On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:48:10 -0500, Peter T. Daniels
<grammatim@...> wrote:

> A matrix is very small -- just big enough to mold one piece of type. You
> can file the end of the piece of type with a stroke of a file, if
> necessary. Imagine how tiny the individual letters of the smallest size
> that was made are! (Agate, maybe?) And the punch for every character
> hand-cut! And then you have to set the type by plucking each letter from
> the case, and adding it in the proper orientation to the growing line!

I'm so glad to have taken a course in basic letterpress printing when I
was about 12 or so, in a Springfield, Mass. public school. Peter Couri was
the teacher. We had composing sticks (right-handed devices!), and I set
and justified a few lines, printed them, and then re-sorted to a Calif.
Job Case.

The press was one of the time-tested and honorable designs -- Round ink
plate[n?] on top, spring-loaded ink rollers moving up and down on a pair
of long arms; tilting bed accepted hand-fed sheets, and the Jaws of
Potential Huge Lawsuits (USA) closed unless you moved the throwout lever.
Big flywheel, variable-speed motor. Teacher had one shorter finger;
helpful reminder. <sociopolitics?> These days, parents would try to
bankupt the school district for having something so hazardous.
</sociopolitics?>

> My most treasured possession is "Johnson's Typologia" (1826),

Very nice message, Peter.

Will reply separately to another part of the message.

Regards,

--
Nicholas Bodley /*|*\ Waltham, Mass. (Not "MA")
Lack of decency about New Orleans' future:
<http://tinyurl.com/8eqx5> (politics, too)
That should redirect to an article by Mike Tidwell.