AN IMPROVED PRINTING TYPE
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAN
CASLON the Younger, of Dorset Street, Salisbury Square, in the City of London,
Letter Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of
October, in the fifty-third year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said William Caslon, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Caslon, my
exors, admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of
years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
PRINTING TYPE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that if I, the said William Caslon, shall not particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be [er-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the
same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Caslon, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said

page_text: Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, in manner
following, that is to say:-
The face or letter part of the said type I make of the usual thickness and
in the usual way, but the body, or that part under the face, which is commonly
made of such a thickness or height as to make the face part of the type of the
proper height for printing, that is, about of an inch, make only of
an inch in thickness or height, and the front of the said body I make sloping
or bevelling upwards from the outer side towards the face, as well as the
opposite side or back, by which means the upper part of the body is about
of an inch narrower than the under part of the same. The two sides, or
those parts which come next to one another, when two or more are put
side by side, I make quite upright or square with the upper and lower part.
Now it being necessary for the body part of all types to be of or raised to such
a height or thickness as to make the face of the proper height for printing, or
as before observed, about of an inch, I make stands of various lengths,
breadths, and heights, according to the sized types they are to be used with,
and of the following shape, that is to say, the front of the said stands I maké
quite upright, but the top of them to project inside, and the under part of
the said projecting part I make to slope or bevel just as much as the sloping part
of the body before described. The upper part of these stands, within the pro-
jecting part, I make flat only half the width of the bottom of the body, and of
such a height from the bottom as just to make the types before described of the
proper height for printing. The way in which these stands are used is to lay
down two of them back to back, and to place the types upon them, and when
they are closed the bevelling or sloping parts of the types fit exactly into
the bevelling or sloping parts of the stands, by which means the types are
properly confined of the proper height to paper, as it is called, and as easily
locked up in the chase as if they had been originally cast of the usual height
and in the usual way. The stands I make of any proper material, as iron, or
any other metal, wood, &c. The types I make of the usual composition.
The body may be also made of a different shape to that above described;
that is to say, instead of having the two sides upright and the front and back
sloping or bevelling, all four sides may be made upright; and they may then,
instead of being used with the stands before described, be fixed by nails or
otherwise upon blocks of wood of a proper width and height. The stands
may also be made in a different way to that before described; that is to say,
instead of making the upper parts of them only half the width of the bottom
of the body part of the types, they must be made of the whole width, but
with only one projecting part. The other projecting part in this case must

page_text: be screwed on after the types are put on the stands. The advantages
attending these types are their only weighing about half that common types
of the same size weigh, and, in consequence of being made only from about
to about a of an inch in thickness, they may be put away when not
in use in such a manner as to occupy only from to 4th of the room that
the common types occupy.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Caslon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thistoon.