hand outer corner of it is cut away.

The Brayer and Slice.

The brayer is also made of beech, and turned round on its sides,

and flat on the bottom; handle, is about seven tom part about two inches The slice is a small iron about four inches, and

its length, including the inches long, and the botand a half in diameter. shovel, the broadest part about the eighthof an inch

thick. Its length, including the handle, is eight inches long. The Ball Stocks and Ball Racks.

The ball stocks are made of dry, well-seasoned elm, and turned hollow, of a conical form; their greatest diameter five inches and a quarter, and their length four inches. The handle

of the stock is made of a half long, and an inch are also made of elm of which are elm, and sockets of the first rack near cheek, two feet

beech, four inches and in diameter. The racks and beech, the sockets the pins beech. The which is nailed on the nine inches and a half from the bottom, is nine inches wide, and four and a half long; that end of it which receives the pins is one inch and a half thick, the opposite end only half an inch thick. The pins are nine inches long, and distant from each other three inches.

Another rack, double the width and containing four pins, is also fastered to the near cheek, eight inches from the top.

Bank and Paper-horse.

The bank is a deal table, three feet four inches long, twenty. two-inches wide, and three feet high. About five inches from

the bottom, a board is placed within two inches of the length and breadth of the bank, and fastened to the legs, which serves as a convenient shelf for pressmen to lay their worked-offheaps. The paper-horse is also made of deal, two feet two inches long, and twenty inches wide, forming an angle of about forty-five degrees, six inches of the highest end of it rising nearly to a perpendicular. The horse receives the wet paper, and is placed on the bank near to the tympans.

Practical Directions to Pressmen. We shall now briefly lay down a few directions, which if properly attended to, will, we are persuaded, enable the pressman to do credit to himself, and justice to his employer, as well as to uphold and preserve that superiority which now so eminently distinguishes the British Press.

Of putting up a Press.

An understanding pressman should know not only how to direct a printer's joiner to set up and fasten a press when it is made, but also how to give a strange joiner and smith instructions to make a press, perfect in all its parts, and in a symmetrical proportion, to any size.

This knowledge every pressman should be anxious to obtain, as he would then be able to detect and mend those accidents and defects which frequently happen in the common press; we therefore recommend particularly to his attention, the foregoing description of the parts of the common press, which will give him a thorough knowledge of its principles and operation.

The joiner having set together the frame, viz. the cheeks, feet, cap, head, till, winter, hind-posts, ribs, carrriage, &c. the pressmen directs, and sees him perform as follows:

Before the head is put into its place, the pressman rubs the whole tenoned ends and tenons well with soap or grease, and also the mortises the head slides in, and so much of the cheeks as the ends of the head work against, that it may the easier work up and down.

The feet must be placed upon an horizontal level floor, and the cheeks perpendicularly upright, the stays or braces placed so as the press may be kept in the most steady and stable position, as well as to give a check to the force of the hardest pull and most violent blow the bar may give by rebounding against the farther cheek, if by chance it slip out out of the pressman's hand. This consideration may direct him to place one brace against the end of the cap that hangs over the near cheek, and in a range parallel with the fore and hind side of the cap: for the more a brace stands aslope to the two parellel sides, the less it resists a force offered to the end of them, viz. the near end of the cap which is one main stay to the whole press. If he places another brace against the hinder corner of the farther end

of the cap, it will resist the spring of the bar, when it may slip out of the pressman's hand; and placing two other braces, one against the near corner of the hind side of the cap, and the other against the farther corner of the fore side of the cap, the press will be sufficiently braced up, if the room will afford convenience to place the farther end of the braces against it.

By convenience, is meant a firm solidity to place the end of the braces against, be it either a stone wall, brick wall, or some principal post, or a girder, &c. that will not start or tremble at the force of a pull. The braces ought to be straight, and of substance strong enough proportionable to their length; and, if possible, to be fixed in such a position that they may stand in the same straight line with the upper surface of the cap, viz. that the farther end of the brace neither falls lower or rises higher than the upper side of the cap. Neither ought the brace, though thus placed, to stand aslope or askew, that is, make unequal angles with the side of the cap it is fastened to, but it ought to stand square, and make right angles with the respective sides of the cap; because in those positions the braces best resist the force of continued pulls.

But though this be, by the rules of architecture, the strongest, firmest, and most concise method for bracing up a press, yet the room the press is to stand in will not always admit of conveniences to place the braces thus; therefore the pressman ought to consider the shape of the room, both for the places to fit the braces to, and the positions to set the braces in; placing his braces as correspondent as he can to these rules.

The press being thus far fastened, the carriage is laid on; and if the joiner performs his part well in making the wood work, it will first lie exactly horizontal; if not, it must be altered where it is amiss, before the pressman can lay the stone, and before the stay of the carriage can be fitted under the end of the ribs.

Laying, or Bedding the Stone.

