The spaces are pieces of metal, of va rious thicknesses, exactly shaped like the shanks of the letters. They are used to regulate the distances betWeen the words.
When the composing-stick has been filled with hoes, being generally in num ber about ten or twelve, the compositor empties it on to a thin board, called a galley, being of an oblong shape, with a ledge on two sides, and a groove, to ad mit a false bottom. When the composi tor has filled and emptied his stick until he has composed a page, he ties it up with a piece of pack-thread, and removes it from the galley, either to the imposing stone, or to such other safe and con venient place as he may think proper. And in this manner he proceeds until he has composed as many pages as are re quired to make a sheet, or, in some in.
stances, a half-sheet. He then proceeds to arrange the pages on the imposing. stone, which is a very large oblong stone, of about five or six inches in thickness. The pages are so arranged, that, when they are printed, they may be folded so as to follow each other regularly. Great care, and some ingenuity, is requisite in the imposing of a sheet or half-sheet, par ticularly of works in sizes less than folio or quarto. In Stower's Printer's Gram mar, a very excellent and copious work on the subject of printing, are given up. wards of fifty schemes of imposition, of sheets of almost every possible size.
Having laid down or disposed the pages in right order on the imposing-stone, the compositor proceeds to what is called dressing the chases. The chase is a rec tangular iron frame, of different dimen sions, according to the size of the paper to be printed ; having two cross pieces, of the same metal, called a long and short cross, mortised at each end so as to be taken out occasionally. By the different situations of these crosses the chase is fitted for different volumes ; for folios, quartos, octavos, &c. To dress the chase, a set of furniture is necessary, con. sisting of small slips of wood of differ ent dimensions. The first thing to be done, is to lay the chase over the pages ; after this, that part of the furniture called gutter-sticks, are placed between the re spective pages. Then another part of the furniture called reglets are placed along the sides of the crosses of the chase. The reglets are of such a thickness as will let the book have proper margins after it is bound. Having dressed the in
side of the pages, the compositor pro ceeds to do the same with their outsides, by putting side-sticks and foot-sticks to them. Thus the pages being placed at proper distances, they are all untied and fastened together by small wooden wedges, called quoins. These small wedges, being firmly driven up the sides and feet of the pages, by means of a mallet, and a piece of hard wood called a shooting-stick, all the letters are fasten ed together. The work in this condition is called a form, and is ready for the pressman, who lays it upon the press, fbr the purpose of pulling a proof. When a proof is pulled, the form or forms are rubbed over with a brush, dipped in ley, made of pearl-ash' and water ; they are then carefully taken off the press, and the proof and forms delivered to the com positor's further care.
As it is impossible for the most careful compositor so to compose all his sheets as that they shall not require to be carefully read and corrected before they are finally worked-oft; the next thing to be done is to put the proof, along with the copy from which it has been composed into the hands of the reader or corrector, whose business is to read over the whole proof two or three times with great care and attention, marking such errata in the margin of every page as he shall observe.
The corrections are always placed against the line in which the faults are found. There are different characters used to denote different corrections : thus is put to signify that a word is divided that ought to be in one, as fie rson instead of person ; a mark resembling the Greek theta 3- is put for dele, to intimate that something, as a point, letter, word, 8sc. dashed in that line, is to be taken out. If any thing is to be inserted, the place i of insertion is marked with a caret, a, and the thing to be inserted written in the margin. Where a space is wanting be tween two words, or letters, that are in tended to be separated, a parallel line must be drawn where the separation ought to be, and a mark, somewhat re sembling a flat in music tit, placed in the margin. An inverted letter or word, is noticed by making a dash under it, and a mark, nearly resembling the dele charac ter reversed.