CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



lines. The process of composing is greatly facili- 

 tated by the compositor using a thin slip of brass, 

 called a setting-rule, which he places in the com- 

 posing-stick when he begins, and which, on a line 

 being completed, he pulls out, and places upon the 

 front of the line so completed, in order that the 

 types he sets may not come in contact with the 

 types behind them, but glide smoothly into their 

 places to the bottom of the composing-stick. 



When the workman has set up as many lines 

 as his composing-stick will conveniently hold, he 

 lifts them out by grasping them with the fingers 

 of each hand, and thus taking them up as if they 

 were a solid piece of metal. He then places the 

 mass in an elongated board, termed a galley, 

 which has a ledge on one, or perhaps both sides. 



Letter by letter, and word by word, is the com- 

 posing-stick filled ; and by the same progression 

 the galley is filled by the contents of successive 

 sticks. 



After the matter is thus far prepared, it is the 

 duty of the pressman to take an impression or 

 first proof 'from the types, which are tightly fixed 

 together in the galley, in order that the reader (who 

 is specially employed for this purpose) may correct 

 the errors which the compositor is sure to have 

 made. Proofs are usually taken by a press kept 

 for the purpose. After the galley matter is cor- 

 rected and re-corrected by the reader, and the 

 corrections are given effect to by the compositor, 

 it is divided into pages of the size wanted ; and 

 head-lines or figures indicating the number of the 

 page, being added, the pages are arranged upon 

 a large firm table, and there securely fixed up 

 in an iron frame or chess, by means of slips of 



Fig- 3- 



wood and wedges, or quoins. Fig. 3 is a repre- 

 sentation of a small form, consisting of four pages 

 of type. 



This process, which is called imposing, being 

 completed, and the face of the types being levelled 

 by a planer and mallet upon the imposing-table, 

 the form, as it is called, is proved, and prepared 

 for press. Proof-sheets being taken, they are sub- 

 jected to the scrutiny of the reader, the author 

 himself having previously given effect to his cor- 

 rections or emendations on the galley -proofs. 

 When the reader has pointed out words and 

 letters to be altered or corrected, the compositor 

 once more goes over the form, correcting the 

 errors by lifting out the letters with a bodkin, 

 and, when revised, the sheet is pronounced ready 

 for printing. It may be explained that the im- 

 posing-table at which all these corrections are 

 given effect to, is usually composed of smooth 

 stone, or marble, or cast-iron on the top, and re- 

 quires to be a substantial fabric. 



The corrections to be made on a proof are 

 marked on the margin by a set of signs, which 

 are understood by all printers, and which every 

 one who has occasion to write for the press 



758 



should know. The following specimen exhibits 

 the application of most of those signs : 



' To rule the nations with imperial 

 swoy, to impose terms of peace, to l a 

 spare the humbled, and to rcush the 2 tr. 

 proud, resigning itto others to de- 3 jt 

 scribe the courses of the^heavens, and * | 

 explain the rising stars ; this, to use 

 the words of the poet of the j^Eneid * Italic. 

 in the apostrophe of Anchises to 

 Fabius in the Shades A was regarded 6 ,/ 

 as the proper province of a Roman. 

 The genius of the people was eves 

 more adverse to the cultivation of the 

 physical sciences than that the Euro- 



pean Greeks A and |seen| we have] that 

 the latter left experimental philosophy 

 chiefly in the hands of the Asian and 

 African colonists,^ The elegant litera- 

 ture and metaphysical speculations 



3 2/1 



of Athens, her histories, dramas, epics, 

 and orations, had a numerous host of 

 admirers in Italy, but a feeling of 

 indifference was displayed to the 

 practical science of Alexandria. [' This 

 repugnance of the Roman mind at 

 home to mathematics and physics, 

 extending from the Atlantic to the 

 IndianO cean, from Northern Britain 

 to the cataracts of the Nile, annihi- 

 lated in a measure -aH- pure sciences 

 in the conquered districts where they~~ 

 had bad-been pursued, and prohibited 

 attention to them in the mother^" 



A 



country. ~~) 



-Long, indeed, after the age of 

 Ptolemy, the school in connection 

 with which he flourished, remained 

 in existence ; &c. 



/\ together -with the prevalence of its military despotism 

 abroad, 



i. A wrong letter. A line is drawn through the wrong letter, 

 and the proper one written in the margin. After every mark 

 of correction a line / should be drawn, to prevent its being con- 

 founded with any other in the same line. 2. A word or letter to 

 be transposed. Where letters only are to be transposed, it is 

 better to strike them out, and write them in their proper sequence 

 in the margin, like a correction. 3. A space wanted. This mark 

 is also used when the spacing is insufficient. 4. A space or 

 quadrat sticking up. 5. Alteration of type. One line is drawn 

 under the word for Italics, two for SMALL CAPITALS, three for 

 CAPITALS. 6. Correction or insertion of stops (points'). 7. A 

 word struck out, and afterwards approved of (Lat. stet, let it 

 stand). 8. A turned letter. 9. An omission. 10. A letter of a 



6 6". caps. 



7 stet. 



"9 

 / 



8 ;/ " /;-. 

 10 wf. 



6 



12 Roman. 



13 New line. 



14 See below. 



'* U ~ 

 16 the 



17 



"3 



18 V 



19 Run on. 



5 Caps. 



