PRINTING'S NEXT REVOLUTION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 2210, 29 August 1910, Page 2

PRINTING'S NEXT REVOLUTION.

An Austrian named Huga Fetermann has invented a machine which he claims will revolutionise book and magazine printing by reducing its cost enormously.

By methods now prevalent authors first write, or have typewritten, their "copy." This, prior to machine typing, was followed by the compositor, who picked out (1) by hand from his " case " a type for each letter, arranging them iut« lines as he went along. In place of this the usual practice is, at present, (2) that an operator manipulates a keyboard, and the " linotype " machine produces a line of solid types ready for the next process (3) whioh, when a page full of lines is ready, consists in taking an impression sr " matrix " (4) which again in its turn, produces the cylinder of indented metal from which the printing press turns out the page now before the reader's eye. The great revolution in printing during the recent jyears was that described above under process 2—the substitution of machine-setting tor hand-setting. The gain in speed and accuracy is very great. The next great revolution will consist in some contrivance whereby processes 2 and 3 are combined so that the writer will manipulate a keyboard, like that of a typewriter, and thereby produce a matrix for the stereotjper. This is the step which the inventor in Vienna claims to have taken.

"My machine," says Herr Petermann, " outwardly resembles and is worked like a typewriting machine, but it turns out a perfect matrix, ready for being stereotyped. The typist has at his disposal all sorts of type on wheels, which are fixed at the end of levers.

" The number of types depends on the size of the type wheels. " There are separate type levers for small and capital letters ; also for the most frequent syllables, as " in," "un," "up," "for," etc. This saves the typist much labour, enabling him to write seventy or eighty words a minute, so that the. reporter's dictation gets into the matrix almost with the speed of shorthand writing. " There is an arrangement for symmetrically stamping type into the matrix, only so much of the latter being advanced as the depth of the type requires. Alterations of passages in the text are made by cutting them out of the matrix and putting in fresh matter. As to illustrations, cliches of any shape are stamped on the matrix before the typist begins his work. He can then type the text all around the cliche if necessary."