THE LINOTYPE MACHINE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIII, Issue 15000, 31 January 1899, Page 2

THE LINOTYPE MACHINE.

PROGRESS OFTHE " CHRONICLE."

As doubtless many of our readers who have not had the opportunity of seeing our Linotype machines at work will be pleased to have before them a picture of a machine, together with a description of it, aud a brief history of the iuvnlor, we take the following from a recent number of the livening Post : — The introduction of the JMergenthaler Linotype machine has worked a wide departure from fche methods which have universally prevailed in priiiting-r.ll'.c'W right back from the year 1455, when Guttcnberg and Faust, m the cloisters of Muitz, turned out the first hook printed from movable types. No doubt a description of the wonderful mechanism which, now dois the major portion of the typesetting of this journal will prove of '.nfce-cst lo readers, and a passing word may well be giveu to the man who has wrought lhe modern miracle. , MH O'l'TO lIKROANTHALIvR was born in the kingdom of Wurlemberg, Germany, in Mvy of 1851 In his fmr--tepr.fch yiar ],i- w.is apprenticed to .t watc'tmake.' afc Bletlgheim, and in his eighteenth year (1872, he landed in Baltimore, U.S.A., his sola possessions being a trunk ani £6 i-. «ish. Mi" genthaler made direct for Washington, where for some years he was occupied iv . making ir.s'.ruinenU for the State Signal Service by 'lay. and experimenting upon oilier pejples ideas for the production of type-setting by machinery by night. Fr un 1876 r.o 1879 he tiled lo improve, .vpon other people's notions but in lhe : atic? year he i'orsooli. all olheis, and si.t out upon his own ideas. Ihe lcsult, in JS9BO, was the first iine-ol-(ype set by machinery. The term "linn type" immediately became part of aur language, the perfected machine did not oo.ne until six years later, and it. did not appear as it" it hud come to stay until some years later, for, liko all pioneer inventions, it met with a most viole.it opposition fron not only labour interests, but vested capital also. The machine was so revolutionary in its results, the porduct so unlike anything known to tho art, that printers as a rule refused to consider it ; and it was only after years of persistent effort that the JMcrgenthtiler was established as a desirable and reliable invention, worthy to stand with the webprinting machine, the telegraph, and kindred improvements which have made the modern newspaper what it is. Looking at the machine as it stands ready for uss, the Linotype does not impress the vivilor. It is not massive, nor does it appear 'intricate ; in fact, it has au appearance of simplicity which is deceptive — until it moves. Then it has all the wonders of a sentient being. Ihe operator touches a key— one of 90 on a board very similar to that of a typewriter — and there is immediately brought into play faculties which for many generations even the most intelligent of compositors prided himself was monopolised in his hand and brain — that it was an utter impossibility that machinery could ever be wrought which would be able to cany out the formula involved in the colloquialism : "You touch the button, and I'll set type!" The writer will attempt to bring before the mind's eyj of the reader WHAT Till; LIXOTYPK ItKAI.t.Y Isi DOI.NU, and how it does its work. Standing behind the operator we notice that the engineer has switched on the belting, which connects with a shaft driven by the gasengine below, wliich supplies the power for the whole of the machinery in the buildings. The foreman printer gives the operator" several sheets of paper—technically known as "copy" — on which is written some of the news of the day. The "copy" is then placed on the stand in front of the operator, who glances tit it, and having mentally absorbed some eight or ten words, proceeds to convey those words to the machine. Directly in front of the operator, and above the keyboard, a portion of the linotype's mechanism is covered by a sheet of bent glass, behind and above which is the "magazine." In this magazine no less than 1,970 matrices are stored in a number of narrow channels. A matrix is known in typefounding phraseology a.s the "female" type, because from it the type is cast. It is made of brass, about an inch square, and one-twelfth of an inch thick, cut for half its length in a V shape, and with many ridges or teeth, for the purposo of distribution, and haviug on its edge the engraved letter which becomes the die in casting the line. As the operator touches the keys in rapid succession. THK MATIUGKS ABU SKKN VALI.ISO from the mouths of the channels in the magazine, the mouths being kept, closed by a valve, which is in affinity with the keyboard. Falling from the' magazine, tiie matrices are received successively on an inclined travelling belt, by which they are carried downward and delivered one* after another, side by side — similarly to the wayHe compositor arranges the type by hand — into the receiving frame, which takes tho place of the " stick " in hand composition. Above the receiving frame hang a number of steel " spaces " containing a wedge within a shit. This ingenious device helps towards performing the bulk of the. labour-saving work of the machine, in, that by ifc the matrices are spaced out to the width of the column. A large portion of the hand-compositor's time is taken up with the justification of a line of type to its required measure. Oftentimes lie fails to " space " to the nicety demanded by critics, and here is a mechanical device which is superior to Tin: avmiauk compositor ill the eveness of its spacing. When the operator has finished " setting " the line of matrices, he presses a lever which is situate at his right hand, alongside the keyboard. Immediately tlje line is carried out of sight to the left of the operator, who then goes on " setting " his next line. Quick as the operator is in putting together the following line of matrices, the first linotype is quickly pushed within our sight before the lever has been pressed a second time. After the matrices art drawn out of sight, pressure from below is brought to bear on the "spaces" previously mentioned, and the line nicely and tightly justified. Then it is automatically "turned until the face of the letters or dies are brought against the face of the mould-wheel, and when in position they are in line with a slot or cell of the exact thickness of the type then being operated. The slot on its rear side communicates with the delivery mouth ol spout of a melt-ing-pot, which is continuously heated by a small gas-jet. A pump-plunger within the pot is then brought into play, and drives the molten metal from the mouth of the pot into the mould, where in a moment it is solidified. The mould-wheel makes a partial revolution, lvi ning the mould-slot from its horizoi|tal to a vettical position. While the mould stand-, in this position a horizontal ejector quietly advances from he rear and pushes the slug — wliich now bears Tlir. IMPRESS 01' A I.iXK-OF-TYl'j; on its face — forward out of the mould and between trimming knives into the receiving

