Balls
. As much good printing was done
with these, a short account may not be uninteresting.
They consisted of two circular pieces
of felt, leather, or canvas covered with composition,
stuffed with wool and nailed to the
ball stocks, used to cover the surface of the
article to be printed with ink, in order to obtain
an imprefsion from it. Moxon says they were
occasionally stuffed with hair; and that if the
ball stocks were six inches in diameter the
ball leathers were cut about nine inches and a
half in diameter. They were made larger,
according to the work they were required for;
those used for newspapers were the largest.