A
DICTIONARY
OF
THE ART OF PRINTING.

London:
Printed by A. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.

A

DICTIONARY

OF

THE ART OF PRINTING.

BY WILLIAM SAVAGE,

AUTHOR OF
“PRACTICAL HINTS ON DECORATIVE PRINTING,”
AND OF A TREATISE
“ON THE PREPARATION OF PRINTING INK, BOTH BLACK AND COLOURED.”

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

1841.

[Pg v]

PREFACE.

Books of this class, themselves series of explanations, require fewer prefatory remarks than those of any other; yet I cannot allow the present work to go before the public without availing myself of this privilege of authors. It affords me an opportunity of acknowledging, which I do most gratefully, the kind and valuable assistance I have received during my protracted labours, and of saying a few words on the History of Printing, the limits of the book, the style of writing adopted, and on the introduction of subjects that at a first glance may appear to have but little or no connexion with the art.

I am indebted to Mr. Fehon, of Mr. Bentley’s establishment, Bangor House, Shoe Lane, for the valuable article on Records, who is, perhaps, more competent than any other printer in the kingdom for such an undertaking; and also for his judicious opinions during the progress of the work. Mr. Murray kindly prepared the specimens of electrotype by his improved method, for which method he received a premium from the Society of Arts. To Mr. Knight I am obliged for permission to copy the list of botanical terms from his Encyclopædia. From the letter founderies of Mr. Caslon, of Messrs. Figgins, and of Messrs. Thorowgood and Besley, I have obtained the various alphabets, &c., and am happy to acknowledge the courteous manner in which these and other kindnesses were granted. To other friends who feel an interest in the work, and have rendered me their services, I beg to tender my sincere thanks. The books quoted are each mentioned with every quotation, therefore there will be no necessity to recapitulate them here; I may, however, state, that they are the works of standard authors, as it has been my endeavour to refer to the opinions of men whose talents and learning are generally acknowledged, rather than to opinions perhaps more pertinent in works but little known.

The origin of the art is involved in obscurity, there being no clue by which it can be traced, yet it is doubtless of very early date: some authors maintain that printing was practised during the building of Babylon. It is not my intention, however, to enter upon this inquiry here, as it is probable, if my health continue, that I shall embody the facts and information I have been so long collecting on this subject in another work. The dates given of the introduction of the practice into Europe by previous writers are unquestionably erroneous, as we have conclusive evidence of its being followed as a profession for nearly a century before the earliest date they give. There has, in reality, hitherto been but little said on the History or Practice of Printing, the numerous[vi] books on the subject being chiefly copies from one or two of the earliest writers. The object in the present undertaking was that of making a purely practical work: one that might meet every exigence of the printer whilst in the exercise of his art, and one that would serve as a book of reference to the author, the librarian, and, in fact, to every one interested in books or their production.

It will be observed that Moxon’s book has been frequently referred to, and in many instances quoted from. This I was induced to do in consequence of the quantity of useful matter it contains, and more especially in order to point out and contrast the then method of printing with the present. (Where the letter M is used it refers to this author.) The intermediate stages, where improvements or alterations have occurred, are also noticed; so that the practical history of the art is complete from the year 1683, when Moxon published, to the present time.

The Statutes at Large I have carefully gone through from their commencement; all the acts of parliament that in any way refer to printing, and unrepealed, I have introduced: so that the Printer has here all the Statute Law in existence for his guidance in conducting his business.

The List of Abbreviations will be found extensive, and, I trust, valuable, as until now there has been no printed list of many of them. The interpretations have been obtained by comparing the writings of contemporary authors, and by consulting those of my friends who have made the early writers their study.

All the alphabets are taken from the best grammars in each language, in preference to the more easy, but less correct method, of copying the letters from any indifferent book printed in the characters of the respective languages. I have confined myself to those languages of which the characters are in the British founderies.

Whether my views are right or wrong respecting the orthography, punctuation, and the capital letters of the Bible, rests with the public to determine. I cannot consent to give an opinion in favour of the changes that fashion, prejudice, or even the rules of grammar have introduced, which are now adopted in general writing, until we have another authorized version of the Bible, but think the more literally we copy the present the better, otherwise the discrepancies will soon be notorious.

The article on Imposing is of considerable length; yet I could not, in justice to the work, curtail it: the tables might even have been still more numerous, and yet serviceable, had the limits of the book permitted; as it is, they are much more extensive than any tables hitherto published. Men from the country having been but little used to book-work, find themselves at a loss on entering a town-house in this part of their business.

In printing topographical works, copies of early acts of parliament, state papers of the middle ages, or books published soon after the introduction of printing, when there were no general rules for either writing or spelling, the list of characters and abbreviations under the head of[vii] Records will be found invaluable. My kind friend Mr. Fehon has spent many years of his life in investigating this subject, and has here condensed most of what will be valuable to the Printer.

Electrotype, although quite in its infancy, promises to be of great utility in the arts, and not the least so in that of printing. I have therefore thought it right to give some account of it, together with specimens, amongst which will be found an electrotype copy of a page of types: it is imperfect, but I believe it is the first that has been published.

No detailed account of the process of producing fine presswork has before appeared. This circumstance I cannot otherwise explain than by supposing it to arise from the jealous feeling that exists in the bosoms of many of those who are masters of the practice. On speaking to them of the value a detailed statement would be, I have been told that there were already a sufficiency of men who knew it, and that there was no necessity to deprive them of their advantages. Having paid particular attention to this department, and having produced works of this character that have been highly applauded, I have given a detailed account of all the minutiæ of so valuable a branch of the business.

Printing from engravings on wood is also a subject that has particularly interested me, the practice of which I have given at length: the result of my experience confirms the opinion that the press is infinitely superior to the machine for this description of work.

Having prepared the bulk of the matter prior to going to press, I thought it might be safely stated that the whole would be comprised in fourteen numbers. Yet, on revising, I found that some important articles had not been touched upon, and that others perfectly new (electrotype, &c.) had sprung up during the progress of printing; so that either the book must have been left incomplete (had the first arrangement been adhered to), or three more numbers must be added, and thus every branch that pertained to the practice be embraced. I trust none will regret that the latter plan has been adopted. With regard to the style of writing—I am now an old man, and perhaps may be, in some degree, wedded to the writings as well as the customs of my youth; therefore the quaintness of expression, which my friends have noticed, may possibly be more marked than I am aware of; yet the manner is not wholly unintentional. To some persons simple language may not have the attractions that are presented by the writings of many authors of the present day, whose chief study is elegance of expression; but do we not, by adopting this flowery style, lose in clearness, in strength, in conciseness? Yes, and, I think, even in beauty; and when it is considered that it was the intention to make the book one of practical instruction, and that it was written with the hope that it might be placed in the hands of each printer’s boy on entering the business, I trust this sin of inelegance may be pardoned. No one but the compiler of a dictionary can conceive the unwearied labour that is requisite for its completion. Having possessed greater opportunities than most men for the present undertaking, yet have I been upwards of half a century in collecting the materials; not, perhaps, having entertained the idea of publishing[viii] during the whole of this period, still never neglecting to amass every species of information that might be made available. On going over such an extent of ground much has been culled that would either never have been known to me, or, if known, would have been forgotten, had the book been more hastily got up; and all those subjects, a knowledge of which, at first, may appear irrelevant or useless, will in practice be found highly necessary, there having been no dictionary or book of reference kept in the printing offices to which the workmen could apply. Should the work prove less useful than I could wish it, the fault is in myself, and not in the subject; but if on its perusal the young be instructed, the knowledge of the more mature workman be refreshed and confirmed, and the general reader find its utility as a book of reference, then have I nothing to regret, but much to be grateful for. Lord Bacon says, “Every man is a debtor to his profession, from the which, as men do of course seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of amends to be a help thereunto.”

[Pg 1]

DICTIONARY

OF THE

ART OF PRINTING.

A.

“ABBREVIATIONS

are characters, or else marks on letters, to signify either a word or syllable. & is the character for and, y^e is the abbreviated, y^t is that abbreviated; and several other such. Straight strokes over any of the vowels abbreviate m or n. They have been much used by printers in old times, to shorten or get in matter; but now are wholly left off as obsolete.”—Moxon. In reprints of old books, where the original is closely followed, we occasionally meet with ɋ as an abbreviation of que: this mark of contraction for ue was attached to the q, and was originally used solely for that purpose; for the convenience of using the q without it, the abbreviation was afterwards cast separate, and by degrees it was adopted as a point or stop to divide a sentence, becoming the semicolon, the next in order to the comma.

Some few authors yet retain the ; after a q, for the termination ue, which appears to be the proper mark.

Abbreviations “occur very frequently, and are often the occasion of perplexity to readers less familiarly acquainted with them, in the early-printed books. These also originated from the idea which the first Printers entertained of making their books as much as possible resemble manuscripts. That they should perpetually occur in manuscripts is natural enough; for the librarii, or writers of manuscripts, necessarily had recourse to them to shorten their labours. These abbreviations, in the infancy of Printing, were perhaps to be excused; but it seems they multiplied to so preposterous an extent that it was found necessary to publish a book, both in the Gothic and Roman character, to explain their meaning.”—Beloe’s Anecdotes of Literature, &c. See Domesday Book. Records. Sigla.

See Botanical Authorities. Law Authorities. Organic Remains. Sigla.

ACCENTED LETTERS.

