In the Journals of the House of Lords, they use the term Dies Sabbati for Saturday, that day being the original Sabbath. See Astronomical Characters.

PLANK.

That part of a wooden press which forms the bottom of the coffin; it projects beyond the coffin where the tympan joints are placed, upon which part the gallows sockets are fixed; on the bottom the cramp irons; and to each end the girths, wherewith to run the carriage in and out.

PLATEN.

The platen is commonly made of beechen plank, two inches and an half thick, its length about fourteen inches, and its breadth about nine inches.—M. This is the description of a platen for a two pull press of the old construction: they are now always made of well seasoned hard mahogany for wooden presses, thicker, and sometimes faced with iron.

The platen is that part of the machine which comes down upon the form, and, being acted upon by the spindle, produces the impression. Iron presses have nearly superseded wooden presses, and have of course iron platens; they are all one pull presses, and the platen ought to be made large enough to cover the types of as large a form as the press will contain. Whether they be of wood or of iron, the face of the platen, that is, the under side, which produces the impression, ought to be a true plane, as the least inequality in it produces an unequal impression, which causes a great deal of trouble at press to rectify it, more particularly in fine work.

PLATEN HOOKS.

Four iron hooks screwed into the corners of the platen.—M. To tie it up by to the hose hooks. This is in wooden presses.

PLATEN PAN.

A square pan on the top of the platen, in which the toe of the spindle works.—M. At present it is made round, of bell metal, with a stud of hardened steel in it, for the toe of the spindle to work on, and it fits into the platen plate with a square stem.

PLATEN PLATE.

A square plate of iron inlaid on the top of the platen in wooden presses, in which is placed the platen pan.

PLATE PAPER.

This paper takes a good impression; but, without great care at press, owing to its thickness and softness, it is by the process pressed into the interstices between the lines, which produces an impression of more than the surface, and, of course, of more than is wanted to appear, particularly in engravings on wood: the skill of the artist is thus rendered of little avail; and the delicacy and tone of the engraving are destroyed.

To control this evil, when thick plate paper is used, I would advise that it should be very slightly wetted; when a few impressions only are wanted, putting the pieces into a heap of damp paper for a short time will be sufficient; and to have only one thickness of stout paper in the tympans. See Paper. Wetting Paper.

Play with Quadrats. See Ancient Customs.—M. Also Jeff, and Throw.

PLURAL.

For the plural number of nouns, See Orthography.

POINTS.

Two thin pieces of iron, with points or spurs at one end, fixed to the tympan with screws, to make register with. See Register Spur.

Points. See Typographical Points.

POINT HOLES.

The two holes the points prick in a sheet of paper.—M. These holes are made by the point spurs when the white paper is working, and are for the purpose of making register with when the reiteration is worked by fitting these holes on the spurs, on the opposite side of the sheet of paper.

POINTING.

When the Pressmen are working the reiteration, and have to place the point holes, made when the white paper was worked, on the points, in order to make both sides of the sheet in register, it is frequently termed Pointing.

POINTS.

, ; : . - ? ! ( ’ ) [ * § † and other marks, are all by Printers and Founders called Points.—M. We have now in addition the ‡ ‖ ¶ ☞: but when we speak of points at the present day, it is generally understood to mean those only which are used in punctuation, from the comma to the apostrophe; the parenthesis and crotchet are spoken of by their names; and the others are usually styled marks, or references. For the uses of them, See Punctuation; and each point or reference under its own name.

POINT SCREWS.

Two square headed and square shanked bolts with a screw at the end, that go through the grooves in the tympan, with a nut on the upper side, by which the points are firmly affixed to the tympan.

POLES.

To hang paper on to dry. They are about two inches and a half wide, made of inch white deal, and are placed across the room, about fourteen inches from the ceiling and nine or ten inches apart, resting at each end on a long piece of wood fastened to the walls of the room, in notches to retain them in their situations. They should always be kept clean, and, if they have not had paper hung on them for some time, the warehouseman should see that the dust be brushed off them before any more is hung up. See Hang up Paper. Peel.

POLLING BACKWARD.

There are instances when a piece of work has been in the hands of a companionship, and one of them has obtained a knowledge of the following copy having some fat in it, a short page or a blank page for instance, that he has delayed his own work in order to obtain this fat; and thus lose perhaps two shillings, which he might have earned in the time, to obtain an advantage to the amount of but one shilling. This is termed polling backwards.

