Page:The practice of typography - a treatise on the processes of type-making, the point system, the names, sizes, styles and prices of plain printing types by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/16

10 not entirely fill the matrix; gutta-percha and celluloid cost more and have disadvantages that outweigh their merits. Large types for posting-bills are made from close-grained wood like made from that of the box, maple, or pear tree: for hard woods this branch of printing, types of wood are preferred, as lighter and cheaper than those made from metal. Types of wood are seldom smaller as to height of face than one inch. They can be made smaller, but small pieces of wood warp after heat or swell after moisture and are unfit for practical work.

As now practised, type-making has six distinct departments: (1) Punch-cutting, or the art of designing and engraving the model characters from which types are made; (2) Fitting-up, or the art of adjusting the matrices to the moulds; (8) Electrotyping, or the art of making matrices by electrolysis; (4) Mould-making, or the art of constructing the moulds in which types are cast, and the exact tools by which ' their accuracy is tested; (5) Type-casting, or the art of founding types in moulds; (6) Type-dressing, or the art of finishing the incomplete work of the type-caster. The breaking-off of surplus metal from the cast types, the rubbing-down of the feather edge made in casting, the kerning or adjusting of overhanging letters, and the final inspection of each finished type are additional operations. Every large foundry has a few workmen