Each part of the furniture should be in one piece where it is
practicable,—as, for instance, the gutters, the backs, and the heads;
but sometimes pieces will be wanted of a width that is not equal to any
regular size, and then two must be used.
All the gutters of one sheet should be cut of a precise length; so also
with the backs and the heads; but each sort should be of a different
length from that of the others: thus they can be easily distinguished
from each other, and mistakes be prevented.
The sheet being imposed, the stone should be cleared; the saw and
saw-block put in their places, the shears, the mallet, planer, and
shooting-stick, the surplus furniture, the leads, the quoins, and every
other article. The compositor will tie up his page-cords, and, if he has
any companions, will return to them their proportion.
The chase and furniture of one form should always be used for a similar
form; that is, the chase and furniture of the outer form should be again
used for an outer form, and the chase and furniture of the inner form
should be again used for an inner form; they should also be put round
the pages in the same order in which they were put about those of the
preceding forms. For want of care or thought in these apparently trifling
circumstances, trouble, inconvenience, and loss of time frequently occur;
for the register will be almost sure to be wrong when this is neglected,
and then the forms must be unlocked and the leads changed, to correct the
fault.
_Before the form is printed, a proof should be taken and the sheet
folded, to make sure of the correctness of the imposition._
The preceding rules and directions were intended for type-forms, and
were formerly of universal necessity. Now most books are printed from
stereotyped or electrotyped plates. The same instructions, however, are
generally as applicable to plate as to type pages.