Notes about U.S. Job Cases

                  
            
   
             
 
           
   
L
R
Setting type for newspaper and book work required a large quantity of type, but jobbing work used much smaller founts and the purpose of the Job Case was to combine both upper and lower founts in the one case. The usual U.S. lower case configuration is shown on the left, as in eg, Mackellar: American Printer (1870), and Barnhart Bros & Spindler: Pony Specimen (1890s) and American Type Founders: Specimen (1923), and American Printing Equipment & Supply: Catalog (1989).

The original upper case was of two bays of 49 boxes, and the Job Case took just one bay (ie excluding small caps, etc), as shown on the right. Thus the full size Job case is configured as follows:
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
7x7
         
    
 
     
 
     
 
        
       
  
       
      
  
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
L
                    
R
                    
7x7
The full-size Job cases follow the standard lower case style in the left (L) and right (R) bays as shown above. However, the two-third size cases have several variations in lower case configuration.
 
                  
            
   
             
 
           
    
I
R
An early style of two-third case was to have four small boxes in the bottom left of the case, rather than the normal two small and one tall. This is shown on the left, but does not occurr in any full-size Lower case, or full-size Job case and is a feature of Two Third Italic Cases, where the caps rows contain 7, rather than 8, boxes per bay.
                  
            
   
             
 
 
 
           
M
N
Also unlike full-size lower cases, another two-third variant as shown on the right has an extra box in the top row, instead of an extended e box.

An early improvement of the Two Third Italic case did not have the extra divided boxes in the bottom row of the lower case bay, as shown on the left, as it had two extra rows of cap boxes in the upper case bay (not shown).

Although there are few alterations in the Lower case bays, the configuration of the caps bay varies considerably in the size of rows, and number of boxes. In the two-third cases, the main variations are in the number of cap rows, either two or four, and the number of boxes in each row, either 7+7 or 8+8. Because these cases are narrower, the cap boxes are in rows above the lower case boxes.
         
     
 
     
 
     
  
P
The full-size Italic Job started with 7 rows of boxes all the same size, but the Californian style adopted 5 rows. Originally these were one small row at the top, with four larger rows underneath, but the bottom row also later became smaller. In some styles of case, the cap rows moved above the lower case boxes, as for Two Third sized cases. The overall number of cap boxes varied between 32 and 98, but 35 or 49 were the more usual number.

The various row configurations in the caps bay are:
 
 
 Short
 Short
 Short
 Tall
 Tall
 Tall
 Short
  
 Short
 Tall
 Tall
 Tall
 Tall
  
 Medium
 Medium
 Medium
 Medium
 Medium
 Medium
 Medium
  
 Short
 Tall
 Tall
 Tall
 Short
  
 Short
 Short
 Tall
 Tall
 Tall
 Tall
3S+3T+1S
 
1S+4T
 
7M
 
1S+3T+1S
 
2S+4T
 
And the various case styles are:
 
 Full-size Full-size
Caps config:
 Two-third size 
Italic Job
LR7x7
 Harpel 1870=7M
(and BBS, ATF 1906)
Hamilton 1922=3S+3T+1S
(and ATF 1923, Missouri 1959,
APE&S 1983)
 
7x27x2
IR

7x27x2
LR
Italic Job
BBS 1890s

Gujarati 1928
Polk 1964
(Italic) Job
LR8x7
 De Vinne 1904=7M 
 
California Job
LR7x5
 P&Rey 1884, BBS 1890s,
ATF 1906, 1923=1S+4T
Hamilton 1922=1S+3T+1S
(and Atkins 1930, Whetton 1946, Polk 1964, APE&S 1983
 
7x27x2
LR

8x28x2
LR
California Job
Missouri 1959

Hamilton 1922, ATF 1923
(also in U.K.)
LR7x6
 Cefmor 1955=2S+4T 
 
New York Improved Job
8x28x27x5
LR
 ATF 1906=1S+4T
(and Hamilton 1922, ATF 1923)
but also 1S+3T+1S
 
8x28x2
LR
New York Job
 
Yankee Job
8x28x2
LR
caps are above
not at the side
2S
(eg BBS 1890s, ATF 1895, 1906, 1923)
 
8x28x2
LR

7x27x2
LR
Yankee Job


Hamilton 1922, ATF 1923
There is also a Double Yankee, being two Yankees side by side
 
Boston Job
7x27x2
LR
caps are above
not at the side
2S
(eg ATF 1895)
 
 
Improved Job or
Chicago Improved Job
LR7x77x7
ie two bays of caps7M
(eg BBS 1890s, ATF 1906)
 
7x47x4
MN
Improved Job
BBS 1890s, ATF 1895
(called Improved Job by BBS and Chicago Improved Job by ATF)
 
Paterson Job
PR7x9
extra u.c. boxes9S
(eg ATF 1906)
 
 
Dearing Job
7x77x5
ie no lower case bays1S+4T
(eg Hamilton 1897, 1922)
 
7x77x5
Dearing Job
 
Wells Job
10x210x2
7x47x4
Top is 1 row of 10 then 1 row of 9 boxes
Bottom is 3 rows of 7 then 1 of 6
There are no lower case boxes
2S+4T
(eg ATF 1923)
 
Wells Job is also called Wells Two Fount (ATF 1906) and Hamilton Double Cap (Polk1964)
 
Hamilton Job
7x7
One bay
No lower case
2M+1S+4T
(eg ATF 1906)
 
 
Something of the history of the Job Case is given by Pryor: History of the California Job Type Case, in Printing Historical Society Journal No.7 (1972). Also, a page showing three configurations of California Job case is available (and if printed out on a laserprinter, is best at medium rather than high quality)
 


Now link to:
 
Empty cases
ie with the boxes left blank
Type layouts
ie with characters assigned to boxes
Full Index of layoutsGlossary of terms usedSources of the layoutsIntroduction
Quantities in a Fount of typeQuantities in a Case of type
Notes about Job
and Double Cases
Notes about Upper casesNotes about Lower casesAlembic home page
 

 
This page was written by David Bolton and last updated 9 April 1999.