Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-05-05

The Mergenthaler linotype. that won
derful machine which put this article into
type for printing was p years old last
week. III newspaper men and printers
were not too busy to do anything but
work. they might have celebrated the day
as a great holiday, with thanksgivings
and burnt offerings and libations; for
without this machine the newspaper or
today could not exist.
The linotype was not born, Minerva
like, from any Jovian brow, but as it
stands today is the product of the minds
of the many master mechanics who have
added Improvement after Improvement
until the projections and the perversities
of the machine make it seem a body OF
metal endowed with a human heart and
brain.
The idea upon which the linotype was
perfected was, however, the conception or
Ottmar Mergenthaler, whose name the
machine bears, and whose heirs collect
a royalty of $50 upon every machine sold.
This idea took shape in 1883. the first
Mergenthaler machine was built in 1886,
and the second one later in the same year.
Machines of the type of the second model
were used in many newspaper and job
printing offices, but there was yet some
thing lacking. In 1880 the shortcomings
of the older machines were recognized and
Mr.. Mergenthaler perfected and patented
a machine which embodied all the essen
tai principles of the linotype of today.
That patent was granted on April 8, 1890.
and therefore the linotype is p years old
today-old enough to vote.
The difference between the machines Of
1885 and the machine of 1890 was so radi-
cal that the real reign Of the Mergen-
thaler may be said to date from'the intro
duction of the latter type. Since that time
1t is true hat thousands of improvements
have been patented and applied to the
machine. but none OF them has radically
interfered Will the principle OF the pat
ent of 1880. Perhaps other improvements
will yet be made-certainly some inventive
genius ought to devise a system of bal
ancing the casting lever so hat every
operator would not hang a tin bucket Of
type metal pigs on the lever of even
the newest machine IN tie chcp. Rut that
is a bit of technique.
The real reason why the linotype leaped
into universal favor as soon as it was
perfected in 1890 was that ii was the first
practical machine to offer d substitute for
the slow and laborious process Of setting
type by and Scores of inventors had
tired for years. with more or less sue
cess, to construct a typesctting machine.
The reason Mergenthaler succeeded where
so many had failed was that he discard
ed the idea of setting type and substituted
for it the idea of casting type, q line at
a time.
His first maChin was fitted with a num-
Der Of vertical, movable bars. into each
or 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 a keyboard, like that of a typewriter,
the bars would fall until the die CORES
ponding with the letter on the keyboard
presented itself exactly before the oriice
Of a mould connected with a pot of molten
type metal. When a whole line of letters
had been assembled in this fashion the
metal was injected into the mould and a
line of type was ~cast-thus the name line
o. type, linotype. The second machine Of
1885 was constructed on the theory that
the long die-bars were too cumbersome
1t had an Independent matrix, or die, for
each 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
liable to get out of order and it did not
meet with universal approval About 200
machines of this Kind were built.
The machine of 1890 obyiated these de-
fects by permitting the matrices to fail
by force of gravity from an inclined mag
azine. Mr.. Me~rgenthaler 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 1885 was con-
structed a company was formed to make
ana sell the linotypes. This company was
bought out for $500, 900 by n syndicate of
newspaper publishers composed Of White
law Reid, of the New York Tribune,
Walter N. Haldeman, of the Louisville
Courier-Journal Victor Lawson n NJ. +
Stone. Of the Chicago News, Harry Smith,
OF the Chicago I~nter-Ocean, w. II. Rand,
Of the Rand-McNally company. and Still
son Hutchins, of the Washington Post.