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<»f the moulds comes to be perceived ; for in this case the wholecolumn, so bound up, lies flat and true upon the stick, the tw oextreme types being quite parallel, and the whole has the ap-pearance of one solid continuous plate of metal. The least inaccuracy in the exact parallelism of the individual type, whenmultiplied so many limes, would render it impossible to bindthem up in this manner, by disposing them to rise or springfrom the stick by the smallest pressure from the screw. Now,when lying so conveniently with the narrow edges uppermost,which cannot possibly be smoothed in the manner before men-tioned by the stones, the workman does this more effectually byscraping tiie surface of the column with a thick-edged but sharprazor, which at every stroke brings on a very tine smooth skin,like to polished silver; and he thus proceeds till in about half aminute he comes to the further end of the stick. The other edgesof the types are next turned upwards and polished in the samemanner. It is whilst the types thus lie in the dressing-stick thatthe operation of bearding or barbing is performed, which is efl'eet-cd by running a plane, faced with steel, along the shoulder of thebody next to the face, which takes more or less off the corner, asoccasion may require. Whilst in the dressing-stick they are alsogrooved, which is a very material operation. To understand lhi~',it must be remembered, that when the types are lirst broken oltfrom the jets some superfluous metal always remains, which wouldmake them bear very unequally against "the paper, whilst underthe printing-press, and effectually mar the impression. That allthese inequalities may, therefore, be taken away, and that the bear-ings of every tvpe may be regulated by the shoulders imparted tothem all alike from the mould, the w orkman or dresser proceedsin the following manner: The types being screwed up in thestick, as before mentioned, with the jet-end outermost, and pro-jecting beyond the wood about one eighth of an inch, the stick isput into aii open press, -o as to present the jet-end uppermost, andthen every thing is made fast by driving a long wedge, which bearsupon a slip of wood, which lies close to the types the whole length:then a plane is applied, which is so constructed as to embrace theprojecting part of the types betwixt its long sides, which are madeof polished iron. When the plane is thus applied, the steel cutterbearing upon that part between the shoulders ol the types wherethe inequalities lie, the dresser dexterously glides it along, and bythis means strips off every irregular part that comes in the way, andso makes an uniform groove the whole length, and leaves the twoshoulders standing; by which means every type becomes preciselylike to another, as to the height against paper. The types beingnow finished, the stick is taken out of the press, and the wholecolumn replaced upon the other stick ; and after the whole are sodressed, he proceeds to pick out the bad letters, previous to put-ting them up into pages and papers. In doing this he takes thestick into his left hand, and turning the faces near to the light, heexamines them carefully, and whenever an imperfect or damagedletter occurs, he nimbly plucks it out with a sharp bodkin, whichhe holds in the right hand for that purpose. Those letters which,from their form, project over the body of the type, and whichcannot on this account be rubbed on the stones, are scraped onthe broad sides with a knife or file, and some of the metal nextthe face pared away with /a penknife, in order to allow thetype to come close to any other. This operation is called kern-ing. The excellence ot printing-types con.-ists not only in theslue performance of all the operations above described, but also inthe hardness of the metal, foim, and fine proportion of the cha-racter, and in the exact bearing and ranging of the letters inrelation to one another.
4. Founder y of Smatx Works, or Casting in Sand . Thesand used for casting small works is at lirst of a pretty soft, yellow-ish, and clammy nature; but it being necessary to strew charcoal-di.-t in the mould, it at length becomes of a quite black colour.
