Continuing with our series of ornamental frame kits, for February we present Collection No. 65. Like its predecessors, it has two pairs of mirror-image typecast elements on 36 point body. The rule on this one is a bold full-face 6 point. Still more of these to come—if we have the right matrix slides for rule to match up with the ornaments.
Back in stock: Collection No. 2, Collection No. 11, Collection No. 15 (Skyline Zoo #1), and our fourth casting of Border No. 1329.
Last month I spent half a day up on a ladder flaking several years of accumulated type-metal off the ceiling of the foundry. When molten metal escapes from the caster it’s called a “squirt”, and it goes straight up and straight left (sometimes straight right too). The operator, standing in front and slightly to the right, is safe—provided you don’t have your face in the machine at the moment the piston drops (that’s the first thing you’re trained not to do). Almost all squirts are preventable. But they happen—mostly from inattention, or fouling of the stripper spring, which causes a jam-up where the type is delivered from the mold. You gotta to be ready to instantly shut ‘er down if it happens. The Thompson Type Caster was patented in 1907, and is most certainly not idiot-proof. You never take your attention off the machine while it’s in operation.
The U.S. Postal Service announced yet another price adjustment on January 9—the third within the last 12 months. A Medium Flat Rate Box now goes for $16.10. Skyline will continue to offer $10.00 shipping, any order, anywhere in the U.S.
Happy Ground Hog Day tomorrow! (Maybe we can train Punxsutawney Phil to dig up galena ore, for making more new type.)