TECHNICAL TERMS MADE USE OF BY THE PROFESSION. We have here introduced the whole of the Technical Terms, that posterity may know the phrases used by the early nursers and improvers of our Art. Abbreviations. Marks to contracted words. Accents. Marks over vowels. Ball-knife. A blunt knife used to scrape balls, Ball-nails, Tacks used in knocking-up balls. Bank. A stage about four feet high, placed near the press. Beard of a Letter. The outer angle of the square shoulder of the shank, which reaches almost to the face of the letter, and commonly scraped off by founders, Bearer. A piece of riglet to bear the impression off a blank page. Bienvenue. The fee paid on admittance into a chapel. Bite. Is when the entire impression of the page is prevented by the frisket's not being sufficiently cut out. Blankets. Woollen cloth, or white baize, to lay between the tympans. Body. The shank of the letter. Bottled-Arsed. When letter is wider at the bottom than the top. Bottom-line. The last line of the page preceding the catch line. Brace. Isa character cast in mettle, marked thus of several breadths. Brayer. Is a round wooden rubber, almost of the fashion of a ballstock, but flat at the bottom, and not above three inches diameter; it is used in the ink-block to bray or rub ink, Break. A plece of a line. Broad-side. A form of one full page, printed on one side of a whole sheet of paper. Broken Letter. By broken letter is not meant the breaking of the shanks of any of the letters, but the breaking the orderly succession the letters stood in a line, page, or form, &c. and mingling the letters together, which mingled letters is called pye. Bur. When the Founder has neglected to take off the roughness of the letter in dressing. Cards. About a quire of paper, which Pressmen use to pull down the spring or rising of a form, which it is many times subject to by hard locking up. Cassie Paper. Broken paper. Choak. If a form be not washed in due time, the ink will get into the hollows of the face of the letter: and that getting in of the ink is called choaking of the letter, or choaking of the form. Clean Proof. When a proof has but few faults in it, it is called a clean proof. Close matter.Matterwithfew breaks. Correct, When the Corrector reads the proof, or the Compositor mends the faults marked in the proof, they are both said to correct; the Corrector the proof, the Compositor the form. Corrections. The letters marked in a proof are called Corrections. Devil. The Errand-boy of a Printing-house. Direction. The word that stands alone on the right hand in the bottom line of a page. Direction-line. The line the direction stands in. Double. Among Compositors, a repetition of words; also, among Pressmen, a sheet that is twice pulled and lifted ever so little off the form after it was first pulled, does most commonly (through the play of the joints of the tympans, take a double impression: this sheet is said to double. Doubling also happens by the loose hanging of the plattin, and by too much play the tenons of the head may have in the mortises of the cheeks, and indeed may be occasioned by the decay of several parts of the press. Dressing Chase or Form, The Fat work. Is when there are many Fat form. When the pressman has Fly. The person that takes off the Follow. That is, see if it follows; is a term used as well by the corrector as by the compositor and pressman. It is used by the corrector and compositor when they examine how the beginning matter of a succeeding page agrees with the ending matter of the preceding one; and how the folios of these pages properly and numerically follow and succeed one another, lest the pages should be transposed. But the pressman only examines whether the folio and beginning word of the second page, and signature of the first and third page, when the reiteration is on the press, follows the folio and direction of the first page, and the signature of the third page follows the signature of the first page, lest the form should be lald wrong on the press. Foot of a Page. The bottom or end of a page. Form. The pages when fitted into a chase. Foul Proof. When a proof has Frier. When the balls do not take, it not with the balls, though they do take, yet in both these cases the white places are called friars. Full Form or Page. A form or page with few or no breaks, or white lines. Full Press. When two men work at the press. Fudge. To contrive without necessary materials, or do work in a bungling manner. Get-in. Matter is got in in a line, page, sheet, or book, if letter be thinner cast than the printed copy the compositor sets from. Ür matter is got in if the compositor sets closer. Good Colour. Sheets printed neither too black nor too white. Good of the Chapel. Forfeitures and other chapel dues collected for the good of the chapel, to be spent as the chapel approves. Good Work. Is called so in a two- Half Press. When but one man Head Page. The beginning of a Heap. So many reams or quires as are set out by the Warehousekeeper for the pressman to wet. Heap holds out. When it hath its full number of sheets. Holds out, or holds not out. These terms are applicable to the quires of white paper, to wrought off heaps, to gathered books, and sorts of letter, &c. If quires of white paper have twenty-five sheets each in them, they say the paper holds out five and twenties. of wrought-off heaps, the heap that comes off first in gathering is said, not to hold out. Of gathered books, if the intended number of perfect books are gathered, they say the impression holds out: but if the intended number of perfect books cannot be gathered off the heaps, the impression holda not out. And so of letter. Horse. The stage pressmen set the heaps of paper on their banks. Horse. If any journeyman set down in his bill on Saturday night more work than he has done, that surplus is called horse. Hours. Pressmen reckon their work by hours, reckoning every token to an hour's work: and though it be the same effectually with tokens, yet they make their prices of different work by the hour; and it passes current for a token. If two men work at the press ten quires is an hour; if one man five quires is an hour. Imperfections of Letters. When the founder has not cast a proportionable number of each sort of letter, it is making the rest of the fount imperfect. Insertion. If the compositor has left out words or lines, the corrector inserts it, and makes this mark a where it is left out. Keep in. Is a caution either given to, or resolved on, by the compositor, where there may be doubt of driving out his matter beyond his counting off, wherefore he sets close, to