Cosmic Perspective 7th Edition by

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9780321839558
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Part II: Key Concepts for Astronomy

Chapter 4. Making Sense of the Universe:

Understanding Motion, Energy, and Gravity
This chapter focuses on three major ideas and their astronomical applications:
(1) Newton’s laws of motion; (2) the laws of conservation of energy and angular
momentum; and (3) the law of gravity.
As always, when you prepare to teach this chapter, be sure you are familiar with the
online quizzes, interactive figures and tutorials, assignable homework, and other
resources available on the MasteringAstronomy Web site.

Key Changes for the 7th Edition: We have left the basic organization and content of
this chapter unchanged from the prior edition. However, we have made numerous edits
throughout the chapter to improve clarity for students.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cosmic Perspective, Seventh Edition 105
Teaching Notes (By Section)

Section 4.1 Describing Motion: Examples from Daily Life

Most nonscience majors are unfamiliar with the basic terminology of motion. For
example, few students enter our astronomy classes with an understanding of why
acceleration is measured in units of length over time squared, of the definitions of force
and momentum, or of how mass and weight differ. This section introduces all these ideas
in the context of very concrete examples that should be familiar from everyday life.
• Classroom demonstrations can be particularly helpful in this and the next section;
for example, demonstrate that all objects accelerate the same under gravity, or use
an air track to show conservation of momentum.
• Note that, aside from a footnote, we neglect the distinction between weight (or
“true weight”) and apparent weight. The former is often defined in physics texts as
mg, whereas the latter also includes the effects of other accelerations (e.g., the
acceleration due to Earth’s rotation or the acceleration in an elevator). While this
distinction can be useful in setting up physics problems for situations on Earth, it
can become very confusing in astronomy, where, for example, it is difficult to
decide how to define “true weight” for objects located between Earth and the
Moon. (It also begs the question of whether “true weight” is different on other
worlds where the local value of g is different than it is on Earth’s surface.)
Moreover, the distinction is unimportant from the point of view of general
relativity, so our discussion works well to set the stage for the general relativity
discussion in Chapter S3.
• Note also that, in stating that astronauts in orbit are weightless, we are neglecting
the tiny accelerations, including those due to tidal forces that affect objects in
orbiting spacecraft. Because of these small accelerations, NASA and many space
scientists have taken to referring to the conditions in orbiting spacecraft as
“microgravity” rather than “weightlessness.” In our opinion, the term microgravity
is a poor one for students and tends to feed the common misconception that gravity
is absent in space—when, in fact, the acceleration of gravity is only a few percent
smaller in low-Earth orbit than on the ground. Perhaps a better term for the
conditions in orbit would be microacceleration, but we feel it is pedagogically
more useful to simply neglect the small accelerations and refer to the conditions as
“weightlessness due to free-fall.” If you want to be truly accurate, you might refer
to the conditions as “near-weightlessness” and explain why small accelerations still
are present.

Section 4.2 Newton’s Laws of Motion

Having described the terminology of motion, we next discuss Newton’s laws of motion.
This discussion should solidify students’ grasp of how their everyday experiences reflect
Newtonian physics.

106 Instructor Guide Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

Section 4.3 Conservation Laws in Astronomy

This section covers conservation of angular momentum and conservation of energy,

along with a discussion of the various forms of energy.
• When introducing angular momentum, you may wish to do a demonstration of
conservation of angular momentum using a bicycle wheel and a rotating platform.
• Note that we discuss conservation of energy in a modern sense, with mass-energy
included as a form of potential energy.
• Note that we do not introduce a formula for gravitational potential energy, because
the general formula would look too complex at this point (coming before the law of
gravity), and the formula mgh (which will be familiar to some of your students) is a
special case that applies only on the surface of Earth. However, you may wish to
mention the formula mgh in class, particularly if your students are already familiar
with it.

Section 4.4 The Universal Law of Gravitation

The pieces now are all in place to introduce Newton’s universal law of gravitation. This
section discusses gravity generally, and describes how Newton explained and expanded
on Kepler’s laws.
• Note that, as in Chapter 1, we are using average distance to mean a semimajor axis
distance.
• Note also that, while we mention parabolas and hyperbolas as allowed orbital
paths, the bold term introduced to include both these cases is unbound orbits.
Similarly, we refer to elliptical orbits as bound orbits. We feel that the terms bound
and unbound are far more intuitive for students than precise mathematical shapes.

Section 4.5 Orbits, Tides, and the Acceleration of Gravity

We now apply Newton’s universal law of gravitation to explain fundamental ideas in

astronomy, including orbital energy and changes, escape velocity, tides, and the
acceleration of gravity.
• Note our emphasis on the idea that orbits cannot change spontaneously—they can
change only if there is an exchange of orbital energy. We have found that this is a
very important point that students often fail to grasp unless it is made very
explicitly. We encourage you to keep reminding them of this point throughout your
course whenever you are explaining gravitational capture of any kind—from an
asteroid being captured by a planet, to the gravitational collapse of a cloud of gas
into a star, to the infall of material into an accretion disk.
• Note that our discussion of tides includes an explanation of the cause of the
Moon’s synchronous rotation, which was first introduced in Chapter 2, as well as
other examples of synchronous rotation, including the case of Pluto and Charon
and the 3-to-2 ratio of orbital period to rotation rate for Mercury.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cosmic Perspective, Seventh Edition 107
 • The final, short subsection brings closure to the historical aspects of this chapter by
explaining why, at least in the context of Newton’s law of gravity, all falling
objects fall with the same acceleration of gravity. It also mentions the fact that
Newton still saw this as an extraordinary coincidence, thus setting the stage for our
discussion of general relativity in Chapter S3. This subsection should be
considered optional.

