News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-07
TYPE-SETTING MACHINES.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO TAKE THE
PLACE OF HAND LABOR.

How Types nre Set and Distributed Me-
chnnicRlly-Vast sums sunk in Experi-
ment-The Results of Years of Expert
ence.
[From the New York SUM-
In 1871, Frenchman, named Del
cambre, patented in this country type
setting machine, which in some respects
may be regarded as the parent of at
least some of the more important prin-
ciples of mechanism since involved in
the construction of the Burr and several
later kindred inventions. In it the types
were arranged in upright channels above
the key board, .and, as successfully liber-
ated by the action of keys, travelled singly
down inclined planes by serpentine
channels, and were ranged into long
line which had to be subsequently
broken up and justified. A distributor
was associated with the machine, but in
the Judgment of practical printers was
less effective than the setting apparatus.
The next machine to claim public at
tention in this line was the Alden,
very large and complicated thing, full
of delicate mechanism, which concen-
trated the types to a common center
from radiating channels. 1t is said by
those interested in it that more than
$500, 900 in cash has been put into the
development of this machine, and still it
has not yet been able to demonstrate it.
self a practical success, owing to its in
tricacy, delicacy and liability to get out
of order. Accompanying it was a dis
tributor, in which the principle now in
use on the Burr, Thorne and other ma
chimes, of automatic selection of the
types by the various hicks on their
edges, was employed. About 1874 the
Page machine was patented, and later
distributor was associated with it, but
after expending somewhere near a mill
lion dollars on it, the stockholders are
said to have allowed their interests to
lapse back into the hands of the inven-
tor, who is still hopefully at work on it.
The kastenbein machine, made in Brus-
sells, is about twelve years old, and is
understood to be acceptable in Ger
many, 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 'Sea-
side Library" stories, but found it
cheaper to employ hand labor, and the
machines now stand unused in his estab-
lishment. They are big, clumsy affairs,
in which there seems to be a good deal
of waste motion, unnecessary friction
and uncalled-for complication. No dis
tributor goes with them. Girls OR boys
have to distribute the ''dead matter" by
hand, poking the types separately in
little holes, where they drop into metal
ch anpels for transfer to the setting aP-
paratus. Another foreign machine that
has been shown, but never introduced
here, was the Fraser of Edinburgh. II
set up matter in manner considerably
like the Burr, or the parent Delcambre
machines, but had distributor that at
least presented the interest of novelty,
as it worked by a sort of reversal of the
setting prnclple, 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 ma
chine is employed proftably in John
Blacks great printing establishment IN
Edinburgh.
Ten Burr machines are used by Mr..
George Munro, there are three more
working in the Tribune Office, and sew
eral are kept constantly employed by the
manufacturers. They have been tested
about two years. The machine is cum
brous and its distributor is very noisy,
but both work effectively, and with two
hands to each apparatus turns out about
as much solid matter day as would be
expected from seven or eight ordinarily
good compositors. Very expert and in
dustrious operators can exceed this pro-
norton. but the relative yield of work
averages about that much. The weekly
work-6O hours-of each "team" is eX-
pected to be about 10000 ems. Thai
IS frequently exceeded, and one team
here of exceptional ability has turned
out sc, 900 ems in a day and 343, 900 ems
in tne week. The cost of composition il
divided up into several small parts, bu
AGGREGATES little less than twenty-five
cenrs thousand ems, as against thu
forty cents thousand paid for compost
tion bv hand. The ''setter" who manlp
ulates the keys, gets g. cents thousand
the 'iustifers, g. cents; the "distrb
utor" A. cents; the ''corrector" 3 cents
the "overrunners," who pick out quads
italics. and odd sorts from the dead mat
ter before it goes to the distributing ma
chine, get $18 week each, and ther
are two of them employed on the te1
machines; the "pi setters" get So or S
a week. and there are other petty frac
tions of expense on minor labor, falrl
chargeable to the machines, that brln
up the total to the amount stated.
1 That does not include interest on IL
vestnIent. which is considerable, as te
machines, with their distributing at
paratus. represented O,000. The type
I in the Burr setter are arranged IN lon
vertical channels above and In front
& the operator at the key board, and trav'
n down their several ways to carrier thf
= brings them out in long line to the Jul
,, tifer. All odd sorts must be added b
: hand. The working of that apparatr
q is not difficult for anybody to unde
n stand, but the distributing machine
complicated. In the latter the succe
sive page lines of type are lifted mt
> place automatically and pushed alon
o continuously on an endless carrier con
s posed of separate little blocks OF stee
= The hicks on the types are the guld'
4 by which they are, as they pass aloni
!. thrust down into their respective appr
priate channels. Those which a
g missed in their progression, or odd sor
overlooked by the "overrunner, drt
~ into a pi box to be set up by girls al
= distributed by hand. Each set OF cha
- nels constitutes cease" which wh(
,f filed is ready to be put into place
!, the setting apparatus. The allow
\ weight of font to each machine here
- 900 pounds. Each machine must