A MAN MACHINE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1352, 27 January 1898, Page 13

A MAN MACHINE.

THE LATEST KIND OF TYPESETTER AND TBE WORK IT. CAN DO. •■ . ,; . ' _ 1 suppose, *ays a writer In an English; tiajjfer, that riio'St people aire more or less familiar with the various processes by means of which an author's manuscript is reproduced in type and made; ready to -he. carried down to the printing machine. ; The copy, as it arrives at the printers', is taken Dy the foreman, cut with a pair of scissors into strips, and placed iu a little pile frptii which each compositor as heicbropletes, the work he has in hand draws bis fresh supply. All the types he will require ho has •before him in a series of little compartments in the Blantitig case at whiiih he works. His work,, however, is more mental than manual. He has in the first place to decipher the author's hand . writing. This he then proceeds to trans late into; type, picking out letteraftei letter arid forming the iipaceß,between tbt words by means of. what may be describee v as dummy, type.- * ; ■. ■ - Up to a certain pqint he is supposed t< follow the ccipy exactly, but every print ihg hotise hao standard; rules for spelling arid punctuation which must be borne in mind and it necessary applied. As the end of eadh line is approached the Compositor has to decide whether the space retraining is sufGciant for a complete word or ari eutire syllable* and if it ia not he must increase or the BpaceSi between the previous words in the line that there! may not be a ragged edge to his f column. As each compositor completes his portion of copy in the little tray.-'he holds in his hand he numbers it with white chalk beside the type so that all the various scraps are brought . ; t(>gether upon another tray, about thirty '':Uncheflqhg/cal]ed'a''iialleyt'::' kFrdm this it is divided again into whateveic length column may be required, lifter on, the co aapositor has to effect the corrections from ,the proof-read sheet, and finally, when the type is returned from the foundry, where it has been stereotyped v or from the printing machine he has to re disrinute the yadous letters, . stops, and spaces into their respective compartments. > •The Monotype machine is going to alter all this. I have called the Mono type the Man Machine because whan one sees it in operation it is only with diffi , ; culty that one realisei how it avoids poEsession of reasoning ■powers... It does not, it is tru», actually decipher the author's writing, but when by a single operation; the manuscript has been trans* •< lated into a sucbeasitn < f perforations made on a thin roll of piper it deciphers these unerringly, makes tne type for each letter and the space to divide each word, hot from the melting pot, arranges them in order and arranges line after line in a galley, ready to be corrected by the printer's reader or the author and to go direct to foundry or printing machine. Afterwards there is no"time wasted in distribution. -The u ed type is poured back into the melting-pot ready to be fed again into the machine. The Monotype, therefore, not only performs the work of the compositor, but creapasses into the ' domain of the J;ype-f»under. Ic is a double-headed Man Machine. The I machine actually consists of two parts. It is the fir<it which is med f »r translating the authoi'a manuscript into tfche code intelligible to the second. The operator is seated at a key-board about f.uir times the aizj of a typewriter keyboar'. Like a typewriter the tnachiue , has a ribbbrt which. Consists of a. broad "strip of fine paper wound on two spools; .; ; Thtj kiiya, as they are ■depressed, print , , no actual letters. On, the contrary, they pujich two holes side by tide in this strip ;. of piper." . : .The relative position of theie holes , upon the paper indicates the exact spot on the keyboard <:ccu,.ied by the letter - that h i-t been depressed—info'mation, -the value of which will be presently •'... , seen. .-.'. -•■■...■;'.' , The op*»rifrnr, a* he taps out letter by K't'er, m d -I'm more than the mere V p "foraiinu «>f rh-«M holes i«< the little r<i ; ! <-f pajn-r; 11.- is set tin/ t <n->rk three a-xioOitt!(i roj,!<'i»rrt. O ;-, ; •• >■ n**an* : the end of a line ie«>a- .• ■ <-\>cv amount .of .space that ia v«v ■ • ■ • ■;■ - • . H,;:'•]'l'i'b word or syilable, Kuothur iii^t'i-snowd how much space remains to be divided up among the spaces, already used, while a third has made an addition sum of the spaces that have been used and which \ have now; to be increased by the sur- ; plus; , A single glance at the printed dial ... secures information which enables the to depress one of a numbered row of keys, thus perforating additional holes in the paper indicating the necessary •■ variation from the normal size of the space types for the information, if one may use the expression, of the second part of the machine. Perfect spacing is thus insured. When the required amount of copy has been recorded upon the paper, the unused ; portion is torn off and the used spool is transferred to the second half of the . machine, the half which manufactures the type and sets it in order as directed by the perforations. Only a technical description could make the movements by which 'this marvel ia accomplished thoroughly intelligible. Briefly, however, the process is this : Pneumatic pressure is applied to, the roll of paper as it unwinds, the air forcing

its way through the holes depresses I certain pins which allow for the matrix of whatever letter is to be formed to be brought into position over a mould, into which a jet of molten metal is forced. As this solidities instantaneously it is thrown out and the matrix of the following lette* flies into position* One by one, therefore, the letters and spaces rtiarch out of the mould like little \ tin soldiers; add when a complete line I has been formed they are carried by a mechanical arm the root o'f the galley tray and shunted up it with a little parting shove which is ludicrously human in its unexpressed "get along with you!" A well-known type-setting machine, the Linotype, attained somewhat the same remit by ether processes. E*eh I line, however, was cast in a solid block, I and consequently the alteration of a' i single letter in proof entailed the casting of a whole line' pvei? again. *, But a galley , set up by the "Monotype differs in no way whatever from a galley set up by hand, except that the type is new and glistening . and the justification of the spaces is as I i have explained must be the case, perfect. [ Whatever alterations have to be made may be done by hand as in the cass of , type that has been set into place by a , j.e mipoaitor. i ,

Should the Monotype stand every test to which it is put there will be a complete revolution in ihe art of Composing, and, great as the commercial gain will be, we shall unfortunately lose for ever one of the most interesting of all human types, the omniscient compositor. Instead of the machine like man with his big intelligence, we shall have the man-like machine with its unequalled ingenuity. But the editor will regret the exchange.