Part 3

The form is cleaned by going over the type, first with a cotton cloth moistened with benzine, and following with a bristle brush. The press also must be washed, that is the ink must be removed from the plate and the rollers. With cotton rags or waste moistened with benzine, the ink is wiped off the plate. Then the rollers are run upon the plate, and with the cloth still further moistened with benzine, the rollers are carefully gone over and all the ink removed. The rollers are then run down from the plate, which is wiped clean and dry. In case waste is used in cleaning the rollers, it should be wrapped inside of a cloth to prevent threads and lint from adhering to them. To the inexperienced, this matter of cleaning the press, gives the impression of a long, tedious and dirty task. It proves to be quite an interesting demonstration for the instructor to wash the press clean, and come through the process in three minutes with hands scarcely soiled. There grows up somewhat of a rivalry among the groups or individuals to see which can wash the press in the shortest time and with the least muss. In leaving the press, this caution should always be kept in mind; never allow the rollers to remain on the plate or on a form in the press. Rags that have become saturated with benzine and ink should be burned or kept in a closed can.

It is the practice with a great many good printers to leave the ink on the press over night, after thoroughly oiling it with lubricating oil. By thus leaving the rollers covered with this soft, oily coat, the composition is protected from the drying and hardening effects of the air. Of course there are inks which harden in spite of the oil, such as gilts, bronzes, bronze blues, reds, etc. Such inks should not be left on the press longer than necessary.

The next morning, the oily ink is easily removed with a dry cloth. Sometimes, it is well to follow up with a cloth slightly moistened with benzine.

In case ink has been permitted to harden on the rollers, it may be removed by taking the rollers from the press, washing them with moderately strong lye, using a printer’s scrub brush. After the ink is removed, the rollers are thoroughly rinsed in water.

When type has been allowed to remain without the ink having been cleaned off, and the ink has hardened and cemented the type together, it may be loosened and cleaned with lye. Make a strong solution of lye and saturate the mass of type with it. Rub the lye in thoroughly with the scrub brush, leave the lye on the type for two hours and then rinse in water. Keep repeating this process until the type is loosened and cleaned.

When a form has been used and is no longer needed, it is called dead matter and is ready for distribution. To prepare the type for distribution, a sponge is saturated with soapy water and the top of the form thoroughly wet, so that the water makes its way down into the small crevices between the type. If the form is put into a galley, it is placed in the same position as for tying up. Then the printer takes upon a slug the last two, three, or four lines and holds them in his left hand as in Fig. 28, so that the lines occupy the same position as when in the stick. With the right hand, he picks up one or more words from the right end of the top line. Standing before his case in the same position as when setting type, he spells the words back into the case. It is very important that type be properly distributed, that the letters, characters, and spaces be put into their proper boxes. This is interesting work, and beginners delight in it; besides, it is a work in which considerable skill can quite readily be acquired.

The proper time to rescue a letter from the floor or from a wrong box into which it has been dropped, is immediately after it has been so misplaced. Leads, slugs, furniture, and rule should be put at once in proper positions into their respective places.

WHAT TO PRINT AND HOW TO PROCEED

In discussing the matter of the proper printing for the public schools, let us not forget this general proposition, i. e., that the claim of printing to a place as a school art must rest upon its force as an educational factor and not upon the fact that, by a species of child labor, money may be made or saved.

There may be done some work of a commercial nature, of course, as in any kind of so-called industrial work, and thereby money be saved for the institution or the community. But the fact that some of the work results in financial gain or saving is incidental, although it may help to add interest and reality to the work. However, the work of the school print shop should be largely such as, in the absence of the school shop, would not be printed.

School printing may be grouped loosely into three classes:

1. Material whose content appeals to the pupils and whose merit justifies permanent form. It is always a happy condition when the matter which we ask the boys and girls to print appeals to them on its own merit as something that deserves to be perpetuated. The book idea presupposes permanency of content. So the book, printed and bound by the pupils and containing their favorite selections, makes a strong appeal. Literature classes collect ballads, lyrics, and other forms of literature for such work. Books of ballads suited to the various grades might profitably be prepared. The broadsheet idea may be taken advantage of to popularize national airs, patriotic songs, crisp maxims, rare bits of humor, etc.

2. Such temporary material as connects intimately with the school work and does a genuine service. An abundance of valuable material may be found in connection with elementary reading, nature study, geography, gardening, constructive work, etc. Stories relating to these subjects and written by the children may be printed and furnished to the children for reading matter. The development of dramatization in the schools offers material for the printshop. A story like “Treasure Island” or “Kinmont Willie” is read by the boys and girls, who set themselves to the task of putting it into dramatic form. Pupils take up the work of printing such a production with the greatest of interest whether it is the work of their own or of another class. The school paper is a valuable thing from every point of view. Spelling lists, binders’ notes inserted in rebound books, programs of school entertainments, Xmas and Easter cards, etc., come under this second division.

