Steel Bars Measured in Picas

Can someone please tell me what these bars are used for. My guess is that they are used within a chase perhaps to create a smaller frame. They are marked in picas. Thank you

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Helps to know what you are talking about. There’s not much steel used in printing lockup — mostly lead, wood, and cast iron. Some folks mistake leads and slugs for steel. There are several kinds of cast iron and cast aluminum furniture that could fit your description. Photos would help.

Bob

Sorry for the confusion. The pictures posted in a duplicate topic by my mistake. Here they are.

image: Metal Bars - 05.jpg

Metal Bars - 05.jpg

image: Metal Bars - 04.jpg

Metal Bars - 04.jpg

image: Metal Bars - 03.jpg

Metal Bars - 03.jpg

image: Metal Bars - 02.jpg

Metal Bars - 02.jpg

image: Metal Bars - 01.jpg

Metal Bars - 01.jpg

They are made to fill-out empty page sections of large forms.

…and are called interlocking furniture. In a form they weigh less and are more stable than a solid area of furniture.
Morgan & Wilcox in the US made 3-pica wide pieces just like this, and also lighter 2-pica pieces with a single notch. Challenge made the heaviest, 10 picas wide.

I’m adding a photo of the different styles on hand. Challenge to the leftt, and M&W to the right in three varieties: three-pica and two-pica with one-pica steps, and three-pica with 18-point steps

image: interlockmix.jpg

interlockmix.jpg

Exactly as your resume and verified above (Steel interlocking furniture/Girder furniture etc) in U.K. used for blanking out & furniture saving, especially for example on a Big American Meihle, with 8,16, or 32 pages up, per forme where pressure on lock up was critical, i.e. 4 steel interlocking bars, per blank page, was far superior to blanking out with many units of resalite or aluminium furniture!!!

As pictured in you shot 4, it was/is perfectly normal to achieve plus/minus 2 picas overall outside measure with selective positioning of the steps/bars, as strong in either format.!!

Several other applications were employed (with interlocking) the most common was as *BEARER RAILS* with extra packing, on Moulding Press,s to produce Plastic/Rubber plates, from Phrenolithic Board, Flongs.? Our moulding presses worked, generally, at/with more pressure than was normal from H/Berg Platen.

Just for fun, possibly, check the height of your girder furniture against Standard spaces from 18 - 72 point, but only from Giant Caster U.S.A. or Supercaster, U.K. >NOT FOUNDERS< you may possibly be surprised??? let ingenuity fly free and hazard a guess at another application (from way back) we utilized. No prizes, Sorry. Mick.