1809.—JOHN PEEK. A machine for the more expeditious casting of types, by which three motions out of the five ordinarily made use of in casting, are saved. This consists in the addition of two parts to the ordinary hand-mould; that to the upper part being a plate with a socket in which the matrix is suspended on pivots, and that to the lower part being a bolt which presses the matrix to the mould, where it is kept by a spiral spring round the bolt, and by the withdrawal of which the matrix is tilted, another spiral spring keeping it in that position till the mould recloses. The bolt is worked by a lever.[198] 1812.—WILLIAM CASLON. An improved printing type. The face or letter part of the type is made of the usual thickness, and in the usual way, “but the body, which is commonly made about seven-eighths of an inch, I make only three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness; and the front of the said body I make sloping or bevelling upwards from the outer side towards the face, as well as the opposite side or back, by which means the upper part of the body is about one-eighth of an inch narrower than the under part of the same.” These short types are raised to the requisite height to paper by stands of the necessary thickness. “Or the body may, without being bevelled, be fixed by nails or otherwise, upon blocks of wood of a proper width and height. Or the stands may be made of the whole width of the body of the type, with only one projecting part, the other being screwed on after the types are put on the stands. The advantage of these types is in economy of weight and space; the former being one-half, and the latter one-third to one-half of the ordinary types.” 1814.—AMBROISE FIRMIN DIDOT. An improvement in the method of making types. In Roman text, running hand or any other hand consisting more or less in hair strokes or fine lines, from letter to letter, the projecting extremities of each letter are extended so as to form a join with the next. In the case of inclined letters “I do, by suitable alteration in my moulds, cast my types and the beards and shanks or tails thereof with the same or nearly the same inclination or slope of surface as aforesaid; and to prevent such types sliding upon each other {121} when set up, a protuberance or projecting part is cast on one face, and a cavity or indentation corresponding to it in the opposite one; or otherwise I do, by angular or curved deviations from, in, or as to the straight direction of the said surfaces, render it impossible that any sliding should take place between the same.”