“In English, the accentual marks are chiefly used in spelling-books and dictionaries, to mark the syllables which require a particular stress of the voice in pronunciation.

“The stress is laid on long and short syllables indiscriminately. In order to distinguish the one from the other, some writers of dictionaries[6] have placed the grave on the former, and the acute on the latter, in this manner: ‘Mìnor, míneral, lìvely, líved, rìval, ríver.’

“The proper mark to distinguish a long syllable is this ̄: as, ‘Rōsy:’ and a short one thus ̆: as ‘Fŏlly.’ This last mark is called a breve.

“A diæresis, thus marked ¨, consists of two points placed over one of the two vowels that would otherwise make a diphthong, and parts them into two syllables: as, ‘Creätor, coädjutor, aërial.’

“A circumflex, thus marked ^{^,} when placed over some vowel of a word, denotes a long syllable: as, ‘Euphrâtes.’”—Murray.

The c à la queue, or the c with a tail, is a French sort, and sounds like ss, when it stands before a o u, as in ça, garçon. To make a tail to a capital C, a small figure of 5 with the top dash cut away, thus ⦢, and justified close to the bottom of the letter, answers the purpose, when it is required; for the letter-founders do not cast this letter with a tail, neither in the capitals nor small capitals. Ç.

The ñ is used in the Spanish language, and is pronounced like a double n, or rather like ni; but short and quick, as in España. It is a sort which is used in the middle of words, but rarely at the beginning.

In the Welsh language, ŵ and ŷ, as well as the other circumflex letters, are used either to direct the pronunciation, as in yngŵydd, in presence; ynghŷd, together; or else for distinction sake; as, mwg, a mug; mŵg, smoke; hyd, to, until; hŷd, length.

Accents. See Accented Letters.

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT.

There are various Acts of Parliament which affect printers, and inflict penalties for the neglect or violation of their provisions. Many printers frequently subject themselves to penalties, which are in many instances very heavy, through ignorance of those laws. To enable them to avoid these penalties, and also to show the legal restrictions on the business, I have taken great pains to examine the whole of the Statutes at Large, and to extract from them all such clauses as are in force, that affect the trade.—See the respective subjects.

Admiration, Note of. See Punctuation.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

By the Act 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 23. s. 1., intituled

THE SCHEDULE.

Advertisements:—

[So much of this Act repealed by 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 76. s. 32. “as provides the Mode of collecting the Duty on Advertisements contained in or published with any Pamphlet, Periodical Paper, or Literary Work.”]

Albion Press. See Cope’s Press.

ALGEBRAIC CHARACTERS.

+ is the sign of addition; as c + d denotes that d is to be added to c.

- is the sign of subtraction; thus, c - d implies that d is to be subtracted from c.

[8]

× is the sign of multiplication; as c × d means the product of c and d.

÷ is the sign of division; as c ÷ d signifies the quotient of c and d.

= is the sign of equality; thus c + d = e means the sum of c and d equals e.

√ is the sign of the square root; thus √x denotes the square root of x.

∛ is the sign of the cube root, and generally any root of a quantity may be denoted by this sign, with the index of the root placed over it; thus ∛x signifies the cube root, ∜x the biquadrate root, &c.; but they may likewise be represented by the reciprocals of these indices; as x^½, x^⅓, implying the square and cube roots of x.

A vinculum is a line drawn over several quantities, and means that they are taken together, as √ax + b signifies the square root of ax and b.—Phillips’s Compendium of Algebra. 12mo. 1824.

Almanack. See Nautical Almanack.

ALPHABET.

A perfect alphabet of the English language, and, indeed, of every other language, would contain a number of letters, precisely equal to the number of simple articulate sounds belonging to the language. Every simple sound would have its distinct character; and that character be the representative of no other sound. But this is far from being the state of the English alphabet. It has more original sounds than distinct significant letters; and, consequently, some of these letters are made to represent, not one sound alone, but several sounds. This will appear by reflecting, that the sounds signified by the united letters th, sh, ng, are elementary, and have no single appropriate characters, in our alphabet; and the letters a and u represent the different sounds heard in hat, hate, hall; and but, bull, mute.

The letters of the English language, called the English Alphabet, are twenty-six in number.—Murray.

The following is a list of the Roman, Italic, and Old English Characters, being those used at the present day in England. The Roman and Italic are also used by most of the European nations.

For the characters of the different languages, see their respective names, Arabic, &c.

Tacquet, an able mathematician, in his Arithmeticiæ Theor., Amst. 1704, states, that the various combinations of the twenty-four letters (without any repetition) will amount to

620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000.

Thus it is evident, that twenty-four letters will admit of an infinity of[9] combinations and arrangements, sufficient to represent not only all the conceptions of the mind, but all words in all languages whatever.

Clavius the Jesuit, who also computes these combinations, makes them to be only 5,852,616,738,497,664,000.

As there are more sounds in some languages than in others, it follows of course that the number of elementary characters, or letters, must vary in the alphabets of different languages. The Hebrew, Samaritan, and Syriac alphabets, have twenty-two letters; the Arabic, twenty-eight; the Persic, and Egyptian or Coptic, thirty-two; the present Russian, forty-one; the Shanscrit, fifty; the Cashmirian and Malabaric are still more numerous.—Astle.

ALTERATION OF MARGIN.

In works that are published in different sizes, this is the changing of the margin from the small paper to the large paper edition, when at press.

After the margin for the small paper copies is finally made, the additional width of the gutters, the backs, and the heads, is ascertained in the same manner, by folding a sheet of the large paper, that it was in the first instance. The additional pieces for the change should, if possible, be in one piece for each part. See Margin.

Folios, quartos, and octavos, are the sizes most usually printed with an alteration of margin; duodecimos are sometimes, but rarely; of smaller sizes I never knew an instance.

The alteration of margin requires care, for it occasionally happens that the sheet is imposed with the wrong furniture; and where it happens to be in one form only, and that form is first laid on, it sometimes passes undiscovered till a revise of the second form is pulled, when the error is detected, but too late to rectify it; the consequence must be, to cancel a part of the sheet, or to print the reiteration with the margin also wrong; nay, sometimes both forms are worked off with the furniture wrong, without being perceived till the compositor comes to distribute, particularly when they are printed at different presses. Such errors destroy the uniformity of the book, and spoil its appearance.

These mistakes can only be avoided by care and attention on the part of the compositor, the reader, and the pressman; but I would recommend that the furniture for the alteration should be cut of different lengths from the furniture of the small paper: in octavos the gutters and backs should be the exact length of the page, and be always imposed within the sidestick; and the head should be the width of the two pages and the gutter, and be imposed within the footstick. This method of cutting the furniture of precise lengths for the alteration, and locking it up within the side and foot sticks, will not only distinguish it from the rest of the furniture, and from the pieces that may be put in for the convenience of quoining the form, but will also preserve it from being injured by the mallet and shooting stick, in locking up, and by the indention of the quoins.

The same principle, of cutting the alteration to precise lengths, and locking it up within the side and foot sticks, will hold good in all other sizes, where it is required: in quartos, the pieces must be cut to the length and width of the page; and in folios to the length of the page only, as the margin of the head is regulated at the press.

ANCIENT CUSTOMS.

The following Customs used in Printing Offices in former times are extracted from Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, published in 1683, the first practical work that appeared on the Art of Printing. I insert them because I think it interesting to trace the old Customs, that were established by printers to preserve Order among[10] themselves; and to show the changes that have taken place since that period. The insertion of them in this place will also tend to preserve them, as the original work is now very scarce, and this department of it has been superseded by subsequent publications, which however, with the exception of Mr. Hansard’s work, have not copied these Customs.

“Ancient Customs used in a Printing-house.

Ancient Names of Cities and Towns. See Names.

Anglo-Saxon. See Saxon.

ANTEPENULTIMATE.

The last syllable but two of a word.

APOSTROPHE.

An apostrophe, marked thus ’, is used to abbreviate or shorten a word: as, ’tis for it is; tho’ for though; e’en for even; judg’d for judged. Its chief use is to show the genitive case of nouns: as, “A man’s property; a woman’s ornament.”—Murray.

Authors frequently, in the hurry of writing, abbreviate their words and use the apostrophe; but a compositor, however his copy may be written, should never abbreviate any word in prose works, except he be particularly ordered so to do.

The apostrophe is also used in printing to close an extract, or to show where it finishes; and in dialogues, frequently, to close each person’s speech; in both cases it is usually put close to the end of the word, without any space before it, except where the word finishes with a kerned letter, and then a hair space, or one just sufficient for their preservation is used; when it comes after an ascending letter, a hair space should also be put between them. See Quotation.

The apostrophe is not used for abbreviation in the Holy Scriptures, nor in Forms of Prayers; but every thing there is set full and at length. To this even the Latin law language had regard, and did not shorten the word Dominus, when it had reference to God; whereas Dom. Reg. is put where our Lord the King is understood.

Applegath, Augustus. See Machines.

ARABIC.

Arabic is read from right to left. The method of composing it is upside down, and after the points are placed at the top of the letters it is turned in the composing stick.

Mr. Astle says, “The old Arabic characters are said to be of very high antiquity; for Ebn Hashem relates, that an inscription in it was found in Yaman, as old as the time of Joseph. These traditions may have given occasion to some authors to suppose the Arabians to have been the inventors of letters; and Sir Isaac Newton supposes, that Moses learned the alphabet from the Midianites, who were Arabians.

