_MECHANICK EXERCISES:_ Or, the Doctrine of =Handy-works.= Applied to the Art of =Printing.= §. 2. _Of the Office of a Master_-Printer. I Shall begin with the Office of a _Master-Printer_, because (as aforesaid) he is the Directer of all the Work-men, he is the Base (as the _Dutchmen_ properly call him) on which the Workmen stand, both for providing Materials to Work withal, and successive variety of Directions how and in what manner and order to perform that Work. His Office is therefore to provide a House, or Room or Rooms in which he is to set his _Printing-House_. This expression may seem strange, but it is _Printers_ Language: For a _Printing-House_ may admit of a twofold meaning; one the Vulgar acceptance, and is relative to the House or Place wherein _Printing_ is used; the other a more peculiar Phrase _Printers_ use among themselves, _viz._ only the _Printing_ Tools, which they frequently call a _Printing-House_: Thus they say, Such a One has set up a _Printing-House_, when as thereby they mean he has furnish’d a House with _Printing_ Tools. Or such a one has remov’d his _Printing-House_, when thereby they only mean he has remov’d the Tools us’d in his former House. These expressions have been used Time out of mind, and are continued by them to this day. But to proceed, Having consider’d what number of _Presses_ and _Cases_ he shall use, he makes it his business to furnish himself with a Room or Rooms well-lighted, and of convenient capacity for his number of _Presses_ and _Cases_, allowing for each _Press_ about Seven Foot square upon the Floor, and for every _Frame_ of _Cases_ which holds Two pair of _Cases_, _viz._ one pair _Romain_ and one pair _Itallica_, Five Foot and an half in length (for so much they contain) and Four Foot and an half in breadth, though they contain but Two Foot and Nine Inches: But then room will be left to pass freely between two _Frames_. We will suppose he resolves to have his _Presses_ and _Cases_ stand in the same Room (though in _England_ it is not very customary). He places the _Cases_ on that side the Room where they will most conveniently stand, so, as when the _Compositer_ is at work the Light may come in on his Left-hand; for else his Right-hand plying between the Window-light and his Eye might shadow the _Letter_ he would pick up: And the _Presses_ he places so, as the Light may fall from a Window right before the _Form_ and _Tinpan_: And if scituation will allow it, on the North-side the Room, that the _Press-men_, when at their hard labour in _Summer_ time, may be the less uncommoded with the heat of the _Sun_: And also that they may the better see by the constancy of that Light, to keep the whole _Heap_ of an equal Colour.