If a master-printer have a son born, he pays 2_s._ 6_d._, if a daughter
1_s._ 6_d._
An apprentice, when he is bound, pays half a crown to the chappel, and
when he is made free, another half crown: and if he continues to work
journeywork in the same house he pays another, and then is a member of
the chappel.
* * * * *
Probably there will many a conference be held at imposing-stones upon
the present promulgation of these ancient rules and customs; yet, until
a general assembly, there will be difficulty in determining how far they
are conformed to, or departed from, by different chapels. Synods have
been called on less frivolous occasions, and have issued decrees more
“frivolous and vexatious,” than the one contemplated.
* * * * *
In a work on the origin and present state of printing, entitled
“Typographia, or the Printer’s Instructor, by J. Johnson, Printer, 1824,
2 vols.,” there is a list of “technical terms made use of by the
profession,” which Mr. Johnson prefaces by saying, “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.”
However, they are not “_the whole_,” nor will it detract from the
general merit of Mr. Johnson’s curious and useful work, nor will he
conceive offence, if the Editor of the _Every-Day Book_ adds a few from
Holme’s “Academy of Armory,” a rare store-house of “Created Beings, with
the terms and instruments used in all trades and arts,” and printers are
especially distinguished.
_Additions to Mr. Johnson’s List of Printers’ Terms._
_Bad Copy._ Manuscript sent to be printed, badly or imperfectly written.
_Bad Work._ Faults by the compositor or pressman.
_Broken Letter._ The breaking of the orderly succession the letters
stood in, either in a line, page, or form; also the mingling of the
letters, technically called _pie_.
_Case is Low._ Compositors say this when the boxes, or holes of the
case, have few letters in them.
_Case is full._ When no sorts are wanting.
_Case stands still._ When the compositor is not at his case.
_Cassie Paper._ Quires made up of torn, wrinkled, stained, or otherwise
faulty sheets.
_Cassie Quires._ The two outside quires of the ream, also called cording
quires.
_Charge._ To fill the sheet with large or heavy pages.
_Companions._ The two press-men working at one press: the one first
named has his choice to pull or beat; the second takes the refuse
office.
_Comes off._ When the letter in the form delivers a good impression, it
is said to come off well; if an ill impression, it is said to come off
bad.
_Dance._ When the form is locked up, if, upon its rising from the
composing-stone, letters do not rise with it, or any drop out, the form
is said to dance.
_Distribute._ Is to put the letters into their several places in the
case after the form is printed off.
_Devil._ Mr. Johnson merely calls him the errand-boy of a
printing-house; but though he has that office, Holme properly says, that
he is the boy that takes the sheets from the tympan, as they are printed
off. “These boys,” adds Holme, “do in a printing-house commonly black
and dawb themselves, whence the workmen do jocosely call them devils,
and sometimes spirits, and sometimes flies.”
_Drive out._ “When a compositor sets wide,” says Mr. Johnson. Whereto
Holme adds, if letter be cast thick in the shank it is said to drive
out, &c.
_Easy Work._ Printed, or fairly written, copy, or full of breaks, or a
great letter and small form “pleaseth a compositor,” and is so called by
him.
_Empty Press._ A press not in work: most commonly every printing-office
has one for a proof-press: viz., to make proofs on.
_Even Page._ The second, fourth, sixth, &c. pages.
_Odd Page._ The first, third, fifth, &c. pages.
_Folio._ Is, in printer’s language, the two pages of a leaf of any size.
_Form rises._ When the form is so well locked up in the chase, that in
the raising of it up neither a letter nor a space drops out, it is said
that the form rises.
_Froze out._ In winter, when the paper is frozen, and the letter frozen,
so as the workmen cannot work, they say they are froze out. [Such
accidents never occur in good printing-houses.]
_Going up the form._ A pressman’s phrase when he beats over the first
and third rows or columns of the form with his ink-balls.
_Great bodies._ Letter termed “English,” and all above that size: small
bodies are long primer, and all smaller letter.
_Great numbers._ Above two thousand printed of one sheet.
_Hard work_, with compositors, is copy badly written and difficult;
[such as they too frequently receive from the Editor of the _Every-Day
Book_, who alters, and interlines, and never makes a fair copy,] _hard
work_, with pressmen, is small letter and a large form.
_Hole._ A place where private printing is used, viz. the printing of
unlicensed books, or other men’s copies.
[Observe, that this was in Holme’s time; now, licensing is not insisted
on, nor could it be enforced; but the printing “other men’s copies” is
no longer confined to a _hole_. Invasion of copyright is perpetrated
openly, because legal remedies are circuitous, expensive, and easily
evaded. So long as the law remains unaltered, and people will buy stolen
property, criminals will rob. The pirate’s “fence” is the public. The
receiver is as bad as the thief: if there were no receivers, there would
be no thieves. Let the public look to this.]
_Imperfections of books._ Odd sheets over the number of books made
perfect. They are also, and more generally at this time, called the
_waste_ of the book.
_M thick._ An _m_ quadrat thick.
_N thick._ An _n_ quadrat thick.
_Open matter_, or _open work_. Pages with several breaks, or with white
spaces between the paragraphs or sections.
_Over-run._ Is the getting in of words by putting out so much of the
forepart of the line into the line above, or so much of the latter part
of the line into the line below, as will make room for the word or words
to be inserted: also the derangement and re-arrangement of the whole
sheet, in order to get in over-matter. [Young and after-thought writers
are apt to occasion much over-running, a process distressing to the
compositor, and in the end to the author himself, who has to pay for the
extra-labour he occasions.]
_Pigeon holes._ Whites between words as large, or greater than between
line and line. The term is used to scandalize such composition; it is
never suffered to remain in good work.
_Printing-house._ The house wherein printing is carried on; but it is
more peculiarly used for the printing implements. Such an one, it is
said, hath removed his printing-house; meaning the implements used in
his former house.
_Revise._ A proof sheet taken off after the first or second proof has
been corrected. The corrector examines the faults, marked in the last
proof sheet, fault by fault, and carefully marks omissions on the
revise.
_Short page._ Having but little printed in it; [or relatively, when
shorter than another page of the work.]
_Stick-full._ The composing-stick filled with so many lines that it can
contain no more.
_Token._ An hour’s work for half a press, viz. a single pressman; this
consists of five quires. An hour’s work for a whole press is a token of
ten quires.
_Turn for it._ Used jocosely in the chapel: when any of the workmen
complain of want of money, or any thing else, he shall by another be
answered “turn for it,” viz. make shift for it.
[This is derived from the term _turn for a letter_, which is thus:--when
a compositor has not letters at hand of the sort he wants while
composing, and finds it inconvenient to distribute letter for it, he
turns a letter of the same thickness, face downwards, which turned
letter he takes out when he can accommodate himself with the right
letter, which he places in its stead.]
* * * * *
Thus much has grown out of the notice, that printers formerly papered
their windows about “Bartlemy-tide,” and more remains behind. But before
farther is stated, if _chapels_, or individuals belonging to them, will
have the goodness to communicate any thing to the _Editor of the
Every-Day Book_ respecting any old or present laws, or usages, or other
matters of interest connected with printing, he will make good use of
it. Notices or anecdotes of this kind will be acceptable when
authenticated by the name and address of the contributor. If there are
any who doubt the importance of printing, they may be reminded that old
Holme, a man seldom moved to praise any thing but for its use in
heraldry, says, that “it is now disputed whether typography and
architecture may not be accounted Liberal Sciences, being so famous
Arts!” Seriously, however, communications respecting printing are
earnestly desired.
* * * * *