The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-05-04

- mc1ScnSudicT AInotypes Inat WOn-
derfnl machine which put this article into
type for printing was u years old last
week. II newspaper men and printers
were not too busy to do anything but
work. they might nave celebrated the day
as a great holiday. with thanksgtvings
and burnt offerings and libations: for
without this machine the newspaper Of
today could not exist.
The linotype was not born, Minerva
like, from any Jovian brow, but as 1t
stands today is the product OF the minds
OF the many master mechanics who have
added Improvement after improvement,
until the PROJECTIONS n the perversities
OF the machine make 1t seem q body of
metal endowed with q human heart n
brain,
The idea upon which the linotype was
perfected was. however, the conception Of
Ottmar Mergenthaler, whose name the
machine bears, and whose heirs collect
q royalty of $50 upon every machine sold.
SThis idea took shape In 1888, the first
Mergenthaler machine was built in 1856.
and the second one later in the same year.
Machines OF the type of the second model
were used in many newspaper n job
printing offices. but there was yet some
thing lacking. In 1890 the shortcomings
of the older machines were recognized and
Mr.. Mergenthaler perfected n patented
- AN S&ito0oASu GAt SAO SSSCl1-
t!al principles OF the linotype Of today.
That patent was granted on April 8, 1890.
and therefore the linotype Is q years old
today-oh enough to vote.
The difference between the machines of
1886 and the machine of 1890 was 80 radi-
cal that the real reign of the Mergen-
:hSief may be said 10 date from the intro
ductson Of the latter type. Since that time
1t is true that thousands of improvements
have been patented and applied to the
machine, but none OF them has radically
tnterfered with the principle Of the pat
emit OF 1890. Perhaps other improvements
will yet be made-certainly some inventive
genius ought to devise a system OF ball
ancing the casting lever so that every
operator would not hang a tin bucket of
type metal pigs on the lever Of even
the newest machine in the chop. But that
Is q bit of technique.
The real reason why the linotype leaped
into universal favor as soon as 1t was
perfected In 1880 was that 1t was the first
practical machine to offer q substitute for
the slow and labortous process of setting
type by hand. Scores of inventors had
tried for years. with more or less sue
cess, 20 construct a typesstting' machine.
The reason Mergenthaler succeeded where
30 many had failed was that he discard
90 the idea of setting type and substituted
I"S vi casting Type, u line at
q time.
His first machine was fitted with a num-
nef OF vertical, movable bars, into each
OF which was cut the dies of all the let
ters OF the alphabet. small letters and
capitals, the figures. characters and other
signs used In printing. BY touching a key
on q keyboard, like that of a
the bars would fall until the die CORES
bonding with the letter on the keyboard
presented itself exactly before the orifce
OF O mould connected with a pot of molten
type metal. When a whole line of letters
had been assembled in this fashion the
metal was infected into the mould and a
me OF type was cast-thus the name line
O. type. linotype. The second machine of
1855 was constructed on the theory that
the long die-bars were too cumbersome.
1t had an Independent matrix, or die, for
bach letter or figure. These were forced
down through upright slots into the cast
ing box by currents of compressed air.
The machine was practicable. but it was
iiabio 10 get out or order and 1t did not
meet with universal approval. About 200
machines OF this kind were built.
The machine of 1890 obviated these de-
fects by permitting the matrices to fall
by force of gravity from an inclined mag
azine Mr.. ~Mergenthaler also materially
improved the mechanism of the distribu-
ton OF the used matrices after the cast
ing Of a line OF type. The product of the
invention OF 1890 Incorporated, as has been
said. every essential feature of the ma
chine as built today.
After the first machine of 1856 was con-
structed a company was formed to make
M sell the linotypes. This company was
bought out for 100000 by a syndicate of
newspaper publishers composed Of White-
law Reid, Of the New York Tribune.
Walter N. Haldeman, of the Louisville
Confessional Victor Lawson and M. e.
Stone. Of he Chicago News, Harry Smith,
OF the Chicago Inter-Ocean, w. H. Rand.
Of the Rand-McNaily company, and Still
son Hutchins. Of the Washington Post.