“The Arabian alphabet consists of twenty-eight letters, which are somewhat similar to the ancient Kufic, in which characters the first copies of the Alcoran were written.

“The present Arabic characters were formed by Ebn Moklah, a learned Arabian, who lived about 300 years after Mahomet. We learn from the Arabian writers themselves, that their alphabet is not ancient.”

Seven different styles of writing are used by the Arabs in the present day. Herbin has given descriptions and specimens of them in an Essay on Oriental Caligraphy at the end of his “Développemens des Principes de la Langue Arabe Moderne.”

The alphabets are copied, and the following observations are translated, from Baron De Sacy’s Arabic Grammar, 2 vol. 8vo. Paris, 1831.

7. It was long thought that the written character which the Arabs most generally use at the present day, and which is called neskhi, was invented[14] only about the commencement of the 4th century of the Hegira; and, indeed, it appears that the Arabs, before this epoch, used another character which we call Cufic, or Coufic, from the town of Coufa, where, doubtlessly, it first was brought into use. This character has so great a resemblance to the ancient Syriac character called Estranghelo, that it is extremely probable that the Arabs borrowed it from the people of Syria. Nevertheless, even the name of Coufic, given to this character, proves that it is not that which the Arabs of the Hedjaz made use of in the time of Mohammed, the town from which it takes its name having been founded only in A. H. 17. Some papyri lately discovered in Egypt have apprised us that the character which the Arabs of the Hedjaz made use of in the 1st century of the Hegira, differed little from that which is called neskhi. Moreover, in the time of Mohammed, writing was, among these Arabs, if we may believe their historic traditions, an invention very recent, and its use was very circumscribed. But it was otherwise, according to all appearances, among the Arabs, whether nomadic or settled, of Yemen, of Irak, and perhaps of Central Arabia; for, although we do not know the characters which the Arabs made use of in very ancient times, and the few traditions which Mussulman writers have handed down to us on this subject throw but very little light on this point of antiquity, it is scarcely possible to imagine that all the people of Arabia should have remained without a written character until the 6th century of the Christian era. The Jewish and the Christian religions were widely diffused in Arabia; the Ethiopians, who professed the latter faith, had even conquered Yemen, and retained its possession for a long while: another part of Arabia had frequent political relations with Persia, and it is found at many times in a state of dependence, more or less immediate, on the kings of the Sassanian dynasty. Under these circumstances, can it be reasonably supposed that the Arabs were ignorant of the use of writing? Is it not more likely that what history tells us of their ignorance in this respect is true only of some tribes, of those, for example, who were settled at Mecca or in the neighbourhood of that town; and that the character which these received from Mesopotamia, a short time previous to Mohammed, having been employed to write the Kurán, soon spread over all Arabia with the Mohammedan religion, and caused the other more ancient sorts of writing to fall into desuetude? It is true, no vestige of these characters remains, but if one may be permitted to hazard a conjecture, they did not materially differ from that ancient alphabet, common to a great many nations of the East, and of which the Phœnician and Palmyrenian monuments, as well as the ruins of Nakschia-Roustam and of Kirmanschah, and the coins of the Sassanides, have perpetuated the knowledge even to our own days. Perhaps another sort of writing, peculiar to Southern Arabia, was only a variety of the Ethiopic.

8. The Arabs of Africa have a character differing slightly from that made use of by the Arabs of Asia. I do not comprehend, among the Africans, the inhabitants of Egypt, for they use the same character as the Asiatics. For the sake of comparison I have shown the manner in which the Jews and Syrians employ their peculiar character when they are writing in the Arabic language.

I do not speak here of the character called talik تعلیق‎ or nestalik نستعليق‎, because it is peculiar to the Persians. I may say as much of the different kinds of writing proper to the Turks or to the people of India, among whom the Mussulmans of Persia have introduced their characters with their language and religion.

[15]

Arabic Alphabet.—The Neskhi Character.

Key to Column Headers—
  OL - Order of the letters.
  NL - Names of the Letters.
  U   - Unconnected.
  JP - Joined to the preceding Letter only.
  J   - Joined to the preceding and following Letter.
  JF - Joined to the following Letter only.
  PL - Powers of the Letters.
  NV - Numerical Value.

[16]

Harmonical Alphabet, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac.

Observations on the Alphabet.

9. The letters of the Arabic alphabet have not always been arranged in the order in which they are at the present day. The Arabs themselves have preserved the remembrance of a more ancient order, and the value which they give to the letters when they are employed as figures, confirms the existence of this order, which they term aboudjed, in like manner as we call the alphabet a be ce.

The twenty-two first letters of the Arabic alphabet, thus arranged, are the same, and follow the same order, as those of the Hebrews and Syrians. It is very probable that the Arabs, as well as the others, had only these twenty-two letters originally, and that the other six were added afterwards, though it is not possible to determine precisely the time at which this addition took place.

10. The lam-elif لا‎ is not a character per se, but only a junction of the lam ل‎ to the élif ا‎.

12. The alphabet is divided into eight columns: the first contains the numbers which indicate the order of the letters; the second, the names of the letters; the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth show the different forms of which each letter is susceptible when it is, first, entirely isolated; second, joined only to that which precedes it; third, joined to that which precedes and also to that which follows it; and, fourth, joined only to that which follows it. There are several letters which are never joined to those which follow them: this causes the blanks in the fifth and sixth columns. It is as well, however, to observe, that when the د‎, the ذ‎,[17] the ر‎, the ز‎, and the و‎, are found followed by ه‎, at the end of a word, they may be joined together.

13. Many letters differ from each other only by the absence or addition of one or more points. These points are called by the Arabs نُقْطَةٌ;‎ we call them diacritical points, a term derived from the Greek, signifying distinctive.

30. The elif ا‎, when marked with the hamza ء‎, is not a vowel. The sound may then be compared to the h not aspirated in the French words habit, histoire, homme, Hubert.

The elif, without the hamza, has no pronunciation of its own; it serves only to prolong the vowel a which precedes it; sometimes this vowel and the elif which follows, take a strong sound approaching to the French i.

31. The ب‎ answers to B, and the ت‎ to T. In Africa the pronunciation of ث‎ is often given to the letter ت‎.

32. The ث‎ answers to the English th, as in the word thing; and it cannot be rendered in French better than by the two letters TS. The greater part of the Arabs make no distinction between the pronunciation of this letter and that of ت‎; some indeed regard as vicious the pronunciation here indicated. The Persians and the Turks pronounce the ث‎ as the French ç; I render it ordinarily by TH.

33. The ج‎ represents a sound similar to that of the Italian g, when followed by an i, as in giardino, and may be expressed by the letters DJ. This pronunciation, which is most used, is that of the people of Arabia and Syria; but in Egypt, at Muscat, and perhaps in some other provinces, the ج‎ is pronounced as g hard followed by an a or o, as in garrison, agony.

34. The ح‎ indicates an aspiration stronger than that of the French h in the words heurter, héros, and similar to the manner in which the Florentines pronounce the c before a and o. At the end of words, this aspiration is still more difficult to imitate. For example, the word لُوح‎ is pronounced as louèh.

35. The خ‎ answers to the ch of the Germans when it is preceded by an a or an o, as in the words nacht, noch.

36. The د‎ answers exactly to D.

37. The ذ‎ represents a sound which is to that of د‎ very nearly as the ث‎ is to that of ت‎. It is expressed in French by the two letters DZ or DH. Most nations who speak the Arabic language make no difference between this letter and the preceding; they pronounce both as our D. Some others, as the Arabs of Muscat, pronounce the ذ‎ as the French Z, and such is the usage of the Persians and Turks.

38. The ر‎ answers exactly to R; and the ز‎ to Z.

39. The س‎ answers to the sound of s, when it is at the beginning of words. When this letter is found, in Arabic words, between two vowels, it may be rendered by ç, that its pronunciation may not be confounded[18] with that of z, which takes the sound of s, in similar cases, in French words.

40. The sound of ش‎ is exactly rendered by the French CH, (sj Dutch, sch German, sh English). Many French writers render it by the three letters SCH, in order that foreigners may not confound its pronunciation with that of خ‎, which is the custom I generally follow.

From the manner in which the Arabs of Spain transcribed Spanish in Arabic characters, there is reason to believe that they pronounced the ش‎ as an s strongly articulated, and the س‎ as the ç or z.

41. The ص‎ answers to our S, but it ought to be pronounced a little more strongly than the س‎, or with a sort of emphasis. It appears that the pronunciation of the two letters has often been confounded, as may be seen in the marginal notes of some copies of the Kurán, in the books of the Druses, and in modern Egyptian manuscripts.

42. The ض‎ answers to D pronounced more strongly than the French d, or with a sort of emphasis. The Persians and Turks pronounce it as the French z, other nations, as DS. In rendering Arabic names into French, in order to express the ض‎, the two letters DH ought to be used.

43. The ط‎ answers to the T articulated strongly and emphatically. If a person should wish, in writing in French, to distinguish it from ت‎, it may be rendered by TH.

44. The ظ‎ differs in no respect, in pronunciation, from ض‎, and they may be rendered in the same manner. These two letters are very often confounded in manuscripts. It ought to be observed, however, that in Egypt the ظ‎ is often pronounced as a Z, emphatically.

45. The peculiar pronunciation of ع‎ cannot be expressed by any of the letters used among the nations of Europe.

The manner in which the Piedmontese pronounce the ñ appears to me to approach something to the sound ع‎. Examples: cañ chien, boñ bon, boña bonne.