Answers/Discussion Points for Think About It/See It for Yourself

Questions

The Think About It and See It for Yourself questions are not numbered in the book, so
we list them in the order in which they appear, keyed by section number.

Section 4.1
• (p. 112 SIFY) This activity helps students realize that by crumpling the paper, they
make it less subject to air resistance and hence can see the effects of gravity more
easily.
• (p. 114 SIFY) This activity asks students to try a small demonstration that will help
them understand the difference between mass and weight. Weight changes with
acceleration, but is not affected at constant speed in the elevator.
• (p. 118) The “throw yourself at the ground and miss” idea is similar to the idea that
an object in orbit is constantly falling to the ground, but moving forward so fast
that it always “misses” the ground as it falls.

Section 4.3
• (p. 119) As the water gets closer to the drain, it moves in a smaller circle and thus
must circle the drain faster to conserve its angular momentum.
• (p. 121) Just as a pot of hot water transfers thermal energy to you much more
rapidly than hot air of the same temperature, your body will lose some of its
thermal energy (meaning you get colder) much more quickly in cold water than in
cold air. Thus, falling into a cold lake can cause you to lose heat rapidly, making it
very dangerous.

Section 4.4
• (p. 124) If the distance increases to 3d, the gravitational attraction decreases by a
factor of 32 = 9. If the distance decreases to 0.5d, the gravitational attraction
increases by a factor of 22 = 4.

108 Instructor Guide Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

Section 4.5
• (p. 129) Because the tidal force declines rapidly with distance (in fact, as the cube
of distance), the other planets would have to be extremely large in mass (e.g., like
the Sun) to have any noticeable tidal effect. Because other planets are very low in
mass compared to the Sun, their effects are negligible.

Solutions to End-of-Chapter Problems (Chapter 4)

Visual Skills Check
1. b
2. c
3. d
4. d
5. c

Review Questions
1. The term speed is used to describe how fast something is moving. Velocity carries
that same information, but it also tells us in which direction the object is going.
Acceleration is occurring any time an object’s velocity is changing; more
technically acceleration is the rate of change of velocity in time. The standard units
of acceleration are m/s 2 , which tell us that the velocity is changing by so many m/s
for every second during which the acceleration continues. The acceleration of
gravity, g, is the acceleration downward due to gravity, which is about 10 m/s2
(more precisely, 9.8 m/s2 ).
2. Momentum is the product of mass and velocity (mass  velocity). A force is
something that can change the momentum of an object. However, the object’s
momentum will respond only to a net force, the force that is left when we add all of
the forces together. Even if the individual forces are large, if they cancel out and
leave no net force, then there is no change in momentum.
3. Free-fall is the state of falling without any resistance to the fall. Objects in free-fall
are weightless because they are not pushing against anything to give them weight.
Astronauts in the Space Station are in constant free-fall as they fall around Earth
(always missing it), so they are weightless.
4. i. An object moves at a constant velocity if there is no net force on it. This is
why objects that are at rest do not start moving spontaneously. (They remain at
constant—zero—velocity.)
ii. Force = mass  acceleration. This law tells us that it takes a lot more force to
push a car forward than a bicycle at the same acceleration.
iii. For every force, there is an equal and opposite force. This explains the recoil
someone feels when she fires a gun: The gun is applying a force to the bullet,
but the bullet applies a force back on the gun.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cosmic Perspective, Seventh Edition 109
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 F . 58 . -
The lamp set in the top of the illuminating box.
Cut a hole out of the front board 3¹⁄₂ x 4¹⁄₂ inches and fasten a sheet of
ground glass[55] or, better, of opal glass[56] over the opening. Get a sheet
of bright tin 6 inches wide and 10 inches long, bend it into a semi-circle
and set it in the box so that it will reflect the light from the lamp in front
of it through the ground glass screen as shown at B.
[55] Ground glass can be bought at a glazier’s or you can make it as explained in
Chapter IX.
[56] Opal glass.

Next make a stand for holding the bromide paper[57] which is to be

used for the enlargement. About the easiest way to do this is to take a 1
inch thick board 6 inches wide and saw off a piece 12 inches long.
Fasten your drawing board to it with a couple of angle blocks as shown
at D, and you are ready to make an enlargement.
[57] Bromide paper is a paper sensitized with a compound of silver and bromine.

How to Make an Enlargement.—When you have the apparatus

ready set the camera and the illuminator, as the box with the light in it is
called, on another table. Put the negative between two plain sheets of
glass and then fasten them to the camera with a couple of large rubber
bands; set the illuminator with the ground-glass screen close up against
the negative in the back of the camera, as shown at C.
Now set the drawing board stand about 4 feet away from the lens of
the camera to make an 8 × 10 enlargement. Open the shutter, turn on the
light and focus the camera, that is, move the stand to and from the
camera until the enlarged picture is sharp. When you get it so, close the
shutter and cover up the cracks where the light leaks through with a dark
cloth.
Make the room perfectly dark except for your dark-room light and
then put a sheet of bromide paper on the drawing board with thumb
tacks. Open the shutter of the lens and expose the paper to the light
passing through the negative and then close it again. The bromide paper
is developed and fixed just like a dry plate when your enlargement is
done.

