An old engraving of a worker at a beating table making stereotype moulds (flongs) in the 1800s. It is from a Victorian book of the 1880s. Here a worker pats down (beats) the damp layers of paper within the iron tray containing a page of type. In printing, a stereotype, (stereoplate or stereo) is a solid plate of type metal (forme), cast in hot metal from a papier-mâché or plaster mould (flong) with the imprint of the letters of type in its surface. The forme was used on the printing press. Papier-mâché (‘chewed’, ‘pulped’ or ‘mashed’ paper) consists of paper pieces bound with an adhesive.
An old engraving of a worker at a beating table making stereotype moulds in the 1800s. It is from a Victorian mechanical engineering book of the 1880s. Here a worker pats down (beats) the damp layers of paper within the iron tray containing a page of type. In printing, a stereotype, (stereoplate or a stereo) is a solid plate of type metal (forme), cast in hot metal from a papier-mâché or plaster mould (flong) with the imprint of type in its surface. In the days of set movable type, printing involved placing individual letters (type) plus other elements into a hand-held block (chase). Several chases would make up a single page of a book or part of a page of a newspaper. When ink was then applied to the forme, pressed against paper and a printed page could be made. This process of creating formes was labour-intensive and costly. Papier-mâché (literally ‘chewed’, ‘pulped’ or ‘mashed’ paper) is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch or paste.
Size: 2362px × 2870px
Photo credit: © M&N / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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