k of smooth, hard
wood called a "planer." This locking-up of the pages in iron frames
naturally corrects the defects noted in the twine-bound pages, and not
only brings the type into proper alignment and adjustment, but
prevents the probability of types becoming displaced or new errors
occurring through types dropping out of the page and being wrongly
replaced.

When the locking-up process is completed, the iron chase and type
embraced by it is called a "form." A proof of this form is read and
examined by a proof-reader with the utmost care, with a view to
eliminating any remaining errors or defective types or badly adjusted
lines, and to making the pages as nearly typographically perfect as
possible. It is surprising how many glaring errors, which have eluded
all readers up to this time, are discovered by the practised eye of
the final proof-reader.

The form having received this most careful final reading, the proof is
passed back to the "stone-hands"--those who lock up and correct the
forms--for final correction and adjustment, after which several more
sets of proofs are taken, called "F"-proofs (variously and correctly
understood as standing for "final," "file," or "foundry" proofs). A
set of F-proofs is sent to the author to keep on file, occasionally
one is sent to the publisher, and one set is always retained in the
proof-room of the printing-office. These proofs are characterized by
heavy black borders which enclose each page, and which frequently
render nervous authors apprehensive lest their books are to appear in
this funereal livery. These black borders are the prints of the
"guard-lines," which, rising to the level of the type, form a
protection to the pages and the plates in their progress through the
electrotyping department; but before the plates are finished up and
made ready for the pressroom, the guard-lines, which have been moulded
with the type, are removed.

After several sets of F-proofs have been taken, the form is carried to
the moulding or "battery" room of the electrotyping department, where
it leaves its perfect impress in the receptive wax. Thence it will
later be returned to the composing room and taken apart and the type
distributed, soon to be again set up in new combinations of letters
and words. The little types making a page of verse to-day may do duty
to-morrow in a page of a text-book in the higher mathematics.

After the type form has been warmed by placing it upon a steam tabl