The carriage being flat and horizontally laid on the winter, and the coffin placed on the ribs, the stone should then be bedded. Some pressmen lay them in bran, others in plaster of Paris, and a third class prefer brown paper in either case the stone should be raised about a Double Pica above the surface of the coffin, a few good pulls will reduce it to a Pica, from which it ultimately will settle to that of a Brevier, which ought to be the standard.

In laying the stone on either of the above substances, great care should be taken that the whole bottom of the stone touch the bedding at the same time; to this end, when the stone is laid on the edge of the coffin, two strong cords are placed under it, by which the pressmen gently lower it

into the coffin, the least unevenness of which being likely to disturb the bedding; having pressed it down, a small portion of water laid on the centre will sufficiently prove whether it be even or not, should the water incline to either side, the stone must then be-relaid.

Setting the Rounce

Properly, saves labour and facilitates the work: the girths being nailed on the barrel, and the press run out, the near girth will be half a turn on, and the off girth about three turns round it. In the old presses the girths were nailed to the head of the coffin and the plank; but this is now obviated by means of screws, so that the pressmen can alter the rounce with little trouble. The rounce should be set in such a position, that the fore-end of the tympan will just rise and fall without touching the fore-edge of the plattin.

Hanging the Plattin.

A heavy form should be laid on the press, and either two blankets, or about a quire of paper placed on it; the plattin is set on the head of the coffin, and gently rolled in, at the same time his companion holds the plattin in a slanting direction, in order that the point of the spindle clear the top of the pan, so that it may fall into the cup destined to receive it: the plattin is then placed on the form, in the centre of the press, parallel with the fore sides of the cheeks, and adjusted with the greatest nicety. The bar is then pulled down, by which means the toe of the spindle is forced into the cup on the plattin; a paper-board is then placed between the off cheek and the bar, by which means it is kept down; it is then securely fastened to the near cheek with a strong rope. Having provided cord with a noose at one end, they begin at opposite diagonal corners of the plattin, to lash the cord under and over on the hooks with as much force as possible, till about two feet only of the cord remain, which should be twisted round the previous lashings to bind them close together, and then fasten them off with three or four hard knots; having finished the first tying, they then proceed with the second in the same manner, which will make each part firm and tight.

Justifying the Head.

To justify, of scale board the head, is to put in a sufficient quantity of scale board, into the mortises left in the cheeks for the head and winter to play in; the quantity should be exactly equal, in order that the head and winter may have an exact bearing on each side. The pull is made either long or short, by adding or diminishing the wadding previously placed in the mortises. Along, soft, or soaking pull, is when the form feels the force of the spindle by degrees, till the bar comes almost or quite to the near cheek of the

press, in a soft, soaking, and easy manner; on the contrary, the short pull is termed a bard pull, because it is suddenly performed.

In justifying the head, the nuts of the head screws, or long.bolts, must be loosened, in order that the head sink enough to admit the removal or addition of the scaleboard in the mortises: this done, the head is screwed up sufficient for the carriage to run in, the bar should then be pulled down, and the screws drawn up with the finger and thumb, which will allow the head sufficient space to work freely.

A new press should always be well employed for the first few months with heavy forms, and the pressmen ought to be particular in doing their duty, by taking care that they always keep on a sufficient power, and see that the bar be well pulled down. This is the only sure means of making it work free and well ever after; many a press has been spoiled by this neglect, and also that of working jobs at them before they are properly brought to their bearings.

Making ready a Form.

Before a form is laid on, the pressman should carefully wipe down the stone, or table of the press, for if any hard particle, though ever so small, remain, it will raise that part of the form, cause the impression to be hard, and probably injure the tympans: the same caution should be taken with the backside of the form. The form being laid on the press in the centre of the plattin, and properly quoined up, he then lays down the tympans and gets his blanket, or blankets, which should be well rubbed if they are the least hard; Welsh flannel was formerly used, but the fine printers substituted broad cloth: within the last two years a supe. rior article has been manufactured of different qualities, suitable for every description of work. Having put in the blankets, he then fits the inner tympan into the outer, and fastens it with the hooks, or button for that purpose, which serves to keep it from springing. He next folds a sheet of his paper according to the position of the crosses of the chase, which is his guide for placing it in the centre of the form; should his crosses be equal in the chase, he folds his paper in Quarto, and for Twelves accordingly. It was customary, formerly, to wet the tympans for all works, and even jobs of almost every description; but since the introduction of fine printing, and particularly the iron presses, this old custom is well-nigh banished, excepting for extraordinary heavy forms, composed with old letter, which of Course require more softness to bring them off: having laid his sheet even upon the form, he then lays down the tympans, which with the least possible damp will cause

These blankets are manufactured by W. Whitehead & Company, Oak View Mills, Saddleworth, Yorkshire; and sold by Mr. John Brealey, 17, Love Lane, Eastcheap, London.