The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-08
Saw the Point

Nelson Croker Hawks, a veteran print
err who says he is the originator of the
point" system of measurement of type
composition, was in the city yesterday for
few hours on his way from trip
through the east to Los Angeles, and
thence to his home in Alameda. Mr..
Hawks. many years ago, lived in Salt
Lake; many of the older printers IN the
service remember him well.
The system of type measurement which
Mr.. Hawks says he conceived. worked
out and placed in the hands of the type
founders. has revolutionized a branch of
the printing art, in that ii has brought
order and system out of state of chaos
| and confusion.
1t can be said of Mr. Hawks that he
| is not mercenary, nor yet selfish. He
declined 10 patent his invention for the
| reason that he desired that the printers
the men who worked at the cases-should
| have the benefit OF his system. rather
| than the type manufacturers. BY reason
J of this fact Mr.. Hawks is out of pocket
| about three millions of dollars, more or
| less, for he says he never gained single
cents worth of material advantage out
of giving his thought to the world IN
deed, when he was urged to do so. ne
was emphatic and positive in his refusal
saving that, being printer 9lm ms cra nt
| the benefit of the system which he orig
| mated and perfected.
Old System Confusing.
Mr.. Hawks calls his system the aliquot
| system Aliquot means the exact meas
| urement of parts of something without
| leaving a remainder. Aliquot being more
or less unwieldy. the printer man called
the method the point system. when Is
| direct and to the point. ana TINS Is no
joke.
| In 1874 Hawks went to San Francisco
and engaged in partnership with a vet
eran printer named Marder in the JOB
| printing business. Type founders form
| erly made type with reckless disregard
| to size A plea might be so long from
the molds of one mandatory. wniie an
other would have it hundredth or an
| inch longer or shorter. So, as time went
| on the fonts sent out by the different
| foundries became mixed and the result
was that forms would not lft-that Is.
| there would be minute spaces between
| the tvpe which is a fatal defect In the
iustifving of form. and quite often
ends in a conglomerate mass of pi: most
of which finds its way into the hell box
These tiny crevasses. through whlch
| many novice has seen A printer iouse
were stuffed with toothpicks and bits OF
pasteboard.
There seemed to be a good deal that
was not right about this haphazard way
of making up. so Hawks set his braln
at work, and said. in substance. If two
and two make four. two and two do not
make four and an eighth. nor do TWO ano
two make three and seven-sixteentns. IL
there is hole to be filled with certain
things meant to fill that hole. 1t Is not
right that portions of the space should
be taken up with toothpicks and pieces
| of paper.
Measuring Type.
If. figured Hawks. these metal cubes
called type are cut accurately there car
be no need of all this embryo furni'
ture Now if unit of measurement bt
adopted for all fonts. what shall tha
unit be? An aliquot leaving no fractions
practically; it was the task to find tn.
| basis of the elusive aliquOt- Finally
Hawks says he hit upon the plea: III
fixed his rule so that there should b'
six pleas to the inch and twelve points
! to the plea. Thus. when one reads I'M
! of plea one reads u points. III he Reads
| other type he runs about in this fash
! ion: Long primer, 10 points; bourgeois
9 POINTS: BREWER, points; minion.
noints: nonpareil lin which this is set,
points FOR the sake Of convenience non
: nareil Is used as sort of halfway sta
! ton for basic calculation. Nonpareil ha'
always been the favorite of the print
er. for it was an easy type to handl'
and the swifts OF the days of hand com
positioa made their fastest time with II
A etickful (hand stick of nOnparell .
equivalent to thousand ems, and iron
time agone long before the point sys
! TEN was thought of printers used tn
nonpareil slug as their standard OF meas
ur~mert. ,
Smaller type than nonpareil go int
T fractions Agate Is 5R points: pearl.
= points: diamond. AZ points. There is
TYNE called ruby but 1t has lost boti
its standing and its color.
Leads Cut Square.
, The spaces between the lines of typ'
ar. made with the use of leads Thes
little jiggers used to be made of Leaf
and that's why they were named. In tn
old DAYS type foundries turned out lead
] that were sometimes thick and some
} times thin; many a form has gone Il
Its doom and many moulded public opin
( one end of a lead was thick and tn
other thin and the makeup didn't find
ont until. like the pardon, etc.
The leads nowadays are made or brass
They are cut with the same precision tina
diamond cutter displays in his faces
There are leads of all thicknesses. blu
J they are all absolute subdivisions OF tn
point II smaller and multiples thereof
\ larger They are made to fit, and the,
1 take the place OF the plugging that use
Z to be done.
j So that, II a person take sheet o
\ n newspaper set in the same type rul
( a yardstick up one side and lengthwis
of the other he instantly can tell hoy
many ems are in that page.
Hard to Get 1t Started.
y after 7 had worked out the scheme,
( said Mr. Hawks, '.Marder wanted me I
d to make this universal and to give ever
man at the case the benefit of II. Aft
\ erwards Marder told me | was many kind
| of a fool, but i still don't believe it.
4 haven't got any money out OF the thing
but / have the satisfaction OF knowin