"galley," on the front of the machine, and to the left of the operator. So the finished linotype comes to view, and a vibrating arm gently advances the linotypes one after the other along the " galley," into which they are assembled side hy side in column form. One of the most ingenious portions cf the mechanism of the Linotype is that which automatically distributes the matrices into their separate spaces in the magazine, after the line has been impressed into metal. The visitor early in his inspection becomes interested in a long iron arm set like a thing apart at the btick of the machine. After the casting of the line of matrices, the line is lifted vertically, then, shifted by a side movement, when down swoons the iron arm, like a bird that seizes its prey with its feet, and, grasping the line of matrices, lifts them up i and away to its eerie in the highest back 1 part of the machiue. So INGENIOUS AND HUMAN HAND-LIKE is the toothed plate attached to the long ram of this incident that iv its taking of the matrices it leaves the steel spaces, which are taken back by another piece of mechanism to their receptacle at the side of the magazine. Many an operator who has sat under the long-armed distributor for the first time has involuntarily moved btick when the descent has been made, as though to get out of the reach of some uncanny thing. It will be remembered that in the early portion of this article it is stated that the • matrices are cut into a V-shape, and marked wjth many teeth. No two teatrices of the alphabet or other dies are marked alike in their cutting — they are subject to as many variations as the wards of an intricate lock — and these differences are relied upon as the means for effecting distribution into the magaziue. A rigid metal bar is fixed in position above the open upper ends of the magazine channels, and is grooved at its lower edge with longitudinal teeth or ribs so formed that each matrix is suspended from the bar until it arrives over its own particular apartment, when its teeth immediately let go their hold upon the bar and the matrix drops into the magazine ready for the touch of the operator to call it into active service again. It is A MOST INTERESTING to stand upon, the rear foot-board and watch the matrices being moved by mechanical ingenuity along the grooved bar, tike a, passenger swung into space on a single-rope suspension bridge. In the case of the matrix voyageur, it literally hangs by its teeth during its journey, but ifc always gets to its prober destination.