Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-05-05
The L;notype's Birthday

The first machine to be used CONNER
cially was set up in the office Of the New
York Tribune. In 1883 Mr.. Mergenthaier
and the company suspended relations. and
the factory of the company was moved
to Brooklyn, Mr.. Mergenthaler remaining
In Baltimore. The wedge-shaped justifier,
a device introduced in the second Mergen-
thaler machine to Justify" the lines OF
matrices chat is to make them MI the
line by spreading the spaces between the
words) became the subject of litigation
and for years there was a quarrel In the
courts about a thousand and one details
now happily forgotten. In the end all the
disputes were settled by purchase, and
when the perfected machin OF 1890 came
out arrangements were made by which
the company n the inventor shared i'm
the profits.
The profits were soon to be very large.
for when the practical machine was pro-
duced almost every newspaper wanted IL
at once. For several years the factories
were behind on orders and the linotypes
We're TO be had only for cash f. q b.
While the litigation over the patents was
pending. Mr.. Mergenthaler invented an
other kind of justifier. but 1t was aband-
oned when the settlement was made.
The first machine OF the 1890 type-the
modern n perfected linotype-was used
in the office OF the Brooklyn Standard
Union, the next in the office of the New
Orleans Times-Democrat. The Brooklyn
standardization also was the first news
paper TO use the linotype with uHion la
Dor. The Typographical union at first was
inclined to oppose the Introduction of the
machines, but Its men soon bowed to the
inevitable and hustled out OF the dusty all
leys Of the old hand-set composing rooms
to learn to operate the machines.
With the introduction OF the linotype and
the ~ransfer of the newspaper print shop
from the realm OF the handicrafts to the
dominion OF machinery, 1t was said that
romance would die out of the printers
trade. OF course it wasn't the death Of
romance that the printers union objected
TO; It was the substitution of one machine
with one man for eight men. But as the
~spape being assisted by the discov-
cry of cheap processes foT making spT uS9
wood pulp paper, at once expanded so that
the composing room now employees nearly
as many men as in the old hand-set days,
and at better wages, the unions fears
were soon at rest.
The printers know, and the editors who
work with them know, hat the Mergen-
thaler has added to. rather than detracted
from. the glory Of their Jobs. The man
who sits at the keyboard OF a linotype is
by compulsion Of necessity more stead
fast, more sober and more Industrious
than his prototype at the case In the and
set days. 1t takes a man to run a limo
type. There is q joy in the rattle and
click OF the composing room, a delight in
the odor of the hot metal, a thrill in the
whir OF the motors that never had it's coun.
terpart In the good old days. No man who
has once known the spell OF the linotype
ever can escape it's influence.
The projections OF the Mergantkaler
have been lauded in a dozen tongues, its
shortening nave been apologized for ia a
thousand editorials, but no one but the
men who work with this machine have
any notion of how god-like are It's virtues
how human It's faults. In the cid days d
tramp printer occasionally would fall from
the water wagon just when he was most
needed, but never was there man so per-
verse as a linotype on a spree. All over
the country there are hundreds OF WELL
behaved l~inotypes that never strayed from
the narrow path of virtue, that are model
machines. that never ave stayed out
nights and that don't know the first rules
of poker-but there isn't a one of them
that isn't waiting quietly and patiently for
that time when the whole shop depends
upon It to get out the paper and the ma
chinist is out to lunch. When that time
comes. even the best and noblest linotype
will go on a spree. They are machines,
but they are printers.
The man In whose brain this machine
was conceived was Ottmar Mergenthaler.
He was born in Wurttemberg in 1854, was
brought up in the clock-naking trade, and
came to the United States in 1872. His idea
for the linotype was originated in 1888, the
first machine was built and patented In
1885, and the perfected principle was APP
piled, as has been said, In the machine
patented q years ago today. Mr.. Mer-
genthaler died at his home in Baltimore I'm
1899.
The linotype has revolutionized the busi-
ness of printing and thereby has made a
new era in journalism. Without this ma
chine the huge newspapers OF today, with
their wide variety OF matter designed to
please the fancy of a wide variety Of read
ers, would be utterly impossible.