46. The غ‎ represents a sound which partakes of both r and g. Some writers have rendered this letter by rh, others by rg, and others by gh; but as the sound of the r ought to be almost imperceptible, I have thought it better to employ, in rendering the غ‎, the G alone or the two letters GH.

47. The ف‎ answers exactly to F.

48. The ق‎ indicates a sound very nearly like that of the French K, but it ought to be formed in the throat, and it is very difficult to imitate it well. Many Arabs, those of Muscat, for example, confound the pronunciation of this letter with that of غ‎, and this pronunciation is common in the states of Marocco. In a great part of Egypt, the ق‎ is only a strong and quick aspiration, and it appears that this sound, very difficult to imitate, was the distinctive characteristic of the Arabs descended from Modhar.

49. The ك‎ also answers to K, but it is not pronounced from the throat as the preceding letter. The Turks and many of the Arabs give[19] it a softened pronunciation, analogous to that of q in the French words queue, qui; and it may be rendered by putting an i after k. Some Arabs pronounce the ك‎ and the ق‎ as an Italian c before i, as in the word cio, a sound expressed in French by the letters tch.

50. The ل‎ is perfectly rendered by L, and the م‎ by M.

51. The ن‎ is susceptible, according to the Arab grammarians, of many pronunciations. When it is followed by a vowel, it is pronounced always as N in the French word navire, but when it is followed immediately by another consonant the pronunciation varies.

52. The و‎ is pronounced as OU in French, in the words oui, ouate. It can also be rendered by W pronounced in the manner of the English. The Turks and Persians pronounce it as the French V.

53. The ه‎ represents only a very light and often insensible aspiration, as the h in the French words la Hollande, la Hongrie, or it indicates only a simple hiatus.

54. The ى‎ ought to be pronounced as a Y consonant, as in the English word yacht. The Germans render it by j, as in the words bejahen, jagd.

55. The لا‎ finds a place in the alphabet only because the two letters ل‎ and ا‎, of which it is composed, take, in their junction, a form which sometimes renders them unrecognizable.

The Vowels.

64. The Arabs have only three signs to indicate all the sounds. The first, named fatha, is formed like an acute accent, and is placed above the consonant with which it forms an articulate sound, as, كَتَبَ‎ cataba. The sound expressed by the fatha answers sometimes to the French a more or less open, sometimes to è or ai, as in the words succès, faire.

The second is called kesra. It is formed similar to the preceding, but is placed beneath the consonant with which it forms an articulate sound, as in the word نِمْرِ‎ nimri. The sound of the kesra answers sometimes to the French i, sometimes to é.

The third, called dhamma, has very nearly the form of our figure 9, sometimes it resembles our (,), and is always placed above the consonant with which it forms an articulate sound, as, كُلُّ‎ coullou. The sound of dhamma answers sometimes to the French o, sometimes to ou or eu.

68. The letters و‎, ا‎, and ى‎ often serve only to prolong the sound of the vowel which precedes them.

74. Besides the three vowel signs before spoken of, the Arabs have three other signs to which they give the name of tenwin, which indicates that the vowel ought to be followed with the articulation of a ن‎. Our grammarians call them nunnations; I shall call them nasal vowels. These nasal vowels are only placed at the end of words, and they serve to form some grammatical inflexions. Their signs are nothing but the figure of the analogous vowel redoubled; as, for example, بَابٌ‎ bâbon, بَابٍ‎ bâbin بَابً‎ bâban.[20] These examples show at the same time the form of the three nasal vowels and their pronunciation. The nasal vowel an ought always to be followed by an ا‎, as يَوْمًا‎ yauman, except when it is found over a ة‎, as in حِكْمَةً‎ hicmètan, or followed by a ي‎ mute, as هُدًي‎, or placed over a hamza, as شَيْئً‎: in the last case the elif is often preserved after the tenwin, and it is written شَيْأً‎. The ن‎ contained in these nasal vowels, in pronunciation, is subject to the same variations as the ن‎ consonant, and these variations are indicated in the same manner.

77. In a great number of Coufic manuscripts the three vowels are indicated by a very large point, painted ordinarily in red. Placed above the letter it indicates the fatha; placed below, it indicates the kesra, and placed in the body of the letter or at the end, or in a line with the writing, it indicates the dhamma. In order to indicate the nasal vowels, this point is doubled.

78. In African manuscripts the fatha and the kesra, instead of being inclined as our acute accent, are placed horizontally above or below the consonant to which they belong.

Of Orthographical Signs.

89. The djesma is so called, because it separates the artificial syllable at the end of which it is found, from the syllable succeeding. Its name signifies separation. It is placed above the letter, and is formed thus ( ْ ‎), as in the word أُقْعُدْ‎ ok-od.

The djesma may be considered as the sign of a very short vowel; it answers to the quiescent sheva of Hebrew grammarians, and also to their other short vowels, such as hatèf-patah, hatèf-ségol, &c., and to the sixth vowel of the Ethiopic alphabet.

107. When a consonant ought to be doubled in pronunciation, without the interposition of a written vowel, the Arabs do not double the figure of the letter, but they employ a sign named teschdid, formed thus ( ّ ‎). This mark is placed above the letter which ought to be doubled. Among the Arabs of Africa it is generally formed thus ([#]), or thus ([#]), and is placed above or below the letter, as the vowel which accompanies it. The figure of the teschdid is a little ش‎, abbreviated from the word شَدِيدٌ‎ strong, or of the word شِدّةٌ‎ strength, which is the name that the Africans give it.

124. Every ا‎ which is moved by a vowel, or which is moveable by nature, although it may become djesmaed by certain grammatical rules, is marked by a sign named hamza. This sign is formed thus (ء‎). The hamza or elif hamzaed is a real articulation, of which the value has been indicated already, and differs essentially from the elif not hamzaed, which is never moved by any vowel, and only enters into words as a letter of prolongation or as a mute letter. If the elif is moved by a[21] kesra, the hamza is placed below the letter, and the kesra below the hamza, as, إِضْرَبْ‎.

130. A word which commences by a أ‎‎ hamzaed ought often to be joined to the word which precedes it; and this union is indicated by a sign named wesla, that is, junction; it is formed thus (ٱ‎), and is placed above the elif. When this union takes place, the elif is always followed by a letter djesmaed, and then it is pronounced as a compound syllable, with the last one of the preceding word.

144. When the elif of prolongation is followed immediately by an ا‎ mute, instead of the last of these two ا‎, the hamza only is written with its corresponding vowel, and over the ا‎ of prolongation is placed a sign which is formed thus ( ۤ)‎, and which is called medda or matta, that is, prolongation.

146. The same sign is placed also over the letters, when they are employed as figures, or as abbreviations instead of entire words.

Of Punctuation and Abbreviations.

168. The Arabs generally do not employ any mark to indicate the pauses, whether at the end of a period, or in the course of the sentence. They only indicate the end of a subject, either by a red point, or by one of these marks ۬,‎ ؞,‎ ۞‎, or by writing in red the word which commences a new article, or by prolonging one of the letters of the first word, as وَفِيـــــها‎. These different methods of indicating the commencement of a new article answer to our fresh paragraphs (alinéa).

169. If, in common manuscripts, no mark of punctuation is made use of, these signs, on the contrary, are multiplied in manuscripts of the Kurán. The end of each verse is there indicated by the figure ؞; after each tenth verse, another sign is employed, which resembles the ن‎ isolated, but entirely closed. These two signs mark rather the division of verses, founded in general upon the rhyme, than serve to distinguish the places where the reader ought to pause, in order to render more intelligible the sense of his discourse. The true signs of punctuation are the little letters written in red ink in the superior interlineation. The م‎ indicates a pause, necessary to avoid ambiguity: it is abridged from the word لاَزِمٌ‎ necessary. The ط‎, contracted from the word مُطْلَقٌ‎, that is, universal, shows a pause universally received by the readers of the Kurán. The ج‎, contracted from the word جَآئِزٌ‎ permitted, shows a pause left to the will of the reader. The ز, contracted from the word مُجَوَّزٌ‎, allowed, indicates a pause permitted, but not becoming. The ص‎, contracted from the word مُرَخَّصٌ‎ admissible, marks a slight pause granted only from necessity, in order that the reader may draw breath. When the sense requires that there should be no pause at the end of a verse, it is indicated by the word لا‎ not, written above the last word of the verse,[22] and of which the meaning is لاَوَقْفَ‎ there is no pause here. The ق‎, contracted from the word قِيلَ‎ they say, marks a contested pause. Lastly the letters قفه‎, which represent the words وَقْفَةٌ يَسِرَةٌ‎, are the sign of an extremely slight pause.

Among the great number of marks of punctuation peculiar to the Kurán, the most necessary and the most used are the ط‎, the ج‎ and the word لا‎.

171. Abbreviations are sometimes indicated by a figure similar to a medda, and often they are marked by no particular sign.

Of Figures or Signs of Numeration.

The eighth column of the alphabet shows the value which the Arabs attach to their letters when they are employed as signs of numeration. Of these letters, which are twenty-eight in number, nine indicate the units, nine the tens, nine the hundreds, and one the number 1000. The order according to which these letters are placed, when considered as numerical signs, is that of the aboudjed. The last six letters being, as there is every reason to believe, of a much later invention than the rest of the alphabet, it is probable that the Arabs, before they made use of these letters, indicated the hundreds from 400 to 900 inclusive, in the same manner as the Hebrews, whose alphabet consists only of twenty-two letters. If they wished to express, for example, the number 600, they would join together the ت‎, which is equivalent to 400, and the ر‎, which is equivalent to 200. In order to express 900, they would join two ت‎, equal together to 800, to ق‎ = 100.

