96 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



ecclesiastical terms, showing the close associatiou between 

 the printers and the other foremost scholars of the fifteenth 

 century — the clerical scribes — who were gradually super- 

 seded by the printing press. Thus we have in sizes of type, 

 " brevier," " pica," and " canon " ; in the office arrangements 

 the " chapel," with its " father," and the " devil " ; while the 

 black smudges and grey patches in bad presswork are 

 respectively " monks " and " friars." Even where there 

 was no such allusion, we have in the word "quadrates" 

 (shortened to "quads" by the modern workmen), applied 

 to the large blanks used to fill out a line, a wholly dif- 

 ferent method of nomenclature from that which in late years 

 has given us such forms as "bridging," "hammering," and 

 " slating" — slang expressions well understood in the trade, 

 wholly meaningless to an outsider, and which, so far, have 

 never figured in any glossary. 



The difficulty of tracing a technical term to its root 

 was well illustrated lately by an interesting discussion as 

 to the origin of the word " flong " — the name by which the 

 moulding material in the papier - mache process of stereo- 

 typing is universally known. It is only about forty years 

 since the process was invented, but the derivation of the 

 word is uncertain. One ingenious writer, finding that " flong " 

 was an old English form of the verb "fling," suggested this 

 obsolete word as the original of the term, the mould being 

 "flung" on the type, and beaten down (Swedish flenga) 

 with a brush. But modern workmen do not hunt up for- 

 gotten Teutonic forms wherewith to coin technical terms. 

 With greater probability another suggested the French flan, 

 " a thin, soft cake or custard" (English form, "flawn"), to 

 which the moulding material bears some resemblance. This 

 theory met with wide acceptance, the process having been 

 first followed in France. Another, and I think the correct, 

 suggestion is simpler still, that " flong " is merely a corruption 

 of the YYenchfluant, " blotting-paper," of which the material 

 is chiefly composed. 



If so much doubt exists as to the origin of a term not fifty 

 years old, one must be cautious indeed in speculating about 

 terms which came into being when printing was not only an 

 art, but a mystery. 



First, I will briefly explain the words, for we must examine 

 their meaning before we can hope to understand their origin. 



" Kern " is a word from the type-foundry, but is as old as 

 the period when every printer cast his own type. Ordinary 

 letters stand square within the four corners of the type on 

 which they are cast, are fully supported, and do not over- 

 hang. But certain letters, especially those cast on the slope, 

 like scripts and italics, overhang the body and overlap each 



