Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-01-24
A GIANT AMONG INVENTORS.
A .TyPe.Setting Machine Which
Will Supersede All Others.

A .TyPe.Setting Machine which
Will Supersede All Others.
Special Correspondence OF the STANDARD.
A great many interesting letters
have been written by people who have
delved among the records of the
Patent Office, describing the ludicrous
traps, motors, advertising schemes.
and other devices for which patents
have been granted. The resources Of
the inventive faculty OF the " Yankee"
seem to be inexhaustible.
The government has recently
granted two patents which cover
probably the most intricate and COM
pick machine ever constructed. 1t is
claimed that before the first machine
was perfected the company construct
ing it had expended one million three
hundred thousand dollars. The first
application filed contained 204 sheets
of drawings, having over 1000 separ-
ate views. During the eight years
the case was pending in the Office be-
fore the allowance, the number OF
sheets was reduced to 163. When ii
is remembered that the majority OF
patents have but a single sheet OF
drawings, and that to require as many
as ten sheets is quite an exception,
the magnitude of the invention can
be understood.
The fees charged by the Patent
Office are uniform for all cases, no
matter how complex or how simple,
SIS on filing the case and $40 addi-
tional on allowance of the patent.
When this case was filed it was
turned over for examination to an ex.
aminer who received salary of ST.
800, and he spent six weeks in study
ing the case before being able to make
the first action. The entire specifca-
ton was twice rewritten, each time by
different attorney. How much this
cost the inventor is not known, but it
is rumored that the attorney who first
prepared the case received q fee OF
$40 900, and an allowance of $1,000
extra to pay for drawings.
While the case was pending, the
examiner who first had charge of it
resigned, and it was turned over to
another assistant OF same rank. This
assistant went over the entire ground
three times, consuming several weeks
and finally he was authorized to 20 to
Chicago and epend month in exam
lining working machine. When the
request was first made of the Com
missioner that the examiner be per-
mitted to make the trip it was
promptly refused. The chief of the
division then carried the papers, max
ing a pile two feet thick of unfolded
drawings and typewriter specifica-
ton to him, and the Commissioner
said: "He can CO."
The invention is machine for SET
ting, justifying and distributing type,
and comes as near being q substitute
for the compositor's intellect, as we'll
IS hand, as any machine can. 1t
comprises no less than eighteen thous-
and separate parts. and has eight hun.
dred bearings for shafts, about half oil
the shafts rotating continuously and
the rest Internationally as required to
perform their various functions. Here
the mechanic Can study the cam in all
its glory. The justifying part of the
apparatus was made the subject of a
second patent, which contains 81
sheets of drawings, giving a total Of
PA sheets for the entire apparatus.
The following are a few OF the things
which the machine will do: 1t will
select the type from the case, place
them in q raceway and move them
along until line is set up. justify the
line by inserting spaces of proper
width between the various words. and
convey the justified line to the galley.
Then in distributing it will advance
the column of type line by line to a
forwarder, which conveys it line at q
time TO testing mechanism where all
defective type are thrown out. The
perfect type are advanced to a select
ing mechanism, where type which
have been turned end for end, or be-
come otherwise disarrsnged, are re-
moved; then all wide type and regu.
lar "pi" characters, such as stars, dag.
gers, ETC., are separated from the or.
binary kind OF characters, while the
remaining type are advanced to their
proper channels, the distribution be-
ing stopped when any channel is full.
The most complex part of the entire
apparatus is the justifying mechanism
which, as stated, forms the basis OF
the second patent containing 81
sheets OF drawings. o. course in a
limited space the functions of the
machine can only be briefly indicated.
The Patent Office is a money MAX
ing institution. 1t earns above ex.
penses about 100000 per year, and
now has deposited in the Treasury q
neat little balance Of over $4,000, 600.