Gnowangerup Star Double Case

!?'j k e      123456fiffflffiffl  
$bcdis fg78 
A
 
BCDEFG
(90HIKLMNO
 lmnhoyp,w enem
qPQRSTVW
zvu tthickar ;:2, 3, 4
em quad
x.-XYZAEOEUJ

This Australian typecase lay was in use by the Gnowangerup Star, the last newspaper to be printed letterpress in Western Australia, and which ran from 1915 until finally closing in 2003. The office remains exactly as it was when it closed, and the Shire of Gnowangerup are hoping to restore it as a working museum. The type and cases were purchased from the Eastern Districts Chronicle/York Gazette in 1915, so the lays may date from before that.

Not all the cases have yet been checked and this particular lay, as viewed in 2019, is based on only three of the cases. Even in these, the $ box could also contain & and/or £, and the box above the full stop box could also contain -. Like, for example, the Stephenson Blake's Sheffield lay, the q is placed above the x box, rather than above the full stop box as in the Western Australia Education Department case, and again like the Sheffield case, the ligatures are on the right hand side, not the left. Note that the Æ box also contains æ,and the Œ box also contains œ.

The layout diagram shown here is not quite correct, as in the upper case (right hand) bay, the top row is of small boxes, as shown, but the other four rows below it should all be the same size, as is shown in the empty Southward's Improved Double case of 1875.

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ie with the boxes left blank
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ie with characters assigned to boxes
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This page was written in 2019 by David Bolton and last updated 4 March 2019.