By L. Boyd Benton.
Type are made of type metal, a mixture of tin, antimony, lead, and
copper. As antimony expands in solidifying, advantage is taken of this
quality, and the mixture is so proportioned that the expansion of the
antimony will practically counteract the shrinkage of the other
ingredients. The proportion of the mixture is varied according to the
size and style of type and to the purposes for which it is used.
Type are cast separately in moulds, a "matrix" at the end of the mould
forming the letter or other character.
Machinery is used very largely in modern type-making. The steps of its
manufacture are in this order: drawing the design, producing of a
metal pattern therefrom, placing the pattern either in the engraving
machine to produce steel punches and type-metal originals, or in the
matrix-engraving machine to produce matrices, adjusting the matrix to
the mould, and finally, casting the type.
The design for a new style of type is made generally with pen and
ink, the capital letters being drawn about an inch high and the others
in predetermined proportions. When the design is for a plain text
letter, similar to that with which this book is printed, it is
essential to have the letters proportioned and shaped in such a manner
as will cause the least strain on the eye in reading, and, at the same
time, produce a pleasing effect when the page is viewed as a whole.
When the printed page conveys information to the reader, without
attracting attention to itself, it is ideal.
While this is true in regard to a design for a text letter, the design
for a display type is often made to attract attention, not only to
itself, but to what it proclaims, by its boldness and beauty and
sometimes even by its ugliness.
After the design has been drawn, it is placed in a "delineating
machine," where an enlarged outline pencil copy, or tracing, is made,
so large that all errors are easily seen and corrected. New designs
may, however, be drawn in outline by hand on the enlarged scale, thus
rendering unnecessary both the pen-and-ink drawing and the tracing.
With the aid of the delineating machine, the operator, besides being
able to produce an accurately enlarged outline pencil tracing of a
design, is also enabled, by various adjustments, to change the form of
the pencil tracing in such a manner that it becomes proportionately
more condensed or extended, and even italicized or back-sloped. That
is, from a single design, say Gothic, pencil tracings can be made
condensed, extended, italicized, and back-sloped, as well as an
enlarged facsimile.
The next operation consists in placing the enlarged outline pencil
drawing in a machine which enables the operator to reproduce the
outline drawing, reduced in size, on a metal plate, evenly covered
with wax, with the line traced entirely through the wax. The plate is
then covered with a thin layer of copper, electrically deposited, and
is "backed up" with metal, and trimmed and finished, similar to an
ordinary electrotype plate of a page of type. A copper-faced metal
plate is thus produced, on which are the raised outlines of a letter.
This is called the "pattern." From this pattern all regular type sizes
may be cut. It determines the shape of the letter, but the size and
variations from the pattern are determined later by the adjustments of
the engraving machine in which it is used.
The pattern is now sent to the engraving room. Machines have
superseded the old-fashioned way of cutting punches and originals by
hand, and they have enormously increased the production of new type
faces. Whereas in the old days it took about eighteen months to bring
out a new Roman face, or style of letters, in seven different sizes,
to-day it can be done in about five weeks. The reason is that formerly
only one artist, known as a punch-cutter, could work on a single face,
and he had to cut all the sizes, otherwise there were noticeable
differences in style. By machine methods, where all sizes can be cut
simultaneously, it is only a question of having the requisite number
of engraving machines.
As to the quality of machine work, it is superior to hand work both in
accuracy and uniformity. The artist formerly cut the punches, or
originals, by hand under a magnifying glass, and the excellence of his
work was really marvellous. However, when changing from one size to
another, there were often perceptible variations in the shapes of the
letters, or the sizes were not always evenly graded. By the machine
method the workman uses the long end of a lever, as explained below,
and has therefore a greater chance of doing accurate work. In addition
to this, a rigid pattern forms the shape of the letter, and to it all
sizes must conform.
Another gain the machine has over hand-cutting is its greater range.
When the old-time artist made an unusually small size of type for
Bible use, he did it with great strain on his eyes and nerves. At any
moment his tool might slip and spoil the work. With the machine, on
the other hand, and with no physical strain whatever, experimental
punches have been cut so small as to be legible only with a
microscope--too small, in fact, to print. At present there are two
styles of engraving machines employed,--one cutting the letter in
relief,--called a "punch" if cut in steel, and an "original" if cut in
type metal,--and the other cutting a letter in intaglio,--called a
"matrix." Both machines are constructed on the principle of the lever,
the long arm following the pattern, while the short arm moves either
the work against the cutting tool, or the cutting tool against the
work. The adjustments are such that the operator is enabled to engrave
the letter proportionately more extended or condensed, and lighter or
heavier in face, than the pattern. All these variations are necessary
for the production of a properly graded modern series containing the
usual sizes. In fact, on account of the laws of optics, which cannot
be gone into here, only one size of a series is cut in absolutely
exact proportion to the patterns.
As it is impossible to describe these machines clearly without the aid
of many diagrams and much technical language, only a brief description
of their operation will be given.
When the letters are to be engraved in steel, blocks or "blanks" are
cut from soft steel and finished to the proper size. A blank is then
fastened in the "holder," the machine for cutting the letter in relief
adjusted to the proper leverage, and the pattern clamped to the "bed."