The letters employed as figures follow the same direction as the writing, from right to left, as, ‎قلب‎ 132, ‎غنج‎ 1053‎.

174. It is unnecessary to observe that in this system of numeration there is no figure which answers to our cipher (0); it is absolutely useless, as the value of each figure does not depend on its position in relation to those which precede or follow it.

175. The aboudjed of the Africans differing in some degree from that of the Asiatics, there is also some difference in the value which they attach to certain letters as signs of numeration. This difference consists in that among them the ص‎ is equal to 60, the ض‎ 90, the س‎ 300, the ظ‎ 800, the غ‎ 900, and the ش‎ 1000.

176. The Arabs have also another mode of numeration, from which is derived those figures which we call Arabic; they call it the Indian cipher رَقَمٌ هِنْدِيٌّ‎. It is composed of the ten figures following:

١‎  ٢‎  ٣‎  ٤‎  ٥‎  ٦‎  ٧‎  ٨‎  ٩‎  ٠‎
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  0

The 5 is often formed thus [#], and the 0 like our own. When the Arabs make use of this cipher, they follow a direction quite contrary to that of[23] their writing, and proceed from left to right. This singularity is sufficient to prove that this cipher is not originally Arabic.

Arabic in the British Foundries.

ARMENIAN.

“The Armenians had no characters peculiar to themselves until the fourth century, but they used indifferently those of the Syrians, of the Persians, of the Arabians, and of the Greeks. The present Armenian Alphabet contains thirty-eight letters, which they say were invented by one Mesrop or Miesrob, minister of state, and secretary to Warasdates, and Arsaces IV. kings of Armenia. Some authors affirm, that this Mesrop afterwards became a hermit, and corresponded with St. Chrysostom, who lived in the fourth century; though Angelus Roccha, in his discourse on the books in the Vatican library, George, patriarch of Alexandria, and Sixtus Senensis, assert, that St. Chrysostom was the inventor of the Armenian characters, in whose time the Bible was translated into the Armenian language, from the Greek Septuagint, by some of their doctors who had learned the Greek language, and amongst others by one Moses the grammarian, and David the philosopher. Although the Armenian characters are generally supposed to have been derived from the Greek, their forms are very different, and their number exceeds those in the Greek alphabet, by more than one third. The powers of the Armenian letters are peculiarly adapted to the notation of that language, which is very unpolished, and consequently very unlike the Greek. This alphabet contains several letters or marks for sounds which frequently occur in the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian languages, but are not found in the Greek.

“The Armenians have four kinds of writing: The first is called Zakghachir, or flourished, used for the titles of books, and for the beginning of chapters.

“The second is called Erghathachir, writing with iron, or with a Stylus, which has long been disused.

“The third is called Poloverchir, or round, which is found in their fairest MSS.

“The fourth is called Notrchir, or running hand, which is used for the ordinary affairs of life. The names and powers of the Armenian letters are as follow:

“The Armenians say that Haik, who lived before the destruction of Babel, was the first who spoke the Haikanian or Armenian language.”—Astle.

[24]

Armenian Alphabet.

Key to Column Headers—
  NL - Names of the Letters.
  FL - Figures of the Letters.
  PL - Powers of the Letters.
  NV - Numerical Value.

LETTERS WHICH BEAR AN AFFINITY TO EACH OTHER.

Armenian in the British Foundries.

ASCENDING LETTERS.

This term includes all the capitals and the following small letters, b, d, f, h, k, l.

ASS.

Sometimes by way of joke, and sometimes by way of irritation, compositors are called Asses by the pressmen. In Moxon’s time they were called Galley Slaves. See Ancient Customs.

Assistants. See Newspapers.

ASTERISK,

or little star *, directs the reader to some note in the margin, or at the bottom of the page. Two or three asterisks generally[25] denote the omission of some letters in a word, or of some bold or indelicate expression, or some defect in the manuscript.—Murray.

When there are more than one note in a page, the asterisk is the first reference used.

ASTRONOMICAL CHARACTERS.

The Twelve Zodiacal Constellations.

♈︎   Aries.
♉︎   Taurus.
♊︎   Gemini.
♋︎   Cancer.
♌︎   Leo.
♍︎   Virgo.
♎︎   Libra.
♏︎   Scorpio.
♐︎   Sagittarius.
♑︎   Capricorn.
♒︎   Aquarius.
♓︎   Pisces.

Names and Characters of the Planets, with Dragon’s Head and Dragon’s Tail.

⊙   The Sun.
♄   Saturn.
♃   Jupiter.
♂   Mars.
♁   Earth.
♀   Venus.
☿   Mercury.
☽   The Moon.
☊   Dragon’s Head.
☋   Dragon’s Tail.

Planets discovered since 1780.

♅   Uranus.
⚳   Ceres.
⚴   Pallas.
⚵   Juno.
⚶   Vesta.

The Character of the Aspects.

☌   Conjunction.
⚹   Sextile.
☍   Opposition.
△   Trine.
□   Quartile.

The Moon and its changes are thus designated:—

⚫   Denotes a New Moon.
☽   First Quarter of the Moon.
⚪   The Full Moon.
☾   Last Quarter of the Moon.

Authors’ Names. See Botanical Authorities. Law Authorities. Organic Remains.

AUTHOR’S PROOF.

After the errors of workmanship have been put to rights, a clean proof is printed and sent to the author or editor, who makes on it such alterations and amendments as he may think proper. This is called an Author’s Proof; and the compositor is paid for the time occupied in making these alterations in the types.

B.

BACK BOXES.

In cases for Italic where there are no small capitals, also in Old English, and similar founts, the boxes in the upper case, that are appropriated to small capitals in Roman letter, are styled Back Boxes, and serve to lay two-line Capitals in, and other irregular sorts.

BACK OF A COMPOSING STICK.

That part on which the bottom of the types rests.—M.

BACKS.

In a form of bookwork, the backs are those pieces of furniture placed between the sides of the pages and the cross of the chase, in quartos, octavos, and duodecimos; and, when a sheet is folded, form, except in quartos, the margin of part of the fore edge of a book. See Imposing. Margin.

BACKSIDE OF THE FORM,

is the under side that touches upon the correcting stone or press stone.—M.

BACK STAY.

A piece of girth or leather fastened to the lower hind rail at one end and to the top rim of the coffin at the other, in wooden[26] presses, to check the running out of the carriage beyond the point which will allow the tympan to rise clear of the front of the platen.

BAD COPY.

Such copy as is ill written, or has much Italick, Latin, or Greek, or marginal notes, or few breaks, &c.—M. The term is now used only of manuscript that is badly written, and the words or the sense difficult to make out, with many interlineations. When this is the case, it is usual to pay something extra per sheet. For Greek, and marginal notes, an extra sum is always given, as may be seen in the Scale of Prices.

Bad Register. See Out of Register.

BAD WORK.

Any fault at the case or press, is in workmen’s language called Bad Work.—M. We now call it Bad Workmanship; and by the term Bad Work is understood solid matter; that is, not leaded; with long paragraphs; no white lines nor branching out; no short pages; nor any white pages; such work is also called A Solid Dig; any other work is also called Bad Work, that is tedious in the execution, or difficult to perform, and does not fetch the workman a remunerating price.

BAKE.

When the compositor lays up a form to clear it away, after a work is finished, if he does not rinse the letter as well as if it were rinsed for present use, or rather better, the ink that is dissolved among the lye would, with long standing by, harden between the letter, and make the letter stick so fast together that when it comes afterwards to be distributed, the compositor cannot without great difficulty and trouble get them asunder. This sticking together of the letter is called Baking of the Letter. And compositors in this case say The Letter is Baked.—M. This is the case particularly with new letter, if it be not distributed almost as soon as worked off; for if it be afterwards allowed to remain some time locked up in the chase, it is very difficult to separate and distribute, and causes great loss of time, and injury to the letter.

The usual remedy for this inconvenience is to pour boiling water on the pages repeatedly, which tends to make the letters separate more readily; but still the compositor has to press them against the edge of his case, which makes the ends of his fingers sore, and when he cannot accomplish it in this way, he not unfrequently must have recourse to his teeth. Soaking the new letter in soap and water before it is used, is said to be the best remedy.

Baldwin, Elizabeth. See Donations.

BALL KNIFE.

An old blunt-edged knife, that pressmen lay by, to scrape their balls with.—M. It is generally an old table knife; but a sharp-edged one is better than a blunt one, if it be carefully used. The use of the Ball Knife is now nearly superseded by the adoption of composition rollers.

BALL LEATHERS.

The exterior coverings of the balls, made either of pelts, of tanned sheep’s skins.—M. Ball Leathers, dressed with oil, were introduced within the author’s recollection; but, although more durable, and sweeter in use than pelts, they were not adapted to produce fine work, and were therefore soon discontinued.

BALL LININGS.

When balls are made of pelts, the wool in the first instance is covered with the pelt of an old ball, previously soaked in the pelt pot and well scraped; this is again covered with a new pelt, and nailed to the ball stock, which makes the ball complete. The old pelt is called the Ball Lining, and makes it firmer in the neck, and also wear longer.

