The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-30 00:00:00

A TYPE-CASTING AND COMPOSING
MACHINE.

A Correspondent of Ths Times(' A Mechanician') thus de-
scribes a typecasting and composing machine, which is ex-
hibited in the Centennial Exhibititn
The American Typecasting Company exhibit a ma-
chine, which, besides producing type like several
others, " sets up" in the " form " also, ready for
printing. When that process has been accomplished
instead of being "distributed" the metal is thrown
back into the melting pot to be re-cast and set no
again into fresh matter. The machine contains 96
keys arranged as vertical pins in eight rows of 12 each—
pieno fashion—the top of each pin bearing a letter or
other character, and the whole so ccmpactly grouped
that they can be nearly covered by the spread fingers
of an operator, whose province it is to read the copy
and depress the pins accordingly, while the machine
turns round, and the liquid metal squirted into the pro-
per matrix is formed into type and delivered in,the re-
quired order es a continuous stream of composition—
stops, spaces, and all complete. As there have been no
drawings or descriptions of this machine given to
visitors it can only be described from recollection; but
it is only due to the attendant fo say that he took every
pains to explain its working to an endless successicn
of interested spectators. The melting pot, with its
squirting piston and the mould in which the body of
the type is cast, resemble the same parts of the ordins ry
type-caster; but the characteristic feature of this
machine is the bringing up to the type mould as ri quired
each one of 95 matrices. These are so deposited on a
set of frames within the machine that when a particular
pin is touched by the operator the corresponding
matrix is put into a certain position ready to be picked
up by a pair of travelling iron fingers which carry it
forward to cover the end of the type mould. When
the type is cast it is taken back and stowed away in
its proper pigeon-hole until again wanted, and this
process goes on at the will of the operator with any
of the 96 matrices in succession, When the type is
cast the mould opens and another pair of iron
fingers gently withdraws the delicate morsel and
slips it into a die—whence it is delivered perfectly
trimmed. All these movements are effected by
cambs secured to a drum revolving in the lower
part of the machine. The speed at present realized
is not equal to that of a good compositor, and is very
far short of what is obtained on the composing
machines which for some years "rive been in
practical operation in The Times offis•e. I there-
fore, consider this casting and composing naachine
to be still in a crude shape, and important modi-
fieations must be made in its details before the
results can be considered satisfactory. Un!ess each
pin is touched at the precise moment there is a miss,
and the operator is thus left without any margin of
time for the exercize of his volition. The questin
of cost, too, Arises, And the machine exhibited
unnecessarily heavy and spread out. It is, however,
a most ingenious attempt at the solution of mechanical
problems which in the old world the most daring in-
ventor would not dream of accomplishing by one com-
bination. By two separate machines the results sought
for have already been fully attained in Printing-houae-
ill •