The morning call., 1890-10-27
TYPE-SETTING
BY MACHINE.
You Press Key and the Machine
Attends to the Rest.
This Would Make Old Gutenberg SILVER With
an Apprehension Of Witehcraft-spac-
ing Also Done by the Machine.

II Johann Gutenberg, who is said to
haves invented the art of printing, had
stolled up Park Row yesterday, and, act
uated by motives of curiosity, wandered into
an office not hundred feet fIom the Sun
Building, simply to see how. his art had got
along after his death, the chances are that
he would have received shock of astonish-
ment that would have made him gasp. He
would have seen young man wearing a
Derby hat and a diamond scarf-pin gently
tapping some lettered keys on a machine
that looked something like the framework
of girls corset, and il he had asked him
what he was doing, the young man would
have replied:
'.I'm setting tyre"
And this would probably have scared old
man Gutenberg back to DEATH
The Queer-looking machine was Rogers
TypOgraph, named after the inventor, Pro-
fessOr John r. Rogers. 1t seemed the easiest
thing in the world to operate it. All that
was necessary was to press key correspond
ing to the letter that you wanted, and then
another key and another, until you had fin
ished a line, then touch lever and then you
had your writing set up In solid line If
brand new type, manufactured on the spot.
Ii is a wonderful machine, and the Sun re-
porter spent an hour yesterday examining it.
description OF it in technical language
would be as difficult for the reporter to write
as it would be for the reader to understand.
So here's what it looks like to a layman:
The whole affair, in the first place. rests
on the floor, A feet square, and is AZ feet
high. 1t weighs 450 pounds. At the first
sight it is seen that there are two distinct
parts, the body, mass OF iron and STEEL
and the upper part, network of wires,
which, with its keyboard, looks something
= Inc f,TrNa liar Int hpt 10 of fhn
machine the reporter could see
A BLUE FLAME
Surrounding the mouth of small black
pipe. The keyboard was almost the same
as that of an ordinary typewriter, excepting
in the arrangement of the letters and in the
size OF the keys. When you pressed a key
il sank down into hole in the board. Con-
meet d with the lower end of each key was
a stiff wire which extended back about eigh-
teen inches, and from the outer end of this
wire dangled strips of metal which looked
like the steelS Of corset, only they were
notched along the side. These are the feat
ures of the machine which first strike the
observer. When the reporter looked more
closely he found an intricate maze of wheels
and levers and bars and molds and cutting
machines. But complicated as the machine
looked. its working was VerN simple and
could be learned in few minutes.
The dangling strips at the back of the
machine were matrices. In the steel side of
each was the perfect impression Of a printed
letter, from which type could be made. At
the end of each stiff wire hing several
matrices containing Il certain letter, but the
letter was different on every wire. For IN
stance, at the end of one wire hung perhaps
a dozen matrices, all containing a mould of
the letter "e, and another wire contained
matrices of the letter IA, and so on, the
number OF matrices of each letter depending
on the frequency with which that letter oc-
in, santpupn Tins tlara
would be twelve or thirteen "e's" for three
or four ks" In another part of the ma
chine is a wire which contains lot of pecll-
liarly shaped disks of metal which are used
for spacing the words; These will be ex-
planned further on. The keyboard is about
one foot wide. and the stiff wires as they
emerge from under it cover about that
space. Now, these wires spread out and
extend upward and outward. SO that at he
end from which the matrices hang they form
almost a semicircle, with the diameter par
allel with the edge Of the keyboard. This
gives all the wires a slant, and when
matrix is released it slides town the wire
toward the keyboard. That much for the
upper part.
= The black pipe, the mouth of which pro;
trudes troM the hot flame of gas jet, or
lamp, or whatever may be used, connects
with an iron box which is filed with molten
type metal. This is So arranged that when
a rcd in the back Of the machine revolves it
sQuirts a stream of silvery liquid through
the pipe. And now for the working of the
machine. Fastened to
AN IRON STAND
In front of the machine was a leather seat,
just like those used on bicycle. Mr.. c. c.
Ruthrauff, the Vice-President and general
manager Of the Rogers Typograph Company,
who was explaining all the things to re-
porter, asked him to sit down here and to
set TIVE. He did not ask if the reporter
pptbjuu nhnut eattinU He
simply told him to go ahead and set. Hav-
ing seen the young man with the Derby hat
at work, and knowing little about writing
on typewIiters, the reporter went ahead.
lie pies ed t e key bearing the letter :"
There WAS n little rattle and then matrix,
which had been released by the pressure,
came sliding down the wire and fell into
groove right under the keyboard. The
lower end of the matrix hung near the
mouth of the black pipe. The reporter
looked at Mr.. Ruthrauff TO see if that was
all right.
GO ahead. Just write whatever you want
to-"
The reporter touched "f," and there was
another rattle and a slide and another
matrix came down on another wire and
hung beside the first so that the moulds of
the two letters were OH an even line side by
side.
"Supposing want to write another word
now how do make the space?" asked the
reporter.
mark on it."
The reporter did so and disk slid beside
the letter 'f." Imagine piece of iron the
size of half dollar, quarter of an inch
thick on one side and then narrowing down
until it was about as thick as an ordinary
visiting card on the other side.
1t would form sort of circular wedge.
One Of these wedges slipped down with its
narrow edge next to the matrix Of 81. The
reporter then spelled out You, space, s-e-e,
space, it, space, in, space, The, space,
SUN, space, It's, space, So Mr.. Ruth
ranff hadn't followed the reporters finger
and could not see what he had written.
The reporter said he had finished. Mr.
Ruthrauff glanced at the row of matrices
and said: You haven't filed the line.
Touch the quad mark several times. There,
that's right. Now, press the lever near the
floor with your foot, and then take it off
again."
The reporter did so, and 1t seemed that
the whole machine was in motion. The
lever threw rod in the back of the machine
into the gear uf small dynamo, and the rod
turned once and performed wonders. First
IT MOVED BAR
Which pressed against the space disks be
bo otria i1ro