The American Printer: A Manual of Typography: Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office, as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables, numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variety, hints to authors, etc.MacKellar, Thomas
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The American Printer: A Manual of Typography: Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office, as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables, numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variety, hints to authors, etc.
MacKellar, Thomas
Graphic design (Typography); Printing -- United States -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.; Printing industry -- United States
If letters, quadrates, or furniture rise up and black the paper, they
should be put down, and the quarter locked up tighter.
If any letters are battered, the quarter they are in must be unlocked,
and perfect ones put in by the compositor.
When bearers become too thin by long working, they should be replaced by
thicker ones.
When the form gets out of register,—which will often happen by the
starting of the quoins which secure the chase,—it must be immediately put
in again, as there can scarcely be a greater defect in a book than the
want of uniformity in this particular.
If picks, produced by bits of paper, composition, or film of ink and
grease or filth, get into the form, they must be removed with the point
of a pin or needle; but if the form is much clogged with them, it should
be well rubbed over with clean ley, or taken off and washed: in either
case, before the pressman goes on again, it should be made perfectly dry
by pulling several waste sheets upon it, in order to suck up the water
deposited in the cavities of the letter.
The pressman should accustom himself to look over every sheet as he takes
it off the tympan: he will thus be enabled not only to observe any want
of uniformity in the colour, but also to detect imperfections which might
otherwise escape notice.
In order to make perfect uniformity in the colour, the roller-boy
should keep his ink well brayered out with the small roller, in proper
quantities for the work in hand, and also should change his rollers well
after taking ink, and at other times. The rollers are changed by moving
the roller-handle slowly to the right and left, while the crank is being
turned briskly with the left hand.
Torn or stained sheets met with in the course of work are thrown out and
placed under the bank. Creases and wrinkles will frequently appear in the
sheets when the paper has been carelessly wet: these should be carefully
removed by smoothing them out with the back of the nails of the right
hand.
If the frame of the tympan rub against the platen, it will inevitably
cause a slur or mackle: this can easily be remedied by moving the tympan
so as to clear the platen. The joints or hinges of the tympan should
be kept well screwed up, or slurring will be the consequence. When the
thumb-piece of the frisket is too long, it always produces a slur: this
can be prevented by filing off a part of it. Loose tympans will at all
times slur the work, and great care must therefore be observed in drawing
them perfectly tight. The paper drying at the edges will also cause a
slur: this may be remedied by wetting the edges frequently with a sponge.
Slurring and mackling will sometimes happen from other causes: it will be
well in such cases to paste corks on the frisket, or to tie as many cords
as possible across it, to keep the sheet close to the tympan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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