Measurements and historic use

[Paul.Merrell]

Hi, all,

I've been retired since 2002, but worked as a typographer in my first career (I switched to the practice of law in my 40s). I used various Hammond Glider Saws during my first incarnation.

The saw's finger moves in picas and points. (Pronunciation: peye' ca). There are roughly 6 picas in an inch; with 12 inches equal to slightly less than 72-1/2 picas. Each pica is divided into 12 points. Turning the dials on the left side of the saw moves the finger in those increments.

A very handy tool to have when working with those measurements and with inches is the typographer's line gauge. They are available in 12" and 18" lengths. They show picas down the left side and inches down the right, making it easy to approximate pica/point lengths with inches and fractions thereof. You can purchase them here for $10 https://www.boxcarpress.com/shop/line-gauge/

There are/were other types of line gauges in other measures, but the type referred to above was most commonly called a "pica pole."

Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to say that the Hammond Glider Saw was used to cut "type." It was almost never used for that purpose. ("Type" in context refers to individually cast characters.) Instead, the Glider Saw was used to cut cast lines of type (such as those cast by the Linotype, Interype, and Ludlow linecasting machines), spacing materials, rules, and borders.