835 
Italic is y, or 30 parts of 42, and 33 parts for 
tlie English lace. The gage for the short let- 
ters is : _t, or 18 parts of 42 of the whole body 
tor t lie Roman and Italic, and 22 parts for the 
English face. 
1 he Italic and other standing gages are to 
measure the scope ot the Italic steins, by ap- 
pbing the top and bottom of the gage to 
the top and bottom lines of the letters, 
and the other side of the gage to the stem ; 
tor when the letter complies with these three 
sides ot that gage, it has its true shape. 
The next care of the 
letter-cutter is to pre- 
pare good steel punches, well tempered, and 
quite tree from all veins of iron ; on the face of 
which he draws or marks the exact shape of 
the letter With pen and ink if the letter is large, 
or with a smooth blunted point of a needle if 
it is small ; and then with sizeable and proper- 
shaped and pointed gravers and sculpters, 
dig-> or sculps out the steel between the strokes 
•or marks so made on the face of the punch, 
and leaves the marks standing on the face. 
Having well shaped the inside strokes of his 
letter, he deepens the hollows with the same 
tools ; tor, it a letter is not deep in proportion 
to its width, it will, when used at press, print 
black, and be good for nothing. This work 
is generally regulated by' the depth of the coun- 
ter punch. 1 hen4te works the outside with 
proper tiles till it is fit for the mat rice. 
Rut before we proceed to the sinking and 
justifying of the matrices, we must provide 
a mould to justify them by, of which there are 
draughts in Plate Miscel. figs. 1*,2*. Every 
mould is composed of an upper and an un- 
der part. The under part is delineated in 
tig. 1*. The upper part is marked tig. 2*. 
and is in all respects made like the under 
part excepting the stool behind, and the 
bow or spring also behind ; and excepting a 
small roundish wire between the body and car- 
riage, near the break, where the under part Inis 
a small rounding groove made in the body. 
This wire, or rather half-wire, in the upper 
part, makes the nick in theshank of the letter, 
when part of it is received into the groove in 
-the under part. Thes'e two parts are so ex- 
actly fitted and gaged into one another (viz. 
■the male gage marked c in fig. 2 * into the fe- 
male marked g in fig. l*) that when the upper 
part of the mould is properly placed on, and 
in- the under part of the mould, both together 
make the entire mould, and may be slid back- 
wards for use so far, till the edge of either of 
the bodies on the middle of either carriage 
-comes just to the edge of the female gages cut 
in each carriage: and they may be slid for- 
ward so far, till the bodies on either carriage 
-touch eacii other: and the sliding of these two 
parts of the mould backwards makes the shank 
of the letter thicker, because the bodies on 
each part stand wider asunder; and the slid- 
ing them forwards makes the shank of the let- 
ter thinner, because the bodies on each part 
of the motild stand closer together. The parts 
of the mould are as follow: viz. a, The car- 
riage. b. Tire body, c. The male gage, 
d e. The mouth piece, f, The register, g, 
The female gage, it h. The hag a a a a, 
The bottom plate. 4> b b, The wood on which 
the bottom plate lies, c c c, The mouth. 
dd, The throat, e d d, l ire pallet, f, The 
nick, g g, The stool. hh, 'V he spring or 
i>o\v. 
Then the mould must be justified: and 
TYPE. 
first the founder justifies the body, by casting 
about 20 proofs or samples of letters' ; which 
are set up in a composing stick, with all their 
nicks towards the right hand; and then. In 
comparing these with the pattern letters, set 
up in the same manner, he finds the exact 
measure of the body to be cast, lie also 
tries if the two sides of the body are parallel, 
or that the body is no bigger at the head than 
at the foot, by' taking half the number of his 
proofs and turning them with their heads to 
the teet of the other half; and if then the 
heads and the feet are found exactly even 
upon each other, and neither to drive out nor 
get in, the two sides may be pronounced pa- 
rallel. He farther tries whether the two sides 
of the thickness of the letter are parallel, by 
first setting his proofs in the composing stick 
with their nicks upwards and then turning one 
half with their heads to the feet of the other 
half ; and if the heads and feet lie exactly 
upon each other, and neither drive out nor 
get in, the two sides of the thickness are pa- 
rallel. 
The mould thus justified, the next business 
is to prepare the matrices. A mat rice is a 
piece of brass or copper, of about an inch 
and a half long, and of a thickness in propor- 
tion to the size of the letter it is to contain. Iri 
this metal is sunk the face of the letter in- 
tended tobe ca>t, by striking tbe letter-punch 
about the depth of an n. After this, the sides 
and face of the matrice must be justified and 
cleared with tiles, of all bunchings made by 
sinking the punch. 
