Empty News Cap Case

                                                                                     
               
               
 
 
              
 
 
              
         
 
      
               

This U.S. typecase configuration matches the Hamilton Upper Case of Henry: Printing for School and Shop (1917), the News Upper or Cap case of Polk: Vocational Printing (1918), the Cap News and the Double Cap of Hague: Textbook of Printing Occupations (1922), the Cap case (model 2720) of American Type Founders: Catalogue (1923), the News Cap (model 2720) of Hamilton Manufacturing Co: Catalogue 15 (1922) and 16 (c.1932), and Thompson Cabinet Co: Catalog 47 (c.1949) and Missouri Central: Price List (1959), the Double Cap of Kelsey: Printers Supply Book (1969) and the News Cap and the Double Cap Case of American Printing Equipment & Supply Co: Catalog (1983 and 1987), and the Cap case of Gujarati Type Foundry: Type Book (c1928-1999). The (Thompson) case was in use at the Black Rock Press, University of Nevada, Reno in 1998. The Cap case was originally for caps and small caps, but presumably could be used for two different cap founts, hence the name Double Cap though note that the Wells Job was also called a Double Cap e.g. by Polk: The Practice of Printing (rev ed 1964).

Note that unlike the English Upper case, the top three rows, and the bottom row, are not as large as the middle three rows, a revision introduced to make more room for the most used characters. The sources used for this illustration do not always make clear whether the top three rows are always the same size as the bottom row, or whether the bottom row is sometimes slightly larger. Despite the improvement, many Cap cases still followed the English 7 equal row pattern eg Updike: Printing Types (2nd ed 1937). Also ATF: Catalogue (1923) shows that style for Hebrew.

A suitable lay is Hamilton Cap. There is a Two Third Cap case with exactly the same configuration and lay as the full size Upper of Henry et al., and although Kelsey had claimed in 1930, in their Do Your Own Printing, that the (News) Cap case was fast going out of fashion, they were still showing it in 1969, as were APE&S in 1987.

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This page was written in 1997 by David Bolton and last updated 15 April 2009.