180 PRINT! NO. 



rigid examination by womm, to remove every knot or speck, who also 

 discover any broken or torn sheet. It is now counted into quires, and 

 then into mill reams of twenty quires each ; it is afterwards put into stout 

 paper wrappers, which the Excisemen mark with the class of the paper, 

 the number of the mill, and the duty of 3d. per Ib. weight. We have 

 spoken of mill reams; those can only be sold by the paper makers (under 

 a penalty of 100), the perfect or stationer's ream consists of 2l quires, 

 which contains 500 sheets, fit to be printed upon, exclusive of the outside, 

 or what is technically called waste. Erery paper maker must take out a 

 license, and every mill has a distinctive number assigned to it by the excise. 

 To encourage the exportation of paper or printed books, a drawback of 

 3d. per Ib. weight is allowed by the Excise, a bond being given, with 

 sureties, to export within a certain time. It must be observed, that 

 although a sheet of paper can be made any length so long as pulp is 

 supplied, yet it cannot be made more than five feet in width. The first 

 paper mill built in England was by a German, at Dartford, in the six- 

 teenth century. 



PRINTING. 



It is not our intention to fatigue the reader, either with the controversy 

 so long carried on (without any satisfactory result) of the origin of 

 printing by moveable types, or of entering into the minutiae of this 

 beautiful process by which mankind has so greatly benefited; we will 

 endeavour, however, to give a general, but comprehensive description of 

 the ordinary business of a printing office. First then, of the Compositor, 

 who stands before a frame ; each frame has two parr, of cases , the upper 

 case with ninety eight partitions, which contains all the small letters, 

 capitals, points, figures, &c. ; these are the Roman characters ; the lower 

 case is divided into partitions of four different sizes, and in all there are 

 fifty-three holes or boxes for the letters, apportioned in size according 

 to the required want of the particular letter; as for example, the letters 

 used in compositions in English are as under : 



a 8,500 h 6,400 o 8,000 v 1,200 



b 1,600 i 8,000 p 1,700 w 2,000 



c _ 3,000 j 400 q 500 x 400 



d 4,400 k 800 r 6,200 y 2,000 



e 12,000 1 4,000 s 8,000 z 200 



f 2,500 m 3,000 t 9,000 



g 1,700 n 8,000 u 3,400 



