The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-12
TYpE-sErTING MACHINES.
Setting and Distributing Types Mechanic
aliy-Vast Sums Sunk in Experiments.

ented in this country q type-setting machine,
which IN some respects may be regarded as the
parent Of at least some of the more important
principles OF mechanism since involved in the
construction of the Burr and several later
kindred inventions. In it the types were ar
ranged in upright channels above q key board
and, as successfully liberated by the action of
keys, Travelled singly down inclined planes by
serpentlne channels, and were ranged into Il
long line which had to be subsequently broken
up and justified. A distributor was associated
with the machine, but in the Judgment of prac-
teal printers was less effective than the
setting apparatus. The next machine to
claim public attention in this line was the
Alden, a very large and complicated
thing, 1ull OF delicate mechanicism, which con-
centrated the types to a common center from
r%adiating channels. 1t is said by those inter
ested init that more than $500, 900 in cash has been
put INTO the development of this machine, and
still 1t has not yet been able to demonstrate
itself a practical success, owing to its intricacy,
delcacy, and liability to get out of order. Ac-
companying it was q distributor, in which the
principle now in use on the Burr, Thorne, and
other machines, of automatic selection OF the
types by the various hicks on their edges, was
employed. About 1874 the Page machine was
patented, and later a distributor was associated
with 1t, but after expanding somewhere near u
million dollars on it the stockholders are said to
have allowed their interests to lapse back into
the hands OF the inventor, who is still hopefully
at work on it. The Kastenbein machine,
made made in Brussels, is about twelve
gNoAo Obu anu 10 ulutiSNOOd " W
acceptable in Germany, but has not been found
profitable here. Mr.. George Munro bought
three of these machines about two years ago to
set up the German versions of his Seaside Lii
brary" stories, but found it cheaper to employ
hand labor, and the machines now stand unused
IN his establishment. They are big, clumsy af-
fairs, in which there seems to be a good deal of
waste motion, unnecessary friction, and I'M
called-for complication. No distributor goes
with them. Girls or boys have to distribute the
dead matter" by hand, poking the types sep
arately into little holes, where they drop into
metal channels for transfer to the setting appar-
atus. Another foreign machine that has been
shown, but never introduced here, was the
Fraser, of Edinburgh. 1t set up matter in aman-
ner considerably like the Burr, or the parent
Delcambre machines, but had a distributor that
at least presented the interest of novelty, as it
worked by a sort of reversal of the setting prir-
clple, the types being picked up and carried to
their respective places by the operation OF keys.
Although not successful here, it is said that
this machine is employed proitably in John
Blacks great printing establishment in Edin-
burgh.
Ten Burr machines are used by Mr.. George
Munro; there are three more working in the
Tribune Office, and several are kept constantly
employed by the manufacturers. They have
been tested about two years. The machine is
cumbrous, and its distributor is very noisy, but
both work effectively, and, with two hands to
each apparatus, turn out about as much solid
matter a day as would be expected from seven or
eight ordinarily good compositors. Very expert
and industrious operators can exceed this pro-
portion, but the relative yield of work averages
about that much. The weekly work-siEty
hours-of each team is expected to be about
10000 ems. That is frequently exceeded, and
one team here Of exceptional ability has turned
out 60, 000 ems in a day and 3+3, 0O0 ems in the
week. The cost of composition is divided up
into several small parts. but aggregates a little
less than % cents a thousand ems, as against the
40 cents a thousand paid for composition by
hand. The '%setter, who manipulates the keys,
getty 612 cents. a thousand; the Jus
filters" G1-2 cents, the distributor 4
cents, the ''corrector' 3 cents, tho '4ovurruI-
ners, - who pick out quads, italics and odd sorts
from the dead matter before it goes to the dis
t~ributing machine, get SIS a week each, and
there are two of them employed on the ten ma
chimes; the ''pi settlers get S. or So a week. and
there are other petty fractions of expense on
minor labor fairly chargeable to the machines,
that bring up the total to the amount stated,
That does not include interest on investment,
which Is considerable, as ten machines, with
their distributing apparatus, represent $40, 900.
The types. in the Burr setter, are arranged in
long vertical channels above and in front of the
operator at the key board, and travel down their
several ways to a carrier that brings them out
in a long line to the ~justifer. All odd sorts must
be added by hand. The working Of that APP
paratus is not difficult for anybody to
understand, but the distributing ma
chine is complicated. In the latter the
successive page lines of type are lifted into place
automatically and pushed along continuously on
an endless carrier composed OF separate little
blocks of steel. The hicks on the types are the
guides by which they are, as they pass along,
thrust down into their respective appropriate
channels. Those which are missed in their pro
sressiOn, or odd sorts overlooked by the ''Over-
runner, drop into a pi box TO be set up by girls
and distributed by hand. Each set of channels
constitutes q lease" which, when filed, is ready
to be put in place on the setting apparatus. The
allowed weight of font to each machine here is
1000 pounds. Each machine must be constructed
for one particular size of type. and can be adapted
to no other. Those used by Mr.. Munro are all
built for BREWER. The distributor does not do
its share of the work so rapidly as an expert set
ter can use the type in composition, but the man
ufacturers have refused to sell more than one
distributor with one setting machine.
The opinion of those who have had practical
experience with the Burr machine is that where
employed on straightforward book work or other
largely solid matter, with very little odd sorts,
and when manipulated by skilled men, it is
profitable, but not even then to a very great ex-
tent, and for newspaper work they regardits use
fulness as doubtful. An important considera-
ton is the getting of men to operate it who are
at once skilled compositors, good manipulators
of the keys, and sufficiently able mechanics to
thoroughly understand the machines and keep
them in perfect working order. Whether the
Seeming violence of motion, and friction of so
many small parts, in such a delicate service as
the distributor involves, viii seriously tend to
shorten the profitable working life of the ma
chine or not, @ill best be determined by longer
practical test than has yet been afforded.
A new machine, of which experts expect a
good deal, is the invention of Joseph Tho-ne.
Two of these. one setting BREWER and the other
long primer, are now and for some time have
been, working very satisfactorily in an. office in
Beekman street. The Thorne machine is, in
appearance, the simplest and most compact 1t
comprises both setting and distributing mechan-
ism in one machine, and those several parts may
be operated either independently or together.
The distributing and setting cylinders are
mounted vertically, the former on top and rota-
twenty-five tangentially arranged type channels,
in which the types rest on thei1 sides in vertical
lines. AS the distributing cylinder r~evolves, its
channels are intermittentiy halted exactly over
the channels of the setting cylinder below, and
the hicks on the type and wards on the channel
mouths are the guides that determine whether