BALL NAILS.

The nails that ball leathers are tacked to the ball stocks with.—M.

BALL NECK.

That part of the ball which is immediately between the stock and the body of the wool, just below the nails, is named the Ball Neck, or the Neck of the Ball.

[27]

BALL RACK.

Two round tapering wooden pins fastened into a feather-edged piece of elm, and nailed to the near cheek of the press, in which to place the balls when they are not in use, nearly on a level with the ink block. There is frequently an additional one, for two balls, nailed higher up to the same cheek, under the cap, for a pair of spare balls, or to keep them separate when necessary; pelt balls injure each other when kept together for any length of time; and composition balls should never be left one upon the other, for they adhere to each other, and the surface is frequently torn in separating them.

Moveable ball racks are sometimes used for convenience, with the rack fastened to an upright piece of wood, fixed into a cross piece to serve it for standing upon.

BALLS.

Two circular pieces of pelt, leather, or canvass covered with composition, stuffed with wool and nailed to the ball stocks, used to cover the surface of the article to be printed with ink, in order to obtain an impression from it. Moxon says they were occasionally stuffed with hair; and that if the ball stocks were six inches in diameter the ball leathers were cut about nine inches and a half diameter. They are made larger, according to the work they are required for; those used for Newspapers were the largest.

Pelt Balls are superseded in London by composition Balls and composition rollers, and nearly so in the country; but when I recollect that the most splendidly printed English books were executed with pelt Balls, and that a printer may be so situated in the country, or in some foreign place, as not to be able to procure composition Balls or rollers, I think it useful to give directions how to make and manage Balls of pelts, so that wherever a printer may be situated, he may sustain no great inconvenience, provided he has a skin at his command: and I shall in the first place give an old Pressman’s directions for this purpose, who was well and practically experienced in every variety of presswork, and who wrote them expressly for this work.

“The pelt being well soaked, the pressman scrapes with the ball knife a little of the wet and filth off—twists it—puts it on the currying-iron, holding an end in each hand, and curries it, by pulling it strongly backwards and forwards, till it becomes warm and pliable, and the grease adheres to his hands, so that the pelt is in danger of slipping out of them while currying: without treading he cuts the pelt into two equal parts, across, and scrapes both sides of them; he then lays one of them on a press stone, or on any other stone that is large enough, and stretches it and spreads it well with the grain side downwards: the pelt of an old ball being well soaked, he cleans it, scraping it partially, so that some of the moisture may remain in it, and spreads it on the new pelt, as a lining, but does not stretch it nearly so much as the new one, and then nails an edge of them to the ball stock: the wool, being previously carded or combed, he lays in single locks one upon another, crossways, till he has enough for the size of the Ball which he is making. If it be for a newspaper it must be very large; if for bookwork, to be used with common ink, it must be smaller in proportion; but in both cases he brings the ends of the locks of wool into one hand, forming it into the shape of a ball very slightly, and puts these ends into the bowl of the stock; then bringing the opposite edge of the pelt to that already nailed, he also nails that to the ball stock; then he nails two other parts of the pelt opposite to each other, between those parts before nailed; then he plaits the pelt, nailing it regularly on the ball stocks; and cuts off the superfluous[28] edges of the skin. The linings ought to be large enough to be nailed to the ball stock equal with the skin. Then he makes another ball, exactly the same as the first; and if both have a full even face, with no hillocks or dales, he has got a pair of good Balls.

“After having knocked up his Balls, he washes both them and the stocks well, and lets them lie out of the water a quarter of an hour; then placing one edge of the face upon the edge of the bank, the coffin of the press, or upon any other convenient place, and the end of the ball stock against his breast, he takes the handle of a sharp table knife in one hand and the end of the blade in the other, and scrapes it regularly and rather strongly from the plaits to the face of the Ball, at every scrape turning round the Ball, which brings out such a quantity of grease and moisture, as obliges him at the first to wipe his knife at every scrape; he thus proceeds, till he can scarcely bring any more out of the skin. He then places a sheet or sheets of paper on the face of the Ball, and rubs it well with his hands, till the Ball is thoroughly dry, his companion doing the same to the other Ball: they then begin to work the form.

“If a pressman has to execute fine work with strong ink, he stuffs the Balls harder with wool than he does for weak ink; because strong ink lugs or stretches the skin very fast, and soon slackens the Balls, if not hard stuffed.

“I was several years employed on fine work and strong ink, in an office where it was not allowed to tread a skin; this circumstance caused me to try the above-mentioned plan, and experience has taught me that it is by far the most preferable method.

“I also know by experience that a greasy skin is the best for strong ink, if treated in this manner; because it always keeps mellow until the balls are worn out, and there is less trouble in capping them.

“Making Balls is a nasty job: there is an old proverb in the trade, that ‘The devil would have been a pressman, if there were no Balls to make;’ that is, the printer’s devil.” See Pelts.

Tanned sheep’s skins, dressed with oil, have been used, to avoid smell, and for durability: they were more durable than pelts; but they were not calculated for producing fine impressions, not being soft; and, in consequence, not retaining dirt or other extraneous matter on their surface; this occasioned picks, and rendered them unsuitable for printing small letter or fine engravings with neatness.

When the pressmen leave work at night, the pelt balls are capped; that is, they are wrapped up, each in a blanket steeped in urine; and this is always done when they are not in use: it keeps them soft, and in working condition; but they are to be scraped, and dried with paper, to get rid of the moisture, each time they are wanted. There have been many attempts to supersede the use of urine, on account of its disagreeableness and smell; but no substitute, to my knowledge, has answered the purpose so well with pelts.

Composition Balls and composition rollers have, as I previously observed, superseded the use of pelt balls in the metropolis, and nearly so in the country. This has arisen from their superior cleanliness and sweetness, and being equal to pelts in producing good work. They can also be procured, generally, at the moment they are wanted, in the best working state; since their introduction the manufacture of them has become a new business, and they are supplied at so moderate a rate, (either per week or quarter,) and may be renewed as often as required, that scarcely a printing office in London at the present day troubles itself to make Balls; and hence no pressman need ever complain of having bad Balls as an excuse for bad workmanship.

[29]

These Balls will be found peculiarly convenient in small offices, where even one press is not in constant employment; for they may be kept for any length of time without injury to them; and if they be preserved in a proper temperament, will be always ready for use at the moment required. If they should become a little too dry, they may be restored to a proper state for working in a very short time by sponging them over with water, and distributing them; or, if there be time, by placing them in a damp situation, in order that they may imbibe moisture.

They may be easily made in an office at a distance from town, where it may be both inconvenient and expensive to have them removed backwards and forwards, by having a shallow dish formed of tin, &c. pouring the melted composition in it, and before it is cold attaching a piece of canvass to it sufficiently large to form a Ball of the size wanted. The facing will be thus thicker in the middle and taper off to the edge, which will be quite thin; and the edge of the composition should be continued well over the rounding of the Ball, to prevent it ever touching the form in beating, and thus avoiding any ill effects from portions of ink or dirt that would lodge at the extremity of the composition, and come in contact with the types or engraving. See Composition.

BALL STOCKS.

Turned of Alder or Maple. They are about seven inches in diameter, and have their under side turned hollow, to contain the greater quantity of wool or hair, to keep the ball leathers plump the longer.—M. They are now made of Elm, and the handles are Beech: but an improvement has been made in this article of late years, although it has not been generally adopted, viz. turning the bowl and handle in one piece, instead of having the handle fitted into the bowl, which frequently came loose, and was troublesome to the Pressman, often catching the skin of his hand, and pinching it. The usual size of the bowl for bookwork, is five inches and a quarter in diameter.

BANK.

A deal table, on which the Pressmen have the paper when printing. It was called a Horse in Moxon’s time. See Horse. It is useful to have a small drawer in the front of it, in which the Pressmen may put their thin paper for overlays, their paste points, and many other articles that would otherwise be lying upon the shelf or platen.

BANK NOTES.

On the 13th of January, 1819, Mr. James Fergusson, of Newman Street, Oxford Street, printer, sent to the Commissioners for inquiring into the Prevention of Forgery of Bank Notes, his plan for that purpose, of which the following is his published description.

“My plan is reared upon the solid foundation of putting it in the power of every individual to be certain whether a Bank-note is genuine or spurious by inspection. I propose, in order to form the ground-work of Bank-notes, to cast a fount, or several founts, of types, formed of such a peculiar shape, that, when printed from, the impression would appear, at first sight, like a line engraving; while, at the same time, when examined more closely, every part of it might be easily read. Although it is not in my power, without going to considerable expence, to produce a specimen of such types as ought to be made for this purpose, yet no one will deny that they may be obtained by means of punch-cutters and letter-founders. This being granted, let me suppose that I have got such types; I should then proceed to compose a page with them of the size of a Bank-note, consisting of such subject-matter as may be deemed advisable,—probably, an explanation of the way by which forgery could be detected. From this page of moveable types, I should make a stereotype plate; and I should then, by stamping or engraving upon the stereotype plate, put the promissory words of the Bank-note, with the addition of whatever[30] ornamental lines might be thought proper. This stereotype plate, so formed, would give, by one pull at the letter-press, a completed Bank-note, unless it might be deemed requisite to add the numbering; and a signature or signatures, in writing. Having got one stereotype plate in the way I describe, I should use it for no other purpose than to obtain others; and from them I could easily make plates to any amount that may be necessary, all which would yield impressions obviously alike. As the promissory and ornamental parts of the note, in white, will purposely be made to intersect the words printed in black all over the surface of the note, the intersections will prove an infallible guide to distinguish a spurious note from a genuine one. This contrivance of intersections being the leading feature in my plan, I have denominated it The Intersection Plan.

