FOUNDER Y. 
626 
pare the matrices. A matrice Is a piece of brafs or cop¬ 
per, of about an incli and a half long, and of a thicknefs 
in proportion to the fize of the letter it is to contain. In 
this metal is funk the face of the letter intended to be caff, 
by (Iriking the letter-punch about the depth of an n. 
After this, the Tides and face of the matrice mud be judi- 
fied and cleared with files of all inequalities made by fink¬ 
ing the punch. When thus prepared, it is brought to 
the furnace ; which is built of brick upright, with four 
fquare lides, and a done on the top, in which done is a 
wide round hole for the pan to hand in. A foundery of 
any confequence has feveral of thefe furnaces in it. 
As to the metal of which the types are to be cad, this, 
in extenfive founderies, is always prepared in large quan¬ 
tities; but cad into fmall bars of about twenty pounds 
weight, to be delivered out to the workmen as occafion 
requires. In the letter-foundery which has been long car¬ 
ried on with reputation under the direftion of Dr. Edmund 
Fry and company, in Type-dreet, London, we are in¬ 
formed, that a dock of metal is made up at two different 
times of the year, fufficient to ferve the caders at the fur¬ 
nace for fix months each time. For this purpofe, a large 
furnace is built under a diade, furnifhed with a wheel 
vent, in order the more equally to beat the fides of a 
drong pot of cad-iron, which holds when full fifteen hun¬ 
dred weight of the metal. The fire being kindled below, 
the bars of lead are let foftly down into the pot, and their 
fulion promoted by throwing in fome pitch and tallow, 
which foon inflame. An outer chimney, which is built 
fo as to project about a foot over the farthed lip of the 
pot, catches hold of the flame by a drong draught, and 
makds it aft very powerfully in meltinglead; whild it 
ferves at the fame time to convey away all the fumes, &c. 
from the workmen to whom this laborious part of the 
bufinefs is committed,. When the lead is thoroughly 
melted, a due proportion of the regulusof antimony and 
other ingredients is put in, and fome more tallow is in¬ 
flamed to make the whole incorporate fooner. The 
workmen now having mixed the contents of the pot very 
thoroughly by flirring long with a large iron ladle, next 
proceed to draw the metal off into the fmall troughs of 
caft-iron, which are ranged to the number of fourfeore 
upon a level platform faced with done, built towards the 
right hand. In the courfe of a day, fifteen hundred 
weight of metal can be eafily prepared in this manner; 
and the operation is continued for as many days as are ne- 
ceffary to prepare a flock of metal of all the various de¬ 
grees of hardnefs. After this, the whole is difpofed in¬ 
to prefles according to its quality, to be delivered out 
occafionally to the workmen. 
The founder muft now be provided with a ladle, which 
differs nothing from other iron ladles but in its fize ; and 
lie is provided always with ladles of feveral fizes, which 
he ufes according to the fize of the letters he is to cad. 
Before the cafier begins to cad, he mud kindle his fire in 
the furnace to melt the metal in the pan. Therefore he 
takes the pan out of the hole in the done, and there lays 
in coals and kindles them ; and, when they are well kin¬ 
dled, he lets the pan in again, and puts in metal into it to 
melt :• if it be a fmall-bodied letter he cads, or a thin let¬ 
ter of great bodies, his metal mud be very hot, to make 
the letter come. Then having chofen a ladle that will 
hold about (o much as the letter and break is, he lays it 
at the doking-hoie, where the flame burds out, to heat. 
Then he ties a thin leather, cut with its narrow end againft 
Site face to the leather groove of the matrice, by whip¬ 
ping a brown thread twice about the leather-groove, and 
fadening the thread with a knot. Then he puts both 
halves of the mould together, and puts the matrice into 
the matrice-cheek, and places the foot of the matrice on 
the dool of the mould, and the broad end of the leather 
upon the wood of the upper half of the mould, but not 
tight up, led it might hinder the foot of the matrice from 
finking dole down upon the dool in a fuccedionof work. 
Then laying a little rolin on the pppes wood of the mouldy 
and having his cading-ladle hot, he with the boiling fide 
of it melts the rofin ; and while it is yet melted, prefles 
the broad end of the leather hard down on the wood, and 
fo fadens it to the wood : all this is the preparation. 
Now he comes to cading; in the performance of which, 
placing the under half of the mould in his left hand, with 
the hook or hag forward, he holds the ends of its wood 
between the lower part of the ball of his thumb and his 
three hind fingers; then he lays the upper half of t lie 
mould upon the under half, fo that the male gages may 
fall into the female gages, and at the fame time the foot of 
the matrice places itfelf upon the dool ; and, clafping his 
left-hand thumb drong over the upper half of the mould, 
he nimbly catches hold of the bow or fpring with his 
right-hand fingers at the top of it, and his thumb under 
it, and places the point of it againd the middle of the 
notch in the backfide of the matrice, prelfing it as well 
forwards towards the mould, as downwards by the fhoul- 
der of the notch clofe upon the dool, while at the fame 
time with his hinder fingers, as aforefaid, he draws the un¬ 
der half of the mould towards the ball of his thumb,, 
and thruds by the ball of his thumb the upper part to¬ 
wards his fingers, that both the regiders of the mould 
may prefs againd both fides of the matrice, and his thumb 
and fingers prefs both halves of the mould clofe together. 
He next takes the handle of his ladle in his right hand, and 
with the ball of it gives a droke, two, or three, outwards 
upon the furface of the melted metal, to feum or clear it 
from the film or dud that may fwim upon it; then takes up 
the ladle full of metal, and having his mould, as aforefltid, 
in his left hand, he a little twids the left fide of his body 
from the furnace, and brings thegeat of his ladle (full of 
metal) to the mouth of the mould, and twids the upper 
part of his right hand towards him to turn the metal into 
it, while at the fame moment he jilts the mould in his left 
hand forwards, to receive the metal with a drong diake 
(as it is called), not only into the body of the mould, but 
while the metal is yet hot running, fwift and drongly, in¬ 
to the very face of the matrice, to receive its perfeft form 
there, as well as in the fltank. Then he 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 mod commonly by reafon of its 
weight it does), he throws or toffes the letter, break and 
all, upon a fheet of wade paper laid for that purpofe on- 
the bench, jud a little beyond his left hand, and is then 
ready to cad another letter as before ; and alfo, the whole 
number that is to be cad with that matrice. A workman 
will ordinarily cad about three thoufand of thefe letters 
in a day. 
When the caders at the furnace have got a fufficient 
number of types upon the tables, a fet 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 to other boys, who pafs them fwiftly under their 
fingers, defended by leather, upon fmooth flat flones, in 
order to polifh their broad-fides. This is a very dexterous 
operation, and is a remarkable indance of what may be 
effefted by the power of habit and long practice; for 
thefe boys, in turning up the other fide of the type, do 
it fo quickly by a mere touch of the fingers of the left 
hand, as not to require the lead perceptible intermifiion 
in the motion of the right hand upon the done. The 
types, thus finely fmoothed and flattened on the broad- 
fides, are next carried to another fet of boys, who fit at-a 
fquare table, two on each fide, and there are ranged up 
on long rulers or dicks, fitted with a fmall projection, 
to hinder them from Aiding off backwards. When the 
dicks are fo filled, they are placed, two and two, upon a 
fet of wooden pins fixed into the wall, near the dreffer, 
fometimes to the amount of an hundred, in order to un¬ 
dergo the finifliing operations. This workman, who is 
always the jnofl. expert and feilful in all the different 
branches 
