Part 14

The foregoing calculations are intended to serve where a line of print takes in less than a line of copy; and, therefore, where a line of print takes in more than a line of copy, the problem is reversed, and, instead of saying, if 2 lines make 3, we say, in this case, if 3 lines of copy make 2 lines in print, then 6 lines make 4, 9 make 6, 12 make 8, and so on, counting three lines of copy to make two lines in print. In this manner we may carry our calculation to what number of pages, forms, or sheets we will, remembering always to count off as many lines of copy at once as we have found they will make even lines in the stick. Thus, for example, if 5 lines make 7, the progression of 5 is 10, 15, 20, &c., and the progression of 7 will be 14, 21, 28, &c.

In counting off copy, we take notice of the breaks; and where we judge that one will drive out, we intimate it by a mark of this shape [; and again, where we find that a break will get in, we invert it, thus, ]. And to render these marks conspicuous to the compositor, we write them in the margin, that he may take timely notice, and keep his matter accordingly. We also take care to make proper allowance for heads to chapters, sections, paragraphs, &c.

In examining the state of the copy, we must observe whether it has abbreviations, that we may guard against them in casting off, and allow for them according to the extent of the respective words when written out at length.”

The foregoing will convey a sufficient idea as to the best mode of casting off copy; still, these remarks more properly apply to regularly written and thoroughly revised copy. Upon this subject, Smith justly observes,—

“But how often one or more of these requisites are wanting, compositors can best tell; though very few will imagine that among men of learning there should be some who write after such a manner that even those who live by transcribing rather shun than crave to be employed by them: no wonder, therefore, if compositors express not the best wishes to such promoters of printing. But it is not always the capacious genius that ought to be excused for writing in too great a hurry; for sometimes those of no exuberant brains affect uncouth writing, on purpose to strengthen the common notion that _the more learned the man, the worse is his ~(hand)~ writing_; which shows that writing _well_ or _bad_ is but a habit with those that _can_ write.”

HURRIED WORK.

It is sometimes necessary to print pamphlets and other works of a temporary nature in the course of a few hours. When a work of this kind is put in hand, the foreman selects the requisite number of swift and skilful compositors, whose first concern must be to appoint one from among them to make up the matter, and to do every thing which would interfere with the regular business of distributing, composing, and correcting. While they are distributing letter, the _clicker_, or person appointed to manage the work, procures the copy, with all necessary information respecting it, and provides leads, rules, and every other necessary sort. He then draws out the following table:—

+--------------------+----------------+----------------+-------------+ | COMPOSITORS’ NAMES.| FOLIOS OF COPY.| LINES COMPOSED.| MEMORANDUMS.| +--------------------+----------------+----------------+-------------+ | Farroe | 1- 5 | 184 | | | Wilson | 6-10 | 168 | | | Stratz | 11-16 | 121 | | +--------------------+----------------+----------------+-------------+

In the first column he writes the name of each compositor when he takes copy; and, in the second, the folio of the copy, that he may be able to ascertain instantly in whose hands it lies. In the third column he sets down, opposite to the workman’s name, the number of lines composed, as fast as the galleys are brought to him. In the fourth, he inserts such remarks respecting the copy, &c. as may be necessary, and also any circumstances that may occur in the companionship.

When the work is finished, each man’s share of lines is readily ascertained, and all disputes are avoided. The publisher may expedite the progress of the work by offering a copy of the book, or some other token, as a premium to the compositor who sets the largest number of ems. The maker-up or clicker usually receives for his compensation the head and foot lines, and two or three cents per thousand, which is deducted from the wages paid to the compositor. Sometimes the compositors work “in pocket,” as it is called, or share evenly in the proceeds. This, however, is not a satisfactory mode, and its tendency is to retard the work, as no man will be anxious to do more than his share.