“Individuals, when familiarized to notes issued upon this principle, would naturally select some portion to which they might easily refer, to ascertain the genuineness of a note. And, for further security, if necessary, the Bank might print what I may call Standards, for the use of the public, to be sold for a trifle, merely to insure their preservation. The Standards to be printed from the same plates as the notes themselves, but on paper quite of another texture and colour from the note paper, for the purpose of proving the correctness of the intersections.” See Forgery.

BANKRUPTS,

SCHEDULE (L.)

“Table of Prices payable for Advertisements in the London or Edinburgh Gazettes.

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Bar. See Press Bar.

BASKET.

In printing offices where there are large founts of letter, and the fount cases of any particular fount are not sufficient to hold the superfluous sorts, the surplus is put in coffins, and deposited in round baskets, till wanted.

BATTER.

When the face of any letters gets injured in a form, it is termed a Batter.

This accident frequently occurs:—in the course of working at press a letter or letters will draw out in beating, and occasionally be left on the form without being perceived; this, when the next impression is pulled, injures the page on which it was left;—a pin, needle, or bodkin, used as pickers, will sometimes be laid on a page and forgot—and other small articles, which produce the same injury. It also happens with forms reared up at the ends of frames, where the faces of the letter in the forms are put to each other, with a quoin, or a piece of furniture, to prevent them touching, which being accidentally displaced, the letter gets injured. The only thing to be done when these accidents occur, is to replace the letters; this however is too frequently done without showing a revise to the Reader or Overseer; and thus errors creep into a work, which no care on the part of a Reader can prevent. To steady careful men these accidents seldom happen; and they ought to be guarded against, in as much as they cause loss of time to the workmen, and expense of materials to the master printer; and when letters or words must be replaced, the work should never be proceeded with at press, previously to its being examined.

When a fine engraving on wood is at press, the workman should be most particularly careful, as an accident might thus spoil an expensive work of art, which it might be impossible to replace.

When a Batter unfortunately happens at press in working stereotype plates, it is too frequently overlooked by the pressmen, and the work proceeds in a deteriorated state; while, generally speaking, if the same accident had happened to a form of moveable types it would have been set right. The reason is, that while in the latter case the accident could be remedied in a few minutes, the stereotype plate on the other hand would have to be taken out of the form and sent to the founders, and would not be repaired in less than five or six hours, during which time the pressmen would be unemployed, to their loss. This is one cause that operates against the more general use of stereotype plates.

BEARD OF A LETTER,

is the outer angle of the square shoulder of the shank, which reaches almost up to the bottom of the face of the letter; and is commonly scraped off by the Founder.—M.

BEARER.

A piece of reglet pasted on the frisket to ease any particular part in a form that has too much pressure on it from the platen of the press.—M.

Double Pica reglet is used for this purpose, as its thickness is equal to the difference between the height of the types and the furniture; and this application of it makes this sized reglet in general a scarce article in a printing office.

Where any parts of the impression of a form come off hard, which from various causes occasionally happens, particularly at the edges of the pages, and at the foot of a short page, a bearer is applied to ease that part; but some care however is required in its application—it must not bear upon any printed matter at the back of it, for if it does, it will smear and deface that part, nor is it necessary to place it close to the part, but it may be put at some distance, and if convenient near the[32] outer edge of the paper, and made to rest on the flat part of the furniture.

After selecting a piece of reglet of the proper length, paste one side of it, and place it with the pasted side uppermost upon the furniture where it is required, then turn down the tympans and frisket and rub that part with the hand to make it adhere to the frisket; or, as is usually done, after the form is beat, when the next pull will make it adhere; if it be not quite sufficient, a thickness or two of a wrapper pasted on it will ease the pull sufficiently on that part.

High Bearers, are pieces of furniture made barely letter height; they are used where separate wood cuts are printed, or very small forms; they are placed on the press stone, usually pasted down, but at such a distance from the printed matter that neither the balls nor the rollers touch them in inking the form; they lighten the pressure on the extremities, and tend to equalize the pull if the carriage be not run in exactly to its place, by the platen bearing upon them. If they be not sufficiently high, they may be added to by overlays pasted upon them.

BEAT.

To cover the surface of the types with ink by means of the balls.—M. See Fine Presswork.

BEAT FAT.

If a Pressman takes too much ink with his balls, he beats fat. The black English faced letter is generally beaten fat.—M. At the present day we understand by Fat Beating, that a pressman beating carefully, goes gradually two or three times over the form, so that every part of the surface of the type is touched six or seven times by the face of the balls; and is thus uniformly covered with a proper quantity of ink.

BEAT LEAN.

Is to take but little ink, and often: all small letter must be beaten lean.—M. This and the preceding term Beat Fat, have changed their meaning since the days of Moxon; to beat lean now, is to beat lightly, and quickly make a riddance of work, without much regard to its quality.

BED.

To bed or lay the press stone in the coffin, so that it shall lie firm and solid in all parts.—M. There are different ways of bedding a press stone: some bed it in bran; some in plaster; but the general way is with paper. To effect this the paper ought not to have any large knots in it, and should be cut to the size of the coffin, and if there be any inequalities in the bottom of the stone, there must be additional pieces of paper placed under it to fill them up. When it is supposed there is sufficient paper in the coffin to raise the stone high enough, it is slung in on two pieces of cord, and a trial made of its firmness; if it rocks, it is lifted out again, and additional paper placed in those parts where the stone did not rest firmly. When it is properly bedded, the ends of the cords are tucked in at the sides of the stone so as to be easily picked out again with a bodkin. When the stone has got to lie solid with working, the upper side should be about a Brevier higher than the coffin.

Although I have mentioned cord, as being generally used for slinging the stone into the coffin, and lifting it out again, yet strong flat tape is decidedly superior; the stone lies more solid with it than with cord, and is not so liable to break.

Benefactions. See Donations.

BENGALESE.

The following article is extracted from Nathaniel Brassey Halhed’s Grammar of the Bengal Language.

“Exclusive of the Shanscrit, there are three different dialects applied (tho’ not with equal currency) in the kingdom of Bengal: Viz. the Persian, the Hindostanic and the proper Bengalese; each of which has[33] its own peculiar department in the business of the country, and consequently neither of them can be universally adopted to the exclusion of the others.

“What the pure Hindostanic is to upper India, the language which I have here endeavoured to explain is to Bengal, intimately related to the Shanscrit both in expressions, construction and character. It is the sole channel of personal and epistolary communication among the Hindoos of every occupation and tribe. All their business is transacted, and all their accounts are kept in it; and as their system of education is in general very confined, there are few among them who can write or read any other idiom: the uneducated, or eight parts in ten of the whole nation, are necessarily confined to the usage of their mother tongue.

“The Shanscrit, or sacred language of Hindostan, from whence the dialect of Bengal immediately proceeds, is supposed by its professors to be the most antient and most excellent in the world. They assert that it exceeds every other language in the number of its letters, and esteem this excess as an incontrovertible argument of its antiquity and superiority.

“The Bengal Alphabet, like that of the Shanscrit, consists of FIFTY letters, in the following order.

“First Series.

“Second Series.

“It is to be observed, that in the Bengal alphabet, all the names of the consonants commence with the respective consonants which they denote; as ko, go, jo, &c. whereas in English, seven of them are preceded by a vowel: ef, el, em, en, ar, ess, & ex. It follows from hence, that the short vowel of the Bengalese is invariably subjoined to the consonant with which it is uttered, and never precedes: as ক and গ always stand for ko, and go, and in no case for ok, or og.

“The vowels, as used in composition, when joined with consonants, have a very different figure from those which are in the first series of[34] the alphabet. I shall here insert a table of the forms of vowels in composition, corresponding to those which are initial or single.

“A Table of the corresponding Vowels.

“By the original structure of this language every consonant inherently possesses the short vowel on which its utterance depends; it is plain therefore on this principle, that no two consonants could have been joined together, and successively pronounced in the same syllable, but that a vowel must necessarily have intervened. As an expedient to remedy this inconvenience, a set of distinct characters were invented, called ফলা P,holaa, or adjuncts. They are certain subordinate and subsidiary figures, that may be attached to each of the consonants in the alphabet respectively, to provide against the too frequent recurrence of the internal vowel.

“These P,holaa, are presented in a distinct series or alphabet, consisting of eleven subservient marks or signs, for different letters; which are here joined to ক ko, the first of the single consonants, and which may, in the same manner, be applied to all the other letters.

“The twelfth word of the series, (which seems to be added by the Bengalese merely to fill up the rhythm) relates to another subject, which will be explained in a subsequent remark.

“The reader must remember, that the letter র ro, in its proper character, is never joined to any other letter or adjunct; but its figure is entirely changed by a connection with other consonants, as will be seen in the following series.

“The twelve P,holas.

“The compound letters may be formed by three methods: either by placing one letter immediately under another, or by blending two letters together, so as to make one character from their union; or by making the first of the two consonants much smaller than the other letters. This last mode seems to be the most common.

“সিদ্ধি sheedd,hee, called the twelfth P,holaa, is a word always prefixed to the class of vowels contained in the first Series of the alphabet. Sheedd,hee is part of a Shanscrit sentence, which means be it properly performed; and as these words are usually prefixed to the class of vowels, that Series has obtained the name of sheedd,hee.

