RAB
 

AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF
 

R
 

THE eighteenth letter in the English alpha¬
bet, and one of the most commonly recur¬
ring, having in this respect only eight letters
in advance of it, or e, t, a, i, o, n, s and h.
It is thin, being usually about half way
between a thick space and an en quadrat,
or about two-fifths of an em. It is neither ascending
nor descending. The capital is generally about two-
thirds of an em in thickness. It bears no resemblance
in form to the lower case letter. The IK bizarre is a letter
found in the productions of a printer of incunabula, who
is not otherwise known. R bears most analogy to 1, in
pronunciation, and is frequently transposed with it. As
a Latin numeral it indicates 80; with a dash over it,
80,000 ; R, on ancient medals, signifies Ravenna, redux,
regia, restitutor, Roma, Romanus; P. R., populus Ro¬
manus; R. P., respublica; R, C.,Roma condita; R.M.S,,
Romanus; R. C,, rescriptum. Among names R signified
Roscius, Rubrius, Regulus, Rufus, &c. In numismatic
works it signifies rare, and the different degrees of va¬
riety are indicated by one, two, three, &c. In dignities
it stands for Rex or Regina, and the English monarch
always adds it to his or her name, as George R. On the
stage it means right; that is, the right side of the stage.
Rx. is rix dollar.

Rabo (Sp,).—"Dead horse;" work paid for before
it is completed.

Raboseado (Sp.).—Printed sheets which, from much
handling, have been soiled.

Rack Chase.—A chase made with mortises along
its inner edges, one side matching the other. Crossbars,
two in number, are fitted into these receptacles, and be¬
tween them a small form is placed and secured by quoins
against them. By this contrivance a very small form
can be securely locked up on a very large press.

Racks.—Receptacles for holding cases, boards, &c.
They are upright, with strong framework, and are the
width of one case. In height they may reach seven or
even eight feet.

Rahme (Ger.).—The chase.

Rahmchen (Ger.).—The frisket.

Raikes, Robert, the founder of Sunday schools,
was born at Gloucester, England, on September 14,1735.
His father was the publisher of the Gloucester Journal,
and he was early initiated into its business. As a printer
he was noted for good work. He became interested in
prisoners confined in jails in the same manner as How¬
ard. Their condition was indeed miserable. He helped
them with his pen, his influence and his money. Seeing
the deplorable condition of many of the children in his
place, he founded a school on Sunday to teach them re¬
ligion and morality, and the good consequences which
soon followed caused these schools to be imitated every¬
where. Others had before attempted the same thing,
but there was no general extension of the system. The
date assigned to this is 1781. Sunday schools were in¬
troduced into the United States about 1805, and have
now extended all over the globe, doing incalculable
good. Mr. Raikes succeeded his father as publisher of
the Gloucester Journal, and died on April 5, 1811.

484
 

Railroading.—Marks made at the end of a series of
lines by a proof-reader when he wishes a number of
words or parts of words to be transposed to succeeding
lines.

Railway Buff-Paper.—The English name of a
common machine-made paper of buff color, very strong
in texture—generally used by railway and other carriers
for delivery-sheets, &c.

Railway Ticket Printing.—Although railways
were in operation in the United States as early as 1830-32
it was not until 1855 that tickets bearing consecutive
numbers were printed here. That safeguard had been
adopted in Great Britain some time previously, and sin¬
gle road or local tickets with consecutive numbers had
been imported by American roads. In the year named
George Bailey came to this country from England, and
with one or two presses to print single or " card local"
tickets (the invention of John B. Edmondson, of Man¬
chester) established himself at Buffalo, N. Y., where he
made a fortune in this special business.

Early in the sixties Sanford, Harroun & Warren of Buf¬
falo conceived the idea of applying consecutive numbers
to coupon tickets—i. e., tickets conveying passengers
over two or more connecting roads. For this purpose
Hibberd, an engineer in the United States Navy, was
employed to construct a machine that would at one im¬
pression (taking the paper from a roll) print and number
each ticket and cut the same laterally and longitudi¬
nally. To accomplish the automatic numbering George
J. Hill of Buffalo devised the numbering wheel, which
is in common use to day, consisting of a series of disks
having engraved upon their periphery the numbers 0 to
9, which, worked in unison by a series of ratchets and
dogs, imprinted units, tens, hundreds and thousands, as
required. So successful was the outcome of this project
that the concern of Sanford, Harroun & Co. was soon
after established in New York city, where they not only
pushed forward the business of ticket printing, but also
built and sold to others machines with which to inaugu¬
rate the business elsewhere. Thus Rand, McNally & Co.
of Chicago commenced the business of ticket printing,
Mr. McNally, as manager of the Chicago Tribune job
office, having purchased the first machine for the North¬
west.

The Liesenring Printing House (now Allen, Lane &
Scott) of Philadelphia, and J. G. Wrightson of Cincin¬
nati, each with one of these presses, commenced the busi¬
ness in their respective localities. From this time for¬
ward offices for this special manufacture sprang up in
other parts of the country as fast as the rapid extension
of the railway system created the demand, resulting in
the invention of labor-saving machinery and the adop¬
tion of new ideas, permitting American concerns to com¬
pete successfully with foreign houses wherever they have
come in contact.

At the present time the leading concerns in the United
States are three in Chicago, one in Boston, one in New
York, one in Philadelphia, one in Baltimore, and one in
St. Louis.

Raine, Frederick, editor and proprietor of the
German Correspondent, Baltimore, Md., was born at
Minden, Prussia, on May 13, 1821.    While very young