Show SHEET MUSIO the manner in notes alf ani trebles art if the public will be 03 much surprised to learn how sheet music is printed as wag the writer says the boston herald of recent date this article will be read with interest A walk through the printing rooms of the largest music publish ing bouses in boston under the tutelage of its courteous foreman is full of interesting instruct ns it was into one of the many lofts in which the establishment abounds that the reporter was taken one floor was filled with a veritable lace work of long poles placed horizontally which were loaded out of sight with sheet music hung upon them to dry ane whole place had the air of washing day at home and the reporter involuntarily glanced around if perchance he might get a glance of cold dinner lying aba As fast as the sheets are printed we hang them here over night said the foreman and then place them between and ansa them hat then they are ready for market come up into the press rooms the preas rooms are very unlike their newspaper prototypes not a sound loud enough to interfere with conversation is heard in them for sheet music is printed all by hand two kinds of presses are used the old style plank press and the improved or D press the latter consists of a sliding table several feet square on which are two raised blocks just the lizs of a sheet of music on which are placed the plates from which the printing is done the plates having been inked and the p per laid on them the printer gives a turn to an immense wheel five and a half feet in iliam eter the sliding table slides under a large roller covered with a belt thus giving the impression and another revolution of the wheel brings the apparatus back to its original position the plank press is like the other except that in using it the plates are inked no a bench and laid on the blocks every time an impression is taken while with the D press the plates are nit removed from the blocks until the edition is run off A OW here is a man printing title pages said the foreman we print only one sheet at a time and a man can take from 1500 to giboo impressions a day thi plate which looks exactly like silver ia composed of zinc lead and britan nia and ia made almost exclusively in new york every publishing house manufactures ita own ink it cannot be bought it is very particular aid must be made just so and it is a very delicate matter to make and take care of it this title page has been engraved by haud the design is sunken you sae when engraved the plate ia put on a hot block and the beeswax is melted into the design i hat too ia a ticklish matter if we wipe it off too soon we spoil it and if we let it get too bard it cru ables and wont hod the ink once bees waxed a plate can be used for printing for acard engraving the music plates is a dih erent process however from eliat used in making the title page the engraver has to have a separate tools for every kind of note half whole quarter rests etc his outfit costs hu does not carve into the plate aa wood en geravere do but stamps out each note separately willi a hammer you can imagine what nice work it is to adjust the tools just right and auw hard it ia to engrave a sheet of music the reporter watched the process of printing and saw some thing like this abter the plate had been fastened to ita block on the arera tue printer inks it with a hood roller alst as other printers ink their cyp in taking proofs ho then wipes the plate carefully with a cloth the ink ticks to the beeswax which covers tho dwaign or the notes and the rest of the plate is comparatively clean A second wiping with another rag leaves ail the design shiningly clean the paper Is laid on and the great wheel revolving takes the impression and returns the printed pages to the printers hand the plate la ihm wiped again rebuked rewired aid in fact undergoes the same between each impression it ia a curiola fact continued the foreman that although thia work ia all done by hand abe printers never touch the paper A piece of pasteboard i folded double and bael as a holder and with that the printer handles all hia sheets and never lets his inky t hand come in contact with them I 1 agut music printed from type aided llie reporter at when we want to run afta large edition of some cheap books or of that sort we set the up in the pages and print troia it just aa you newspaper fellows do but the work aa handsome handa ome and besides be there is some dugic critien that cant be set up type all music plates after being used are stored in fire proof vaulta and indexed for possible further use the foreman stales the curiola fact that in the great collection of which he has charge there are more pieced of whose names begin with 8 than of any other letter while the ma are a close second |