The oases, particularly the upper one, are placed in a sloping position, that the compositor may the more readily reach the upper boxes. The instrument in which the letters are set is called a composing-stick, which consists of a long and narrow plate of iron brass, or other compound metal, on the right side of which arises a ledge, which runs the whole length of the plate, and serves to sustain the letters, the sides of which are to rest against it; along this ledge is a row of holes, which serve for introducing the screw, in order to lengthen or shorten the extent of the line, by moving the sliders farther from, or nearer to, the shorter ledge at the end. Where marginal notes are required in a work, the two sliding pieces are opened to a proper distance from each other, in such a manner as that, while the distance between forms the length of the line in the text, the distance between the two sliding-pieces forms the length of the hoes for the notes on the side of the page.
Before the compositor proceeds to compose, he puts a rule or thin slip of brase-plate, cut to the length of the line, and of the same height as the letter, in the composing-stick, against the ledge, for the letter to bear against. Thus prepared, the compositor having the copy beforehim, and his stick in his left hand, his thumb being over the slider; with the right hand he takes up the letters one by one, and places than against the rule, while he supports them with his left thumb by pressing them to the end of the slider, the other hand being con stantly employed in setting in other letters, which is effected by a skilful work man at an average rate of about thirty per minute. A line being thus composed, if it end with • word or syllable, and exactly fill the measure, there needs no further care; otherwise more spaces are to be put in, or else the distances lessened between the several words, in order to make the measure quite full, so that every line may end even. The spaces here used are pieces of metal exactly shaped like the shanks of the letters; they are of various thicknesses, and serve to preserve a proper distance between the words; but not standing so high as the letters, they make no impression when the work is printed. The first line being thus finished, the compositor proceeds to the next; in order to do which he removes the brass rule from behind the former, and places it before it, and thus composes another line against it after the same manner as before ; going on thus till his stick is full, when he empties all the lines contained in it into what is called a galley, which consists of a flat piece of mahogany, or other fine wood, with a ledge of a proper height at the margin of its two sides. The compositor
then fills and empties his composing-stick as before, till a complete page is formed ; when he ties it up with a cord,• and, setting it by, he proceeds to the next, till the number of pages constituting a sheet is completed; which done. he carries them to the imposing-stone, there to be ranged in order, and fastened together in a frame called a chase,—and this is termed imposing. The chase is a rectangular iron frame, of different dimensions, 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 quartos and octavos one traverses the middle lengthwise, the other broadwise, so as to intersect each other in the centre ; for twelves and twenty-fours, the short cross is shifted nearer to one end of the chase; for folios, the long cross is removed entirely, and the short one remains in the middle; and for broadsides, no cross is required. To impose, or arrange and fix the pages in the chase, the compositor makes use of a set of furniture, consist ing of slips of wood of different dimensions, somewhat lower than the letters; some of these are placed at the top of the pages, and called head-sticks; others between them, to form the inner margin ' • and others, in the form of wedges, to the sides and bottoms of the pages. Thus all the pages being placed at their proper distances, and secured from being injured by the chase and furniture laced about them, they are all untied, and fastened together by driving up small wedges of wood, called quoins, between the slanting side of the foot and the side-sticks and the chase, by means of a piece of hard wood and a mallet; and all being thus bound fast together, so that none of the letters will fall out, it is ready to be committed to the pressmen. In this condition, the work is called a form ; and as two of these forms are in most caves required for every sheet, it is necessary the distances between the pages in each form should be plaftd with such exactness, that the impression of the pages in one form shall all exactly on the back of the pages of the other; the effecting this is called making register.