A compositor having the first page only of the sheet, is required to lay up one form; also to lock up one form if he has only the last page.

If from carelessness in locking up the form--viz. the farniture binding, the quoins badly fitted, &c.any letters or even a page should fall out, the person who has thus locked up the form must immediately repair the damage. But if from bad Justification, or in leaded matter the letters ride upon the ends of the leads, the loss attending any accident from this circumstance must fall upon the person to whom the matter belongs.

It is the business of the person who locks up the form, to ascertain whether all the pages are of an equal length; and though a defect in this respect is highly reprehensible in the person to whom it attaches, (whose duty it is to rectify it,) yet if not previously discovered by the locker-up, and an accident happen, he must make good the defect.

The compositor who imposes a sheet must correct the chargeable proof of that sheet, which is also generally at the same time corrected for press, and take it to the ready place. He must also rectify any defect in the register, arising from the want of accuracy in the furniture.

Forms will sometimes remain a considerable length of time before they are put to press. When this happens, and particularly in the summer, the furniture is liable to shrink, and the pages will, in consequence, if care be not taken, fall out; it is therefore the business of the person who has locked up the form, to attend to it in this respect, or he will be subject to make good any accident which his neglect may occasion.

When forms are wrought off, and ordered to be kept standing, they are then considered under the care of the overseer. When they are desired to be cleared away, it is done in equal proportions by the companionship. During the time any forms may have remained under the care of the Overseer, should there have been any alteration as to form or substance, such alterations not having been made by the original compositors, they are not subject to clear away those parts of the form that were altered. If the pressmen unlock a form on the press, and from carelessness in the locking up any part of it fall out, they are subject to the loss that may happen in consequence.

The compositor who locks up a sheet takes it to the proof press, and the pressman, after he has pulled the proof, puts by the forms in the place appointed for that purpose.

Transposition of Pages.

Each person in the companionship must lay down his pages properly on the stone for imposition. The compositor, whose furn it is to impose, looks them over to see if they are rightly placed; should they, after this examination, lay improperly, and be thus imposed, it will be his business to transpose them; but should the folios be wrong, and the mistake arise from this inaccuracy, it must be rectified by the person to whom the matter belongs. Pages being laid down for imposition, without folios or head lines, must be rectified by the person who has been slovenly enough to adopt this plan.

From Thee, O Press! what blessings flow
Tunworthy mortals here below!
Life's path to smooth:

The Widows' cause, the lnfants' tear,
In Thee a friend are sure to rear;
Their loss to soothe.

Through Thee fair Liberty will stand,
Briton's proud boast throughout this land;
See Hist'ry's page!

The Press enslav'd, She'll inly moan,
And England's Sons in chains may groan,
From age to age!

HAVING now (agreeable with our notice in Chap. X.) presented our readers, in that and the two following Chapters, with an account of the various characters made use of in printing, together with a copious detail of the Ancient and Modern Alphabets, which we most humbly trust will be received, not only by the Literati, but by compositors in general, as a desideratum of no small importance. In the further prosecution of our labours, we purpose, as far as our confined limits will admit, to do ample justice (to the best of our humble ability) to the subjects which still remain to be treated of in the present work; therefore we propose (as our motto speaks) to devote the present chapter to the subject of the Press department, in which we shall glance at the various machines which have been obtruded on the notice of the Profession for the purposes of printing; whether they be considered as improvements, or only attempts at improvements, from which we shall make our selection, and present engravings of those only which, in our humble judgments, appear best adapted to the purposes for which they were intended by their projectors, and also worthy the consideration of the profession. It is our intention, in the concluding chapter, to glance at Steam Engine and Stereotype printing, as they regard the Printer, the Bookseller, and the Public in general.

A good idea of the Presses on the old principle will be derived from the annexed subject, (an engraving of which was frequently used by Printers on the Continent, at that period, as a mark or device,) as well as from that given on page 555, in Vol. I. and we shall now proceed to describe those which are of a more recent invention.

We are of opinion that the largest wooden press in this country is in the possession of Mr. Couchman of Throgmorton Street, from which the present sketch of the working part was construction

bles those of

vention, by platin attachspindle with bolts, as here it stands full the tympans ingly low, it was workpound pow was attached the screw, inches above

Its

taken.
much resem-

Blaew's in

having the ed to the screws and represented; high, and

are exceedand heavy: ed by a comer, which to the top of about eight

the head, as we were told by the men: this apparatus, Mr. C. informed us, was stolen from the office some years back, during the lifetime of his father: the press is now worked with a common bar. We have been informed, that the power which was attached to the top of the spindle, and by which it was said the press was worked, was only a common fly, which was composed of two crooked S's laid crossways, and well charged with lead at each end. The platin is 2 feet 2 inches long, by 1 foot 8 inches wide, the coffin is 3 feet 7 inches long, by 2 feet 54 inches wide between the corner irons, and will print more than a double royal sheet. This press was made for the old Duke of Norfolk to amuse himself with; he could also boast of having the largest, as well as the smallest sized press; the latter would only print a small card. These two presses, the type, &c. were sold upwards of fifty years back, when the late Mr. Couchman purchased the large press, and likewise a case-rack.

We could not conceive how it were possible for a press to be worked by such a power; first, the arms of the fly (to work between the cheeks) would be too short to produce an impression; secondly, it would be impossible for a person, standing upon the floor, to have had the least power over such a lever: we deem the use of this fly not for the purpose of giving the impression, instead of the bar, but as a compound power by which the motion of the bar was accelerated by the force of the fly above, consequently the pull was comparatively easy in propor. tion to the impression given.