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Imposition Figures and Plate Gangs in
The
Rescue
by
Matthew J. Bruccoli and Charles A. Rheault, Jr.
[*]
It would not have been wholly frivolous to entitle this note "The Case of the Unnecessary Numbers," for the problem at hand provides an example of how the bibliographer's pursuit of the seemingly trivial can lead to the uncovering of useful information about printing-shop techniques.
Joseph Conrad's The Rescue was originally published in America by Doubleday, Page in 1920; a second edition was published in the same year in England by J. M. Dent & Sons. A first impression of forty copies from standing type was distributed by Dent for review. These have the status of proofs, for the text was revised by Conrad before plates were made for the trade impression. But in addition to textual alterations, a curious system of numbers was also introduced before the book was plated. These figures, which first appear in the Dent second impression, are in the lower right-hand corners of certain pages. Although a few are absent it is clear that they constitute three cycles of thirty-two numbers, each cycle being repeated every eight gatherings. For example, in the first cycle:
| Signature | Page | Key Figure |
| A | 1 | 7 |
| 2 | 23 | |
| 3 | 17 | |
| 4 | 1 | |
| 5 | 3 | |
| 6 | 19 | |
| 7 | 21 | |
| 8 | 5 | |
| 9-16 | -- | |
| B | 17-32 | -- |
| C | 33 | 15 |
| 34 | [31] | |
| 35 | [25] | |
| 36 | 9 | |
| 37 | [11] | |
| 38 | 27 | |
| 39 | 29 | |
| 40 | 13 | |
| 41-48 | -- | |
| D | 49-64 | -- |
| E | 65 | 8 |
| 66 | 24 | |
| 67 | 18 | |
| 68 | 2 | |
| 69 | [4] | |
| 70 | 20 | |
| 71 | 22 | |
| 72 | 6 | |
| 73-80 | -- | |
| F | 81-96 | -- |
| G | 97 | [16] |
| 98 | 32 | |
| 99 | 26 | |
| 100 | 10 | |
| 101 | 12 | |
| 102 | 28 | |
| 103 | 30 | |
| 104 | [1]4 | |
| 105-112 | -- | |
| H | 113-128 | -- |
These figures are not signatures (the book is signed A-I, K-U, X-Z,
It remained only to test the explanation by dummying up an imposition, but no arrangement of the individual plates yielded a meaningful sequence for the pages with the key figures. The fact that only 25% of the pages have the figures suggested that the pages were ganged—i.e., four pages were cast as a single large plate and reckoned as one plate in the imposition. This is represented in the charts for the inner and outer formes—with the key figures greatly enlarged. The book was intended to be printed sixty-four pages up (but only 16 ganged plates). Each sheet would have been slit in half on press and then slit on the folding machine into four sections. A standard machine folding (quad not insert) would then yield four sixteen-page gatherings from each half-sheet, folded twice parallel and once at right angles.
Gangs have long been in regular use in England for rotary press work, but they have been used only infrequently and experimentally in the United States. When the actual ritual of a pressman laying out his pages is reviewed, the time saving represented by gangs becomes apparent. On receiving his pages as plates from the foundry, the pressman first divides them into two stacks. One will be used to print one side of the sheet, the other for "back-up." He also divides these two stacks into groups of thirty-two or sixty-four each, depending on how many can be accommodated by the press bed. Next, carrying the plates to either the front or back forme (or cylinder), he proceeds to lay them out—not in a row, but rather: one at the bottom, one at the top, two in the middle; then he switches to the next row with two in the middle, one at the top, and ends with one on the bottom next to the starting point; and so on across the forme. Next the plates have to be fastened securely and accurately, probably with two catches on each side—a total of 512 small adjustments for a sixty-four page forme. This is for only one side of the sheet, of course. By ganging four pages together, the number of adjustments per forme is reduced to 128.
The English printer may have hit upon the idea of increasing efficiency still further by marking the press bed or cylinder with a key figure and then putting that same figure on the gang. Nothing more difficult than matching numbers would be required of the pressman. After imposition, the key figure could easily be chipped off or pounded flat.
The reason why the figures survived in this case is that The Rescue was
Although the American printing industry's lack of enthusiasm for plate gangs seems perverse, examination of the problem indicates that the savings expected from this method may be more apparent than actual. Experiments conducted by eastern printing houses have shown that the additional time required for imposing the pages for gang plate making wiped out some of the savings anticipated in the first printing. In effect, press-room costs were transferred to the composing room. The difficulty in handling and storing gangs is also a deterrent. Even more important is the fact that the American equivalent of the Goss rotary press was not introduced for book printing until after the second world war. Profitable operation of these presses requires big runs (25,000-50,000 copies); such printing orders are unusual for a first printing—and the first printing is where the savings from ganged plates would be expected. The factor of cheaper labor in England probably makes the use of the Goss rotary press practical for smaller runs.
The nature of ganged plates must also be considered. Once they are made, there can be no change in imposition. Of course, a one-page cancel cannot be printed without printing all four pages on the gang. The owner of the plates would be able to lease or sell the gangs only to a publisher who was equipped for the work.
The final factor acting against gangs is the introduction of positive formes in American printing. The acceptance by publishers of minor irregularities (1/32") in line-up or register prepared the way for the general use of fixed catches on the press bed. The positive forme method requires only four catch adjustments per plate, the other four catches being permanently attached to the bed. The result is that the number of adjustments required for a sixty-four page forme is 256 instead of 512.[3]
The experiments with imposition figures and plate gangs in The Rescue were, finally, just experiments. New methods and different publishing standards make it most unlikely that these experiments will be repeated. But for the bibliographer, at least, the second impression of the second edition of The Rescue makes for an intriguing volume.
Notes
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