Empty Smith Proposed Fount Lower Case

This English case configuration is given by Smith, The Printer's Grammar (1755), reprinted Gregg (1965). It is intended for larger quantities of type than in a normal case, and it therefore also has deeper boxes. A common practice was to fill the normal case(s), and then store the additional quantities of characters in separate sorts boxes (baskets), Smith giving a scheme for six such baskets. In passing, he notes that he had seen seventeen normal cases in use for the one fount of type, for the one job, which gives an idea of the weight of metal being handled. Rather than use baskets, well-established printers were using fount cases, and Smith considered these could well be adapted for better use, if they were not an exact (but larger) copy of a normal lower case, as the sorts were difficult to see and remove in the smaller boxes, which were much deeper than in the normal case. Thus he gives this proposed configuration, which removes all the small boxes. The lay is Smith Fount.