t y r 
T Y P 
T Y P 
right hand, and with the ball of it gives a 
stroke, two or three, outwards upon the sur- 
face of the melted metal, to scum or clear it 
from the film or dust that may swim upon it; 
then takes up the ladle full of metal, and hav- 
ing his mould in his left hand, he a little twists 
the left side of his body from the furnace, and 
brings the gcat of his ladle (full of metal) to 
the mouth of the mould, anti twists the upper 
part of his right hand towards him to turn the 
metal into it, while at the same moment of 
time he jilts the mould in his left hand for- 
wards, to receive the metal with a strong 
shake (as it is caHed), not only into the body 
of the mould, but while the metal is yet hot 
running, swift and strongty, into the very 
face ot the matrice, to receive its perfect form 
there, as well as in the shank. 
He then takes the upper half of the mould 
off the under half, by placing his right- 
hand thumb on the end of the wood next his 
left-hand thumb and his two middle-fingers at 
the other end of the wood: and finding the 
letter and break lie in the under half of the 
mould (as most commonly by reason of its 
weight it does), he throws or tosses the letter, 
break and all, upon a sheet of waste paper 
laid for that purpose on the bench, just a little 
beyond his leit hand, and is then ready to cast 
another letter as before: and also, the whole 
number that is to be cast with that matrice. 
A workman will ordinarily cast about three 
thousand of these letters in a day. 
W hen the casters at the furnace have got a 
sufficient number of types upon the tables, a 
set of boys come and nimbly break away the 
jets from them: the jets are thrown into the 
pots, and the types are carried away in parcels 
toother bo-ys, who pass them swiftly under their 
fingers, defended by leather, upon smooth flat 
stones, in order to polish their broad-sides. 
This is a very dexterous operation, and is a 
remarkable instance of what may be effected' 
by the power of habit and long practice ; for 
these boys, in turning up the other side of 
the type, do it so quickly by a mere touch of 
the lingers of the left hand, as not to require 
the least perceptible intermission in the mo- 
tion of the right hand upon the stone. The 
types, thus finely smoothened and flattened 
on the broad-sides, are next carried to another 
set of boys, who sit at a square table, two on 
each side, and there are ranged up on long 
rulers or sticks, fitted with a small projection, 
to hinder them from sliding off backwards. 
When the sticks, are so filled, they are placed, 
two and two, upon a set of wooden pins fixed 
into the wall, near the dresser, sometimes to 
the amo int of a hundred, in order to under- 
go the finishing operations. This workman, 
who is always the most expert and skilful in all 
the different branches carried on at the foun- 
dry, begins by taking one of these sticks, and, 
with a peculiar address, slides the whole co- 
lumn o: types off upon the dressing-stick : 
this is made of well-seasoned mahogany, and ; 
furnished with two end-pieces of steel, a little 
lower than the body of the types, one of w hich 
is moveable, so as to approach the other by 
means of a long screw-pin, inserted in the end 
of the stick. The types are put into this stick 
with their faces next to the back or projec- 
tion ; and after they are adjusted to one ano- 
ther so as to stand even, they are then bound 
up, by screwing home the moveableend-piece. 
