Preindreesk

NIGHT WATCH — Preindreesk, hot-metal composing room. Four case drawers, swiped sideways. Two hold deduction puzzles, two hold the printing trade's own arithmetic. 00:40 — DRAWER ONE, MOULD PAIRS. Magazine printed with numbered moulds. Tap cells to paint them into a region, one region per mould, each holding exactly the number printed on it. Fill every open quad, then the regions must pair off into twins of matching shape. Sixty-four boards logged, four-by-four to eight-by-six, adding blocked quads, off-centre and unnumbered moulds, mirrored twins. 02:15 — DRAWER TWO, SLUG JUMPS. Tap a cast slug to lift it, then tap a lit quad two places on to jump over a neighbour and lift that one off the galley. Clear down to one slug to finish. Seventy-eight galleys checked, three jumps up to twenty-one, later ones adding chased quads, a target quad and diagonal jumps. 04:50 — DRAWERS THREE AND FOUR. Alloy Bench turns tin and antimony percentages into charge weights and a pouring band. Copy Fit turns character count, measure, point size and leading into set lines and overset. Watch ends.