Hamilton Lower Case

This U.S. lay is that in De Vinne: The Practice of Typography, Modern Methods of Book Composition (1904 and 1914), and American Type Founders: American Line Type Book (1906), Barnhardt Bros & Spindler: Book of Type Specimens No.9 (1907), Henry: Printing for School & Shop (1917), Polk: Vocational Printing (1918), Hamilton Manufacturing Co: Modern Printing Office Furniture Catalog 15 (1922) and 16 (c.1932) case model 2725, and American Type Founders: Catalogue (1923), Gujarati Type Foundry: Type Book (1928 and still current in 1980s), Polk: The Practice of Printing (1926 and 1937), Updike: Printing Types (1937), and the News Lower of Missouri-Central Type Foundry: Price List (1959) and the Hamilton Industries: Catalog (nd) illustration in Long: Wood Type & Printing Collectibles (1980). The Hamilton Cap is the companion upper lay, and is where ffl is.

The lay is also shown by Hostettler: Technical Terms of the Printing Industry (1949 and 4th rev ed 1963), called an English, rather than U.S., Case, as he is referring to the language and not the country. Unlike the U.S. Lower, English cases have a single box above the i box, and do not use the terms 3em 4em and 5em for spacing. The lay is the same as Palmer & Rey: Type Specimen Book (1892) and Lockwood: American Dictionary of Printing and Bookbinding (1894) except that ? and ! swap boxes. It is also almost the same as MacKellar: The American Printer (1870), except that he reverses w and , and almost the same as BBS (1890s), except that they have a hair, not fl, box. It is the same as the Lower News of Hague: Textbook of Printing Occupations (1922) except that he incorrectly shows two boxes for fi, rather than an fl and an fi box.

The ATF Hamilton case measures 32 3/16 x 16 5/8 ins (or 32¼ x 16¾ x 1 according to De Vinne). The empty case configuration is MacKellar's US Lower.