72 PT spacing material

I’ve been organizing spacing material and have run across some spacing material that is thinner than 5 to em but thicker than hairline spacing specifically in 72 pt and 60 pt spacing. Is there specific terminology for these pieces? I’ve seen somewhere that larger point sizes may have thinner than 5 to em but couldn’t find a specific name or terminology. Any insight would be much appreciated!

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afuchs2009: could these spacing in lead which are usually 2pt. same as leads. as far as i know other than 3em, 4em, and 5em are the normal sizes in most space and quad assortments. that leaves only the copper and brass thin spaces. hope that helps. gerald jenny

Potentially, but they have a little knick in them that the regular thin leading does not. I’ve attached an image and they are thicker than the thin leading piece, but thinner than the 5em.

image: IMG_8743.JPG

IMG_8743.JPG

I think they were just called “Thins” but it has been a long time.

Apologies, Can-not offer any practical suggestion(s) regarding the terminology of & for thin spaces.
(Author) have been casting type since 1954, from 5 Pt. up to and including 72 Pt. But have only ever spoken in terms of Quads, Nuts, Thicks, Mids, Thins (and Hair spaces) which can be as thin as practical/possible, - normally governed by the condition of the Type Carrier and *clamps* on the actual Casting Machine.

Generally worked on the basis that all spacing material is based on the SQUARE quad, meaning every, practical,! subdivision turns in for multiples of smaller size spaces, i.e.
72 Pt. nuts = 36 Pt. extended spaces (sideways)
48 Pt. nuts = 24 Pt. extended spaces (sideways)
18 Pt. nuts = 09 Pt. extended spaces (sideways)

The options are not unlimited but many, even, and we have, for Tabular work in 5 Pt. requiring a lot of spacing, used 10 Pt. nuts,- sideways, which was labour saving, especially with many columns in tabular work, as in,
Item column, ..—..—..—..—..—..—.. -, blocks of dittos, with one 10 pt. nut rather than 2 5 Pt, quads.

On the Supercaster, U.K. when casting 72Pt. (and the smaller display sizes) it was common practice to Top Up the hair-space compartment of the case, with as many as possible, and if time permitted with the Hired In display matrices/mats, it was a matter of course, to Top Up any relevant (empty or low) compartment in the Usual >Space Barge< often found in the Composing Room,
generally when Display Type forms were broken down/dissed, back in, the Type was returned to the Case of Origin, and excess spaces returned to the space Barge.

Hopefully helps, if not apologies. But may prompt some real info.

Good luck

When the late Bert Smith was doing his wonderful work with border units at the old Curwen Press I’m pretty sure that a packet of fags changed hands and some very odd spaces were cast to cope with the problems arising. More generally any overseer could and did ask his caster bloke (who was well lower down the hierarchy) to cast specials to meet a local
need in that chapels work. There’s also the strange business in composition sizes of some narrow design faces getting thins
that were six to the em or am I wrong on that?.