FOU

FOU

491

if tin' t.vo sides of the bodv are parallel, so that the body be nobigger at the head than at tile foot, by taking half the number ofhis proofs anil turning them with their beans to the feet of theother half; and if then the heads and the feet be found exactlyeven upon each other, and neither to drive out nor g.t in, the twosides may be pronounced parallel. He farther tries whether thetwo sides of the thickness of the letter be parallel, by first settinghis proofs in the composing-stick with their nicks upwards, andthen turning one-half with their heads to the feet of the other half;and if the heads and feet lie exactly upon each other, and neitherdrive out nor get in, the two sides of the thickness are parallel.The mould thus justified, the next business is to prepare the ma-trices. A matrice is a piece of brass or copper of about an inchand a half long, and of a thickness in proportion to the size of theletter it is to contain. In this metal is sunk the face of the letterintended to be cast, by striking the letter-punch about the depthof an n. After this the sides and face of the matrice must be jus-tiiied, and cleared with tiles of all bundlings made by sinking thepunch. Every thing thus prepared, it is brought to the furnace;which is built of brick upright, with four square sides, and a stoneon the top, m which stone is a wide round hole for the pan ro standin. A fonndery of any extent has several of these furnaces in it.As to the metarot which the types are to be cast, this, in exten-sive founderies, is always prepared in large quantities; but castinto small bars, of about '20 pounds weight, to be delivered out tothe workmen as occasion requires. In the lctter-foundery whichhas been long carried on with reputation under the direction ofHr. Alex. Wilson and sons at Glasgow , we are informed, that astock of metal is made up at two different times of the year, suffi-cient to serve the casters at the furnace for six months each time.For this purpose, a large furnace is built under a shade, furnishedWith a wheel-vent, in order the more equally to heat the sides of astrong pot of cast iron, which holds, when lull, 15 cwt. of the me-tal. 'The fire being kindled below, the bars of lead are let softlydown into the pot, and their fusion promoted by throwing in somepitch and tallow, which soon inflame. An outer chimney, which,is built so as to project about a foot over the farthest lip of the pot,catches hold of the flame by a strong draught, and makes it actvery powerfully in melting lead; whilst it serves at the same timeto convey away all the fumes, &c. from the workmen, to whomthis laborious part of the business is committed. When the lead isthoroughly melted, a due proportion of the regulus of antimonyand other ingredients are put in, and some more tallow is inflamedto make the whole incorporate sooner. The workmen, having■nixed the contents of the pot very thoroughly by stirring long witha large iron ladle, next proceed to draw the metal off into the smalltroughs of cast iron, which are ranged to the number of 80 upona level platform faced with stone, built towards the right hand.Ft the course of a day 15 cwt. of metal can be easily prepared*n this manner; and tlie operation is continued for as many daysas are necessary to prepare a stock of metal of all the various de-grees of hardness. Alter this, the whole is disposed into pressesa ccording to its quality, to be delivered out occasionally to theWorkmen. The founder must now be provided with a ladle,Which differs nothing from other iron ladles but in its size: andnc is provided always with ladles of several sizes, which he usesAccording to the size of the letters he is to cast. Before the casterbegins to cast, he must kindle a fire in the furnace to melt then >etal in tl-.e pan: therefore he takes the pan out of the hole in thes tone, and there lays in coals and kindles them ; and, when they?re well kindled, lie sees the pan in again, and puts in metal into" to melt: if it be a small-bodied letter lie casts, or a thin lettergreat bodies, his metal must be very hot; nay sometimes red-bo', lo make the letter come. Then having chosen a ladle that" 'll hold about as much as the letter and break are, he lays it at'be stoking-hole, where the flame bursts out, to heat. 1 lien hea thin leather, cut with its narrow end against the face to thegroove of the matrice by ■whipping a brown thread twiceabout the leather groove, and fastening the thread with a knot.

