Laying type

Putting new type into the cases. The page received from the founder should be carefully unwrapped, and after having been laid on a galley, soaked thoroughly with thin soap-water, to prevent the types from adhering to one another after they have been used a short time; then, with a stout rule or reglet, as many lines should be lifted as will make about an inch in thickness, and placing the rule close up on one side of the bottom of the proper box, slide off the lines gently, taking care not to rub the face against the side of the box. Proceed thus with successive lines till the box is tilled. Careless compositors are prone to huddle new types together, and, grasping them by handtuls, plunge them pell mell into the box. rudely jostling them about to crowd more in. This is an intolerable practice. The type left over should be kept standing on galleys in regular order, till the cases need replenishment. A fount of five hundred pounds of Pica may have, say tour pairs of cases allotted to it ; the same amount of Nonpariel, from eight to ten pairs.—See Lay of the Case.