“The Series Sheed,hee.

অ o, is always an initial letter.

আ aa, is also initial.

“I shall set down a few of the most common contractions of letters which are constantly used by all the Bengalese, as being more expeditious, as well as more elegant than a simple junction of the single letters, whose office they perform.

ক্র kro, stands for ক্র the kirro Pholaa.

[#] okto, is ও to blended with ক ko; its regular form is [#].

কু koo, stands for ক ko with hroswookaar.

[#] ungo, is compounded of ঙ ngoo-o with গ go subjoined.

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[#] oggyo, is another figure for the Pholaa [#].

[#] moo, is ম mo and ব wo compounded. The simple form is [#].

[#] oshno, for [#] i. e. ণ aano subjoined to ষ sho.

[#] shoo, initial and medial, [#] shoo, final; two figures for [#].

[#] This figure stands for both [#] otto and [#] too.

[#] goo, is used for [#].

[#] hoo, stands for [#].

[#] ohro, is kro Pholaa subjoined to হ ho.

[#] tro, stands for [#].

[#] roo, is used instead of [#].

[#] ohlo, is ল lo subjoined to হ ho.

[#] ondo, compounded of ণ aano and ড do.

[#] ohjo, is হ ho and জ jo blended together.

[#] ohmo, a compound of হ ho and ম mo.

[#] ostoo, is স so and ট to, with hroswookaar subjoined.

[#] ostro, is the letter স so compounded with ট to, and the kro Pholaa.

[#] joo, stands for [#].

[#] ogd,ho, [#] odd,ho, [#] ond,ho, represent ধ d,ho severally subjoined to গ go, দ do, and ন no.

[#] this figure is called ordd,ho-to, i. e. semi-to; for ordd,ho signifies half. It is used for the letter ত to without its internal vowel; and in the middle of a word is generally represented by ২ the numerical figure of two.

[#] otyo, is the preceding [#] blended with the kyo pholaa.

“I shall now proceed to a few marks of reference commonly used by the Bengalese.

“[#] This figure is always put at the top of every writing, and is meant as an invocation to Gonash, the Deity of Knowledge and Arts; it is called Gonashar aakoree, or the crook of Gonash. So the Mahometans always begin with the letter [#] aleph, as a token of the unity of God.

“[#] Chaandboondaa, is a mark put over certain letters to give them a very forcible nasal expression.

“৺ Eeshwor, is properly one of the deities of the Hindoo Trinity. The name of God was supposed too holy to be inserted among the general class of words, and was therefore written at the top of the page, and wherever this name should occur in a sentence, the mark here specified was put as a reference to it. The form still remains, but the usage is degraded into a mere compliment: for in all petitions, or letters[37] from inferiors to their superiors, the name of the person addressed is now put at the top, and this sign of reference occupies the place in the body of the letter, where the name should regularly have been inserted.

“[#] Sree properly signifies prosperity, and is prefixed to every name which they mean to mention with respect; as sree sree Raam, sree sree Gonash.

“One or more of these titles of Hindoo deities is first written on every piece of paper, as an amulet or charm, before any letter, petition or other writing whatever, is committed to it. In the same manner the Mahometans universally apply their Bismillah (or, In the name of God.) as we formerly wrote Emanuel at the top of letters, and still continue to commence a ledger with Laus Deo.

“The denominations of the cardinal numbers are so irregular in Bengalese, that I find it will be necessary to exhibit them as far as one hundred. And it must be observed as a particularity, that the ninth numeral of every series of ten, is not specified by the term of nine in the common order of progression, but takes its appellation from the series immediately above; as for instance the number twenty nine is not expressed by nobeesh, which should seem the proper denomination, but is called oonteesh, or one less than thirty. So thirty nine is oonchaa-leesh, or one less than forty.

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In respect to the Bengalese types with which Halhed’s grammar is printed, he thus observes, “The public curiosity must be strongly excited by the beautiful characters which are displayed in the following work: and although my attempt may be deemed incompleat or unworthy of notice, the book itself will always bear an intrinsic value, from its containing as extraordinary an instance of mechanic abilities as has perhaps ever appeared. That the Bengal letter is very difficult to be imitated in steel will readily be allowed by every person who shall examine the intricacies of the strokes, the unequal length and size of the characters, and the variety of their positions and combinations. It was no easy task to procure a writer accurate enough to prepare an alphabet of a similar and proportionate body throughout, and with that symmetrical exactness which is necessary to the regularity and neatness of a fount. Mr. Bolts (who is supposed to be well versed in this language) attempted to fabricate a set of types for it, with the assistance of the ablest artists in London. But as he egregiously failed in executing even the easiest part, or primary alphabet, of which he has published a specimen, there is no reason to suppose that his project, when compleated, would have advanced beyond the usual state of imperfection to which new inventions are constantly exposed.

“The advice and even sollicitation of the Governor General prevailed upon Mr. Wilkins, a gentleman who has been some years in the India Company’s civil service in Bengal, to undertake a set of Bengal types. He did, and his success has exceeded every expectation. In a country so remote from all connexion with European artists, he has been obliged to charge himself with all the various occupations of the Metallurgist, the Engraver, the Founder, and the Printer. To the merit of invention he was compelled to add the application of personal labour. With a rapidity unknown in Europe, he surmounted all the obstacles which necessarily clog the first rudiments of a difficult art, as well as the disadvantages of solitary experiment; and has thus singly on the first effort exhibited his work in a state of perfection which in every part of the world has appeared to require the united improvements of different projectors, and the gradual polish of successive ages.”

The gentleman here spoken of was Charles Wilkins, Esq., a descendant of the learned Bishop Wilkins, and one of the founders of the Asiatic Society. He was afterwards created Doctor of Laws, and appointed Librarian to the East-India Company at their establishment in Leadenhall Street. He was reputed to be the best Shanscrit scholar in Europe.

BENVENUE.

Half a crown paid by a new workman to the Chapel when he commences, which is always spent. If a journeyman wrought formerly in the same printing house, and comes again to work in it, he pays but half a benvenue. If a journeyman smout more or less on another printing house, he pays half a benvenue.—M. See Ancient Customs.

This custom is still retained in printing offices, and the amount generally paid is the same as it was in the seventeenth century, though the value of half a crown then was considerably more than it is now. Under particular circumstances the Chapel sometimes takes less; and the workmen always add something each, so as to be able to provide bread and cheese and a draught of porter to welcome the new comer. The word is now pronounced Bevénue; it is evidently a corruption of the Fr. bien venu or welcome.

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BIBLE ORTHOGRAPHY.

Many religious works are printed with numerous extracts from the Holy Scriptures without any reference to the Book, Chapter, or Verse, and as they are frequently made from memory, they are generally inaccurate. I am clearly of opinion that wherever a quotation is made, it should be given literally as it appears in the work from which it is taken, otherwise it is worse than useless,—for it misleads. With regard to extracts from the Bible, I hold it indispensable that they should be given without the slightest variation from the original; but as many words in the Bible vary in their orthography from Johnson’s Dictionary, which is the book of reference generally in use, and as the authorized editions of the Scriptures differ in this respect from each other in many instances, I have collated the King’s Printers, the Oxford, the Cambridge, and the Edinburgh editions with Johnson’s Dictionary and with each other, for the purpose of enabling the printer to preserve uniformity in orthography with little trouble to himself in reprints of the Bible, and in extracts occurring in religious works, according as the author may prefer any of these editions.

These variations from each other do not extend to words but are confined to the orthography, and to the difference of the same expression being given in one word, in two words, or in being made a compound word; thus in the Cambridge and the Edinburgh Bibles there are a great number of compound words, while in the King’s Printers and Oxford Bibles the same words are given either joined together as one word or made into two words; and we find very few compound words, except proper names. I have also given the Bible orthography where Johnson gives two ways of spelling a word. The result will be seen in the following Table; which also shows the variations, to a certain degree, that have taken place in the language during the last two hundred years.

The late Mr. Thomas Bensley, who was printer to the University of Oxford, told me, about the year 1805, that they had a sealed copy there, as a standard to read from; if this be the case, it is difficult to account for their copies of late years having numerous variations from the earlier editions. I think it very desirable that there should be a standard edition that we could refer to, as a pure text; and it would also be desirable to know on what authority these variations are made in the holy Scriptures, for every word, every point, nay every capital letter, I believe, was carefully considered before it was adopted in the first edition of the authorized version in 1611, and this too by a considerable number of the most learned men of the kingdom, who had the direction of the work.

With regard to the words in the Bible printed in Italic characters, Dr. Myles Smyth, one of the two appointed Revisers of the authorized version, in the Preface to the first edition, published in 1611, gives the following reason for their use:—

“Moreouer, whereas the necessitie of the sentence required any thing to be added (for such is the grace and proprietie of the Ebrewe and Greeke tongues that it cannot, but either by circumlocution, or by adding the verbe or some word, be vnderstood of them that are not well practised therein), wee haue put it in the text with an other kinde of letter, that it may easily bee discerned from the common letter.”

The Preface was written and affixed by the King’s command. The first Edition of the Bible was printed in Black Letter, and the “other kinde of letter” was roman; when the Black Letter was disused, and the Roman character substituted, the “other kinde of letter” was changed to Italic. Dr. Smyth was afterwards Bishop of Gloucester.

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