bin lie puts both halves of the mould together, and puts the■iiatrice into the matrice-cheek, and places the foot of the matrice011 the stool of the mould, and the broad end of the leathei upon'bp wood of the upper half of the mould ; but not tight up, lest itf’'&bt hinder the foot of the matrice from sinking close down uponstool i„ a train of work. Then laying a liUle on the up-

per wood of the mould, and having his casting-ladle lmt, he withthe boiling side of it melts the rosin : and, v lien it is yet melted,presses the broad end of the leather hard dow n on the wood, andso fastens it to the wood ; all this is the preparation. Now he pro-ceeds to casting; placing the under halt of the mould in his lefthand, with the hook or hag forward, he clutches the ends cf itswood between the lower part of the bull of his thumb and histhree hind-fingers ; then he lays the upper half of the mould uponthe under halt, so that the male gauges may fall into the femalegauges, and at the same time the foot of the marine places itselfupon the stool; and clasping liis left hand thumb strong over theupper half of the mould, he nimbly catches hold of the bow orspring with his right hand fingers at the top of it, and his thumbunder it, and places the point of it against the middle of the notchin the back side of the matrice, pressing it both forwards towardsthe mould, and downwards by the shoulderof the notch close uponthe stool; while at the same time with his hinder lingers lie drawsthe under half of the mould towards the ball of his thumb, andthrusts by the hail of his thumb the upper part towards his lingers,that both the registers of the mould may press against both sidesof the matrice, and his thumb and fingers press both lialves of themould close together. Then he takes the handle of his ladle inhis right hand, and with the boll of it gives a stroke, or tw o or three,outwards upon the surface of the melted metal, to scum or clearit from the film or dust that may swim upon it; then he takes upthe ladle full of metal, and having his mould, as aforesaid, in hisleft hand, he a little twists the left side of his body from the fur-nace, and brings the geat of his ladle (full of metal) to the mouthof the mould, and twists the upper part of his right hand towardshim to turn the metal into it, while at the same moment of timehe jilts the mould in his left hand forwards, to receive the metalwith a strong shake (as it is called) not only into the body of themould, but while the metal is yet hot, running swift and strongly,into the very face of the matrice, to receive Its perfect form there,as well as in the shank. Then lie takes the upper half of themould off the under half, by placing bis right hand thumb on theend of the wood next his left hand thumb, and his two middlefingers at the other end of the wood; and finding the letter andbreak lie in the under half of the mould (as most commonly, byreason of its weight, it does) he throws or tosses the letter, breakand all, upon a sheet of waste paper laid for that purpose on thebench, just a little beyond his left hand, and is then ready to castanother letter as before; and also the whole number that isto be cast with the matrice. A workman will ordinarily castabout 30f)0 of these letters in a day. When the casters at theturnace have got a sufficient number of types upon the fables, aset of boys come and nimbly break away the jets from them : thejets are thrown into the pots, and the types are carried away inparcels to other boys, who pass them swiftly under their finger's,defended by leather, upon smooth flat stones, in order to polishtheir broad sides. This is a very dexterous operation, and is a re-markable instance of what may be effected by the power of ha-bit and long practice ; for these boys, in tinning up the other sideof the type, do it so quickly by a mere touch of the fingers of theleft hand, as not to require the least perceptible intermission in themotion of the right hand upon the stone. The types, thus finely-smoothed and flattened on the broad sides, are next carried toanother set of boys, who sit at a square table, two on each side,and are there ranged up on long rulers, or slicks, fitted with asmall projection, to hinder them from sliding off backwards.When these sticks are so filled, they are placed, two and two,upon a set of wooden pins fixed into the wall, near the dresser,sometimes to the amount of an hundred, in order to undergo thefinishing operations. This workman, who is always the most ex-pert and skilful in all the different branches carried on at lirefounders’, begins by taking one of these sticks, and, with a pecu-liar address, slides the whole column of types off upon the dress-ing-stick : this is made of well-seasoned mahogany, and furnishedwith two end-pieces of steel, a little lower than the body of thetypes, one of which is moveable so as to approach the other by-means of a long screw-pin inserted in the end of the stick. Thetypes are put into this stick with their faces next to the back orprojection; and after they are adjusted to one another so as tostand even,thev are then bound up, by screwing home the move-able end-picee. It is here where the gn at and requisite accuracy

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