Modes of making Type.--Varieties of Type.--Cylindrical
Ink-distributor.--A Modern Printing Establishment.--Composition
Room.--Cases.--Proof-reading.
Let us now glance at the Art of Printing in modern times.
In the making of types, formerly each letter was cast, and then
finished one at a time, by hand. Now there is a process of
manufacturing the copper face by machinery, the operation being
effected by the pressure of a sharp die upon copper. And it is said
that a small steam-engine can produce one type a second, or thirty-six
thousand in ten hours.
By the more ordinary process, types are made by casting type-metal
in a mould, though some of the larger sizes are manufactured from
maple, mahogany, or box-wood. The process of casting type, which is
the business of the type-founders, requires great skill. In the first
place, a punch is cut, of the letter to be formed, except that it is in
reverse. The punch being of hardened steel, and having this letter on
its point, is then struck into a small piece of copper, which is called
the _matrix_, or form of the letter to be cast. The matrix is now
fixed in a curiously contrived instrument, termed the mould, attached
to a compact hand machine, having in the centre a small furnace of
burning coal to keep the vessel of type-metal over it liquid. The
workman turns a wheel, thus forcing melted metal into the mould, which
quickly shapes and drops one after another the types, perfect, save
polishing. In some foundries there are twenty of these machines. In
this way not only every letter, but every figure, hyphen, comma, or
other mark, must have its punch and matrix, as well as its separate
casting. One machine will cast one hundred types a minute.
[Illustration: Metal Type.]
In the cut, _a_ is the body; _b_, the face, or part from which the
impression is taken; _c_, the shoulder, or top of the body; _d_, the
nick, designed to assist the compositor in distinguishing the bottom
of the face from the top; and _e_, the groove made in the process of
finishing.
As soon as a heap of types is cast, a boy takes them away, and breaks
off the superfluous piece at the end of each, when another rubs its
sides on a stone, to render it smooth. The face, or printing part of
the type, is not touched after it leaves the matrix, that giving it all
the distinctness and sharpness of which it is capable.
Type-metal is a compound of lead and antimony, in the proportion of
three to one, with a small portion of tin, and sometimes a little
copper.
In Gutenberg’s day types were necessarily an imitation of the
handwriting of the monk-copyists, with little variety and beauty.
Now the types which compose an ordinary book-fount consist of Roman
CAPITALS, SMALL CAPITALS, and lower-case letters, and _Italic
capitals_ and lower-case letters, with accompanying figures, points
and reference-marks,--in all about two hundred characters. Including
the various modern styles of fancy types, some three or four hundred
varieties of face are made. Besides the ordinary Roman and _Italic_,
the most important of the varieties are
[Illustration: Old English or Black Letter.
German Text.
Full-face, Antique, Script.