In typewriting, you adjust your margin stops to the
longest line you are going to write, and in printing you start with
spacing-out material as long as the longest stretch on the card, which in
this case is from 6 of 61 Worth Street to the 0 of 3810, and you will find
this measures three inches. Printers call three inches 18 picas, their
measurements making 6 picas to the inch. If you have one of the standard
assortments of furniture (wood blocking) you will find several pieces in
it three inches (18 picas) long, which you can use in this set-up. If you
received a composing stick with your outfit, set the movable part (called
the knee) so that it will hold a three-inch line, using a piece of wood
furniture that length to get the right measurement, but allowing just a
trifle more - the thickness of a heavy cardboard, or about a 72nd
of an inch (one point, as printers call it). This is done so that when you
tighten up your finished form the squeeze will come on the type and not on
the furniture.
To set up this job you may want something thinner than the
wood to put between the lines, and if you do, the metal leads (line
spacers) are made for that. If your leads are all longer than three
inches, you can use a lead cutter, cut them with shears, or file a deep
notch in them so that they will break in two. Be careful, though, that the
finished length is the same as the furniture.

Hold the composing stick as the picture shows, in the left
hand, with the open side away from you. Put a piece of three-inch lead or
three-inch furniture in the composting stick, then with your right hand,
pick up the first letter (if you are following the sample card, it will be
a W, or whatever first name you are setting up). Place it face up and with
the nick AWAY from you, in the lower left hand corner of the stick,
holding it in position with your thumb. Then pick up the next letter, put
it in the stick next to the first, and so on.

If you have no composing stick, take the chase and chase
bed from the press as shown in the picture, and lay them with one edge on
a block, book or magazine about an inch high, so that the tilt will keep
the type in place until you are ready to lock (tighten) the form. Arrange
some furniture (wood blocking) in the chase so as to leave just the space
in the center, needed for the form, then start putting in the three-inch
spacing material and the type, just as described above for the composing
stick.
Having set "William" (or your own first name), put a three
or a four em space after the last letter. As you will see from the
illustration, the difference between three or four em spaces is a matter
of thickness, and you can take your choice. Set the initial and period,
put in another space, then set the last name.

What you have set will by no means fill out the three-inch
space, so fill in on each end with the quads (thick spaces, see picture),
being sure to use the same amount on each side of the type, to have the
name properly center ed. You can get this exactly in the middle by the use
of the spaces. The line should be just tight enough (if you are using a
composing stick) so that if it is lifted up it will stay where put without
falling down, but no so tight that it is hard to shove spaces in.
You now have your first line set up, and can put some
spacing material between it and the next one. If another line is to be
close, like the work "Insurance" in the sample, you may want to use a lead
(already mentioned-line spacer) which should be cut or filed to the right
length. If you want more space, or are going to leave out that line and
get down the address, you can use the wood furniture-enough of it to space
the first line far enough away from the bottom one.

The street address and the telephone number (or perhaps
you prefer the city and state) can be spaced out so that one is at one end
of the line and the other at the other, as shown.
If you have been using your chase, the type form is now
ready to lock or tighten. If you have been setting in a composing stick
this is the way to pick up your type:
Put another three-inch piece of wood furniture or lead at
the bottom-perhaps several if you have the room, so as to give you
something to hold onto. Now, do as the picture shows-grasp the type form
(still with the bottom line away from you, as you see) with your inside
fingers pressing against the edges, squeezing tightly on ALL sides, lift
carefully form the stick and place in the chase, which you have previously
taken out to the press and laid on a flat surface. (Better use the chase
bed for the surface unless you have something else you know is perfectly
true and smooth).
All this may sound as if using a composing stick were more
difficult than setting type in the chase in the first place, but there are
numerous advantages, particularly on work with more lines. It is easier
and quicker to set up type in the stick and you can be entirely sure of
getting all the lines "justified"-that is, spaced with an equal degree of
tightness, which helps to keep everything where it belongs, with no
drop-outs when you have turned up the screws along the edge of the chase.
If you have been setting up the sample card, and are in a
hurry to proceed, you can now skip as far as "Locking Up Form". However,
if you are setting up something in column formation like the lines of this
guide, or any work a little more complicated than the card, you will want
to know a little more about spacing out your work. Suppose you are setting
a line like this. Set up your line until it almost comes to the end, using
three-or four-em spaces between the words. If there is no room to get in
another word or syllable, increase the space between the words either by
adding thin spaces until the line is filled out-(neither too loose or too
tight-as already described)-or pull out one or more of the smaller spaces,
and replace them with the next size larger. Similarly, if all but one or
two letters of a word will fit in the line, you can reduce the space
between the words by substituting smaller spaces as far as necessary to
get in your letters.
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