I lie, red-hot metal, by burning part of the sand, contributes alspto blacken it. This sand is worked over and over with a roller, on aboard placed across a chest to receive it, after it is by these meanssuliieientlv prepared, and freed from small stones or hard lumpsof Kind. This done, they take a smooth wooden board of a lengthand breadth proportional-to the things to be ca;t, and laying thelirst half of an open mould, or wooden frame, upon it, they placewithin it, upon the board, either wooden or metal models of whatthey intend to cast, and then till it up with the prepared sand, alittle moistened to make it cohere properly, pressing it upon the
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patterns with the roller, so as to leave their impression in it.Along the middle of the mould is also laid half u small brass cylin-der, to make an impression for the chief canal for flic metal torun through, when melted, into the models or patterns; and fromthis chief canal are draw n several others, which extend to eac hmodel or pattern placed in the frame. Then placing the other halfof the mould over the one with the patterns in it, so that the pinsenter into the holes that correspond to them in the other, they pro-ceed to work it in the same manner, so as to make the two cavitiesof the pattern fall exactly on each other. After both frames of (hemould are thus finished, and their backs scraped smooth, theylake out the patterns, first loosening them gently all round, thatthe sand may not give way. The moulds are then carried to theinciter; who, alter strewing mill-dust over them, dries them in akind of oven for that purpose, lluth parts of the mould beingdry, they- are again joined together by means of the pins; and toprevent their giving wav, by reason of the melting metal pass-ing through the chief cylindrical canal, they are screwed or wedgedup in a pair of wooden screws, like a kind of press. When themoulds are thus prepared,- the metal is melted in a crucible, of asize proportionate to the quantity of metal intended to be cast, andwhen brought to a proper heat, is poured into them at the mouthof the chief canal. W hen the moulds are coolisli, the frames areunscrewed, and the cast work taken out of the sand, which is wetand worked over again for other castings.
5. Foundery of Statues. The casting of statues dependson the clue preparation of the pit, the core, the wax, the outermould, the inferior furnace to melt off the w ax, and the upper tofuse* the metal. The pit is a hole dug in a dry place somethingdeeper than the intended figure, and made according to the pro-minence of certain parts thereof. The’inside of the pit is com-monly lined with stone or brick ; or, when the figure is very large,they sometimes work on the ground, and raise a proper fence toresist the impulse of the melted metal. The inner mould, or core,is a rude mass, to which is given the intended altitude and con-tours. It is raised on an iron grate, strong enough to sustain it,and is strengthened within by several bars ol iron. It is generallymade either of potter’s clay, mixed wiih hair and horse-dung, orof plaster of Paris, mixed with brick-dust. ’Flic use of the coreis to support the wax, the shell, and le sen the weight ot the metal.The iron bars and the core are taken out ol the brass figurethrough an aperture left in it for that purpose, which is solderedup afterwards. It is necessary to leave some of the iron bars ofthe core, that contribute to the steadiness of the projecting part,within the biass figure. The wax is a representation of the in-tended statue. If it be a piece of sculpture, the wax should Ireall of the sculptor’s ow n hand, who usually lonns it on the core :though it may be wrought separately in cavities, moulded on amodel, and afterwards arranged on the ribs of iron over the grate;tilling the vacant space in the midtile with liquid pla-terand brick-dust, whereby the inner core is proportioned as the sculptor car-ries on the wax. When the wax, which is the intended thicknessof the metal, is finished, they fill small waxen tubes perpendicularto it from top to bottom, to serve both as canals for the convey-ance of the metal to all parts of the work; and as vent-holes, togive passage to the air, which would otherwise occasion great dis-order w hen the hot metal came to encompass it. The work beingbrought thus far, must be covered w ith its shell, which is a kimlof crust laid over the wax, and w hich being of a soft matter, easilyreceives the impression of every part, which is afterwards com-municated to the metal upon its taking the place of the wax, be-tween the shell and the mould. The matter of this outer mouldis varied according as different layers are applied. The lirst isgenerally a composition of clay, and old white crucibles well,ground and sifted, and mixed up with water to the consistence ota colour til for painting: accordingly they apply it with a pencil,laying it seven or eight times over, and letting it dry betweenwhiles. For the second impression they adil horse-dung and earthto the former composition. The third’ impression is only horse-dung and earth. Lastly, the shell is finished bv laying on severalmore impressions of this last matter, made very thick with thehand. The shell, thus finished, is secured by several iron girth',bound round it, at about half a foot distance from each other, andfastened at the bottom to the grate under the statue, and at top toa circle of iron where they all terminate. If the statue he so bigthat it would not l»e easy to move the moulds with safety, they must