Imposition of Sheets.—

The same sheet may often be folded and imposed in many ways. A correspondent of the Printers' Register justly complains that the traditional schemes involve the unnecessary turning over of the sheet—sometimes more than once—by the folder. He states that he has in preparation a series of new impositions for fast folding. In our own office, we long since abandoned the ordinary schemes for this very reason. We also find a great advantage in Houghton's plan of bringing the first page to the centre instead of the corner of the form.

(From the Printers' Register.)

To Keep Small Ink Tins Clean.—A good plan is to remove the lid and place the tin in a black tobacco jar slightly larger. Throw away the lid of the can and keep the ink workable by pouring on the top a little glycerine. The lid of the jar is then put on, and the whole can be used without defiling the fingers.

(From the British and Colonial Printer and Stationer.)

Carton Paper.—Take of clear lard, five ounces; beeswax, one ounce; Canada balsam, one-tenth ounce; lampblack, q. s. Melt by aid of heat, and mix. Apply with a flannel dauber, removing as much as possible with clean woollen rags.

Gold Bronze.—Melt two parts of pure tin in a crucible and add to it, under constant stirring, one part of metallic mercury, previously heated in an iron spoon until it begins to emit fumes. When cold, the alloy is rubbed to powder, mixed with part each of chloride of ammonium and sublimed sulphur, and the whole enclosed in a flask or retort which is embedded in a sand bath. Heat is now applied until the sand has become red hot, and this is maintained until it is certain that vapors are no longer evolved. The vessel is then removed from the hot sand and allowed to cool. The lower part of the vessel contains the gold bronze as a shining gold-colored mass. In the upper part of the flask or retort, chloride of ammonium and cinnabar will be found.

The accuracy of modern machinery is exemplified in a new automatic shaving machine, for finishing stereo plates, lately brought out in Chicago. It works by steam power, and will finish plates of any thickness up to type height. The largest sized machine takes plates up to 30 x 18 inches. It is furnished with a scale graduated to ·12 inch, and so perfectly are the plates finished that a micrometer calliper fails to show a variation of so much as ·0001 inch. There are a good many printers in this part of the world who would like to have some of their stereo and electro plates put through just such a machine as this.

A new rule-working machine has been brought out in America, and is illustrated in one of our trade contemporaries. It is very pretty and compact, and is said to be the swiftest, simplest, most flexible, and precise of any yet invented. It cuts rules from the strip, mitering at the same operation and leaving a proper finish at both ends. It will mitre to any angle, and in case of star mitres at angles other than 45°, the mitres at both ends are automatically kept in relationship to each other. Right and left mitres are made with the same setting of the gauge; rules can be slotted at top and bottom at any angle; wood rule, reglet, furniture, electro and stereo plates, &c, can be cut and trimmed. In addition, a curving apparatus forms part of the machine, so placed that it is always ready for use without interfering in any way with the use of the cutter.

The recent death of Mr Erastus Brooks removes the last of the old journalistic landmarks of New York. He was the contemporary of Bryant, Webb, Greeley, the elder Bennett, and Raymond, when they were in their prime; and antedated some of them as a leading newspaper man.

Herr H. Klemm, who recently died at Dresden at the age of 68, was the founder and owner of several class papers, but was specially known as a collector of typographic curiosities. His magnificent collection of incunabula was lately purchased for £20,000 by the Government of Saxony for the Book Trade Museum at Leipzig. He also owned what was held to be the actual press employed by Gutenberg, the fragments of which were discovered at Mayence in 1856.

Italian and Austrian papers generally contain from 425 to 440 sheets per ream. English papers never contain less than 480, and in the case of news papers, 500. Importers would do well to bear this fact in mind when comparing foreign samples with English.