From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,8d472879e3f609e0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-06-03 13:11:20 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-06!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: "Randy Brukardt" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Case sensitivity (was Re: no title) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 15:12:15 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: References: <3EDCB918.8020905@attbi.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3612.1700 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3719.2500 X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:38551 Date: 2003-06-03T15:12:15-05:00 List-Id: Robert I. Eachus wrote in message <3EDCB918.8020905@attbi.com>... >Preben Randhol wrote: > >> Sidenote: I heard recently on the radio that the reason it is called >> upper case and lower case was that in the old bookprinting times (I >> think it was from Guthenberg if I recall correctly) the capital letters >> were stored in the upper case (drawer) while the small letters where >> stored in the lower case. And from this the names came. Can anybody >> comfirm this? > >Sure, when I was in high school my brother and I earned our spending >money running a printing business. We bought the press and equipment >(including over 150 drawers of type) from a widow whose husband had been >running a printing business out of the basement of her home. She wanted >to sell the house, but needed to get all of that stuff out of the basement. > >The press and type drawers still exist, as a 'living museum' at Eckerd >College in Saint Petersburg, FL. You know you are old when they start >putting your things in a museum! My Dad had a small printing press when he was young, which I sent up in my parents basement and used some in my teenage years. It had a number of type fonts as well. It still exists - in my parents basement. In any case (pun intended), the standard type drawer layout had the upper case in small bins on the left, and lower case in larger bins (of different sizes, with 'e' being the largest) on the right. (Or is it the other way around?) But that layout may be a relatively recent invention (early 19th century?). Randy.