keep in. Keep out. A caution either given to or resolved on, by the compositor, when there may be doubt of getting in his matter too fast, wherefore he sets wide, to drive or keep out. Kern of a Letter. That part which hangs over the body or shank. Lean Face. A letter whose stems and other strokes have not their full width. Letter Hangs. If the compositor is Low Case. When the compositor sion on a page appear double, owing to the plattin's dragging on the frisket. Matter. The series of the discourse of the compositor's copy. Measure. The width of a page. Monk. When the pressman has not distributed his balls, and the ink lies in blotches, it is called a monk. Naked Form. When the furniture is taken from about all the sides of the pages. Odd Page. The 1st, 3rd, and all uneven numbered pages. Off. Pressmen are said to be off when they have worked off the designed number from a form. Out. A compositor is said to be out, when he has set all his copy. Out of Register. When pages are not worked even on each other. Pale Colour. When the sheets are worked off with too little ink. Pelts. Untanned sheep skins used for balls, Picks. When any dirt gets into the hollows of the letter, which choaks up the face of it, and occasions a spot. Point Holes. Holes made by the points in a worked off sheet of paper. Press goes. When the pressmen are at work. Press stands still. When they are not at work. Pye. When a page is broken, and the letters confused. Quarters. Octavos and twelves forms are said to be imposed in quarters, not from their equal divisions, but because they are imposed and locked up in four parts. Register sheet. Sheet or sheets printed to make register with. Reiteration. The second form, or the form printed on the back side of the white paper. Riglet. Is a thin sort of furniture, of an equal thickness all its length. It is quadrat high, and made to the thickness of type. Rise. A form is said to rise, when in rearing it off the correcting stone, no letter or furniture, &c. drop out. Runs on Sorts. When matter uses only a few sorts of letter. Set off. Sheets that are newly work ed off at the press often sets off and more particularly so when beaten with soft ink. Shank, The square metal the face of a letter stands on. Slur. When the impression of the constancy. Sop the balls. When a pressman Squabble. A page or form is squab. Thin spaces ought, by a strict order- Turn for a letter. It often happens when matter runs upon sorts, es pecially in capitals or some other sorts seldom used, that the compositor wants that sort the matter runs on; wherefore he is loth to distribute letter for that sort; as perhaps his case is otherwise full. Then instead of that letter or sort, he turns a letter of the same thickness, with the foot of the shank upwards, and the face downwards; which turned letter being easy to be seen, he afterwards (when he can accommodate himself with the right sort), takes out, and puts the right letter in its room. It is also a word used jocosely in the chapel; when any of the workmen complain of want of any thing, he shall by another workman be answered, turn for it; that is, make shift for it. Vantage. When a white page or more happens in a sheet, the compositor calls that vantage: 80 does the pressman, when a form of one pull comes to the press. Underhand. A phrase used by pressmen for the light and easy, or heavy and hard running in of the carriage. Thus they say, the press goes light and easy under hand, or it goes heavy or hard under hand. Upper hand, when the spindle goes soft and easy, the pressmen say, it goes well under hand, or above hand. But the contrary if it goes hard and heavy. White-line. A line of quadrats. White page. A page that no matter comes in. White paper. Although the first form be printed off, yet pressmen call that heap white paper, till, the reiteration be printed ON STEREOTYPE, AND STEAM AND HAND MACHINES. BEING now arrived at the period when we are called upon to perform a most serious and important part of our duty, and it is with a degree of pain that we find ourselves reluctantly compelled to advert to it: we allude to the very peculiar and most extraordinary transactions which have taken place in the profession (particularly within the last twenty years) since the partial introduction of the Stereotype process; and, latterly, that of Steum and Hand Machines for the purpose of printing, instead of following the old, sure, and beaten track, by means of Presses, which are, unquestionably infinitely superior in every point of view: and we boldly assert, that there are presses now in use, as far superior to the machines, as is the meridian sun's bright rays, when placed in competition with the murky clouds of night; which assertion we doubt not we shall most satisfactorily establish (in the opinion of all candid and unbiased minds) before we have concluded this brief article. It appears that the invention of Stereotype, like that of Printing, is somewhat involved in mystery; all doubts respecting the latter we flatter ourselves have been fully solved in our arguments on that subject in Vol. I.; but, with respect to the former, we conceive that its author is not worth the pains of our tracing; and more particularly when we reflect, that so many of our brethren who well deserve (from their ability) a comfortable subsistence, and who ought to be enabled (from their profession,) to move in a respectable sphere of life, are now, through this process, reduced to a very humble pittance, thereby bringing the first Art in the world down to a level with the lowest; and, at one season of the year, nearly one half of the valuable body of men alluded to may be considered as totally destitute of employ, on account of the standard works, which was the summer's stock work, having been Stereotyped. We find that William Ged, a goldsmith of Scotland, from the suggestion of a friend (a printer) left his business in 1725, and turned his attention to this subject; having spent all his property in experiments, he engaged with a person to advance him money, who did not fulfil his engagements; he afterwards entered into a contract with two others, named Fenner and James, who obtained the patent for the University of Cambridge, which was made out in the name of Fenner; they soon after disagreed, when Ged was turned out: on the death of Fenner, the University refused to renew the patent to his widow. The new Patentee was ordered to resort to the old process of printing; and we find that all the plates of the Bible and Common Prayer were sent to the Chiswell Street Foundry, and there melted down in the |