letters; as, b d f, and several others. The Descending Letters are of the same Length with the Ascending Letters; as, g p q and several others. These are contained between the Head-Line and the Bottom-Line. The Short-Letters are contained between the Head-Line and the Bottom-line. These are three different Sizes of Heighth the _Punches_ are made to, for Letters of the same Body. But in proper place I shall handle this Subject more large and distinctly.

And as there is three Heighths or Sizes to be considered in Letters Cut to the same Body, so is there three Sizes to be considered, with respect to the Thicknesses of all these Letters, when the _Punches_ are to be Forged: For some are m thick; by m thick is meant m _Quadrat_ thick, which is just so thick as the Body is high: Some are n thick; that is to say, n _Quadrat_ thick, _viz._ half so thick as the Body is high: And some are _Space_ thick; that is, one quarter so thick as the Body is high; though Spaces are seldom Cast so thick, as shall be shewed when we come to _Casting_: and therefore, for distinction sake, we shall call these Spaces, Thick Spaces.