AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF COMBINATION TYPES, AND AN IMPROVED CASE FOR CONTAINING THE SAME
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Albon Honestus Bailey at the
Office of the Commissiouers of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
September 1861.
I, ALBON HONESTUS BAILEY, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of
America, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVED
SYSTEM OF COMBINATION TYPES, AND AN IMPROVED CASE FOR CONTAINING THE SAME,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object to facilitate the setting of printers' types,
and consists in so combining in pairs those letters of the alphabet that are
capable of being used together, that the compositor shall have within his
reach not only the letters which he requires, but also that letter joined with
the one which immediately follows it, by which means he is enabled, with the
single motion which heretofore was required to set a single type or letter, to
set two letters, and thus greatly to facilitate the process of composing.
I am aware that logotypes have been proposed and used to a very limited
extent, which consisted of certain syllables or constantly recurring words of
few letters, but such logotypes were incapable of being combined into any
system, for either the combinations or syllables were too few in number to be
of much value, or if they were multiplied so as really to amount to a system,
they became so numerous as to require very extended cases for their accom-
modation, and thus the labor of the compositor was increased rather than
Jessened.

page_text: I am also aware that "ligatures" are in use, which consist of certain long
letters cast in union with the letter f; this is done from necessity, as the
"kern" at the top of this letter would inevitably be broken off, if the attempt
were made to place any one of the letters with which it has thus been
combined immediately after it. By my improved system, all the possible
combinations of two letters which are in sufficient general use to render it
desirablo may be employed without making tho cases cumbersome, and
without obliging the compositor to change his position on the floor, or to mako
inconvenient reaches while setting his types, and the result is, that ho is
enabled to accomplish nearly double the amount of work which he was capable
of by the use of single types alone.
The case for the accommodation of the types should be so constructed as to
present them systematically to the compositor. In the one represented in
Figure 1 of the Drawings, the large capitals occupy the upper range, and the
small letters the lower range of compartments. The intermediate compart-
ments being devoted to the dual combinations, those between the large and
small A being occupied by the combinations commencing with a, as ab, ac,
ad, and so on, those in the next row of compartments with the combinations
commencing with b, as ba, be, bi, bl, and so on through the whole alphabet.
Those compartments not required for the combinations are devoted to spaces,
punctuation marks, figures, and other characters. It is manifest that thero
are some combinations of two letters of such raro occurrence that they may
be omitted, the space which they would occupy in the case being given up to
other characters or numbers; and it is obvious that the case may be varied
in the size, number, and arrangement of its compartments, and still present
the type systematically to the compositor, so that he may speedily acquire a
knowledge of their whereabouts, and also that ho may make the shortest
reaches for those types which occur most frequently.
In Figure 2 is represented the upper case, which contains an addition to
the small capitals and other characters in common use, certain combinations
of letters, and constantly occurring words which may with advantage be used
in connection with my system.
Figure 3 is a plan of portion of my case, showing the divisions D arranged
to slide in grooves in the bars A, B, whereby the compartments may be
enlarged or diminished at pleasure, also tho perforated bottom N; this bottom,
however, forms not part of my present Invention.
The boxes of the improved printers' caso are, as above mentioned, so
arranged that all the combinations commencing with the same letters shall be

page_text: in columns, and the columns may be either vertical, horizontal, or diagonal.
It is not requisite that the combinations be arranged in alphabetical order as
in Figure 1, as, in practice, it might be desirable that those combinations
which begin with a, or with those letters most generally used, should be placed
in the centre, of the case, when they would be more immediately under the
hand of the compositor.