PRINTING. 



693 



and pages condescended upon, the copy is given 

 to the compositor, who places it before him on the 

 case, anil lifts out the types in proper order, plac- 

 ing them in a little frame of metal which he holds 

 in his one hand. This little frame is called the com- 

 posing stick ; one of its ends is moveable so that 

 by means of a screw it may be fixed at a distance 

 from the other, equal to the breadth of the page. 

 When one line of types has been put into the stick, 

 the compositor continues the process of setting, 

 until the stick will not conveniently hold more. 

 These are now carefully slipped out and slided 

 on to a long flat board with a ledge, and the same 

 process is continued until one or more pages be 

 completed. Any one seeing for the first time a 

 compositor at his case, must be struck with astonish- 

 ment at the rapidity with which the experienced 

 workman lifts the types from their respective boxes 

 and places them in the stick, while at the same 

 time so few errors are committed. In order to 

 prevent the compositor from turning the type the 

 wrong way or to prevent the letter from being in- 

 verted, a notch or nick is cut on the same side of 

 each sort of types, which guides him to place it 

 right. 



When a whole page has been composed, or set, as 

 it is technically called, the workman binds the types 

 together by tying a cord round them. This is done 

 while the types are on the ledged board formerly 

 spoken of, and which is usually called a Galley. In 

 some cases, it becomes necessary that the author 

 should see an impression or proof of several pages 

 before they are tied up, in order that if any thing 

 is to be added or subtracted, the compositor may be 

 saved the trouble of untying and relying the pages, 

 but when the necessary corrections have been made, 

 the types are tied in pages, as formerly mentioned. 

 A sufficient number of pages having been composed 

 in order to print one side of a sheet, an impression 

 from them is taken and submitted first to the inspec- 

 tion of a corrector, who, by minute examination 

 and comparison with the copy, endeavours to detect 

 and point out by marginal references, all the errors 

 that the compositor may have committed. This is 

 called the first reading of the proof ; and when the 

 compositor has gone over his page, and made the 

 necessary alterations, a second impression is taken, 

 called the revise, which is also inspected by the 

 corrector. According to circumstances, two or 

 more revises are made ; and when the corrector is 

 satisfied, the last revise is sent to the author, to re- 

 ceive his corrections, which being attended to by 

 the compositor, and examined by the corrector, the 

 compositor's work is deemed fit for press. See 

 Correction of the Press. 



The pages of a sheet or half sheet, after having 

 been composed and tied up, are transferred to a large 

 table, the upper surface of which consists of a large 

 flat stone of marble, Purbeck, York, or any other 

 hard stone, six or eight inches thick, four feet and a 

 half long, and about half as broad. This table is 

 furnished with drawers containing wedges, pieces of 

 wood, lead, &c., (called furniture) , the use of which 

 we shall presently describe. 



The compositor having laid down the pages of 

 one side of the sheet on the stone table in proper 

 order, proceeds next to fix them firmly in a rectan- 

 gular frame of iron, called a chase, and the process 

 of fixing the pages is called ' dressing the chase.' 

 The chase being placed so as to begird the form, 

 the next object is to keep the pages at a proper 

 distance from each other, in order that a regular 

 margin may be obtained. The pages are kept at 

 the proper distances from each other by means of 

 rectangular pieces of metal, called gutters or gutter- 



sticks, placed between them ; and another species 

 of furniture, called reglets, is placed in the crosses of 

 the chase, so as to give the work to be printed a 

 proper margin after it is bound. The interior por- 

 tion of the form being now finished, the outer edges 

 are next adjusted, by placing side sticks and foot 

 sticks to them, and the whole is firmly secured 

 within the chase, after being properly adjusted by 

 driving in wooden wedges, called quoins. This last 

 process is called locking up, but before it is done, 

 care is taken that all the types shall have their 

 faces of one height, which is ensured by placing 

 over them a flat piece of wood, and striking it with 

 a wooden mallet. 



The compositor must arrange the pages and 

 fix them in the chase, in such order that when 

 the impression is taken off, and the sheet folded, the 

 pages will follow each other in proper order. There 

 being two sides in a sheet, and eight or perhaps sixty- 

 four pages on each side, some consideration is re- 

 quired to lay down the pages properly. On ex- 

 amining a printed sheet, uncut, containing sixteen 

 or thirty-six pages, this will appear at first sight a 

 very intricate matter, and it must be owned that 

 where the pages are numerous in a sheet, the ar- 

 rangement of the pages, (called imposing) requires, 

 even from the most experienced compositors, care 

 and consideration. The process of imposing is, 

 however, based upon a simple law, which, if ap- 

 plied, cannot fail to guard against mistakes in the 

 arrangement of the pages. In a work like the pre- 

 sent, it would be completely out of place to enter 

 into very minute details respecting this or any other 

 branch of the process, but in order that the reader 

 may see that there is a regular system or law ob- 

 served in laying down the pages, we will subjoin 

 plans of the pages of a sheet of 8vo. 12mo. and 18mo. 

 that is, of sheets consisting of sixteen, twenty-four, 

 and thirty-six pages. It must be premised, how- 

 ever, that the sheet being printed on both sides, 

 that side which contains the first page of the sheet 

 is called the outer form, and the other is called the 

 inner form. 



A Sheet of Common Octavo. 

 Outer Fcn-m. Inner Form. 



A Jlieet of Twelves. 

 Outer Form. Inner Form. 



