Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1851-02-05
Facts in Printing.


Common us lelies press prnl'ns'
IS books, new >paerrs. &c., Is carried o''
by large number Of tools types, ever,
ese q, Which cost money, labor, or Insen'
yjtv. ro &, for use. There are but Two or
,hre. men IN ibe Unied States who can
-,,se me malr-e IN which types are cast,
50 peculiar, complete, prnpnrtonrd' un''
farm and exact mu,r the work be done.
The letters are made principally II lead,
mixed with the other metals. IN order To
hard.,s u ,fhcien,s ws-a c"'A.
Far every >,zed and differently shaped
tyne. n.w matrices have to he made, and
each with the SANE exac'nes-. or the i"n'
i, defective. Ia Roman, each letter must
lie made. Eve tl:nrs-larae and small cap
ital>, lnwrr ra>e, points. figures, and other
Indispensable characters. /" sive some
do, uf The number Of characters and let
ter> which 90 To form font oi types, We
will slate lhar there are two cases, as me
pr,n,-rs call them, the lover case c'htain-
N, all The common or sma's iti'ers. "hh
he figures and points oi punciuatar,
jyubi,. letters. spaces, and quidrais hts
,.>. Ia. "a boxes, aud every one Is occu.
med. The upper case, Containing The
,s-pe and small capitals, and numerous
marks ard characters hlch are IN com
,oo, ,se has 90 boxes. Thus II seems
the type founder, IN order 10 supply co"'-
non ion, of Roman letters, has TO have
constructed $50 matrices. and the Italics
are mol included here. which Will make
over 100 more-just TO manufacture letter,
&c. OF size and corresponding faces.
Here, theu. there must be about $50 char
aclers, and some of them good many
times over, to prln, a newspaper.
To give The uninllla'ed the number and
proportions 0: types used, il may answer
,ustlo state tha, we use, say for common
average font, ol 8 800; b l,6oO {; { g.
0ON; a 100 e II 600 2unO; Z L.
$50. h, COCO; 6. sUn; 400 k 500;
1000 m 1900; n 3 600; y I 900 q
$50 r 5000 5000 900; "a,
800 ' 900 w 900; 500 2,
600; 200; o 5000.
Nohlns IS here said Of points. figures,
toJbe eJlers, and olher characters, which
would swell The list amazingly. And all
his makes one item IN a common news
paper Office. Nor is anything said Of The
numerous pictures, 1owers, ornamental
shades, condensed, extended, &c, types
used IN job and newspaper printing. all OF
which is necessary TO make The stock Of an
ordinary newspaper establishment. The
types cos, from 80 cents TO 50 pound.
A common newspaper office ought TO be
supplied with from 1000 TO $500 lbs. of
type. These with some 5000 worth Of
wood type. $3.50 Tor hand press, a good
many dollars for brass rules, and still
more for iron materials, ink, &C., will
make very large abstraction from ST.. |
500. The usual width of newspaper col. |
umns is abou, IL ms wide. An EN- is the
thickness OF line.
On an average. nearly three types will
90 into an EN-, counting spaces. For ev.
cry 1000 ms printer sets. he handles
5000 types; and if he sets 5000 ms. switch
lsa days work, with correcting the same.
distributing enough fnr next day. he hand
les not far IRON 80 600 types per day.
The remark is often made, that there
are SO many errors in The paper. and it is
true, bot let 80 out Of 100 who make the
ooservatlon try the experiment, and make
isSsr-if.hey can. J