When the compositors are ready for their first taking of copy, it should be given to them in pieces as short as possible, the first two beginning with shorter takes than the others, to prevent delay in the making up. During the time the first take is in hand, the clicker sets the half-head, head-lines, white-lines, and signature-lines, together with notes and other extraneous matter.

When the first person brings his matter, the clicker counts or measures off with a type-measure the number of lines, and inserts them in the table; he then gives him another take of copy, and proceeds with the making up. The same plan is observed with the rest of the compositors. When the first sheet is made up, the clicker lays the pages on the stone, and informs the foreman of it, who has previously had chases and furniture prepared and the clicker immediately imposes the form.

The proofs should be read at once and given to the clicker to have them corrected. As soon as this is done, he lays up the forms, and gives the proof to the compositor whose matter stands first, who should immediately correct it, then forward it to the next, and so on, till the sheet be corrected; the clicker then locks it up and pulls the second proof, which must be duly forwarded, and the type be locked up finally for press.

The work will now proceed rapidly, provided the compositors stick close to their work and there be no hinderance with respect to letter, &c.: this depends on the good management of the foreman.

If the clicker find that he cannot make up the matter as fast as it is composed, he should call one of the compositors to his assistance, who must be the person last in copy.

COMPANIONSHIPS.

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.

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.

MAKING UP OF LETTER.

The number of the companionship, if possible, should be determined on at the commencement of the work, to enable all to proceed upon an equal footing. The letter appropriated for the work should be adequate to keep the persons on it fully employed.

If any part of the matter for distribution, whether in chase or in paper, be desirable on account of the sorts it may contain, it should be divided equally, or the choice of it thrown for.

When a new companion is put on the work after the respective shares of letter are made up, and if there be not a sufficiency to carry on all the companionship without making up more, he must bring on an additional quantity before he can be allowed to partake of any part of that which comes from the press.

MAKING UP FURNITURE.

The companions in rotation should make up the furniture in turn, the one who has the last matter in the first sheet leading off. Should an odd sheet be wanted, it will be better to throw for the chance of making it up.

IMPOSING AND DISTRIBUTING LETTER.

The person to whose turn it falls to impose must lay up the form for distribution. To prevent disputes, it will be well to prepare a blank form, as follows, which may be filled up as the work proceeds:—

+-------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------+ | | THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. | | | +-------------------------------------------+ | | |BEATTY. | | | | +-------------------------------------+ | | | |GOUDY. | | | | | +-------------------------------+ | | | | |FARROE. | BY WHOM | | SIGNATURES. | | | +-------------------------+ IMPOSED. | | | | | |WILSON. | | | | | | | +-------------------+ | | | | | | |CLARK. | | | | | | | | +-------------+ | | | | | | | |MCGUIGAN. | | | | | | | | | +-------+ | | | | | | | | |MAYHEW.| | +-------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-----------+ | B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | Clark. | | C | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | McGuigan. | | D | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Farroe. | | E | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Wilson. | | F | | | | | | | | | +-------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-----------+

When the form is laid up, the letter should be divided equally, and, if possible, each person should distribute the matter originally composed by him; by this means, the sorts which may have made his case uneven will return to him. If any man absent himself beyond a reasonable time, his undistributed matter should be divided equally among his companions, and when he returns he may have his share of the next division.

CORRECTING, ETC.

The compositor whose matter is first in the proof should lay up the forms on the imposing-stone and correct it; he then hands the proof to the person who follows next. The compositor who corrects the last part of the sheet locks up the forms.

The compositor who has matter in the first and last part, but not the middle of the sheet, only lays up the forms and corrects his matter; the locking up is left to the person who corrects last in the sheet.

A compositor having the first page only of the sheet is required to lay up one form; also to lock up one form if he has but the last page.

If, from carelessness in locking up the form,—viz. the furniture binding, the quoins badly fitted, &c.—any letters, or even a page, should fall out, the person who locked up the form should repair the damage. But, if the accident occur from bad justification, or from letters _riding_ upon the ends of the leads, the loss should fall upon the person to whom the matter belongs.

