Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-20
TYPE SETTING BY MACHINERY.
Organization of the Thorns Type Setting Ma
chine Company of Texas

Organization of thu Thorne Type Setting Ma
chine Company OF Texas
The charter having been received from
Austin the Thorne type setting machine
company of Texas was organized in this
city last night at the Office of the Fort
Worth loan and construction company.
| The directors chosen were T. J Hurley I,
| George L. Hurley, Robert Mozart, E. G.
| Senter and w. L. Malone, who elected
the following officers for the en-
suing year: T. J. Hurley, pres
ident; E. G. Senter, vice-presi-
| dent; John NJ. Conner, secretary, and
George L. Hurley, treasurer. The COM
pany Is capitalized at 5000, 900, and will
soon have a machine at work, setting
and distributing type. The Thorne ma
chine is the triumph of the many efforts
to set type by machinery, and is the
marvel of the age. The one great diff
Guilty, distribution Of type, having been
overcome by the Thorne machine, q
brief description of 1t will be interesting.
The following is taken from the Hart
ford Conn Post, which paper is set
I'D by the Tborne;
parts of the country concerning the practical
working of the wonderful Thorne type setting
machines which are known to have been in
operation in setting type for this paper for
nearly three years, and for the last year or
more have been thus employed to the exclusion
of all hand composition for reading matter. The
Post has four of these perfected machines in its
composing room, though rarely more than three
are in use, as single machine will ''set'' from
one to two columns per hour easily. The Post
has given the Thorne the severest possible tests
at time under the most unfavorable conditions,
with view to discovering all imperfections
or weaknesses, and all causes OF COM
plant which would be likely to develop under
its practical use in newspaper and book offices,
or wherever types are set for printing, The re-
suit is all that could be wished, and the Post is
prepared to indorse the machine fully and
heartily as being perfect substitute for hand
labor and wonderful economizer Of time and
money in the composing-roo
Itmay be Of interest to readers of the Post, as
It certainly will be to contemporary publishers,
to read brief and not too technical description
of the workings of the type setting machines,
used in the daily production of this paper. The
machines are started at 1880 o'clQck every
morning, a small electric motor furnish
ing the slight power needed. Each machine
Typewriter, and at each keyboard sits a young
Ia dy operator. Before her is spread the copy
which she is to put in type, and her nimble fn-
gers pass with such rapidity over the keys that
she is able to set as much type on the machine
in a given time as three or four compositors
would in the same time set by hand He lease
is always full, for the machine automatically
keeps itself constantly supplied with type, and
thus no time is lost in distributing Should
it be necessary to change copy at any moment,
or any number of times, it can be done in an in
slant, and the interruption of rushing in
item at the last moment, when a machine hap
pens to be otherwise employed, causes not
the slightest inconvenience or delay. With ordi-
nary care few or no errors are made; the machine
itself cannot make mistake, and all errors that
occur are the result of insufficient attention or
undue haste on the part of the person operating
it. Every letter is deity directed to its proper
position by the ingenious little packer, - with
as much delicacy and positiveness as if it pos
sessed intelligence, and with such apparent
daintiness of touch to render injury to the
types almost beyond possibility.
The machine is simple in its design and con-
struction; its parts are all easily accessible and
it runs hour after hour without giving its attend
ants any trouble beyond supplying it with copy
and taking away the galley after galley of per-
working hours OF every day.
As stated before the Thorne machine is giving
perfect satisfaction here. 1t has proved itself
equal to all the emergencies of daily newspa-
per, and has come to occupy place in the re-
gard, if not in the affections OF everybody con-
nected with the Post, which could not be filed
in any other way. 1t has come to stay, first be-
cause it gives better service than handwork has
ever given, second because it does Its work
with three or four times the rapoity OF the Or
binary composition, and third because it saves
very large per cent. OF the cost under the old
method. This is great deal to say of any ma
chine; but the pay roll Of the composing room
for the last dozen years will substantiate the
statement, and figures in such cases do not pre-
Varicate.