F . 58 . -
B. The illuminator showing the tin reflector in it.
C. The camera.
D. The stand for holding the bromide paper.

In handling bromide paper you must be almost as careful as you are

with dry plates or films. Before making a picture it is a good scheme to
test the length of time to expose the paper. To do this take a sheet of
bromide paper and cut it into strips 1 inch wide and 10 inches long;
fasten a strip at a time diagonally across the board and expose the first
one for say 5 minutes and then develop it, when you can usually tell
about how long the exposure should be.
A Developer for Bromide Paper.—A good stock solution developer for
bromide paper, velox paper, films and dry plates can be made by adding
these chemicals to 25 ounces of hot water in the order named and stirring
in each one until it is dissolved; elon ¹⁄₈ ounce; desiccated sulphite of
soda 1⁷⁄₈ ounces; hydrochinon ¹⁄₂ ounce; desiccated carbonate of soda 5¹⁄₄
ounces; potassium bromide 30 grains and wood alcohol 3 ounces.

F . 58 . -
E. Cross section top view of the enlarging apparatus.

This developer will keep for a long time if the bottle containing it is
kept full, otherwise the air will act on it. To develop six 8 × 10 bromide
prints use 1 ounce of the stock solution and 6 ounces of water.
To fix bromide prints keep them moving in a bath made by dissolving
8 ounces of hypo in 2 quarts of water and then adding ¹⁄₄ ounce of
metabisulphite of potassium and ¹⁄₄ ounce of powdered alum. Let the
prints remain in this bath for about 10 minutes and then wash them
thoroughly.
How to Make a Reflectoscope.—A reflectoscope is a kind of magic
lantern but instead of using transparent glass slides you can use any
picture or opaque object such as the works of a watch, your hand, etc,
and throw an image of it on the screen.

F . 59
A. The projector.
B. The illuminator.

If you have a folding camera[58] you can convert it into a dandy

reflectoscope, so get busy with your tools. Make a box—it is really two
boxes fastened together—of the peculiar shape shown in Fig. 59, and it
can be of wood or of metal as you wish.
[58] A box camera can not be used because its focus is fixed.

First make the larger box, which we will call the projector, and this
should be 4¹⁄₂ inches long, 5 inches wide and 5 inches high[59]—and
leave the front, back and one side off. To the top and bottom fasten on
two wood cleats ¹⁄₂ an inch square and 5 inches long to fix the projector
to the camera with. This box is shown at A in Fig. 59.
[59] It must fit the back of your camera.
 F . 59 .
This done, make another box for the illuminator 3 inches wide, 3
inches long on one side, and 4³⁄₄ inches long on the other side, and 5
inches high. Bend a piece of bright tin for the reflector and set this in the
back as shown at B.
Cut a 1¹⁄₄ inch hole through the top for an electric lamp as described in
the directions for making an enlarging lantern; the top should be tight
fitting but so made that it can be taken off and put on at your pleasure.
Now glue, screw, solder or otherwise fix the two boxes together and
the reflecting part of the apparatus is done. To complete it fasten the back
of your camera to the cleats on the top and bottom of the box with strong
rubber bands as shown at C, which is a top view of the reflectoscope.
 F . 59 .
To Use the Reflectoscope.—Tack a white sheet to the wall and set the
reflectoscope at a distance of about 10 feet from it with the lens pointing
toward it, of course.
Next turn on the light in the box and turn off all the lights in the room
and make it as dark as you can. Hold a picture of any kind against the
opening in the back of the projector box and then focus the camera until
the picture on the screen is as sharp as you can get it.
The way the reflectoscope works is like this: the picture is projected
upon the screen in virtue of the fact that the direct light from the lamp, as
well as that portion of it which is reflected back by the tin, is thrown
against the surface of the picture or object held in the opening; from this
the light is reflected through the lens which enlarges it and projects it on
the screen.
How to Make a Magic Lantern.—To make a magic lantern out of a
camera is just as easy as it is to make a reflectoscope but you will have to
buy a condensing lens[60] and this will cost 50 cents to $1.00, according
to size.
[60] The L. E. Knott Apparatus Co., Boston, Mass., sells a 2 inch condensing lens
for 50 cents; a 3 inch one for 75 cents, and a 4¹⁄₂ inch one for $1.10.

