Fig. 13. Metal Furniture Case. Fig. 14. Wood Type Case, with cross bar. Fig. 15. Blank Case for electrotypes.

Besides the ordinary pair of upper case and lower case, many styles of single cases are made to hold a complete font of capitals, lower case, figures, points, etc., and others are planned to hold small capitals in addition. Some are made for fonts of capitals, figures, and points only; some for figures only (especially for time-tables and tabular work), for fractions, accented letters, special characters and sorts, for leaders, type borders and ornaments, etc. A large variety of cases are planned for labor-saving fonts of brass rule. Others are made especially for spaces and quads, for leads and slugs, and for metal furniture. These are made in many sizes, from the small space-and-rule case, 5 inches by 6¼ inches, which can be placed beside the compositor's galley, up to the mammoth metal furniture case, 18 inches by 72 inches, covering a space equal to the top of a double stand. Dealers' catalogs now show from seventy-five to a hundred or more different kinds of cases for printers' use.

Compositor's Work Stands

Fig. 16. Compositor's Work Stand—Front Side. Primarily a working case-stand for a compositor serves two purposes. It should hold the cases in a position where he can work with reasonable comfort, and it should be fitted to contain the necessary material for his immediate use. For the first purpose the height of the case, working top, or shelf, should conform approximately to a level that will be comfortable for the individual workman. A tall man may work easily at a case which would be too high for the comfort of an apprentice, and a case at the right elevation for one below the average height would cause a habit of tiresome, if not unhealthful, stooping in a tall person. It often happens in some places that such conditions may not be adjusted without some bother, and an uncomfortable temporary position may not be a serious matter for very brief periods. The tendency in well-managed workrooms, however, is to remedy such improper situations and not to permit workmen to work habitually under conditions which may be easily improved. “The height of a compositor and his frame,” said an early authority among printers, “should be so adjusted that his right elbow may just clear the front of the lower case by the a box, without the smallest elevation of the shoulder”; and this seems a wise general rule to observe.

Fig. 17. Compositor's Work Stand—Rear View. When the type case is placed at a height at which the compositor may stand erect before it, the boxes are more readily reached by the hand if the back of the case is at a slight elevation. A case lying perfectly flat must be somewhat lower, in relation to the compositor's arms, than when it is resting at an inclination, in order to take types from it with the same facility. Consequently the custom is to place working cases and working tops or shelves at an inclination upward from the front to the back.

This inclination serves also as the most convenient kind of a rest for galleys upon which loose lines of composed matter are handled. Lines of small type will not stand upright without support of some kind, even on a perfectly level, smooth, rigid surface. The universal custom, therefore, is to place galleys of type matter in a slanting position, so that the ends of the lines will be higher and all the matter will rest firmly against the lower rim of the galley. A galley in this slanting position, with the first letter in the line resting against the lower rim and the words reading upward, is the safest and most practicable manner in which to make corrections, lift out or insert whole lines singly or in groups, or to handle types generally in certain difficult composition, making-up pages, etc. After the pages are tied up or surrounded by side supports in some manner they may be conveniently handled on a level surface. Ordinary linotyped matter, which consists of a single piece for each line of words, and consequently is not liable to pi, may be, and usually is, handled throughout on level tables; but types are easily and safely handled only when they may be placed against the lower rim of an inclined galley.

Case Stands and Racks

Fig. 18. Single Stand Fig. 19. Iron Case Stand with Galley Rest on side.

Fig. 20. Double Stand with Galley Rest between working cases. Fig. 21. Double Stand for tier of full size cases and tier of two-third cases.

A simple and inexpensive working stand to hold type cases for composing is that shown in Fig. 18. This is made of wood and has a rack in the lower part for holding extra cases. It will be noticed that because the rack is wide enough to take the full-size case, the top of the stand is several inches wider than the case, and the side frames are therefore too far apart to support the ends of the case. To enable the cases to be held safely, an extra arm is placed inside near the side frame to hold one end of the case. The surplus space beside the working cases is usually furnished with a sloping shelf or narrow galley rest convenient for holding a galley, leads, or other articles, thus allowing the case to be kept clear for composing. (See Fig. 19.)