Type Cases and Composing-room furniture

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English

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2010

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A. A. Stewart

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2010

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Project Gutenberg's Type Cases and Composing-room furniture, by A. A. StewartThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.netTitle: Type Cases and Composing-room furnitureAuthor: A. A. StewartRelease Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31704]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TYPE CASES, COMPOSING-ROOM FURN. ***Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Joseph R. Hauserand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.netTranscriber's Note:This text uses UTF-8 (unicode) file encoding. If theapostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph appearas garbage, you may have an incompatible browser orunavailable fonts. First, make sure that your browser’s“character set” or “file encoding” is set to Unicode (UTF-8).You may also need to change the default font.TYPOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL SERIES FOR APPRENTICES—PART I, No. 3.TYPE CASES ANDCOMPOSING-ROOMFURNITUREA PRIMER OF INFORMATION ABOUTTYPE CASES, WORK STANDS, CABINETS,CASE RACKS, GALLEY RACKS,STANDING GALLEYS, &c.COMPILED BYA. A. STEWARTPUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONUNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA1918CO PYRIG HT, 1918UNIT ED TYPO T HET AE O F A MERICACHICAG O, IL L.Composition and Electrotypes contributed byThe Blanchard PressNew YorkCONTENTSPAGEIntroductory ...

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Publié par

nusig

Publié le

08 décembre 2010

Langue

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Transcriber's Note:This text uses UTF-8 (unicode) file encoding. If theapostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraphappear as garbage, you may have an incompatiblebrowser or unavailable fonts. First, make sure thatyour browser’s “character set” or “file encoding” is setto Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change thedefault font.TYPOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL SERIES FORAPPRENTICES—PART I, No. 3.TYPE CASES ANDCOMPOSING-ROOMFURNITUREA PRIMER OF INFORMATION ABOUTTYPE CASES, WORK STANDS,CABINETS,CASE RACKS, GALLEY RACKS,STANDING GALLEYS, &c.

COMPILED BYA. A. STEWARTPUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONUNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA1918Copyright, 1918United Typothetae of AmericaChicago, Ill.Composition and Electrotypes contributed byThe Blanchard PressNew YorkCONTENTSPAGEIntroductory5Early Type Cases9Sizes of Type Cases11Structure of Type Cases12Cases for Various Purposes14Compositor's Work Stands16Case Stands and Racks18The Modern Type Cabinet20

Iron Case Brackets22Wood Runs and Steel Runs24Extension Fronts and Backs25Furniture Racks26Special Cabinets28Review Questions30Glossary32INTRODUCTORYThe essential articles of furniture in a moderncomposing room may be classified broadly, omittingobvious details for the present, under the followingheads:1. Cases for type for general composition; forborders, type ornaments, accented letters,fractions, extra sorts, etc., and for engravedplates, and electrotypes; for spaces andquads, brass rules, leads, slugs, metalfurniture and large spacing material, and forwood type. Also cases in special cabinets forprinted specimens, paper samples, etc.2. Work Stands and Cabinets—Open woodenframes with or without racks, to hold caseson top; made single or double; with workingtop. Cabinets, with working top, holdingcases, enclosed on sides and back; madesingle, double, or triple size. Cabinets aremade of pressed steel as well as of hardwood.

3. Cabinets and Storage Racks for Cases—Inaddition to the racks in working stands andcabinets, there are standing racks, cabinets(flat top for holding miscellaneous articles ormaterial, and galley top for temporarystorage of live or dead matter), etc.4. Galley Cabinets and Racks—These are tohold galley matter waiting return of proofs, orfor pages made up and waiting to be lockedup for electro foundry or for the pressroom.They may be placed in any convenient place,or are sometimes in movable form to betaken from composing or correcting stands tothe make-up stand or imposing table.5. Furniture Racks and Cabinets—For labor-saving fonts of reglet, wood furniture, softmetal or steel furniture, etc.6. Standing Galleys—These are stands withinclined tops divided sometimes horizontallyand sometimes perpendicularly into narrowcolumns, for holding live or dead standingmatter—usually the latter awaitingdistribution. The lower part of the frame isusually provided with racks for cases, letter-boards, galleys, or other storage facilities.7. Imposing Tables—Large flat surfaces uponwhich pages and forms are imposed andlocked up for electrotype molding or preparedfor the press. These consist of polishedmarble slabs on strong frames or tables, with

drawer for quoins, etc., and also furnishedbelow with galley racks, receptacles for woodor metal furniture, letter-boards, chase racks,etc. The more common modern imposingtables are made of steel, on iron frames, withthe lower parts fitted for the storage ofmaterial used in locking up forms.8. Proofing Apparatus—Proof planer andmallet, galley press, hand press, moderncurved-surface machines, automatic proofingmachines, self-feeding and self-inking. Thesealso include proof rollers, ink tables, shelvesfor proof paper, and receptacles for benzineor other type-washing liquids.In addition to the foregoing brief summary there arenumerous other items of composing-room equipment,large and small, provided for the particular needs ofthe work carried on in the place. Many of these items,however, are not in extensive use, as in many placesthe needs they would serve might not warrant theexpense of their installation. The specialties of theprinting industry nowadays affect the composing-roomas well as the other departments.A particular article which is useful and profitable in oneplace may be quite superfluous and an unnecessaryexpense in another. The kind and quantity of the workdone in any workroom usually governs the kind andthe extent of the equipment provided—makingallowance always for the customary variation inindividual judgment and the proprietor's ability topurchase.