The long arm of the lever, containing the proper "tracer" or follower,
is moved by the operator around the outside of the pattern on the
copper-faced metal plate, causing the blank to be moved by the
shorter arm around and against a rotating cutting tool. This operation
is repeated several times with different sizes of tracers and
different adjustments to enable the cutting tool to cut at different
depths, until finally a steel letter in relief is produced, engraved
the reverse of the pattern and very much smaller. After being hardened
and polished, this is called a steel punch, and, when driven into a
flat piece of copper, it produces what is known as a "strike" or
unfinished matrix.
If in the same machine type metal is used for blanks, the resulting
originals are placed in a "flask," or holder, and submerged in a bath,
where they receive on the face of the letter a thick coating of
nickel, electrically deposited. As soon as the deposit is of
sufficient thickness, they are removed and the soft metal letters
withdrawn, leaving a deep facsimile impression in the deposited metal,
which also is an unfinished matrix.
The machine for engraving a matrix in intaglio is operated in much the
same manner as that for engraving a punch in relief. The same patterns
are used, but the operator traces on the inside of the raised outline
instead of on the outside. Besides following the outline, the operator
guides the tracers over all the surface of the pattern within the
outlines; otherwise the letter would appear in the matrix in outline
only. The matrices are cut in steel and in watchmakers' nickel, and
the work is so accurately done that about half the labor of finishing
is saved.
It will be noted from the foregoing that all three processes of
engraving end in the production of an unfinished matrix.
The adjusting of the matrix to the mould is technically called
"fitting," and requires great skill. If type are cast from unfitted
matrices, be the letters ever so cleverly designed and perfectly cut,
when assembled in the printed page they will present a very ragged
appearance. Some letters will appear slanting backward, others
forward, some be above the line, others below; some will perforate the
paper, while others will not print at all; the distances between the
letters will everywhere be unequal, and some will print on but one
edge. Indeed, a single letter may have half of these faults, but when
the matrices are properly fitted, the printed page presents a smooth
and even appearance.
The mould for this purpose is made of hardened steel, and in it is
formed the body of the type. The printing end is formed in the matrix.
The mould is provided at one end with guides and devices for holding
the matrix snugly against it while the type is being cast, and for
withdrawing the matrix and opening the mould when the type is
discharged. At the opposite end from the matrix is an opening through
which the melted metal enters. The moulds are made adjustable so that
each character is cast the proper width, the opening of course being
wider for a "W" than for an "i." Only one mould is necessary for one
size of type, and with it all the matrices for that size may be used.
Commercially, however, it is often necessary to make several moulds of
the same size in order to produce the requisite amount of type.
After the adjustments are made, the casting of the type follows. Type
are now cast in a machine which is automatic, after it is once
adjusted to cast a given letter. The melted type metal is forced by a
pump into the mould and the matrix, and when solidified, the type is
ejected from the mould and moved between knives which trim all four
sides. The type are delivered side by side on a specially grooved
piece of wood, three feet long, called a "stick," on which they are
removed from the machine for inspection. Type are cast at the rate of
from ten to two hundred per minute, according to the size, the speed
being limited only by the time it takes the metal to solidify. To
accelerate this, a stream of cold water is forced through passages
surrounding the mould, and a jet of cold air is blown against the
outside.
The automatic casting machine performs six different operations.
Formerly, all of them, except the casting itself, were done by hand,
and each type was handled separately, except in the operation of
dressing, or the final finishing, where they were handled in lines of
about three feet in length.
After the type have been delivered to the inspector, they are examined
under a magnifying glass and all imperfect type are thrown out. The
perfect type are then delivered to "fonting" room, where they are
weighed, counted, and put up in suitable packages in proper proportion
of one letter with another, ready for the printer.
Formerly the various sizes of type were indicated by names which had
developed with the history of type making. It was a source of
considerable annoyance to printers that these old standards were not
accurate, and that two types of supposedly the same size, and sold
under the same name, by different makers, varied so much that they
could not be used side by side. Of recent years the "point" system, by
which each size bears a proportionate relation to every other size,
has done much to remedy this trouble, and now nearly all type is made
on that basis. An American point is practically one seventy-second of
an inch. Actually it is .013837 inch. It was based on the pica size
most extensively in use in this country. This pica was divided into
twelve equal parts and each part called a point. All the other sizes
were made to conform to multiples of this point. The point is so near
a seventy-second of an inch that printers frequently calculate the
length of the pages by counting the lines, the basis being twelve
lines of 6 point, nine lines of 8 point, eight lines of 9 point, and
six lines of 12 point to the inch. This calculation is really quite
accurate.
The following table will show the old and new names for the various
sizes:--
3-1/2 Point, Brilliant.
4-1/2 Point, Diamond.
5 Point, Pearl.
5-1/2 Point, Agate.
6 Point, Nonpareil.
7 Point, Minion.
8 Point, Brevier.
9 Point, Bourgeois.
10 Point, Long Primer.
11 Point, Small Pica.
12 Point, Pica.
14 Point, 2-line Minion or English.
16 Point, 2-line Brevier.
18 Point, Great Primer.
20 Point, 2-line Long Primer or Paragon.
22 Point, 2-line Small Pica.
24 Point, 2-line Pica.
28 Point, 2-line English.
30 Point, 5-line Nonpareil.
32 Point, 4-line Brevier.
36 Point, 2-line Great Primer.
40 Point, Double Paragon.
42 Point, 7-line Nonpareil.
44 Point, 4-line Small Pica or Canon.
48 Point, 4-line Pica.
54 Point, 9-line Nonpareil.
60 Point, 5-line Pica.
72 Point, 6-line Pica.