had 537 machines, its own paper mill, mechanics' shops, chemists'
laboratories and
joiners' shops,
[italics mine] and the firm used Miller & Richard's type "almost
entirely."
The
Printers' Register
began the serialization of John Southward's "Practical Printing"
in 1874 and the two installments of Chapter IV on type cases
appeared in the November and December 1875 issues. Southward
repeats the 1872 improvement in the half case with the identical
lay diagram and describes it as having been "adopted by Messrs.
McCorquodale." He also describes and illustrates an improved
double case with only five rows of boxes in the upper case
division. Southward states, "...the uppercase division consists
of five rows of boxes instead of seven; more space is thus
allowed for the capitalsfractions and accented letters
being excluded," and it too was "...used by Messrs. McCorquodale
& Co."
Considering Miller & Richard's dominant position in the
British type founding industry, McCorquodale's heavy use of M&R's
types and Southward's continuing deep interest in all aspects of
the British typographical scene it is reasonable to assume that
there was a considerable on-going communication among the three.
McCorquodale's improvement in the half case and double case must
have occurred at least a couple of years before being reported
by Southward in the
Printers' Register,
possibly as early as 1870, and it is not unreasonable to assume
that M&R soon learned of the McCorquodale innovation very soon
after it was adoptedafter all, much of the type going into
McCorquodale's cases was made by M&R. So when Miller & Richard
began their negotiations with