For this lantern you can use either a box or a bellows camera, though
the latter is better because the picture can be focused. Whichever you use
make a base of a 1 inch thick board, 5¹⁄₂ inches wide and 14 inches long
and nail or screw two strips of wood ¹⁄₂ an inch wide, ³⁄₄ inch high and 8
inches long along the edges on one side as shown at A in Fig. 60.
If your camera is of the box kind set it in between the strips on the
base on the front end, but if it is of the bellows type then you will have to
make a shelf for it as shown at B to hold the camera in place as shown at
C.
Next make an illuminator as described above in the text How to Make
an Enlarging Apparatus, but instead of covering the front with ground
glass make a board to fit it and cut a hole in it the exact size of the
condensing lens. This lens is a plano or a double convex lens as shown at
D and while it should be 4¹⁄₂ inches in diameter to get all of the picture
on the screen you can use a lens as small as 2 inches though all of the
picture will not show.
 THE BASE OF THE LANTERN THE FRAME HOW THE
TO HOLD A CAMERA IS
POCKET FIXED TO
FOLDING THE FRAME
CAMERA

PLANO DOUBLE ONE OF THE FRONT BOARD

CONVEX CONVEX LANTERN ILLUMINATOR
CONDENSING SLIDE
LENSES HOLDERS
F . 60. -
Cut out six clips of sheet brass ³⁄₁₆ inch wide and ¹⁄₂ an inch long and
punch a hole in the end of each piece. Screw three of these clips to each
side of the board at equi-distant points around the hole so that the end of
each one projects over the edge of the hole ¹⁄₈ inch. Now put the lens in
the hole and adjust the ends of the clips so that they will hold the lens in
place as shown at E.
The next and last thing to do is to cut two strips of tin or brass 1 inch
wide and 3 inches long and bend each one over the long way as shown at
F; punch three holes near the lower edge of each one and screw one of
them above and one below the condensing lens on the board 3¹⁄₄ inches
apart as shown at E. These bent strips form the holder for the lantern
slides. The magic lantern complete is shown at G.
 F . 60 .
How to Work the Lantern.—Tack a bed-sheet up on the wall; turn on
the light in the illuminator and turn off all the lights in the room; slip a
lantern slide upside down in the holder and then push the rear end of the
camera—having first taken out the back—close up to the lantern slide
holder.
If you are using a box camera move the whole lantern back until the
picture is as large as you want it and it is still bright enough. If it is a
pocket folding camera you can focus it and get a picture with much
better definition.
How to Make Lantern Slides.—A lantern slide is a sheet of glass
with a transparent picture on it. A standard lantern slide is 3¹⁄₄ × 4¹⁄₄
inches and one of this size can be used in any full sized magic lantern or
stereopticon.[61]
[61] A stereopticon is really two magic lanterns, but the word is now often used to
mean a high-grade magic lantern.

To make lantern slides by direct contact printing is not a hard thing to

do at all, and all the equipment you need to make them besides the
chemicals is a printing frame. Put a sheet of clean glass in it and lay your
negative on it with the film side up.
Now lay the lantern slide plate[62] with the film side down on the
negative just as though you were going to make a print, but you must
make it in your dark room, using a white light to expose it of course, for
it is just as sensitive as a dry plate or a film. When you expose it hold the
printing frame about 12 inches away from the light.
[62] Lantern slide plates can be bought at any photographic supply house.
 A lantern slide plate is developed, fixed and washed exactly like a dry
plate but to get the best results you should use the kind of developer
called for in the directions that come with the plates.
When you have the lantern slide made, place a sheet of clear glass of
the same size—called the cover-glass—on the film side of it and bind the
edges with passepartout binding, that is a strip of paper gummed on one
side. It is then ready for use.
How to Make Radium Photographs.—You can make radium
photographs, or skiagraphs as they are called, with any one of a number
of radioactive substances and at a very small outlay.
The four most important radioactive substances, if we except radium
itself, are black uranium oxide, pitchblende, thorium nitrate and uranium
nitrate. You can buy any one of these substances in a glass stoppered
bottle for $1.00 or the set of four for $3.50.[63]
[63] The L. E. Knott Apparatus Co., Boston, carries these radioactive substances in
stock.

While the radioactivity of these substances is low it is sufficient to

make a shadow-picture—and this is all that an X-ray picture is—of a
coin or other small object if it is laid on top of a dry plate sealed in a
black paper envelope, which is opaque to the light.

F . 61.
That is, the coin is laid on the envelope containing the dry plate, and
the bottle with the radioactive substance in it is laid on top of the coin.
Let them remain undisturbed in this way for a couple of days and you
will find on developing the plate a very good radiograph, or shadow
picture of the coin as shown in Fig. 61.
 Trick Photography
Spirit Photographs.—When photography was young Sir John
Herschel, the great astronomer, got up what he called magic photographs
and these have been worked under the name of spirit photographs by
half of the mediums in the business.
The idea is to show the victim of superstition his future wife or her
future husband. To this end the medium shows a piece of perfectly blank
paper about an inch square. She—sometimes it’s a he—then dips the bit
of paper into a saucer of what seems to be ordinary, common every day
water and with much dignity and mysticism presses it to the forehead of
the aforesaid ninny who would fain know what the partner of his, or her
joys and sorrows will look like. (What’s the use when they will know so
well afterward?)
Be that as it may, when the medium removes the bit of paper from the
simpleton’s forehead a photograph has really and truly appeared on it
and—there you are! (Fifty cents, please.)
Now the trick is done like this and you can have some fun repeating it.
Print some photos postage-stamp size of boys and girls on ordinary silver
paper and fix them in hypo dissolved in water but don’t tone them; wash
them well and then soak them in a saturated solution[64] of bichloride of
mercury which will bleach out the picture and leave the paper perfectly
white again; this done dry the paper and put it away until you want to use
it.
[64] A saturated solution of bichloride of mercury is one in which all of the mercury
has been dissolved in the water that it will dissolve at its present temperature and
pressure.