3. This class includes such work as would ordinarily be sent to the commercial printer. Letter heads, office blanks, report cards, business notices, official announcements, etc., come under this head. Some of this can be handled to the profit of both the boys and the school and without injustice to the commercial printer.

In beginning printing with a class, it is believed to be best to take advantage of the wide-eyed curiosity and intense interest of the pupils, simply to make them familiar with the locations of the various parts of the equipment and the names of the various tools of the printer. Just the pointing out and reciting of the names of the leads, slugs, furniture, etc., are sufficient to hold the rapt attention of the class.

During the early period is a good time for investigations by the pupils as to the origin and development of printing, the story of movable type, the evolution of the press, the relation of printing to progress, etc. This plan of having the pupils get as much relevant information as possible concerning their new activity, under the impulse of this first enthusiasm, proves to be an effective method of teaching as well as valuable and timely work for the boys and girls. The same eagerness to become familiar with the work makes the lay of the cases an easy matter to get before the class. Almost without exception the boys ask for the privilege of making individual diagrams of the cases, for pocket reference. The very irregularity and confusion of the lower case somehow appeal to the boys, and they take great pride in mastering what seems at first glance almost a puzzle.

The explanation that j and u were the last letters added to the alphabet and that they occupy positions in the capital case corresponding to the time of their additions, makes the lay of the capital case easy to remember.

Considerable time may well be devoted to just this kind of work.

In familiarizing themselves with the case, the pupils may well begin the use of the job stick and the practice of properly holding it, by the use of large type, in setting up their names and such simple matter as they care to attempt, putting the type back again into the proper boxes. When simple composition is begun, it is thought best that each piece of work should run through the typical processes, setting up the type, emptying the stick, proofing, correcting, tying up, removing to the stone, locking up, and printing. The presswork for these first efforts may be done by the teacher by way of demonstrations, so that the pupils become familiar with the methods of handling a press.

The class should be kept for a considerable time on such work as labels, name cards, spelling lists, etc., gradually working into the longer compositions of plain, straight matter.

When it comes to the larger jobs, one piece of work may be divided among several pupils or even the whole class.

Of course, in all this work, there must be constant reference and attention to the various rules of composition, such as justification, spacing, margins, etc.

As the class advances, it is well to have each boy do a little press work by himself. He will prepare the make-ready, which the instructor has previously demonstrated, ink the press, set the gauge pins, and run off the job, under the close scrutiny of the teacher. In handling jobs of two or more pages, the pupils have experience in proofing, making up the matter into page forms, and of imposing or locking it up. It is well to have the list of proof marks conspicuously on the board and to insist upon the pupils’ use of them in a correct and intelligent way.

At the close of the eighth year and in the high school, the handling of cuts, tabular work, and the more difficult processes all along the line is expected.

Not only must the boys use the cuts in printing but they ought to make the wood cuts, zinc etchings, and copper plates as frequently as possible from designs and illustrations prepared by themselves.

During the work in printing, the teacher should not overlook or neglect any illustrative material that may be available, and which may be of value in setting standards, arousing ambitions, and offering suggestions for improvement. Visits to commercial print shops are an excellent thing from the standpoint of all these considerations. In studying the arrangements of the parts of a broken page, or of an advertisement, it has proved interesting and profitable to cut out the parts of the printed matter collected for study, and to reassemble them by pasting them to another page. The variety in the matter of margins, spacing, and grouping that can be had by such a treatment, is often really surprising. Then when there are added the possibilities of different sizes and kinds of type, the colors of ink, and the colors and textures of paper, the effects that may be produced are without limit.

METHOD OF TEACHING THE LOWER CASE

Each boy has a case before him. The class is told that there are three little groups of letters to be learned first: _ar_, _is_, _jk_. These groups are learned first, because they are not consecutive and do not readily fall into the grouping which is to follow.

After these first groups have been fixed in the mind, it is explained that the left half of the lower case is made up, for the most part, of groups of letters which are consecutive in the alphabet. These groups are: _bcde_, _lmn_ (_h_) _o_, _tuv_. Besides _jk_ on the left side there is another nonconsecutive group, _qxz_. These groups are repeatedly pointed out during the explanation. When we come to the group _lmn_ (_h_) _o_, we say “_lmn_ over _h_ to _o_.”

