serve might not warrant the expense of their installation. The specialties of the printing industry nowadays affect the composing-room as well as the other departments.

A particular article which is useful and profitable in one place may be quite superfluous and an unnecessary expense in another. The kind and quantity of the work done in any workroom usually governs the kind and the extent of the equipment provided—making allowance always for the customary variation in individual judgment and the proprietor's ability to purchase.

There is a wide range of choice from a plain wooden double stand with two pairs of cases, at which two persons may work, costing six to ten dollars, to a latest pattern steel working cabinet, also providing for only two workers, costing one hundred dollars, or even more.

There are, however, certain articles and facilities fundamentally necessary to carry on the work of a composing room. The particular form of these—whether simple and inexpensive or elaborate and costly—is a question for the proprietor or manager to consider.

The articles of furniture classified under items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, in the foregoing list, are those treated in this book; those referred to in item 7, Imposing Tables and Lock-Up Appliances, being considered in a separate volume (No. 4). Proof Presses, item 8, are also treated in a separate book (No. 5).

COMPOSING-ROOM FURNITURE

Early Type Cases

Fig. 1. Early Type Case. Probably the first article which Gutenberg and his co-workers provided, after their types were cast, was a tray with small compartments for holding the various letters of the font, so that each letter, as it was required for composing, could be readily selected. There may not have been a composing stick used at first, it is reasonable to suppose, as it was quite feasible for the types to be assembled in lines directly into the frames in which they were held during the printing. A case in which to hold the type, however, was a first and obvious necessity.

The early type cases are shown in pictures of the time as made of a single tray containing all the characters of the font and resting in a slanting position on a rude frame or “horse,” at which the compositor is usually seated. All the boxes of the case are represented as of the same size, which probably was not the fact even in early practice any more than it is today. Early designers and artists no doubt overlooked or ignored what they considered an unimportant detail, just as today they often persist in misrepresenting the true outline of the printer's lower-case. One does not need to take much thought or to have much experience to understand that in all printed languages some characters are used more than others and therefore more types of these letters and larger boxes to hold them should be provided.

For a long time the large single case with boxes for the entire list of characters was used, and these are still common in many European composing rooms. In English and American workshops, however, the pair of cases, one above the other, for many years has been the rule for large fonts in book and news work. These cases, being smaller and holding but a part of the font, are more convenient for storing and for moving from place to place about the room as they are needed for use.

The cases described by Moxon in 1683 are in pairs, and the arrangement of the letters in the lower case, as shown in his illustrations, bear a close similarity to the plan of English cases of today.

Early American cases came from England and naturally they conformed to the customs of the time and place of origin. Probably in no other important particular has the tendency of printers to hold to past methods been more strongly emphasized than in their refusal to adopt any important change in the style of the most used type cases and the arrangement of the types in the boxes. Force of habit and dislike for innovation have kept practically unchanged for two and a half centuries the relative positions of the chief characters in the case. At the same time there has been universal acknowledgment that the adoption of some of the suggested improvements would add greatly to convenience and economy; and further, that many of these improvements could be adopted with an effort and expense so small as to be out of all proportion to the advantages obtained.

Sizes of Type Cases

Fig. 2-a. Upper Case.[A] Fig. 2-b. Lower Case. The standard type case of today is 32¼ inches wide, as it lies on the work-stand, and 16⅝ inches—or slightly more than one half of the width—from the front to the back or upper edge. The usual depth of the outside frame is 1⅜ inches, the minor inside partitions being slightly lower than the outside frame and middle crossbar, thus making the normal depth of the boxes approximately 1 inch. These dimensions vary only by fractions of an inch from those given by Moxon, and they seem to have been quite uniformly adhered to as an acceptable size for printers' cases.

Other sizes of cases, however, have been made and quite commonly used during the last half century. Those now listed in the dealers' catalogs are known as three-quarter size (26½ inches wide by 16⅝ inches front to back) and two-third size (21¾ by 16⅝ inches). There is also another size known as the Rooker case, used to some extent in newspaper composing rooms, the dimensions being 28½ x 14 inches, which is about one-fifth smaller than the standard case. It holds nearly the same quantity of the smaller sizes of type and has the advantage of occupying less room.

When printing offices employed but few workmen and there was small equipment, the need for economizing space did not seem a pressing one. Large cases with small fonts, and open-frame working stands with few or no racks or shelves for storage of extra material, were not considered extravagant so long as the original cost was small. The employment of larger numbers of workmen, however, and the consequent additional equipment of cases, with racks, cabinets, imposing tables, and other facilities concentrated in city buildings where the cost of rent, light, heat, etc., is high and constantly increasing, have made the utilization of waste space a matter of urgent necessity. The three-quarter, two-third cases, and even smaller sizes, which can be kept in smaller racks and cabinets, have therefore been found convenient in many places, but these must be provided with suitable racks or cabinets of the proper size. The smaller cases are sufficient to hold many of the usual small fonts, as well as the