When you do, make a strong solution of hypo, soak the picture in it for
a minute or two, press it to your subject’s forehead and the picture will
appear.
One Way to Catch Big Fish.—Of course you know that when an
object very near the camera is photographed it will look proportionately
larger than when it is photographed a little way off from it. It is simply a
case of exaggerated perspective.
Hence the camera is an apparatus very well adapted for camouflage as
the French call faking. You can easily try it out by having a friend lean
back in a chair and put his feet on the table. (If the table is of highly
polished mahogany request him kindly to take off his spurs first.)
Stand your camera in front of him so that his feet will be nearest the
lens and then take his picture. The result is that he will be about all boots
and very little head.
Another and deeper dyed trick is to photograph a fellow—choose one
who is noted for his whaling yarns—with a fish dangling at the end of a
pole and line as shown at A in Fig. 62. This will make the fish loom up
as big as the cod in a Scott’s Emulsion ad., and the boy will be the size of
the lone fisherman as shown at B. It will be some time before the scales
will drop from the eyes of the person who is sizing up the picture.
You want to use a small stop in your lens when you make a picture of
this kind so that the definition will be as sharp in the foreground as it is
in the background.

F . 62.
A. How it is done.
B. How it looks when done.

Taking Caricature Photographs.—The word caricature (pronounced

care´-i-ca-ture) means a portrait in which some part of it is distorted so
that it produces a comical effect.
Now there are a lot of ways to make photographic caricatures but one
of the best is to use what is called a special foreground. This foreground
is a sheet of cardboard or a piece of muslin stretched on a frame about
1¹⁄₂ feet wide and 2¹⁄₂ feet long.
 Draw on the cardboard or muslin any kind of a funny little body such
as an anemic fellow in a bathing suit, or a lank athlete rowing in a tub, or
a gilded youth riding a donkey; and finally cut out a place around his
collar for the neck of the sitter. Seat your subject and have him hold the
foreground as shown at C in Fig. 62 so that his head comes just above
the collar of the picture and then take a photograph of him.

F . 62 .
If now the background—that is the ground back of the sitter—and the
foreground—namely the one painted on the cardboard—are of the same
shade you can trim the print so that it will look exactly as if your friend
was in the Orient on his way to Mecca. (If you will keep this picture for
20 years the fellow who sat for it will gladly pay you a hundred dollars
for it.)
 CHAPTER VII
PRINTING AND ITS ALLIED ARTS

If there ever was a boy who did not want a printing press I have yet to
meet him. Ever since the day when Gutenburg[65] invented movable
types, and that was some 500 years ago, every boy—and not a few men
—have wanted to set a few stickfuls of type and run off some
impressions on a press, and many thousands of them have gratified that
highly civilized ambition.
[65] Johanne Gutenburg was a German printer. He invented movable types about the
year of 1450.

But you fellows of to-day have all the best of it, for you can buy a
printing outfit complete for $1.50 on up to anything you want to pay for
it. After all is said and done though, you can get more real enjoyment out
of a small self-inking press than you can out of a larger one. Not only is
there a lot of fun in printing cards, etc., for yourself but there is money in
it too, if you go about it the right way, but that is another story.[66]
[66] To make money out of job-printing on a small scale read Money Making for
Boys by the present author and published by Dodd, Mead and Co., New York City.

Kinds of Printing Presses.—There are two kinds of printing presses

made and these are (1) hand inked presses, and (2) self-inking presses.
You can make a printing press out of wood but to do a good job you
must have a press built of iron and properly machined, that is finished
up, for to do good printing a good outfit is needed to begin with.
Small hand inked and self-inking presses are sold in the toy
departments of nearly all stores at prices ranging from $1.50 to $5.00 and
this will include a font of type. Many of these little presses are made
which use type about half the length of regular type and if you get a
press of this kind you will never know the real joy of printing.
The Parts of a Self-Inking Press.—The Excelsior is the name of a
small self-inking printing press that has been on the market for 50 years
and it is a good one. The description of it which follows will fit any other
model self-inking press just as well, for they are all built on the same
principle.
There are seven chief parts to this press and these are (1) the body; (2)
the type bed; (3) the platen; (4) the ink-roller carriage; (5) the ink table;
(6) the chase, and (7) the handle, all of which are shown in Fig. 63.
The body of the press serves to support all the other parts. The bed, as
you will see, is really a part of the body casting and the feet of the type
rest against it. For this reason it must be perfectly smooth and even, and
it is planed off, that is machined, to make it so.
The platen is pivoted to the middle of the body and it swings up to and
parallel with the bed and away from and out at an angle to it. The card,
or sheet of paper to be printed is laid on the platen and is brought up and
into contact with the type which rests on the bed. A pair of grippers are
hinged to the platen to hold the paper in place while it is being printed
but releases it when the platen moves back.