Beginning with _a_, the class repeats several times these groups: _bcde_, _lmn_ (_h_) _o_, _tuv_, _qxz_. Then it is pointed out that there are only two groups remaining, and that they are on the right hand side of the case. They are _fg_ and _ypw_.

When the boys have located the groups a few times, they are tested on the entire alphabet in order. They begin, _a_, _bcde_, _fg_, and then they remember the “over _h_ to _o_” expression, which locates _h_ for them. The next letters, _i_ and _jk_, are in the first groups learned and hence are easily recalled. Then follows the group _lmno_. If they do not readily locate _p_, the group _ypw_ is repeated by the teacher. The letter _q_ is in the corner group, _qxz_, _r_ is in the first group learned, _ar_, and _s_ is in the second group learned, _is_. The next letters, _tuv_, are in a group by themselves, and the remaining letters of the alphabet, _w_, _x_, _y_, _z_, are in the two remaining groups, _ypw_ and _qxz_.

If at any time, a boy cannot locate a letter, he can be immediately assisted if the teacher will simply repeat the group in which the letter is to be found. For instance, if he cannot find _x_, the teacher should simply say “qxz.”

The location of quads, spaces, numerals, and “points” is only a matter of a short time, and may be learned at the time the letter boxes are learned, but can just as well be taught when an explanation of the quads and spaces is made.

It will be observed that by this plan, instead of learning the positions of twenty-six separate boxes, the boys learn the positions of the following nine groups: _ar_, _is_, _jk_, _bcde_, _lmn_ (_h_) _o_, _tuv_, _qxz_, _fg_, _ypw_, which include the twenty-six.

WOOD CUTS AND METAL PLATES

The making of wood cuts and metal plate etchings has proved one of the greatest sources of interest and educational profit to the boys and girls. It vitalizes and lends motive to design and illustration, it requires very little equipment and is a perfectly feasible scheme even for the seventh and eighth grades.

It is perhaps as well to illustrate the idea with a concrete problem. A book is being made for instance, by each pupil. He plans a cover design, a bookplate or an illustration. After the design or illustration is carefully worked out, it is traced in reverse by means of carbon paper upon a piece of wood, copper, or zinc. If it is to be a wood cut, the block is squared up to the proper thickness, about seven-eights of an inch. Birch, maple, and black walnut have proved very satisfactory for this work. Of course, in commercial work, boxwood is extensively used and the design cut on the end grain; but it is very satisfactory and much easier for the school work, to cut the figure on the side of a piece of ordinary board. With a small veining tool, such as is used in wood carving, the design is outlined, care being taken to leave the edges of the parts to be left in relief sharp and distinct. Then with a small gouge, chisel or knife, the background is cut away to the depth of about one-sixteenth of an inch. No care need be taken to make the background smooth.

Of course, the open grained woods do not give a solid, uniform impression. This is not at all objectionable as one may see by examining the wood cuts of the old masters. However, if a dense impression is desired, this experiment has been tried with good results: After the design is cut, the face of the block is gone over with a heavy coat of thick woodfiller. When the filler is dry, it is carefully scraped from the face of the design. By this simple method, a dense, clear, and uniform impression is made possible.

If it is to be a metal plate, the pupil simply takes a thick, smooth piece of copper or zinc, traces the design, and with a water color brush, he paints with asphaltum varnish the parts of the design to be left in relief. The back of the metal plate is also covered with a thin coat of the varnish. Careful examination is made to see whether air bubbles have caused small holes in the varnish, or anything else has caused any portion of the design to be left uncovered. When dry, the acid bath is prepared. Commercial nitric acid is the safest solution. It is diluted by adding about an equal volume of water to it, making it from 15% to 20% strong. The diluted acid is poured into a glass or porcelain tray and the plate put into it. If the acid can be kept moving by frequently rocking the tray, the etching will be very materially hastened. It takes from three to five hours to etch deeply a piece of copper, depending upon the strength and amount of the solution and the amount of exposed surface to be eaten away. If large surfaces are to be etched, quite a large quantity of acid is desirable, or else a changing or strengthening of the solution during the process. As soon as the acid becomes somewhat burdened with the metal, it ceases to act at all freely, and even begins to deposit a blue nitrate upon the metal. In such a case, it is best to put the plate into a fresh solution.

Care must be taken that the acid is not too strong, as the heat generated by its rapid action softens the varnish and lets the acid under to play havoc with the design. Numerous bubbles and yellow-green fumes indicate that the acid should be weakened by the addition of a small quantity of water.

