Illustration: TYPE CASTING.
The casting of types for printing is for the most part done by hand,
and singly, and it is one of those arts in which extreme dexterity
(only to be acquired by incessant practice) enables the founder
to accomplish an amount of labour which would seem to any one not
witnessing the process impossible. To cast each piece of type it
is necessary to dip a little ladle into a pot of melted metal,
to fill the mould, give it a sudden jerk with the left hand so as
to make the melted metal go well into the little mould, open the
mould and take the type out, shut up the mould and fasten it, and
yet a skilful workman can perform these operations five hundred
times in an hour--that is to say, rather more than eight times in
a minute--producing a type each time; this has afterwards to be
finished off by others. The metal of which type is made consists
of lead and antimony--the antimony hardens it and makes it take a
sharper impression. The letters are first cut in steel, and from
these “dies” the moulds are made in brass, by stamping, and in these
the types are cast.
Stereotype consists of plates of metal taken, by casting, from a
forme of type set up for the purpose; an impression in plaster of
Paris is first taken, and from this the metal impression is cast,
so that the original forme of type may be “distributed” or taken
to pieces, and again used, while the stereotyped impression can be
preserved for any future printing.