Every thing thus prepared, it is brought to 
the furnace; which is built of brick upright 
with four square sides, and a stone on the top, 
in which stone is a wide round hole for the pan 
to stand in. A foundry of any consequence 
has several of these furnaces in it. 
As to the metal of which the types are to 
be cast, this in extensive foundries, is always 
prepared in large quantities; but cast into 
small bars of about 20 pounds weight, to be 
delivered out to the workmen as occasion re- 
quires. In the letter-foundries, which have 
been long carried on with the greatest reputa- 
tion we are informed, that a stock of metal is 
made up at two diTerent times of the year, 
sufficient to serve the casters, at the furnace 
for six months each time. For this purpose, 
a large furnace is built under a shade, fur- 
nished with awheel vent, in order the more 
equally to heat the sides of a strong pot of 
cast iron, which holds, when full, 15 hundred- 
weight of the metal. The fire being kindled 
below, the bars of lead are let softly clown 
into the pot, and their fusion promoted liy 
throwing in some pitch and tallow, which soon 
inflame. An outer chimney which is built so 
as to project about a foot over the farthest lip 
of the pot, catches hold of the flame by a 
strong draught, and makes it act very power- 
fully in melting lead: whilst it serves at the 
same time to convey away all the fumes, &c. 
from the workmen to whom this laborious part 
of the business is committed. When the lead 
is thoroughly melted, a due proportion of the 
regu I us of antimony and other ingredients is put 
in, and some more tallow is inflamed to make 
the whole incorporate sooner. The workmen 
now having mixed the contents of the pot 
very' thoroughly by stirring long with a large 
iron ladle, next proceed to draw the metal off 
into the small troughs of cast iron, which are i 
1 ranged to the number of fourscore upon a 
! level platform faced with stone, built towards 
\ the right hand. In the course of a day, 15 
j hundred weight of metal can be ea ily pre- 
j pared in his manner; and the operation is 
j continued for as many days as are necessary 
to prepare a stock of metal of ail the various 
degrees of hardness. After this, the whole is 
dispelled into presses acc ording to its quality, 
to be delivered out occasionally to the work- 
men. 
The founder must now lie provided with 
a ladle, which differs nothing from other 
iron ladies but in its size; and he is pro- 
vided always with ladles of several sizes, 
which he uses according to the size of the 
letters lie is to cast, before the caster 
begins to cast, lie must kindle his fire in 
the furnace to melt the metal in the pan. 
He therefore takes the pan out of the hole in 
the stone, and there lays in coals and kindles 
them; and, when they are well kindled, lie 
sets the pan in again, and puts metal into 
it to melt ; ifit is a small-bodied letter ae casts, 
or a thin letter of great bodies, his metal 
must be very hot; nay sometimes red-hot, to 
make the letter come. Then having chosen 
a ladle that will hold about so much as the 
letter and break is, he lays it at the toking- 
hole, where the flame bursts out, to heat. 
I Then he ties a thin leather, cut with its nar- 
row end against the face to the leather-groove 
ef the matrice, by whipping a brown thread 
twice about the leather-groove, and fastening 
the thread with a knot. Then lie puts both 
halves of the mould together, and puts the 
matrice into the matrice-cheek; and places the 
foot of the matrice on the stool of live mould, 
and the broad end of the leather upon the wood 
of the upper half of the mould, but not tight' 
up, lest it might hinder the foot of the matrice 
from sinking close down upon the stool in a 
train of work. Then laying a little rosin on 
the upper wood of the mould, and having his 
casting-ladle hot, lie w ith the boiling side of it 
melts the rosin: and, while it is yet melted, 
presses the broad end of the leather hard down 
on the wood, and so fastens it to the wcod : all 
this is the preparation. 
Now he comes to casting ; in the perform- 
ance of which, placing the under haif of the 
mould in his left hand, with the hook or hap-, 
forward, lie clutches the ends of its w'ood be- 
tween the lower part of the bal! of his thumb 
and iiis three hind fingers ; then he kys the 
upper half of the mould upon the under half, 
so that the male gages may fail into thefennale 
gages, and at the same time the foot of die ma- 
trice places itself upon the stool : and, ciasjpinn 
Iiis left-hand thumb strong over the upper had 
of the mould, he nimbly catches hold of the 
bow or spring with Iiis right-hand fingers at 
tiie top of it, and Iiis thumb under it, and 
places the point of it against the middle of the 
notch in the backside of the matrice, pressing 
it as well forwards towards the mould as down- 
wards by the shoulder of the notch close uipon 
the stool, while at the same time with his band- 
er lingers, lie draws the under half of themould 
towards lie ball of his thumb, and thrtistss by 
the ball of iiis thumb the upper part towards 
his fingers that both the registers of the 
mould may press against both sides of (he 
matrice, and Iiis thumb and fingers piress 
both halves of the mould close together 
lie then takes the handle of hisladldn his 
10 