POLONAISE.

The Polish alphabet consists of twenty-four letters, viz.:—

In addition the following letters are accented, viz., consonants, b́ ć, ł, ḿ, ń, ṕ, ś, ẃ, ż, ź; vowels, á, é, ó, ą, ę.

When b́, ḿ, ń, ṕ, are accented, it is necessary to soften them a little by adding a very soft i, as drab́ (drabⁱ).

When ć is accented, it takes the sound of ch French.

Ł, ł, has a peculiar pronunciation of its own, nothing equivalent to it in English.

When ś is accented, it takes the sound of a very feeble French ck.

When ẃ is accented, it takes the sound of f, with a very feeble i added.

When ź is accented, it takes the sound of ś.

ż (pointed) is pronounced as s in pleasure, or French j in jamais.

á is distinguished very little in pronunciation, but it serves to show certain forms in the declensions.

ó is pronounced as oo, or French ou.

é approaches the sound of the mute e in que, je, le.

ą is pronounced as the French nasal on.

ę is pronounced as the French nasal in.

k is used in all those foreign words which have originally a c before the vowels a, o, u.

ẃ is used only at the end of words.

Q and V are used only in foreign proper names, &c. and are not strictly to be considered as Polish letters.Grammaire Abrégée de la Langue Polonaise, par Jean Séverin Vater. Halle et Strasbourg, 1807.

Some Polish grammarians assert that the q is preferable to the q̦, as being more consistent with the general sound of the letter, and some books have been printed in which the q is substituted, but still q, is by far the most generally used.

POOR LAWS AMENDMENT.

PORTUGUESE.

The Portuguese alphabet contains twenty-four letters, being the same as the English, with the exception of K and W, which are not in their alphabet.

The tittle, or little dash, which the Portuguese call til, is set by them over some letters instead of m; as bẽ instead of bem; convẽ instead of convém; hũa instead of huma.

They also set their til ~ over the vowels ao, aa, in the end of words, thus aõ aã.

It may be observed that the curved mark ~ is the most perfect, though it is found necessary, in English types, frequently to substitute the plain ‾ instead of the curved.—Vieyra’s Portuguese Grammar, 9th edit.

POST HORSES.

PRE-ANTEPENULTIMATE.

The last syllable but three of a word.

PRESS.

The machine by means of which a printed impression of types and engravings in relief is obtained.

It is a curious circumstance, that from the first introduction of the art of printing in Europe, about 1440, till Earl Stanhope made a great improvement, the principle of the press remained the same, and even the construction of it underwent little alteration. The principle is simple; a level surface attached to the end of a screw, by which it is pressed upon the types with a sheet of paper interposed to receive the impression. The improvements that Lord Stanhope introduced were an increased power, by means of a compound lever attached to the screw: this increased power was the means of producing larger presses, which enabled the printers to print larger sheets of paper than before, with one pull, even to the extent of a double royal; and these new presses, being made of iron, produced better workmanship than wooden ones, with less trouble, the wooden platen being subject to be indented, which occasioned the impression to be irregular; this required much time and trouble to equalize it, particularly in fine work. This iron platen wears out types sooner than the wooden platen. Many of our most splendid books were printed with wooden presses. For some account of the most approved iron presses, see under their respective names.

Although there are but few wooden printing presses now made, iron presses having superseded them, yet, as there are many still in being, it may be useful to retain the knowledge of fixing them in a proper manner, on which account I shall give an old pressman’s directions for this purpose.

“To erect a Press.—The feet must be horizontal, and the cheeks perpendicular; then put the cap on the cheeks, and fix the stays as firmly as possible between the cap and a solid wall, or a strong beam: while the joiner is doing this, the pressman rubs well with black lead the tenons of the head and winter, the mortises in the cheeks, and all other parts where friction occurs. Place the winter horizontally, and on it put the carriage which contains the ribs; the joiner shortens or lengthens the fore stay under the carriage till the ribs become horizontal; lay the coffin on the ribs; bed the stone, which is a very particular point, as it must be perfectly horizontal, and ought to be of equal thickness, and as smooth on the under side as on the upper surface, so that if the face should be at any time so indented as not to be fit for work, the same stone will do by turning it over, and occasion very little trouble in bedding it, and will not be so liable to break in working down as a new one. Cartridge paper is the safest bedding, and stout tape laid even under the stone is preferable to cords, as I know it is a preventive to the stone breaking; and after it is bedded, the ends of the tape are easier put between the coffin and the stone than cord.