F . 63. -
The ink-roller carriage is connected by levers to the platen and when
the latter moves to and fro the rollers run over the type to ink it; the
rollers get their ink from the ink table and this is a disk which revolves
and on which the ink is spread; the ink table is made to revolve a little at
a time so that the rollers will pass over every part of it in every direction
and so distribute the ink evenly.
The type when set is locked in an iron frame called a chase and this
fits on the bed; and finally all the movable parts are coupled to the
handle and when this is moved up and down it makes them perform their
various functions.
How the Press Works.
—Let’s suppose now, that you have the type set in the chase and the
chase is fixed in the press; that you have put some ink on the ink-table
and a card or a sheet of paper on the platen.
Now when you press down on the handle it moves the platen up, the
grippers hold the card, or sheet of paper to it, the arms pivoted to the
platen pull the ink rollers up and over the type and on to the ink table
which turns through a small arc, that is, part of a circle, by a ratchet so
that it keeps a fresh surface exposed to the ink rollers all the time.
When the card, or paper makes contact with the type you pull the
handle up; this swings the platen back; the grippers relax their pressure;
the ink-rollers move down over the face of the type; you take out the
printed card or sheet with your left hand and put in a blank one with your
right hand, when you are ready to make another impression.
It may surprise you to know that any one can print from 500 to 600
cards an hour and if you are expert you can run off from 1,000 to 2,000
cards per hour.
Sizes and Prices of Presses.—The Excelsior press comes in three
sizes and the price depends on the size of the chase. (1) A press having a
chase 3 × 5 inches costs $5.00 and this is large enough to print cards,
labels, envelopes, etc.; (2) a 5 × 8 press costs $18.00 and this one will do
nice jobs up to postal card size; and (3) a 6 × 10 press costs $25.00 and is
large enough to print bill-heads, letter-heads and circulars, or you can
print a little newspaper on it.
The Outfit You Need.—Your outfit will, of course, depend largely on
the size of press you have.
Outfit for a 3 × 5 Press.—A couple of dollars will buy all the fixtures
you need and these consist of (a) a font of type, (b) some leads, (c) a type
case, (d) an assortment of furniture, and (e) a can of black ink.
A font of type means enough of a kind having the same face and body
and the right amount of each letter to set up an ordinary job. You will
find more about type under the next heading called Type and Typesetting.
Leads are thin strips of type metal less than type-high which are used to
separate the lines of type; and a type case is a shallow wooden tray
divided into little compartments called boxes in which the letters of a
font of type are kept apart.
Outfit for a 5 × 8 Press.—The fixtures of a press of this size include
all of those named above and (a) three fonts of type, (b) type cases for
them; (c) a set of gage pins, and (d) a pair of tweezers, or a bodkin. The
gage-pins are pinned into the paper backing on the platen to keep the
card or sheet from slipping and to hold it in its proper place. The
tweezers, or bodkin, which is a large needle, is used for picking out type
from a form when you are correcting it.
Outfit for an 8 × 10 Press.—This outfit should have all the fixtures of
both of those described above and you will need not less than four fonts
of type, while a composing stick, which is a little metal tray to hold the
type in as you set it, is a necessity. These fixtures are shown in Fig. 64.

PAPER GUAGE
D—A A—WOOD B—A LEAD
BOUGHT FURNITURE
GUAGE
PIN
A BODKIN
C—A E—REGULAR
COMMON PRINTER’S
PIN BENT TWEEZERS WITH
FOR A COARSE
GUAGE SERRATED FLAT
PIN POINTS
A COMPOSING
STICK
F . 64.
About Type and Setting Type.—Relative Number of Type Letters.—
In looking over type catalogues you will see that the fonts are listed as
4A, or 8A-10A, etc. Now this means that in the 4A font there are 4
capital A letters and that all of the other letters are in proportion to the
A’s that are likely to be used, thus:
 A 4A FONT

ABCDE F GH I J K LMNO P Q R S T UVWXY Z

No. of letters
4 2 3 3 5 2 2 3 4 2 2 3 3 4 4 3 2 4 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 2
to font

With an 8A-10a font there are of course twice as many of each capital
letter as in a 4A font while of the lower case letters, which means the
small ones, there are 10 a’s and the number of the others are in
proportion to their use, thus:

AN 8A-10a FONT

a b c d e f g h i j k l mn o p q r s t u vwx y z
No. of letters
10 4 6 8 18 4 4 8 10 2 3 8 6 10 10 6 3 10 10 10 6 4 4 2 4 2
to font

Styles of Type.—For card work you want a plain block letter font like
that shown at A, a script like B, or an old English like that shown at C.
For envelopes, bill, letter head and other job work three fonts of
engraved plate style as shown at D, E and F will give good results.
 23A $1.00
A THEODORE ROOSEVELT 1234567890
8A 24a $4.50
B Miss Alice Verlet 123456789
11A 34a $2.50
C Lieut. John Hodder Stuart 123456789
22A $1.00
D ENGRAVED CARD STYLE IS PREFERRED 52468
16A $1.05
E HANDSOME ENGRAVED EFFECTS 123
A16 $1.25
F ENGRAVED PLATE STYLE 140

For circulars you should have several fonts of different styles of type
as shown at G, H, I, J and K.
 18A 36a $2.90
G CLEAR CUT Faces Popular 123
15A $1.95
H EXCELSIOR PRESSES 12345
A $2.10
I GRAINO 1
10A 15a $5.35
J GOOD for many places 3
11a 20a $3.00
Good and Clear for poster and circular printing. A fine addition
K
to any printing office. 12345678

And finally should you intend to print a cook-book, a town directory

or a newspaper you will need a half, or a full font of 12 point plain pica
Roman, as it is called, and which is shown at L.
 12 Point No. 1, 25 lbs. $12.00. (Half font, 12¹⁄₂ lbs., $6.50)
PLAIN Pica Roman, a for many
uses. Books, circulars and jobbing.
L
Very clear and easy to read. Cast
from nickel metal and most durable
known. £ $ L z 1234567890

