The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-02-19
HELPING THE CoMPosLT0R
A Type-Setting Machine That
Greatly Increases His Speed.

There is comp osingroom at No.
1S9 Broadway thai would make the
average comp0s1tor turn green with
envy. A reception was held there yes
terday. In the corner by tho window
was case, and before it young wo-
man was Picking up type and dropping
1T hap-haZard into funnel in front of
her. The regular clickings of mechan-
ism indicated the Lagerman type-set-
ting machine in operation.
| Lagerman is Scandinavian who has
! devoted forty years to the invention of
type-setting machinery that in some
| measure would increase the effective
| ness of the compositor, or. perhaps, do
away with him altogether. The greater
part of his effort was devoted to the
perfection Of some magazine arrange
ment of type to be set free by key
board similar to that OF a typewriter.
In this effort he succeeded in achieV-
ing mechanical success, but the ma
chine was of complicated character. ex-
Deusive. and liable to get out of order,
so it did not improve on the compositor.
Failing in the attempt to 90 away with
IAO
ceivsd the idea of providing him with a
mechanical continuance by which he
could set an increased number of ems
in a stated period. This attempt, it is
claimed, was prominently successful.
The young woman who gave exhibitions
of her agility yesterday said that she
could set 7U0 ems of ordinary tvpe an
hour by the primitive method still pre-
Yalent, and by the ambideXterous
method made possible by this machine
she could set POO ems an hour.
The machine upon which the patent
in this country was obtained was made
in Sweden, and was mbersome, dis
proportioned and unwieldy in opera
ton The superior workmanship ap-
pearant in all machinery of American
manufacture led the Lagerman Typoth.
et8 Company, having the management
and control of affairs in this country
to have a machine built here, where
the best of milling machinery promised
lighter, tastier, handsOmer, and easier
working machine than they had yet
succeeded in producing-the ideal ma
chine, in fact, of the inventor. This
was the machine the company yester-
dey had on exhibition. A simple little
electric engine supplied the motive
power, but any power. available can be
employed. Both hands are employed
in feeding the funnel, and the skilled
compositor will retain his rank in the
profession as we'll as without his ma
chine. After the type enters the funnel
the machine takes care OF IT, reversing
and turning where necessary to set the
type in correct position on the line, and
sliding into the gally as neatly as the
intelligent compositor conld do II him
self, but ever so much quicker and with
Of the end of line is heralded by a bell,
more than type high, an assortment of
which comes with the machine. When
ore galley is full it can be detached, and
and another attached, and the setting
go on until such time as the composition
feels that he woald like to justify. Then
there is an ingenious apparatus to as
sist this operation. The filled galley is
fastened in tie apparatus and the power |
is turned on. Each line III succession is |
pushed into contriyance like stick.
where the necessary spaces can be
added or substituted. The compositor
does not lift the line of type at any
time, and the justify:ng line holder
Is as convenient as the stick
would be. There is no distributing ap-
oaratus. That part of the work needs
still to be done by the compositor.
Ii is claimed tor the machiue that
hands of ordinary ability
will be able to set and justify from 1000
to 2500 ems an hour, while speedier
hands will do as high as $500. The
skilled compositor will be still required,
and he need learn no new art. He dis
Denses with the stick and gets IN its
stead the justi;ying machine assistant.
Each machine will set three sizes of
type. The expense of the machines,
though not yet fixed, will be only about
one-tenth that of type-setting machines