Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1849-02-17
From the New I.cnl'n A,.rora
SOMETHING ABOUT PRINTING.

We live in an age and in a country
wherein it would almost be considered a
proof of lunacy, or great temerity at least,
to say that printing is not the most useful of
arts. That the art Of printing is like salt
sit is the preservativc of all arts''--seems
TO be position conceded by all civilized
communities where its benefits have been
dilfnsed with either an unsparing or stinted
hand. That it has facilitated the march of
Improvement, spread abroad and propaga-
ted correct principles, heralded forth the
principles Of christianity, carried civiliza-
ton, the arts and knowledge, to heathen
lands, and that it has elevated man, shown
him what he ought to be, besides comforting
numerous other invaluable advantages, 10
one who is coguizant TO its o,e,ations 70:
moment doubt But the intention in com
mencing this article was not to eulogize the
art for the beneiactions it has conferred
upon man, but for entirely another pur-
pose.
Common or letter press printing, such as
books, newspapers, &c, is carried on by a
large number Of fonts or types, every one
of which costs money, labor and ingenuity
to fit for use. A type Of long primer size,
although it is but eleven tweltths OF an inch
long, one seventh broad, aud one fourteenth
thick on an average. sill costs something.
1t is said that there are bot two or three
men in the United States who can make
the matrices in which types are cast, 50
peculiar, complete, proportioned must the
work be done. The letters are principally
made of lead, mixed with other metals in
order to harden it sufficiently when cool,
while at the same time those other ingredi-
ents caused the fused composition 10 fill
the most tenuous cre,ice of the matriX COM
pletely. For every sized type, and dife-
rently shaped types-and there are more
than 300 shapes and sizes of letter in our
alphabet in use-neW matrices have TO be
made, and each with the same eXactness or
the font is defective. In Roman each let
ter has TO be made three tmes-large and
small capitals and lower case, saying moth.
ing of points and other indispensable char
acters. To give some idea of the number
of characters and letters which 90 from a
font of types, it may answer to state that
there are two cases, as the the printer terms
them. The loWer case, containing all the
common or smaller letters; with the fig
ures and points for punctuation, double let
ters, and quadrats; this case has commonly
"a boxes, and every one is occupied. The
upper case, containing the large and small
capitals, and numerous marks and charac.
tiers which are in common use; and but
two or three of them are noccupied.-
Thus you see the type founder in order tC
supply common font of roman letters, ha,
to have constructed 100 matrices--and tn,
italics are not included here, which wi.
make over hundred more-ust to manu-.
iacture letters &C., of one size and cores
ponding faces. Here then, there must be
about tro hnndred and fifty character
made, and some of them good many thou,
sand times over, just TO print the plain mat.
ter of a common newspaper. To give The
uninitiated an idea of the numbers aud pro-
portion of types used-for printers have nc
secrets that / know Oft may answer tC
state that we use, say for common ave
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