Although Caxton and Wynkyn de Word() had, in the infancy of English printing, established a high character as type-founders, this branch of the art long remained in a depressed state iu England, the best types being supplied by continental founders ; a cirounistanoo which may, perhaps, be attributed in some degree to the restrictions imposed upon the British founders after their art was separated from that of printing. At the commencement of the 18th century native talent was at so low an ebb, that all the types used by London printers for superior works were imported from I loll red. William Cashl, who was originally employed in engraving on gun-barrels, and in cutting ornaments end letters for the use of book-binders, has the honour of removing this stigma upon English ingenuity. Having executed some remarkably neat lettere for lettering books, he was induced to attempt punch-cutting; his first engagement in this way being for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for whom he executed nu Arabic fount nbout this year 1720. Caslon was encouraged end assisted by Bowyer; and lie soon attained a reputation which not only put An end to the importation of Dutch types, but occasioned a demand for his own on the Continent His foundry was continued by his descend ants, and In still In operation. Another name memorable in the history of English type-founding is that of John Bankers-ilk, of Birmingham, who died in 1775. His stock of beautiful types was sold to a literary society in Paris, and used for printing a splendid edition of the wink, of Voltaire ; his widow having failed to obtain either a purchaser in England, or sufficient encouragement to induce her to continue his business. The history of the early British founders is minutely given in a very rare pamphlet, published in 1788, by the eccentric Edward Rowe shores, entitled A Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies; ' and Ilansmal, in his ' Typographia; has reprinted most of the information collected by Rowe Mores, together with notices of more recent type-founders. In France the names of Breitkopf and Didot attained high celebrity for improvements in type founding. The Imperial printing-office at Vienna, where punch-cutting and type founding are carried on, possesses probably the most nume rous collection of foreign alphabets having distinct characters.
The first and most important operation of a type-foundry is the formation of the punches, which are well-tempered pieces of steel, each of which bears on its face a single letter, formed with the greatest possible accuracy by filing, cutting, and punching the hollows with smaller punches. The face of the punch exactly resembles that of the finished type : the letter being reversed, and in high relief. The punch-cutter, in addition to the care and judgment required for making the letter of precisely the right size, form, and thickness, so that it may range well with other letters of the same fount or set, must consider the best degree of slope for the sides of the letter, so that, on the one hand, he may avoid making them so vertical that the lines will be weak, and easily broken hr battered ; and, on the other, that they may not, owing to too rapid an increase of thickness towards the base, produce a thick blurred impression when printed from. When the punch is completed and hardened, it is struck into a piece of copper, which, when it has received the impression from the end of the punch, is called a matrix, and forms a mould for the face of the type. The striking of the matrix, like every other operation iu the formation of the mould, requires great nicety, because, if the punch he not held perfectly vertical, the face of the type will not be at right angles with its sides, and the impression will consequently be uneven. The depth of the impression is also of consequence, as it affects the height of the type ; but this may be regulated by filing the face of the matrix. The sides and end of the matrix are thou accurately squared ; perfect truth in this respect being necessary, in order that, when the matrix is adjusted in the mould, the letter may be perfectly square with that portion of it which is to form the shank, or body of the type, and may also have its proper position with reference to the top and bottom of the body ; so that when the types are set up together and printed from, the letters may not only be upright, but may also range in a perfectly straight line. The mould, of which a representation is
annexed, consists of two halves, each of which is made of steel, and attached, for convenience of holding, to a piece of wood. The two halves of the mould are so formed, with projecting blocks and recesses to receive them, that they may be instantaneously fitted together, as shown in the cut, leaving a square funnel-shaped opening at the top, by which the type-metal is poured in, and below it the actual mould for the body of the type, with the matrix at the bottom to form the letter or face of the type. The two halves of the mould are so con structed that they will elide a little upon each other, laterally, so as to vary the thickness of the body of the letter, that the same mould may be used, with different matrices, for casting every letter of a fount, from i or 1, which have very narrow bodies, to in or w, which have wide bodies. The type-metal is usually melted in a small cast Iron pot, set in brickwork with an enclosed fire under it, and is poured into the mould by a very small ladle. The caster then jerks the mould quickly npwards by a peculiar motion of his arm, and thereby expels the sir, and forces the fluid metal to enter the cavities of the matrix. When the metal is set, the caster removes the pressure of the long curved spring at the bottom of the mould, and thereby relieves the matrix from the face of the type. The mould is then separated, and the type is removed by the application of one of the hooks attached to the upper part of each half. Complicated as these operations appear in description, the closing of the mould, casting the type, releasing the spring, opening the mould, and removing the type, are all performed in about the eighth part of a minute; so that an expert workman will cast 500 letters in an hour.
When the types leave the caster, each of them has a small block of metal attached to its shank, being that which filled the throat or funnel of the mould. These are removed by a boy, who takes up the types by their edges, or rather by the top and bottom of the body, and breaks off the metal by a motion almost too quick to be followed by the eye. The average cumber thus treated in an hour is 2000, but some boys can break off about 5000. The uext operation is rubbing the flat sides (but n2t the edges) of the types upon a piece of gritstoue, the fingers of the rubber being protected by pieces of tarred leather : this also is commonly done at the rate of 2000 per hour. The types are then set up by boys in long rowa or lines, and these are firmly secured in long frames, which hold them together while the dresser scrapes or polishes the flat surfaces which form the top and bottom of the body, and cuts a groove or channel along their lower ends by means of a small iron plane. While they are in the frame the types are also bearded, an operation which consists in planing away to a bevel the upper angle of the body at the feet of the letters. After dressing the types are tied up in such lines as may be convenient, and the proportionate numbers of every type of which a fount consists are selected. All the types belonging to one fount are distinguished by one or more grooves or nicks across the lower edge or bottom face of the body, by which simple contrivance the compositor is enabled to see, or even to feel, without looking at the face of the letter, when a type is inverted. These nicks, which should be different in number or position in each fount used in a printing-office arc formed by the insertion of one or more wires in the mould, or they are cut by a plane while they are in the long frames.