Lay Down

To arrange the pages of a sheet, or of a half sheet upon the imposing stone in their proper order, and to take the page papers from under them. See Imposing.

In the warehouse this term is used to denote the placing the printed sheets of a work upon the gathering table in their proper order, for the purpose of gathering them together into complete books.

When a long number has been printed, the warehouseman generally lays down a bundle only of each signature, that the heaps may not be too high for the boys to reach the top sheet in gathering.

The first sheet in the gathering is laid down at the extreme end of the table at the left hand, and the succeeding sheets follow to the right in regular order, with the signature to the front of the table. The person who lays them down should run the signature page over in each heap to see that they all lie the same way, and have not been turned in knocking up, or piling away, which, when it happens, and passes undiscovered, causes a great deal of trouble in collating. See Gathering.