More 'Dissing' today. I was given a very fine 6 point Gill Light type to work with and it was hard work, but I am really getting to know the process and familarise myself with the layout of the timber tray to put the types back in. Looking at the letters and the words in reverse is going to help me with the exercise in the coming days - when I am doing the reverse and looking for each type to set together!
The most tricky part working with such small type was the spacing bars, there are basically 5 types.The standard is ''Em'', a square shape space which is measured in a 12 point unit proportional to each type size
1 Em =
2 En(s)
3 Thick(s)
4 Mid(s)
5 Thin(s)
and then it goes down to hair ( thin metal)
and 1/2 point hair(thin copper, aluminium or paper)
Here is me trying to figure out why there seem to be many different thicknesses by putting them one by one and measure by eye and stack next to an Em to work out what they are. After 3 hours of sorting out I finally realised there are 2 types of Ems here, and all spacing are slightly off and they are not the 5 types as set above as they are set by a machine rather than originally by hand where every piece is accurate, which leads me to the super caster....
This machine MAKES all the metal types. In the old days it is connected to a machine called 'monotype' which is like a type writer but instead of typing out letters on paper it types out metal type, all assembled together. Phil is able to be self sufficient with his type, and also efficient in putting together a large collection of font with this machine. The one thing to note though is although all the type would be correct, the spacing may not be, as I found out after 3 hours without knowing the type I worked on was done by this machine and not by hand! For accurate spacing they have to be produced specifically as Ems and not left over from a cast primarily to produce new metal letters.
These are the 'matrices' that is essentially a mould to be used in conjunction with the caster. These are pretty important in the production of type and I was told by Nick , who works at Hand and Eye along with Phil that each would cost about £1,500.
