Fig. 7

■ I # 4 А T • ■ Il
■ I «Ufi ■ »I

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Fig. 8

any kind of scientific training failed to approach
people professionally engaged in the problems
confronting us. The answer is that we did as far as we
were able, but I'm afraid on the whole people are not
inclined to help if they do not think the project will
work or if they feel no necessity for it. Not so though
with Dr Quinn, at least he kept an open mind and
through his guidance and discipline we more or less
started all over again.

Dr Quinn made me do two things. Firstly he pointed
out that as professional letterers we might have all
kinds of built-in prejudices as regards spacing which
could at least partly be ruled out if we spaced symbols
which we had not previously spaced. Secondly,
with the same set of symbols he suggested ways of
finding out whether or not wider or narrower spacing
was the result of adding or subtracting a constant
(Fig. 8). The illustration shows in the top three lines
the results of eye-spacing. The method of spacing
was as follows. Two squares were placed at a set
distance apart in the centre of a large white board and
on either side all the other symbols were arranged
and rearranged until several answers were obtained
for every combination of symbols. The experiment
was repeated several times. In each series the squares
were set closer. As can be seen the spacing reduces
in a constant fashion and in this experiment there was

no sign of a proportional decrease.

The lower line is an example of putting the same
symbols through the instrument such as it was at that
time.

One small and perhaps significant detail worth
drawing your attention to is that a triangle with its
apex at the top tended to require more space than a
triangle the other way. I have not really found this
reiterated in letters. For example the 'A' and 'V', but
then the impact on the retina is considerably less
forceful. But it shows clearly enough that one must
not necessarily expect the same spacing if symbols
are placed upside down.

By now we had evolved a fairly reliable instrument
for working with. For example, we had achieved a
tolerably even area of light from a multi-light source
of small bulbs and we had ironed out an optical
system to bring all the light that passed through the
letter onto a photo-cell. We made up films of
alphabets so that a letter could be passed back and
forth over the light wedge until the light was balanced
on each side. But we still did not possess the perfect
wedge, and it may well be that being a perfectionist I
never shall. It depends on how obsessional one is.
About this time I was shown how to make wedges by
mechanically moving a mask or profile across a piece
of film, and although I now know what must surely

Fig. 9

be the best way of all, we are still using this method.
The eye

Naturally enough I've read and digested what I can
about the eye, but it is immensely complicated
(Fig. 9). I should perhaps remind you that there are
about 130,000,000 receptors in the retina of the eye.
The peripheral parts of the retina are more sensitive
than the central part of the eye, which is more
accurate. The receptors in the periphery tend to be in
groups of rods belonging to a single optic fibre,
whereas the cones in the fovea tend to be connected
singly to their optic fibres, and thus have a more
direct line to the brain. My own feeling is that the

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