By observing the progress of the etching occasionally, it can be told when the proper depth has been reached. Then the plate is heated sufficiently to soften the varnish, soaked in kerosene or turpentine, and rubbed clean with a cloth. Or the warm varnish can be removed by simply saturating the cloth with kerosene, turpentine, or benzine and rubbing over it.

A block of wood is then prepared for a base so that the mounted plate is slightly less in thickness than the height of the type. Then with a punch or a small drill, holes are put into the lower, or background, part of the metal. Through these holes the plate is fastened to the block by small tacks or escutcheon pins, the heads being sunken below the surface of the background. Large surfaces of background should be sawed out before the metal is mounted upon the block. When the cut is used in printing, it is brought up to the proper height by the underlaying of paper or cardboard.

This work is used extensively in connection with such work as cards and programs for Xmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and other special occasions. Fig. 29.

THE EQUIPMENT—ITS SELECTION AND COST

In planning an equipment for a print shop, as for any other shop, the more specific the conditions and limitations under which one is placed, the more intelligently one can go about the undertaking. In the first place, the following things should be as definitely decided upon as possible:

1. The grade and number of pupils who are going to handle the equipment.

2. The nature of the work anticipated.

3. Amount of money to be expended.

This is only another way of saying that a school printshop must meet school conditions. There are a number of points in which the school print shop differs materially from the commercial job shop. The number that must be kept at work is an illustrative point.

From the standpoint of durability and of quality of the work to be done, it is safer, of course, to buy as large a part of the equipment as possible, new. In other lines of the Manual Arts work, very little disposition is shown to buy second hand machinery and tools; but there seems to be a decided tendency to look for old equipment for the printshop. This, perhaps, arises out of the misapprehension that even a very small printing plant is very expensive. On the contrary, it will be seen by reference to the lists on page 58, that a printing equipment is comparatively inexpensive. Unless one is an expert, or is familiar with the time and kind of use the goods have been subjected to, it is unsafe to buy such used goods as type, leads, slugs, rule, furniture, and type cases, for these may be regarded as perishable; besides, they are comparatively cheap. So, from the financial standpoint, as well as that of good work, it is unwise to buy such used material. And when it comes to the larger, more expensive articles, like the press and the cutter, it must be considered that they are probably not soon, if ever, to be replaced, that imperfections are difficult to detect, and that not a very large reduction, can be had on machines in good repair. But if it is a question of getting a start in printing by the use of old equipment or doing without the printshop, by all means let’s have the old equipment. There are a good many items that can be safely and cheaply bought second hand. Among these are cabinets, stones and frames, case stands, lead cases, etc.

It is wise to buy only such staple articles as in a good printer’s judgment the conditions demand. There is some temptation to buy, out of a scanty allowance, articles which are not absolutely necessary, or which may easily be improvised. It is wise to buy the essentials and such quantities and accessories as make what one buys available to its full capacity. To illustrate, it is not uncommon to find quite a liberal quantity of type with an insufficient supply of quads and spaces. This simply means that the type is available for use only to the extent of the quad and space supply. This illustration is only typical of a number that might be made. For school purpose, it is much more satisfactory to have generous quantities of a few sizes of type of one series, than to have small quantities of several sizes and series. If the specific purposes of the shop are clearly in mind, the selection of faces, quantities, and sizes of type is greatly facilitated.

If it is planned to do very much of the supplementary reading work for the elementary grades, good quantities of 12 point type should be provided, including such a special supply of sorts, especially in capitals, as seems necessary to meet the needs. For instance, it has been found that in the language and reading work of the lower grades, the personal pronouns, I and we, are used with great extravagance in beginning sentences; so the I and W boxes are soon empty. In case some prominence is to be given to arithmetic work, then larger quantities of figures, fractions, etc., should be bought than come in the regular fonts. For general work, there can be no wiser selection than a large quantity of 10 point type. Of course, where the allowance permits, it is extremely nice to have small fonts of two or three different faces, which may be used for variety, initials, display, etc.

It has been found very satisfactory to have large quantities of a few sizes of body type as previously suggested, and in addition, a few fonts of a heavier face, duplicating the body type in sizes but with some larger sizes, and also a small assortment of some nice simple text letters. In selecting type, a wide, clear, readable face is desirable, and it is best to select those faces which do not contain hair lines or complications which make it difficult to get a distinct impression, and which render the type less durable. It is rather unusual to see a shop sufficiently supplied with quads and spaces, and especially is this so where much of the work is widely spaced and where each line is treated as a paragraph, as in elementary matter.

In order to provide for the small font display type which, of course, comes in straight letter work, it has been found a good plan to add, in addition to the regular 20%, 5 pounds each of quads and spaces for each 50 pounds, and 2½ pounds for each 25 pounds of body type.