TYPE-FOUNDING. 



825 



alloy. Into this pot the founder dips a very small 

 iron ladle, to lift merely as much metal as will oast 

 a single letter at a time. Having poured in the 

 metal with his right hand, and returned the ladle 

 to the melting pot, the founder throws up his left 

 hand, which holds the mould, above his head, with 

 a sudden jerk, supporting it with his right hand. 

 It is this movement which forces the metal into 

 all the interstices of the matrix; for without it, 

 the metal, especially in the smaller moulds, would 

 not be able to expel the air and reach the bottom. 

 The pouring in the metal, the throwing up the 

 mould, the unclosing it, removing the pressure of 

 the spring, picking out the cast letter, closing the 

 mould again, and re-applying the spring to be 

 ready for a new operation, are all performed with 

 such astonishing rapidity and precision, that a 

 skilful workman will turn out 500 good letters in 

 an hour, being at the rate of one every eighth part 

 of a minute. A considerable piece of metal 

 remains attached to the end of the type as it quits 

 the mould. There are nicks upon the lower edge 

 of the types, to enable the compositor to place 

 them upright, without looking at them. 



From the table of the caster, the heap of types 

 turned out of its mould, is transferred from time 

 to time to another table, by a boy, whose business 

 it is to break off the superfluous metal, and this he 

 does so rapidly as to clear from 2000 to 5000 types 

 in an hour; a very remarkable dispatch, since he 

 must seize them by their edges, and not by their 

 feeble flat sides. From the breaking off boy, the 

 types are taken to the rubber, a man who sits 

 with a grit stone slab on a table before him, and 

 having on the fore and middle finger of his right 

 hand a piece of tarred leather, passes each broad 

 side of the type smactly over the stone, turning it 

 in the movement, and that so dexterously, as to 

 be able to rub 2000 types in an hour. 



From the rubber, the types are conveyed to a 

 boy, who, with equal rapidity, sets them up in 

 lines, in a long shallow frame, with their faces 

 uppermost and nicks outwards. This frame, con- 

 taining' a full line, is put into the dresser's hands, 

 who polishes them on each side, arid turning them 

 with their faces downwards, cuts a groove or chan- 

 nel in their bottom, to make them stand steadily 

 on 'end. It is essential that each letter be per- 

 fectly symmetrical and square ; the least inequality 

 of their length would prevent them from making 

 a fair impression ; and were there the least obli- 

 quity in their sides, it would be quite impossible, 

 when 200,000 single letters are combined, as in 

 one side of the Times newspaper, that they could 

 hold together as they require to do, when wedged 

 up in the chases, as securely as if that side of type 

 form a solid plate of metal. Each letter is finally 

 tied up in lines of convenient length, the propor- 

 tionate numbers of each variety, small letters, 

 points, large capitals, small capitals, and figures, 

 being selected, when the fount of type is ready 

 for delivery to the printer. 



Several mechanical schemes have been proposed 

 for founding types, but as yet none of them can 

 compete in practical utility with the dexterity and 

 precision of handiwork. 



An account of the different sizes of types, with 

 specimens, will be found in the article Printing. 



Schoeffer, the partner of Guttenburg, the re- 

 puted inventor of the art of printing with mov- 

 able types, was the first who invented matrices for 

 types, each individual type having been 



before this cut in wood or metal. Upon this in 

 vention the practical utility of the art of printing 

 mainly rests. In the early history of the art 

 printers were all their own letter-founders and 

 also their own bookbinders ; but as business in- 

 creased, a division of labour took place, and the 

 trades began to be separated. In England, we 

 find it ordered by a decree of the Star Chamber in 

 1637, that there shall be four founders of letters 

 for the kingdom, and no more. The provisions of 

 this absurd and oppressive decree were recognized 

 in an act of 14th Charles II., (1674,) which again 

 restrained the number of master-founders to four ; 

 and, by the same act, the number of printers was 

 limited to twenty. This, however, was only a 

 provisional act, which appears to have been im- 

 possible of execution, like all other enactments 

 which are directly opposed to the spirit of an age. 

 The demand for knowledge had become so general 

 that four founders and twenty printers were quite 

 inadequate to the supply, whatever might be the 

 opinion of Charles II. and his arbitrary court. 

 The supply, therefore, went on. In a very curious 

 book, written by Joseph Moxon, a mathematical- 

 instrument maker, who also applied his mechanical 

 knowledge to the art of letter-cutting, we are 

 informed that, in 1686, " the number of founders 

 and printers were "grown very many, insomuch 

 that, for the more easy management of typography, 

 the operators had found it necessary to divide it 

 into the several trades of the master-printer, the 

 letter-cutter, the letter-caster, the letter-dresser, 

 the compositor, the corrector, the pressman, the 

 ink-maker, besides several other trades which they 

 take into their assistance, as the smith, the joiner 

 &c." Such a division of labour indicates the 

 natural progress of an art towards perfection, and 

 is indeed in itself a cause of that perfection. 

 Moxon says that letter-cutting was a handy-work 

 at that time, kept so concealed among the artificers 

 of it, that he could not learn any one had taught 

 it any other. Moxon himself, however, laid down 

 mathematical rules for the formation of letters, but 

 he does not appear to have attempted any improve- 

 ment in their shape. In the reign of Anne most 

 of our type was imported from Holland, where the 

 letter-founders had succeeded in producing much 

 more beautiful characters. At length, however, 

 in 1720, William Caslon, an engraver of gun-locks 

 and barrels, having the credit of being a most in- 

 genious artist, was employed by the " Society for 

 Promoting Christian Knowledge " to cut the 

 punches for a fount of Arabic. His success led 

 him to enter into the business of a letter-founder, 

 in which undertaking he was assisted by Bowyer, 

 the celebrated printer. In a very few years Cas- 

 lon had rendered the English types superior to any 

 in Europe ; when the importation of foreign types 

 ceased, and the founts of this ingenious founder 

 became in demand on the continent. 



Among the more distinguished type- founding 

 establishments, that of Wilson and Sons, Glasgow, 

 long stood pre-eminent. The types manufactured 

 there were highly esteemed all over Europe for 

 their elegance and durability. Those in the Greek 

 character, especially, were held to be unrivalled. 

 This establishment was begun about the year 17-10, 

 by Dr Alexander Wilson, a very ingenious man, 

 who afterwards became professor of practical 

 astronomy in the university of. Glasgow. It was 

 continued by his descendants with undiminished 

 credit till the year 1834, when the business was 



