, all of them, except the casting itself, were done by hand,
and each type was handled separately, except in the operation of
dressing, or the final finishing, where they were handled in lines of
about three feet in length.

After the type have been delivered to the inspector, they are examined
under a magnifying glass and all imperfect type are thrown out. The
perfect type are then delivered to "fonting" room, where they are
weighed, counted, and put up in suitable packages in proper proportion
of one letter with another, ready for the printer.

Formerly the various sizes of type were indicated by names which had
developed with the history of type making. It was a source of
considerable annoyance to printers that these old standards were not
accurate, and that two types of supposedly the same size, and sold
under the same name, by different makers, varied so much that they
could not be used side by side. Of recent years the "point" system, by
which each size bears a proportionate relation to every other size,
has done much to remedy this trouble, and now nearly all type is made
on that basis. An American point is practically one seventy-second of
an inch. Actually it is .013837 inch. It was based on the pica size
most extensively in use in this country. This pica was divided into
twelve equal parts and each part called a point. All the other sizes
were made to conform to multiples of this point. The point is so near
a seventy-second of an inch that printers frequently calculate the
length of the pages by counting the lines, the basis being twelve
lines of 6 point, nine lines of 8 point, eight lines of 9 point, and
six lines of 12 point to the inch. This calculation is really quite
accurate.

The following table will show the old and new names for the various
sizes:--

3-1/2 Point, Brilliant.
4-1/2 Point, Diamond.
5 Point, Pearl.
5-1/2 Point, Agate.
6 Point, Nonpareil.
7 Point, Minion.
8 Point, Brevier.
9 Point, Bourgeois.
10 Point, Long Primer.
11 Point, Small Pica.
12 Point, Pica.
14 Point, 2-line Minion or English.
16 Point, 2-line Brevier.
18 Point, Great Primer.
20 Point, 2-line Long Primer or Paragon.
22 Point, 2-line Small Pica.
24 Point, 2-line Pica.
28 Point, 2-line English.
30 Point, 5-line Nonpareil.
32 Point,