The Parts of a Type.—Before explaining how to set type, make ready

and print, there are a few little things about letters and about type which
are good to know.
First let’s take, by way of illustration, the letter H H. Now you will
observe that the first H is plain and the second one is embellished by fine
lines at the top and bottom and these embellishments are called ser′-ifs.
As simple a bit of metal as a type has more parts to it than you can
shake a stick at, but you ought to learn them by heart. Named, these parts
are (a) the body of the type; (b) the front; (c) the back; (d) the face or
letter; (e) the nicks; (f) the feet; (g) the groove; (h) the shoulder; (i) the
bevel, and (k) the pin marks, and all of these are pointed out in Fig. 65.
 F . 65.
It very often happens in italics and script type that a part of a letter
will stand out beyond the body and this little extension is called the kern.
The nick in the type is to help the type-setter, or compositor as he is
called, to set the type the right way in the stick, that is you always set the
type with the nicks down and toward you.
The pin-mark is made by a sharp instrument which removes it from
the mold. Finally a c e m n o r s u v w x z are called short letters; j is a
long letter in that it takes up the full breadth of the face; b d f h i l t are
upstroke, or ascending letters, while g p q are downstroke or descending
letters.
The Sizes of Type.—Type is made in standard sizes and not so very
long ago each size was known by a name. Then a change was made and
the point system,[67] as it is called, came into general use. The sizes under
the old and the new systems are given in the following table and it will
enable you to know type sizes both by name and by point.
[67] This is the standard system of sizes for type bodies. It is so called because it is
measured in decimal points or fractions of an inch; that is, 1 point is .0138 inch, so that
nonpareil, as it used to be called, is now 6 point and bourgeois is 9 point, etc.
 TABLE OF TYPE SIZES

NEW POINT
OLD NAMES OF SIZES SIZES
Pearl 5 point
Agate 5¹⁄₂ “
Nonpareil 6 “
Minion 7 “
Brevier 8 “
Bourgeois 9 “
Long Primer 10 “
Small Pica 11 “
Pica 12 “
English 14 “
Great Primer 18 “

Your Type Cases.—There are two kinds of type cases and these are
made to hold (1) the capital, or upper case letters, and (2) the small or
lower case letters.
The reason the capitals are called upper case letters is because the case
that holds them is set higher on the composing stand than the case which
holds the small letters; this brings the small letters nearer to the hand of
the compositor and as they are used more than the caps he can set the
type faster. The arrangement of the cases is shown at A in Fig. 66.

F . 66 .
There are several schemes of type-cases but I shall only describe three
of them. The first is a small type case 12¹⁄₂ inches square with 48 boxes
in it and you can buy one for 35 cents. It is good enough for any one who
doesn’t want to go to the bother of learning the regular case. A plan view
of the lay of a regular upper and a lower case is shown at B and C. You
will see that the e box in the lower case is larger than any other and this
is because there are more e’s used in setting up a job than any other one
letter. And you will also observe that the letters are distributed and the
boxes spaced in a very uneven way, but this arrangement brings the
letters that are used the most into the easiest places to reach.
 F . 66 .

F . 66 .
Setting the Type.—Where you have more than one line to set you
should by all means use a composing stick and a small one will cost you
a dollar. It should be held in the left hand as shown in Fig. 67, that is,
with the open side from you and the slide to the left.
Now read a few lines of your copy, pick the first letter from its box
and set it in the left hand corner of the stick with the nick in the type
toward your thumb. Take the next letter from its box and let it slide into
the composing stick against the first letter and so on from left to right
until you have the first word set up.

