The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-02-16
THE CoNPOsIToR.
A Type-Setting Machine That Greatly In.
creases His Speed.

cTeaSeS iaiS speed.
There is composing-r ON at No.
189 Broadway that would make the
average compositor turn green with
envy. 4 reception was held there yes
terdav In the corner by the window
was a case. and before it a young
woman was picking up type with both
hands and dropping it hap-hazard into
a funnel in front of her. The regular
cIickings of partially-eoncealed piece
of mechanism indicated the LagermaD
type-setting machine in operation.
Lagerman is Scandinavian who
has devoted forty years TO the inven
tion of type-setting machinery that in
some measure would increase the
effectiveness of the compositor, or,
perhaps, do away with him altogether.
The greater part of his effort was de-
voted to the perfection of some maga-
zine arrangement of type to be set
free by keyboard similar to that OF
a typewriter. In this effort he sue
ceeded in achieving mechanical sue.
cess, but the machine was of compli-
Gated character, expensive, and liable
to get out of order, so it did not i'm.
prove on the compositor Failing in
the attempt to do away with the COM
positor entirely, Lagerman conceived
the idea of providing him with a me.
chanical contrivance by which he
could set an increased number of ems
in stated period. This attempt, it is
claimed. was preeminently successful.
The young woman who gave exhibi-
tions of her agility yesterday said that
she could set 700 ems of ordinary type
an hour by the primitive method still
prevalent, and by the ambidexterous
method made possible by this machine
she could set $500 ems an hour.
The machine upon which the patent
in this country was obtained was made
in Sweden, and was cumbersome, dis
proportioned, and unwieldy in opera
ton. The superior workmanship ap.
parent in all machinery of American
manufacture led the Lagerman Typoth-
etn Company, having the management
and control of affairs in this country,
to have machine built here, where
the best of milling machinery promised
a lighter, tastier, handsomer, and
easier working machine than they had
yet succeeded in producing-the ideal
machine, in fact, of the inventor.
This was the machine the company
yesterday 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
well as without this machine. After
the type enters the funnel the machine
takes care of it, reversing and turning
where necessary to set the type in cor
rect position on the line, and sliding il
into the galley as neatly as the intelli-
gent compositor could do it himself,
but ever SO much quicker and without
danger of "pi." The near approach of
the end of line is heralded by bell,
warning the cOmpositor to insert
space more than type high, an assort-
ment of which comes with the machine.
When one galley is full it can be de-
tached and another attached, and the
setting go on until such time as the
compostor feels that he would like to
justify. Then there is an ingenious
apparatus to assist this operation.
The filled galley is fastened in the ap-
paratus and the power is turned on.
Each line in succession is pushed into
a contrivance like stick, where the
necessary spaces can be added or SUBJ
stituted. The compositor does not lift
the line of type at any time, and the.
justifying line holder is as convenient
as the stick would be. There is no
distributing apparatus. That part of
the work needs still to be done by the
compositor.
1t is claimed for the machine that
newspaper hands of ordinary ability
will be able to set and justify from O.
600 10 $500 ems an hour, while speed
ier hands will do as high as $500. The
skilled compositor will be still re-
quired, and he need learn no new art.
He dispenses with the stick and gets
in its stead the justifyng machine as
sistant. Each machine will set three
sizes Of type. The expense of the ma
chimes, though not yet fixed, viii be
only about one-tenth that of type-set-
ting machines generally employed.
NeW York Times.