Set at Random

When compositors cannot make up their matter into pages as they compose it, either by reason of their working in companionship, or from other causes, they put it in galleys till they can make up; this is termed Setting at Random. When a compositor is obliged to set a great quantity at random, so that it becomes inconvenient, on account of the number of galleys it occupies, and the room it takes up on the cases, he ties it up in moderate-sized pieces and puts it on page papers under his frame, with a bit of paper stuck in each with a number, to mark the order; if it be a work in quarto or folio, too large for page papers, he ties a cord round the matter in each galley and keeps it on the slices of his slice galley under his frame, till he makes up.