It is here where the great and requisite accu- 
racy of the moulds conies to be perceived; 
for in this case the whole column, so bound 
up, lies flat and true upon the stick, the two 
extreme types being quite parallel, and the 
whole has the appearance of one solid conti- 
nuous plate of metal. The least inaccuracy 
in the exact parallelism of the individual type, 
when multiplied so many times, would render 
it impossible to bind them up in this manner, 
by disposing them to rise or spring from the 
stick by the smallest pressure frqm the 
screw. Now, when lying so conveniently 
with the narrow 7 edges uppermost, which can- 
not possibly be smoothed in the manner before 
mentioned by the stones, the workman does 
this more effectually by scraping the surface 
of the column with a thick-edged but sharp 
razor, which at every stroke brings on a very 
fine smooth skin, like polished silver ; and 
. thus he proceeds till in about half a minute 
he comes to the fart her end of the stick. The 
other edges of the types are next turned up- 
wards, and polished in the same manner. It 
is whilst the types thus lie in the dressing- 
stick, that the operation of bearding or barb- 
ing is performed, which is effected by run- 
ning a plane, faced with steel, along the shoul- 
der of the body next to the face; which takes 
more orlessolt the corner, as occasion may re- 
quire. Whilst in the dressing-stick they are 
also grooved, which is a very material opera- 
tion. In order to understand this, it must-be 
remembered, that when the types are first 
broken off from the jets* some superfluous me- 
tal always remains, which would make them 
bear very unequally against the paper, whilst 
under, the printing-press, and effectually mar 
the impression. That, all these inequalities 
may, therefore, be taken, away, and that 
the bearings of every type may be regulated 
by the shoulders imparted to them all alike 
from the mould, the workman or dresser pro- 
ceeds in the following manner: The types be- 
ing screwed up in the stick as before mentioned 
with the jet end outermost, and projecting 
beyond the wood about one-eighth of an inch, 
the stick is put into an open press, so as to 
present the jet-end uppermost, and then every 
thing is. made fast by driving along, wedge, 
which bears upon a slip of wood, which lies 
close to the types the whole length: then a 
plough or plane is applied, which is so con- 
structed as to embrace the projecting part 
of the types betwixt its long sides, which are 
are made of polished iron. When the plane. 
8.3* 
is thus applied, the steel cutter bearing upon 
that part between the shoulders of the types 
where the inequalities lie, the dresser cU-x- 
terously glides it along, and bv this means- 
strips olf every irregular part that comes in 
the way, anti so makes an uniform groove the 
whole length, and leaves the two shoulders- 
standing; by which meansevery type becomes 
precisely like to another, as to the height 
against paper. The types being now finished, 
the stick is taken out of the press, and the 
whole column replaced upon the other stick ; 
and after the whole are so dressed, he pro- 
ceeds to pick out the bad letters previous to 
putting them up into pages and papers. In 
doing this he takes the stick into his left hand, 
and turning the faces near to the light, he ex- 
amines them carefully; and whenever an im- 
perfect or damaged fetter occurs, he nimbly 
plucks it out with a sharp bodkin, which be- 
holds in the right hand for that purpose. Those 
letters which, from their form, project over 
the body of the type, and which cannot on 
this account be rubbed on the stones, are 
scraped on the broad-sides with a knife or file, . 
and some of the metal next the face pared- 
away with a pen-knife, in order to allow the 
type to come close to any other. This ope- 
ration is called kerning. 
The excellence of printing- types consists- 
not only in the clue performance of. all the 
operations above described, but also in the 
hardness ol the metal, form, and fine propor- 
tion of the character, and in. the exact bear- 
ing and ranging of the letters in relation to one 
another. See Printing. 
TYEHA, cat’s- tail, a genus of plants of 
the classs monoecia, and order triandria ; and 
in the natural system ranging under the 3d. 
order, calamariae. The amentum of the male 
flower is cylindrical ; the calyx- is scarcely dis- 
tinguishable ; there is no corolla. The fe- 
male has a cylindrical amentum below the 
-male ; the calyx is composed of villous hair; 
there is no corolla, and only one seed fixed 
on a capillary papus. There are two species,, 
both natives ot Britain ; the latifolia and an-’ 
gustifolia. 1. Latilbiia, great cat’s-tail, cr reed 
mace, is frequent in ponds and lakes. T he 
stalk is six fet high ; the leaves a yard long, 
hardly an inch wide, convex on one side : 
the amentum, or cylindrical club, which ter- 
minates the stalk, is about six inches long, of 
a dark-brown or fuscous colour. Cattle will 
sometimes eat the leaves, but Schreber thinks 
them noxious: the roots have sometimes been 
eaten in sallads, and the down of the amen- 
tum used to stuff' cushions and mattresses. 
Linnams informs us, that the leaves are used 
by the poopers in Sweden to bind the hoops 
ot their casks. 2. Angustifolia, narrow-leaved 
cat’s-tail, .is found in pools and ditches. The. 
leaves are semi-cylindrical, and the male and. 
female spikes are remote and slender. 
T YPOGKAPI1Y. See Printing. 