It is the business of the locker-up to ascertain whether all the pages are of equal length; and, though a defect in this respect is highly reprehensible in the maker-up, (whose duty it is to rectify it,) yet, if not previously discovered by the locker-up, and an accident happen, he must make good the defect.

The compositor who imposes a sheet must correct the alterations in that sheet. He must also rectify any defect in the register arising from want of accuracy in the furniture.

Forms sometimes remain a considerable length of time before they are put to press. In this case, particularly in summer, the furniture is likely to shrink, and the pages may fall out. It is therefore the business of the locker-up to attend to it in this respect, or he will be subject to make good any accident which his neglect may occasion.

When forms which have been worked off are ordered to be kept standing, they are considered under the care of the foreman. When they are cleared away, it is to be done in equal proportions by the companionship. During the time any forms may have remained under the care of the foreman, should there have been any alteration as to form or substance which were not made by the original compositors, they are not subject to clear away those parts of the form thus altered. To prevent dust from settling in the face of the type, it is well to keep the forms in a chase cabinet.

If the pressman unlock a form on the press, and any part of it fall out from carelessness in the locking up, he is subject to the loss that may happen in consequence.

The compositor who locks up a sheet takes it to the proof-press, and, after he has pulled a proof, hands it, together with the foul proof, to the reader, and deposits the form in a place appointed for that purpose.

TRANSPOSITION OF PAGES.

Each person in the companionship must lay down his pages properly on the stone for imposition. The compositor whose turn it is to impose looks them over to see if they are rightly placed. Should they, after this examination, lie improperly, and be thus imposed, it will be his business to transpose them; but, should the folios be wrong, and the mistake arise from this cause, it must be rectified by the person to whom the matter belongs. Pages without folios or head-lines, laid down wrongly for imposition, must be rectified by the person who has been slovenly enough to adopt this plan.

RULES AND REGULATIONS TO BE OBSERVED IN A PRINTING-OFFICE.

Compositors are to receive their cases from the foreman or his assistant, free from all pi or improper sorts, with clean quadrate and space boxes, both Roman and Italic, which they are to return to him in equally good condition.

2. When a compositor receives letter, furniture, &c. from the foreman, he is to return any portion not used, in as good state as he received it, the same day.

3. When a case is taken out of the rack, the compositor is to return it into the proper place immediately after he has done with it.

4. No cases to be placed over others, or under the frames, or on the floor.

5. Compositors are to impose their matter and pull a proof as soon as made up, unless directed otherwise, and to correct the proof without unnecessary delay.

6. The proof, when pulled, to be given to the reader, the copy in regular order to accompany the first proof, and the foul proof the second.

7. Compositors are not to leave either type or furniture on the stone.

8. A compositor is not to detain an imposing-stone longer than the nature of the business may require.

9. Head-lines, or other useful materials, on galleys, used during the course of a work, to be cleared away as soon as the work is finished.

10. When a work is done, the compositor, before beginning another work, unless otherwise directed, is to clear away the forms, taking from them the head-lines, white-lines, and odd sorts, as well as the leads and reglets; which, with the furniture of each sheet, and the matter properly tied up for papering, are to be given to the foreman.

11. Types dropped on the floor to be picked up at once. Matter broken by accident to be cleared away on the same day.

12. The saw, saw-block, bowl, sponge, letter-brush, shears, bellows, &c., to be returned to their respective places as soon as done with.

13. Letter-boards, windows, frames, &c., to be kept free from pi.

14. No person to take sorts from the cases of another without leave, nor hoard useful sorts, not wanting or likely to want them.

15. Compositors employed by the week to work not less than ten hours per day.

16. Unnecessary conversation to be avoided.

THE PRESS AND ITS WORKING.

HISTORY OF THE PRESS.