“The head being put in, and the box with the spindle in it, fix the shelves; then fix the platen; this must be done so exact as to touch the face of all the type at one and the same time: the way to know this, is by cutting four narrow slips of paper about six inches long, and, taking care that there is no dirt on the stone nor on the bottom of the form, plane it well down, place the four slips of paper, one on each of the four corner pages; bring down the platen so gently, that the corners of it may barely touch the slips of paper, with very little pressure; if they all bind alike at one instant, the platen hangs right; if not, alter the fixing till they equally bind.

“The rounce being set, and the upper and under bolsters made, the pressman lays on a heavy form without blank pages, if he can get one; and if it be a new press, he brings down the bar to the near cheek regularly, until the press be properly wrought down. As he goes on, the new scaleboards work close, and cause the press to lose power; the pressman must continue adding more, until there be a sufficient quantity in the head. If it be really necessary, put some scaleboards under the winter, but the fewer the better. Pieces of felt hat are preferable to scaleboards for loading the head of a press.

“I have always found the least slurring in presses that have solid fixed winters, and have often abolished slurring and mackling in old presses, by taking out all the scaleboard from beneath the winter, and substituting solid blocks of wood. The mortises which contain the tenons of the head ought always to be made long enough to contain all the spring that is necessary for a good press.

“Attention being required, and much time lost in working down a new press, two guineas are paid for doing justice to it.”

PRESS BAR.

A curved bar of iron, one end of which goes through an opening in the spindle, and is secured by a screw in general, but sometimes by a square iron bolt which goes through an opening in the end of the bar, and as there is a shoulder that abuts against the square part of the spindle, both these methods draw it tight up, and attach it firmly to the spindle; at the other end there is a long, thick, tapering, wooden handle, through which the bar goes, and it is either secured by a screw, or the bar rivetted at the end with a collar round it. The bar to screw the book press down with is also called a Press Bar.

PRESS BOARDS.

Boards made of deal, beech, elm, or mahogany, to place between paper in the book press. They are made smooth on both sides, and it is preferable to have them without a joint when it is practicable.

PRESS GOES.

When the pressmen are at work, the press is said to go.—M.

Press goes Easy, Light. See Easy Pull.

Press goes Hard, Heavy. See Hard Pull.—M.

PRESSMAN.

The man who executes printing at the press, and produces impressions from types and engravings in relief.

Pressmen’s Prices. See Scale.

PRESS PIN.

A small iron bar, wherewith to screw the book press down in the warehouse, till there is some pressure on the paper, when it is wrung down with the press bar.

PRESS PROOF.

A good impression of a sheet of a work, or of a job, to read it carefully by, and to mark the errors, previous to its being put to press.

PRESS STANDS STILL.

When the pressmen are not at work, or have nothing to do, the press is said to stand still.

PRESS STONE.

A stone fitted into the coffin, on which the form is placed to be printed. See Press.

PRESSWORK.

Under the articles Engravings on Wood and Fine Presswork I have gone into detail respecting the manner of producing superior workmanship; it will not therefore be necessary to dwell at any great length upon presswork generally. As the finest presswork is the impression from the face of the types, and the face only, and there being little elastic substance between the platen and the types, those which are new, or not much worn, can only be used for this purpose. But as the greater number of books, and other articles, are printed at a much lower rate, the printer finds it necessary to use types that are often much worn, with the angles rounded off by use; the pressman is then obliged to have more blanket in the tympans, that their elasticity may penetrate between the types, and produce an impression from the rounded parts; he is obliged also to use a weaker ink, which distributes easily and readily; it also requires less beating and rolling; he is thus enabled to make greater despatch. The process of making ready is the same in both, but in this instance is not carried out to so much nicety, for the additional blankets preclude the necessity; still the impression must be pretty equal; the making of register is the same in both cases—page must fall exactly upon page; neither does it require so great a pull; yet it is requisite that the pressman should preserve the work of a proper colour, and that that colour should be uniform.