• Many systems were offered by type foundries, only to be turned down
• American pica size has indirect roots clear back to French printers
• Not until 1886 did the Association of Type Founders agree on standard

(Second of two parts)

During the nineteenth century, other unsuccessful attempts were made to regulate the size of type in Scotland and England. In the United States, George Bruce was interested not so much in the establishment of sizes themselves but in a correlation between sizes. This was to be obtained by geometric progression.

Bruce selected the size range, minion (7 point) to pica, determining their exact sizes in the following manner: Small-pica (11 point) was made as much larger than long primer (10 point), as bourgeois (9 point) was made larger than brevier (8 point). Each body was made a percentage larger than the size beneath it, this percentage being 0.122462 inch, which when increased six times in a series, doubles on the seventh progression. In spite of this “ingenious and scientific” system, according to De Vinne, the Bruce plan was not adopted by any other foundry.

For another 60 years American printers had to struggle along with a lack of standardization, although foundries were constantly urged to reorganize casting procedures to conform to consistent standards. Western printers were particularly vociferous in agitating for a change.

American System “Inventor”

The efforts of one man probably contributed most to final acceptance of a single standard. He was Nelson C. Hawks, sometimes called the “inventor” of the American point system. When Hawks died in 1929 at the age of 88, Henry Lewis Bullen, the well-known printing historian, wrote a short monograph decrying the injustice done to Hawks during his lifetime by his not being recognized for his contributions.

Bullen believed Hawk’s claim of being the “inventor” of the point system, since Hawks was a man of integrity. Hawks had never heard of Fournier, and in Bullen’s opinion, it was merely coincidental that the ideas of Hawks were in the same pattern as those of the French type founder.

It has been generally stated that the firm of Marder, Luse & Co. promoted standardization in type size after their plant was destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871. However, in 1872 the firm stated that the costs of such a changeover would have to be borne by the printers themselves and that, in the opinion of the organization, popular favor would not support additional charges for “a new and absolutely correct standard.”

Hawks instigated a request, in the form of a petition to the Type Founders Association of the United States, from a group of western printers requesting the establishment of a uniform standard of bodies for types. This request was turned down, one objector being Marder, Luse & Co.

Hawks made several other enthusiastic but unsuccessful attempts to interest foundries. He became an employee of the Marder, Luse firm when he formed the Pacific Type Foundry in San Francisco, which became a branch of the Chicago organization. Shortly before the opening of this branch, John Marder journeyed to San Francisco to organize the office. At that time, Hawks convinced him of the absolute necessity of standardizing the point.

The first announcement of this move came in 1879 in the house organ of Marder, Luse & Co. They called their plan the American System of Interchangeable Type Bodies, and requested the cooperation of other American type foundries. The reform movement caught on rapidly. Soon most foundries were changing over.

MacKellar Pica Em Selected

The standard which Hawks had consistently urged was the pica of the firm of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, because the job types and borders of that foundry were in greatest use by American printers. In addition, it was the smallest pica, making it less expensive for the foundries with larger standards to reduce. The selection of the MacKellar pica em by Hawks was the tie-in with the system of Fournier through a strange stream of events of which Hawks was unaware.

When in 1785 Benjamin Franklin established his grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, in the type founding business, the elder Franklin gave him typemaking equipment supplied by Fournier’s son. Upon the death of Bache, the Philadelphia founders, Binny & Ronaldson, purchased this equipment for the foundry they had begun in 1796.

The Binny & Ronaldson organization was continued under several names, concluding with MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, which in 1892 became the largest unit in the merger which resulted in the American Type Founders Co. Thus, when Hawks selected the MacKellar pica, he indirectly aligned himself with the original inventor of the point system.

Once the principle had been established, most foundries quickly shifted to the standard pica, which was 0.166 inch. In 1886 the Association of Type Founders of the United States held a convention and accepted the Hawks’ American System of Interchangeable Type Bodies, using the MacKellar pica as the basis.

Partly responsible for the discreditation of Hawks was a disagreement he had with Marder, Luse & Co. over a matter of salary, resulting in his resignation from the Chicago firm. Certainly Hawks worked hard to produce the benefits of standardization. The last years of his life were made bitter by the lack of recognition of his efforts.

The American point system agrees with the metric system in that 83 picas equals 35 centimeters. A standard was manufactured upon which all foundries could test their types. This gauge was 288 points in length, which admitted 24 bodies of 12 point, 36 bodies of 8 point, and other sizes in combination with point spaces.

In 1898, British and American type founders agreed on the American system as a standard for both countries. It has since spread to the British colonies and most of the South American countries.

This article first appeared in “The Composing Room” column of the April 1957 issue of The Inland Printer.