There is a wide range of choice from a plain woodendouble stand with two pairs of cases, at which twopersons may work, costing six to ten dollars, to alatest pattern steel working cabinet, also providing foronly two workers, costing one hundred dollars, or evenmore.There are, however, certain articles and facilitiesfundamentally necessary to carry on the work of acomposing room. The particular form of these—whether simple and inexpensive or elaborate andcostly—is a question for the proprietor or manager toconsider.The articles of furniture classified under items 1, 2, 3,4, 5 and 6, in the foregoing list, are those treated inthis book; those referred to in item 7, Imposing Tablesand Lock-Up Appliances, being considered in aseparate volume (No. 4). Proof Presses, item 8, arealso treated in a separate book (No. 5).COMPOSING-ROOM FURNITUREEarly Type CasesFig. 1. Early Type Case. Fig. 1. Early Type Case.-Probably the first article which Gutenberg and his coworkers provided, after their types were cast, was atray with small compartments for holding the variousletters of the font, so that each letter, as it wasrequired for composing, could be readily selected.There may not have been a composing stick used atfirst, it is reasonable to suppose, as it was quite

feasible for the types to be assembled in lines directlyinto the frames in which they were held during theprinting. A case in which to hold the type, however,was a first and obvious necessity.The early type cases are shown in pictures of the timeas made of a single tray containing all the charactersof the font and resting in a slanting position on a rudeframe or “horse,” at which the compositor is usuallyseated. All the boxes of the case are represented asof the same size, which probably was not the facteven in early practice any more than it is today. Earlydesigners and artists no doubt overlooked or ignoredwhat they considered an unimportant detail, just astoday they often persist in misrepresenting the trueoutline of the printer's lower-case. One does not needto take much thought or to have much experience tounderstand that in all printed languages somecharacters are used more than others and thereforemore types of these letters and larger boxes to holdthem should be provided.For a long time the large single case with boxes forthe entire list of characters was used, and these arestill common in many European composing rooms. InEnglish and American workshops, however, the pair ofcases, one above the other, for many years has beenthe rule for large fonts in book and news work. Thesecases, being smaller and holding but a part of the font,are more convenient for storing and for moving fromplace to place about the room as they are needed foruse.The cases described by Moxon in 1683 are in pairs,

and the arrangement of the letters in the lower case,as shown in his illustrations, bear a close similarity tothe plan of English cases of today.Early American cases came from England andnaturally they conformed to the customs of the timeand place of origin. Probably in no other importantparticular has the tendency of printers to hold to pastmethods been more strongly emphasized than in theirrefusal to adopt any important change in the style ofthe most used type cases and the arrangement of thetypes in the boxes. Force of habit and dislike forinnovation have kept practically unchanged for twoand a half centuries the relative positions of the chiefcharacters in the case. At the same time there hasbeen universal acknowledgment that the adoption ofsome of the suggested improvements would addgreatly to convenience and economy; and further, thatmany of these improvements could be adopted withan effort and expense so small as to be out of allproportion to the advantages obtained.Sizes of Type CasesFig. 2-a. Upper Case. Fig. 2-a. Upper Case.[A] Fig. 2-b. Lower Case. Fig. 2-b. Lower Case. The standardtype case of today is 32¼ inches wide, as it lies on thework-stand, and 16⅝ inches—or slightly more thanone half of the width—from the front to the back orupper edge. The usual depth of the outside frame is1⅜ inches, the minor inside partitions being slightlylower than the outside frame and middle crossbar,thus making the normal depth of the boxesapproximately 1 inch. These dimensions vary only by

fractions of an inch from those given by Moxon, andthey seem to have been quite uniformly adhered to asan acceptable size for printers' cases.Other sizes of cases, however, have been made andquite commonly used during the last half century.Those now listed in the dealers' catalogs are known asthree-quarter size (26½ inches wide by 16⅝ inchesfront to back) and two-third size (21¾ by 16⅝ inches).There is also another size known as the Rooker case,used to some extent in newspaper composing rooms,the dimensions being 28½ x 14 inches, which is aboutone-fifth smaller than the standard case. It holdsnearly the same quantity of the smaller sizes of typeand has the advantage of occupying less room.When printing offices employed but few workmen andthere was small equipment, the need for economizingspace did not seem a pressing one. Large cases withsmall fonts, and open-frame working stands with fewor no racks or shelves for storage of extra material,were not considered extravagant so long as theoriginal cost was small. The employment of largernumbers of workmen, however, and the consequentadditional equipment of cases, with racks, cabinets,imposing tables, and other facilities concentrated incity buildings where the cost of rent, light, heat, etc., ishigh and constantly increasing, have made theutilization of waste space a matter of urgent necessity.The three-quarter, two-third cases, and even smallersizes, which can be kept in smaller racks andcabinets, have therefore been found convenient inmany places, but these must be provided with suitableracks or cabinets of the proper size. The smaller

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