Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/241

Rh the printers call rules, occurs, it is called table-work, and is charged at an advanced price per sheet. Examples of this are frequent in the present volume. If the page consists entirely of figures, as in mathematical tables, which require very careful correction, the charge for composition is usually doubled. A few years ago I printed a table of logarithms, on a large-sized page, which required great additional labour and care from the Readers, in rendering the proofs correct, and for which, although new punches were not required, several new types were prepared, and for which stereotype plates were cast, costing about 2l. per sheet. In this case 11l. per sheet were charged, although ordinary composition, with the same sized letter, in demy octavo, could have been executed at thirty-eight shillings per sheet: but as the expense was ascertained before commencing the work, it gave rise to no difficulties.

(258.) The charge for corrections and alterations is one which, from the difficulty of measuring them, gives rise to the greatest inconvenience, and is as disagreeable to the publisher (if he be the agent between the author and the printer), and to the master printer or his foreman, as it is to the author himself. If the author study economy, he should make the whole of his corrections in the manuscript, and should copy it out fairly: it will then be printed correctly, and he will have little to pay for corrections. But it is scarcely possible to judge of the effect of any passage correctly, without having it set