While poets and orators have expatiated on the glory and power of the press, rulers have exhausted their cunning in attempts to curb and regulate the art of which it is the symbol. Hedged in by arbitrary restrictions, it is not wonderful that printing was long carried on with clumsy implements. The earliest press resembled a screw-press, with a contrivance for running the form of types under the point of pressure. After the impression was taken, the screw was relaxed, and the form withdrawn and the sheet removed.

This rude press continued in general use till 1620, when WILLEM JANSEN BLAEU, at first a joiner and afterward a mathematical instrument maker of Amsterdam, contrived a press in which the bed or carriage was brought under the point of pressure by moving a handle attached to a screw hanging in a beam with a spring, the spring causing the screw to fly back as soon as the impression was given. This movement was afterward effected by means of a double strap or belt, two ends of which were attached to an axle, and the others to opposite ends of the bed. The platen was so small that two pulls were necessary to print one side of a sheet, and each sheet, therefore, required four pulls to produce a complete impression.

ADAM RAMAGE, who came from Scotland to Philadelphia about 1790, and who for a long time was the chief press-builder in the United States, made some improvements in the old press, one of which was the substitution of an iron bed for the stone one before in use.

About the year 1800, EARL STANHOPE contrived a press which obtained much notoriety. It was constructed of iron, and of a size sufficient to print the whole surface of a sheet, and such a combined action of levers was applied to the screw as to make the pull a great deal less laborious to the pressman.

The Stanhope press, however, was soon surpassed by the Columbian press, invented by GEORGE CLYMER, of Philadelphia. Mr. Clymer, as early as 1797, endeavoured to improve the common wooden press. His next efforts were directed to the production of an iron press, till finally eminent success was the result of his labours. In beauty, durability, and power, as well as facility of pull, the Columbian press stands perhaps unsurpassed. The power in this press is procured by a long bar or handle acting upon a combination of exceedingly powerful levers above the platen; the return of the handle or levers being effected by means of counterpoises or weights. The powerful command which the leverage enables the workman to exercise is favourable to delicacy and exactness of printing,—his arm feeling, as it were, through the series of levers to the very face of the types. The inventor removed to England in 1817, and introduced the press there, where it has long been held in high estimation.

In the United States, presses of simpler construction have displaced the imposing Columbian press,—the first of which was invented by PETER SMITH, of New York, and the latest is SAMUEL RUST’S Washington press, which has secured general approbation and adoption, as being more simple and cheaper, if not more effective, than the Columbian press. Hand-presses are now restricted to country papers of small circulation, and to book-offices devoted to extra fine printing.

The bed-and-platen power-press invented by ISAAC ADAMS, of Boston, was for a considerable time the only machine-press capable of producing fine work and exact register. It will give from six to eight thousand impressions per day. As the platen rolls off and leaves the bed entirely exposed, forms can be made ready with great facility. The sheets are taken from the feed-board by fingers, and, after being printed, are laid in a pile by a self-acting sheet-flyer.

The Cylinder press, which may be run at a much higher rate of speed than the bed-and-platen machine, was of earlier invention. FREDERICK KÖNIG, a Saxon, early in the present century turned his attention to cylinder printing, and was so successful that on November 28, 1814, the London _Times_ announced the fact that the number issued on that day had been printed by machinery propelled by steam. The earliest suggestion of a cylinder press is due, however, to William Nicholson, of England, who, in 1790 took out a patent for such a machine, but it was never perfected. According to Mr. Isaiah Thomas, a Dr. Kinsley, of Connecticut, afterward produced a press varying somewhat from Nicholson’s.

In 1818, Applegath and Cowper made important improvements in König’s press, which greatly enlarged its field of usefulness. This machine, with various modifications and improvements, is in general use in Europe and America, for newspapers of moderate circulation, and even for fine job and book work, as entirely accurate register can now be secured on the new cylinder presses of the best makers, such as Hoe & Co.,[17] Cottrell & Babcock, Campbell, and others. The stop cylinder press (the latest improvement) is particularly well adapted for fine printing.