A bundle of paper consists of two reams, or forty quires, each quire
containing twenty-four sheets. Formerly, the two outside quires were
called cassie quires, as they were mostly made up of torn, stained,
wrinkled, or otherwise imperfect sheets. At present, all the quires are
considered good, although some outer sheets are injured by the twine used
in tying up the bundles.
It is the general custom to print of every work what is termed an _even_
number,—either 250, 500, 750, 1000, &c. These quantities are given out
for the wetter in _tokens_,—viz.: for 250 sheets, one token, containing
10 quires 18 sheets; for 500, two tokens, one 11 quires, and the other
10 quires and a half; for 750, three tokens, two of them 11 quires each,
and the other 10 quires 6 sheets; and for 1000, four tokens, three of
them 11 quires each, and the other 10 quires. If a work is printed in
half-sheets, it of course requires only half the above quantities.
It would be difficult to form any positive and invariable rule for the
quantity to be given out for short numbers, as it must depend in some
degree upon the quality of the paper. The more expensive papers, on
which, generally, short numbers or line copies are printed, must be
given out more sparingly than common paper, and the tympan and register
sheets be supplied by a more common sort, cut to the size of the finer.
For numbers up to 150, on ordinary paper, six sheets over will be
sufficient. Some publishers are very testy on this point of allowance for
waste.
In giving out paper for what are termed _jobs_, the amount necessary can
easily be found by a simple calculation in division.
For example, a job, (label or any thing else,) 750 in number, 32 on
a sheet, will require 24 sheets, which will give an overplus of 18.
Where a sheet has to be cut into many parts, allowance must be made
for accidents. The overplus sheets are allowed for tympan-sheets,
register-sheets, and other incidents, such as bad sheets, faults
committed in rolling, pulling, bad register, &c.; in any of these
casualties, the pressman doubles the sheet in the middle and lays it
across the heap. In laying out the paper, the warehouseman reverses every
other token, to enable the wetter to distinguish the different tokens.
When this is done, he labels the heap, thus: _American Printer, May 10,
1878_,—that the pressman may know how long it has been wet, and the state
it is in for working.
32)750(23
64
---
110
96
---
14