Sheet Music Printing.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1374, 27 August 1895, Page 7

Sheet Music Printing.

An Interesting Process of Which thi Public Knows Very Little. ++i~- —— If the public will be as much surprised to learn how sheet mUBio is printed as was the writer this artiole will bo read with interest. A walk through tho printing-rooms of a large musio publishing firm, under the tutelage of its courteous foreman, is full of interesting instruction. .'-'_' It was into one of the many " lofts " in which the establishment abounds that the writer was taken. One flsor was filled with a veritable lace work of long poles, "placed horizontally, which were loaded ont of sight with sheet music hung upon? them s to dry. The whole place had the air of washing day at home, and the writer involuntarily glanced around as if perohance he might get a glance of cold dinner lying about. " As fast as the sheets are printed we hang them here over night," eaid the foreman, ".and then place them between pasteboards and press them flat. Then they are ready for market. Gome up into the pressrooms." The press-rooms are very unlike their newspaper prototypes. Not a sound loud enough to interefere with conversation is heard in tbem.° For sheet ruusio is printed all by hand. Two kinds of presses are used; the old Btvle " plank " press and the improved or •» D " press. The latter consists of a sliding table several feet square, on which are two raised blocks just the Bize of a sheet of music, on whioh are placed tbe plates from which the printing is done. The plates having been inked and the paper laid on them, the printer gives a turn to an immense wheel 5£ feet in diameter, the sliding table slides under a large roller covered with a bait and the paper is forced against the plates, thus giving the impression ; and another revolution of the wheel brings the apparatus back to its original position. The '• plank "press is like the other except that in using it the plates are inked on a bench and laid on the blocks every time an impression is taken, while with the " D "press tbe plates are not removed from the blocks until the edition is runoff. " Now, here is a man printing title pages," said the foreman. "We print only one sheet at a time, and a man can take from fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred impressions a day. This plate, whioh looks exactly like silver, is composed of zinc, lead and britannia. Every publishing house manufactures its own ink; it can't be bought. It is very particular stuff and must be made just so, and it is a very delicate matter to make and take caro of it. This title page has been engraved by band. The design is sunken, yon see. When engraved the plate is put on a hot blook and beeswax is melted into the design. That, too, is a ticklish matter; if we wipe it off too soon we spoil it, and if we let it get too hard it crumbles and won't hold the ink. Onoe beeswaxed, a plate can be used for printing for years. " Engraving the musio plates is a different process, however, from that used in making the title page. The engraver has to have a separate tool for every kind of note—half, whole, quarter rests, &o. His outfit costs £BO. He doas not oarve into the plate as wood engravers do, but stamps out eaoh note separately with a hammer. You can imagine what nice work it is to adjust the tools just right and how hard it is to engrave a sheet of musio," The writer watched the process of printing emd saw something like this: After the plate had been fastened to its blook on the press the printer inks it with a hood roller, just as other printers ink their type in taking proofs. He then wipes the pUte carefully with a cloth ; the ink sticks to the beeswax, whioh covers the design or the notes, and the reat of the plate is comparatively clean. A second wiping with another rag leaves all but the design shiningly olean, the paper is laid on, and the great wheel revolving, soon takes the impression and returns the printed pages to the printer's hand. The plate is then wiped again, reinked, rewiped twioe, and, in fact, undergoes the same progress between eaoh impression. '' It iB a carious fact," continued the foreman, " that although this work is all done by hand the printers never touoh the paper. A piece of pasteboard is folded double and used as a holder and with that tbe printer handles all his sheets, and never lets his inky hands oome in contact with them." " Isn't music printed from type sometimes?" asked the writer, " Yes. When we want to run off a large edition of some cheap stuff, books or something of that sort, we Bet tbe musio up in type, stereotype the page and print from it, just as your newspaper fellows do. But the work isn't as handsome and, besides, there is some musio written that can't be set up with type." All musio plates after being used are stored in fire-proof vaults and indexed for possiblo future use. The foreman states the curious fact that in tbe great collection o! which he has charge there are more pieoes of musio whose name begin with S than of any other letter, while the M's are a close second.