Summary

This stick is used for setting up lines of type before placing the line into the forme.

A compositor selected type from a type case one letter at a time. The letters were placed in a composing or setting stick. The stick was held in one hand, while the type was set left to right upside-down. Type moulds are in reverse; reading backwards is an essential printer's skill. When the setting stick is full of type, the stick is taken to the galley tray, where the type is arranged in columns. The type is then locked into a form, which is placed on a stone. The stone provides a secure flat surface that ensures that the type remains in place.

This item was donated by the Dimboola & District Historical Society to enable Museum Victoria to set up type for the Fawkner Press display in the Melbourne exhibition, which opened in March 2008.

The type has been set up to reproduce the first page and other sections of the first printed edition of the Melbourne Advertiser. The first page is as the original but the second page is not complete. The compositor has included his own acknowledgment in the second page so that there can be no mistake as to its provenance.

Fawkner used foundry type; monotype was not available until the 1840s. Foundry type is cast differently from monotype. Only the newspaper title of the 'replica' is in foundry type.

The item was originally used in the printing of the Dimboola Banner newspaper. The contents of the newspaper office were donated in situ to the Dimboola Historical Society in 2004 and became part of the collection of the Dimboola Banner Printing Museum, which is owned by the Society (the building was purchased for the Society). The item was then donated to the Museum by the Dimboola & District Historical Society.

The newspaper office closed when the Dimboola Banner was sold and production shifted to another town with more modern equipment. The paper ceased to be printed with letterpress in the mid 1980s.
It is not possible to date the item or to determine its provenance as equipment came from various sources, for example from other local newspapers that closed down. The 'material' could be dated anywhere from 1879, which is when the first issue of the newspaper came out. It can be described as an example of 19th century technology.

Physical Description

A setting stick consists of a right-angled piece of metal with a graduation along which to set the type. This particular stick is rusty

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