F . 67.
Now put in a medium sized space, which is made just like a type but
only shoulder high and without any letter on it, and begin to set the next
word. If when you get to the end of the line there is a space left but not
enough to start another word, put a thin space between the words to
lengthen out the line, or justify it as it is called.
When you have set the line put a lead, that is a thin strip of typemetal
which comes to the shoulder of the type, against it and start a new line
and so on until you have the stick half full of type.
The type must now be taken out of the stick and placed on a smooth
surface, such as a piece of slate or a stone called an imposing stone, and
to do this without dropping some or all of the type and making pi of it,
takes practice. To do it like a journeyman, put a lead at the top and
bottom of the type, set the stick on the stone, grip the top and bottom
with your fore fingers and thumbs and the sides with your other fingers,
hold it tight and you can then easily lift it out and into the chase as
shown in Fig. 68.
 F . 68.
A good way for you to do it at first is to wet the type after you have it
set in the composing stick when it will hold together without much
trouble. When you can manage half-a-stick full of type you can then try a
stick full.
Making Ready.—After you have the type, which is to make up the
form, set in the chase on the imposing stone, or table, fill in the top and
bottom spaces with long pieces of wood furniture and the ends with
hollow metal furniture and then lock up the form, that is screw or
otherwise fix it in the chase.
Now there are two kinds of chases used with small presses and these
are (1) screw chases and (2) plain chases. A screw chase has a couple of
screws fitted into the top of it so that after the type and furniture are in
the chase you only need to tighten up the screws to hold the form in
place.
 F . 69.
When a plain chase is used, quoins, that is wedges made of wood, as
shown in Fig. 69—you can get a dozen hickory ones for a nickel—must
be set in between the furniture and the chase and these are forced
together with a mallet and a shooting stick, so that the type is held firmly
in place.
The next thing to do is to plane the form, that is, you take a block of
wood one side of which is covered with a piece of felt. Lay this on the
type and tap it gently with the mallet to get all of the type even on top.
You can make a planer or buy one for a quarter ready made.
This done, fit the chase in the press and put three or four sheets of
paper on the platen by means of the pivoted bands on the edge of the
latter. Ink the type and run off a few impressions; but be careful that the
grippers are set so that they will just catch the edges of the sheet but will
not strike the type form.
If part of the impression does not come out plain, paste a piece of
paper on the paper backing on the platen and, oppositely, if a part of the
impression is too heavy a bit of the under sheet of paper backing must be
cut away.
When the impression is even on the platen sheet paste a piece of
cardboard below and another to the left hand side of it so that the card or
the sheet of paper will lay on the platen in exactly the right place every
time you feed it in.
 Instead of cardboard you can use three bent pins to gage the sheet, or,
still better, use regular steel gage pins (see Fig. 64), for these can be
adjusted to a nicety.
Printing the Job.—All that remains for you to do now is to put about
as much ink as you can get on the point of the blade of a penknife on the
ink table and then roll it out thin and even with a small hand roller.
Lay your stock on the table to the right of the press and feed in a card
or a sheet at a time with your right hand and see to it that you get it in
squarely against the gage pins; take away your hand and press the handle
down with your left hand; raise it up, take the printed sheet out with your
left hand, feed in another one and so on until the job is done.
How to Clean Type.—As soon as you have printed a job take the
chase from the press and before you unlock the form rub the face of the
type with a rag dipped in benzine, or turpentine and when all the ink and
smut is gone wipe it with a clean rag.
If the type gets clogged up with ink wash it out with a tooth-brush
dipped in benzine and when the ink on the table and the rollers gets dirty
or does not work well wash it off with benzine also. To do good printing
everything must be immaculately clean.
About Distributing Type.—After you have cleaned the type, unlock
the form and then take a line o’ type at a time on a lead in your left hand;
pick off two or three letters at once and drop each one into its respective
box.
The Ink and Rollers.—The Ink.—While of course you will buy your
ink all ready to use you may like to know how it is made. Here’s a recipe
for a printing ink that is as old as the hills and as good as gold: Balsam of
capivi 4¹⁄₂ ounces; lampblack 1¹⁄₂ ounces; indigo ⁵⁄₈ ounce; India red ³⁄₈
ounce, and turpentine dry soap 1¹⁄₂ ounces; mix these ingredients well in
a mortar with a pestle; then mix the mass with boiled linseed oil to the
right thickness.
When buying ink for job printing get one that is a quick drier and this
costs from 50 cents to $1.50 a pound according to quality. You can also
buy colored inks in red, white, blue, yellow, green, brown and purple in 4
ounce cans for 60 cents a can.
The Rollers.—While it is cheaper and better to buy ink rollers ready
made, if you want to try your hand at making them yourself get 1 pound
Peter Cooper’s best glue; 1 quart best sugar house syrup, and 1 pint of
glycerine.
Soak the glue in rain water until it is soft, drain off all the excess
water, put it in a glue pot and set it on a slow fire until it is melted. Now
put in the syrup, boil it for half an hour, stirring it the while, and skim off
the scum that comes to the top.
About 5 minutes before you take it from the fire add the other things
and then pour the mixture into the mold, which is simply a brass cylinder
of the diameter and length you want the roller. The stock, as the spindle
of the roller is called, is set exactly in the middle of the mold and the
composition is poured into it.
Printing in Colors.—Printing in two or more colors, or color
printing, is not only interesting work to do, but profitable, since you can
easily get orders for it. It is a little harder to do a good job with colored
inks than it is with black ink, but if you will use plain type and good
colored ink you will have small trouble in doing a creditable job.
Printing in Gold.—When you want to print in gilt instead of in black
you can do it either by printing in black ink first and then dusting bronze
powder over it with a tuft of cotton, or print the job with gold size which
makes the powder stick better. Dust the excess powder off with a bit of
cotton when the letters will stand out in gold beautifully.
You can buy a 3 ounce can of gold size for a quarter and bronze
powder can be had in 1 ounce cans in gold, silver, cardinal red and
copper. All of the above materials can be bought of the Kelsey Press
Company, Meriden, Conn., and you ought to send for one of their
catalogues.
And Finally Your Stock Supply.—You will need a supply of both
visiting and business cards; paper for labels, handbills and newspapers—
that is, if you intend to print one—and paper for bill-heads, statements,
letter-heads and envelopes to match them.
Cards come in all sizes and colors and in any quantity however small;
they are sold under the name of thin white, thin colored, heavy china,
business bristol, fine bristol, extra fine bristol, satin enameled and linen
finished bristol. Then there are cards with gold beveled and lace edges;
fancy embossed, with round edges, and for mourning.
Paper can be bought that is gummed on one side for labels; linen and
bond papers are used for correspondence; the cheapest kind of white and
colored paper is good enough for handbills but you should use a good
white stock for newspaper work. Before ordering stock of any kind the
best way to do is to send for a full set of samples and then you will know
just what you are buying.

The Art of Paper Making