West Australian Lower Case

This Australian typecase lay is that shown in the Western Australian Education Department, Technical Extension: Course for Composing Apprentices (c1960). It differs from most English lays by having the figures in the top right row (rather than in the Upper case), but does not adopt the U.S. pattern of a divided box for figures, above the i box. Southward's Old Lower of 1882 was the first to put the figures into the Lower case, and Oldfield in 1898 (and copied by some subsequent authors, e.g. Tarr in 1945) shows a similar arrangement of the figures, but the ligatures are all in different positions. Also, W.A. Education put ; ( in the Upper case, and have £ in the Lower, unlike any of the other lays - though it is easier for figure work.

The q in the box next to r was first shown in this position by Luckombe in 1771, and remained there in most subsequent lays, although Oldfield in the 1890s (and some more modern copies) put k there. (Oldfield also put j in place of : unlike all other lays, including Moxon).

The empty typecase configuration is the standard English Lower case, and the companion Upper Case lay is the W.Australian.