The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-18
APRIEsT,s INVENTION.
A Dominican Father Invenfs an fSiec-
tricaI Type-Setting

London Letter in Philadelphia Telegraph.
This Sicilian priest, Father Catendon,, IS
working in Paris, in the Rue des fourneiies,
in a very modest workshop, where he has
but one workman to help him. The vlsItor
on entering will see a strange lookii,s i at-
tached. BY way of ordinary furniture tners
is but one single chair, standing IN 1ront.o5
a table. Yet from this little WORKSHOP, ano
in spite of its modest surroundings, we are
romised an invention which is destined 20
revolutionize the whole art of printing. The
early printing machines, as most persons
know, were worked by hand, ana II was MOI
possible to produce more than a nunureu
prints in the course of an hour. NOW we
have rotary machines, worked by steam
power, which will turn out 4o,co copies OF -
newspaper in one hour, But accd y onsf in
the art of printing, the art OF settlhs up
type has remained almost stationary since
Certainlv. in England, in switzerland, and
more especially in America, machines LOT
setting up type have been invented ana are
There is. not, however, any type-setting
machine that can put more than 4,WW le.5
this represents the manual labor Of about
three good cornpositors. The fault OF tnese
machines is that each letter Is plae onera-
ton. Father Calendoli, on the cont.aay,
has conceived the idea of placing or SET
ting up" several letters simuitaneomsiy
With one movement of different fingers OF
both hands he can set up the entire WoIu-
The machine. consists OF a SORT e n,ataiIic
fuhas st,,ck to- each other in four sepa-
rate series. The first series has thirty
f three tubes. Each tube contains on
an average a hundred ana my
letters. An electric communication Is s-
tablished between these tubes and a Key
hoard The board is divided into twenty
one small squares, with electric putteHs III
the c~enter-three for the capitals nIteen
for the ordinary letters, and three for the
figures and for letters with accents onea
them. Stops and spaces form a ppatton
line on the board, and can be set In nouoh
nv working pedals with the feet. The let
tiers are printed on each electric button,
arm arm the squares are repeated three by three.
In these squares the consonants are notne.
peated, but the vowais are reped ahe conso-
nants. Most .syllabies can be composed
with one single finger. Thus by placing q
can produce. according to whether the re-
naming part of the finger leans more 70
one side ), or to Q the ot werke sne who had &C,
quired tha skill of a pianist couid r,ns y
four or five words in a second, or son ne
fifty thousand letters in an hour, eacn OF
his fingers producing more than one iet.er
and his feet putting n the stops. SUCH d
performance manders IS arc SECUTED on the piano.
But then an able pianist can generaly maKs
more money than a pianiste; aaso' q ! s;er TO
get a piano to practice upon than one OF
these elaborate electrical setting up MD
chimes. The electrical current IS proauceo
the moment the performer lifts his finger
and releases the stop or button. Inc let
tiers are loosened instantaneousiy, and
drop on a. triangular slide ard slip down
rapidly to reach a spot where they can pc
seen and rectified on a table to the IlghI
of the machine. CompositOrs' errors can nc
easily corrected. but authors corrections
will be more difficult to carry out me
Figaro correspondent, nasihs HE oe wiih one
land to strike simultaneously with TOUR
fingers the four consonants and their &c
commanding vowels, and thus with one SIN
gle movement, like striking do mi sol 90
On the piano, struck out the full title of
ms Th paP Trouble in Comprising is not merely
distributing Of the E type , Which a afso td # has s
back into its place. Then. in time. the type
defnition. Father Calendoli does away With
all this. He has a type-founding machine
which remolds the type for refiiling the
tubes, so that fresh type is always USED.
This, it appears, can be done quicker than
redistributing the type. Then aga n-and
from several machines simultaneously-two,
or even three, sets of tubes containing the
type can be stood side ID by by SIDE connected and
the one stroke of the hand Will set up Two
or three times over the same letters. Thus
different sets for three different printing
machines by the one composer, Ihls pro
duction of duplicates vii th hen e o. tb nor ca re
when only one copy is set up. Nor is this
all. There is no reason whatever why the
| tubes containing the type should be close
| to the keyboard. AS the connection estab-
lished by electric wires: the Keyboard
| might be in one room and the type in an
| ether part of the building. Under these
circumstances there is no reason why jour
nalists should not set up their own articles.
With practice they ought to be able to
| write with such a machine as quickly, in
| deed very much quicker. than with anv or,
binary typewriter. and their articles would
| not only be written. but actually composed
and ready to go on the printing machine.