Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-01-18

new 1OrR, Jan. lS.-1l00en IN a 1T
tie room on the top floor of a large
lithographing plant, at Grand street
and Morgan avenue, Brooklyn, and ac-
cessible even to the favored few who
ale admitted into its presence only
after traversing maze of locked and
secret passages, is small machine
that goes back 500 years, and tells
Gutenberg, who invented, and his
successors up to Merganthaler, who
perfected the movable type, that they
were all wrong; that the Chinese, who
cut whole sentences and pages on a
single bleck of wood, were nearer the
necessarily.
This liltle machine prints as fast as
typewriter can operate, uses no type,
movable Or immovable, but, instead.
polished plate of metal, from which the
impression may be erased as from a
slate. 1t counts and meas the
spaces in every line, and "justifes
it with mathematical accuracy. When
the printing is done and the plate
erased, it leaves a little paper scroll,
which, when started through the ma
chine again like the hurdy-gurdy roll,
may be locked up alcne II the building
and it will of itself print the whole mat
ter over again absolutely without hui
man direction.
Miracle Of Mechanical Ingenuity.
This miracle of mechanical ingenuity
which might with the exception of the
pr1sses, be carried by boy on his
back, occupies no more space chan
the top of dining rom table. requires
less power to operate than woman ex-
ercises in running sewing machine,
and may De manufactured for one-tenth
of what linotype or monotype sells
for. The inventor is w. S. Timmins,
a small, dark, keeneyed man of about
thirty-five. who tells enthusiastically
II his product, but says nothing OF
himself. He has christened his ma.
chine the lithotype He has none for
sale. He is using the only one in exist
ence, and has printed volumes with it,
AS might be inferred from the ety.
mology Of the word "lithotype," the
process used is akin to lithography
but closely related to typewriting and
the use OF piano playing devices.
The first operator sits at keyboard
similar to that of Remington type.
writer. AS the characters are touched
a strip of paper not unlike a ticket
tape issues perforated mysteriously
from the machine This ribbon runs
into another device operated automati-
cally, which, in turn, grinds cut the
proof in an endless column printed as
from movable type with black ink on
white paper
Corrections are made by writing the
VI SN'0" WIN, me ol paragraph on
the machine and pasting it over the
erroneous composition. Then comes
the second process.
Grease Better Than Metal.
The long column OF printed matter
is cut into strips and made up" into
the sized pages desired by pasting on
a board, afelr which the printed sur.
face is pressed against a flat alumni
mum plate The result is a grease i'm
preston On the aluminium of every let
ter and character The aluminium
plate, which is as thin and Tight as
cardboard, is then clamped en- a cvlin.
der o. printing press. The grease
prove as distinct and far
more durable than metal type, it being
possible to run off a million copies
without the slightest tendency toward
Should the publisher after issuing
his paper or book desire to make sec.
ond edition it is nct necessary to pre-
serve the plate in order to keep it in
print. He goes to his case or desk. and
there occupying only a pigeon hole
space, is the perforated tape which
first issued from the machine. He
eeds this into the second section of
he lithotype, turns IN an electric mo-
or Of one-luarter Of one horse power.
oeks the door and tie little machine
works away at the rate Of nearly 100
words minute on the endless printed