its work surface at a comfortable angle against the wall of the room before starting work. The illumination for the work came from a twin six foot fluorescent unit, fitted with daylight color-matching tubes which gave out 120 watts of cold evenly balanced, ‘north’ light, giving him a perfect view of the original document.
The form in front of him measured 21 x 12 centimeters and was set out with spaces; some to record the client's information and others for filling in the number and denomination of each traveler’s cheque. The forms were simple, un-numbered in themselves. Indeed, except for the selling agent's code number, which was the same on each form, there were no other numbers to be found on the form at all. Copying the form would present no real problems.
The form was in four parts, there being one copy each for the selling bank and the client and a further two copies for the agent. Each sheet was of a different color to make sorting easier and the top three sheets were printed on carbon-impregnated paper. The bottom copy for the purchaser, and was also printed on its reverse-side with the conditions of sale and contained instructions on what to do if the che ques were lost, stolen or misplaced. Alongside these notes was another ruled box with spaces provided to write the cheque encashment details - amount, date, place and cheque number. In all it was a singularly nondescript document.
Pascoe used Times New Roman type and set it by hand. Apart from it being a long winded process, it was an easy job. His greatest difficulty lay in the setting of the ruled lines to form the boxes on the document. In order to print these, fine brass strips needed to be set into the bed of the type and while the horizontal lines were easily fashioned by placing the brass strips between the spacing furniture in the chase, the vertical ones had to be set in-register in a second chase, to be printed separately. It took him three days to finish setting the form before he was able to leave both sides of the document permanently 'locked-up' in their chases, ready for printing.
Preparatory to printing, he packed out the bed of the press with several thicknesses of newsprint to provide a receptive surface for the type. Next came the part of the job he detested most... inking the platen. The ink had to be squeegeed evenly onto the platen with a rubber roller, then left for an hour to 'set-off', before using. Invariably, he used to end up with more ink on himself than on the platen and it took weeks to remove the last traces of it from under his finger nails... no amount of scrubbing seeming to do the trick. While the ink was curing he set the register pins to help align the paper for printing and by the time that part of the setting-up was complete, the ink was touch-dry on the platen and ready to print. He inserted the type-filled chase in the press. It's weight belied it's size and so surprised him that he fumbled it, almost dropping it and undoing several hours work.
With the first sheet of paper held in place on the bed of the press, he positioned his head at the side of the machine and pulled the handle gently down, squinting sideways through the vertically narrowing gap between paper and type. It was important to make sure that the paper-positioning pins did not foul the type. If they did, it would mean spending more time replacing the letters deformed by the pins.
He repeated the process with another sheet of paper and gently closed the press until the whole of the surface of the type was in contact with it. Next, he slackened off the four platen pressure screws; then re-adjusted them until the pressure felt even over the whole platen surface.
With the pressure roughly set, he threw away the soiled sheet of paper and repeated the operation. His excitement grew as he made the first pull of the press. The twin rollers moved across the surface of the platen, picking up ink as they made the traverse and deposited it in an even coating
The form in front of him measured 21 x 12 centimeters and was set out with spaces; some to record the client's information and others for filling in the number and denomination of each traveler’s cheque. The forms were simple, un-numbered in themselves. Indeed, except for the selling agent's code number, which was the same on each form, there were no other numbers to be found on the form at all. Copying the form would present no real problems.
The form was in four parts, there being one copy each for the selling bank and the client and a further two copies for the agent. Each sheet was of a different color to make sorting easier and the top three sheets were printed on carbon-impregnated paper. The bottom copy for the purchaser, and was also printed on its reverse-side with the conditions of sale and contained instructions on what to do if the che ques were lost, stolen or misplaced. Alongside these notes was another ruled box with spaces provided to write the cheque encashment details - amount, date, place and cheque number. In all it was a singularly nondescript document.
Pascoe used Times New Roman type and set it by hand. Apart from it being a long winded process, it was an easy job. His greatest difficulty lay in the setting of the ruled lines to form the boxes on the document. In order to print these, fine brass strips needed to be set into the bed of the type and while the horizontal lines were easily fashioned by placing the brass strips between the spacing furniture in the chase, the vertical ones had to be set in-register in a second chase, to be printed separately. It took him three days to finish setting the form before he was able to leave both sides of the document permanently 'locked-up' in their chases, ready for printing.
Preparatory to printing, he packed out the bed of the press with several thicknesses of newsprint to provide a receptive surface for the type. Next came the part of the job he detested most... inking the platen. The ink had to be squeegeed evenly onto the platen with a rubber roller, then left for an hour to 'set-off', before using. Invariably, he used to end up with more ink on himself than on the platen and it took weeks to remove the last traces of it from under his finger nails... no amount of scrubbing seeming to do the trick. While the ink was curing he set the register pins to help align the paper for printing and by the time that part of the setting-up was complete, the ink was touch-dry on the platen and ready to print. He inserted the type-filled chase in the press. It's weight belied it's size and so surprised him that he fumbled it, almost dropping it and undoing several hours work.
With the first sheet of paper held in place on the bed of the press, he positioned his head at the side of the machine and pulled the handle gently down, squinting sideways through the vertically narrowing gap between paper and type. It was important to make sure that the paper-positioning pins did not foul the type. If they did, it would mean spending more time replacing the letters deformed by the pins.
He repeated the process with another sheet of paper and gently closed the press until the whole of the surface of the type was in contact with it. Next, he slackened off the four platen pressure screws; then re-adjusted them until the pressure felt even over the whole platen surface.
With the pressure roughly set, he threw away the soiled sheet of paper and repeated the operation. His excitement grew as he made the first pull of the press. The twin rollers moved across the surface of the platen, picking up ink as they made the traverse and deposited it in an even coating
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