Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1922-04-14


and with a spaceband box, which con-
tains the spacebands, or extensible
steel spaces. is based on the idea of es-
tablishing the entire line as a unit in
place Of the single type character es-
tablished by Gutenberg.
The entire line, or Linotype slug, is
formed by bringing together such mat
rices and spacebands as are required
for line and then maintaining the
assembled elements in casting position
while molten metal is pumped into
mold and against the face of the as
sembled line The machine then COM
pletes revolution, and the Linotype
slug is pushed out ready for printing.
Fifty or more slugs car he lifted by
hand at one time, and o4-r sfugs can be
moved about from place to place with
out danger of the characters becoming
disarranged. individual characters
can not fall out, nor can they work up
in form on the press. And when
slugs have been used once, they can
be returned to the melting pot.
Years of Hard Work
The history of the Linotype is not
story Of sudden fortunate invention.
1t is a history Of many years of indie
fatigable labor, many failures with
. heavy financial losses many times re-
peated, and many inventions which at
last produced the great machine that
Thomas A. Edison has called one OF
the wonders of the modern world. The
work began in 1876, when James O..
Clephane. an official reporter for the
United States senate became interest
ed in seeking some improved method
for putting the voluminous daily rec
ords into printed form. Among the
men wha then and later joined him
and invested their money or added
their inventions we're Charles T.
Moore Frederick ] Warburton Ia
ter treasurer of the 1lergenthaler Limo
type company Philip /, Dodge (now
president of the company, who con-
tributed many inventions and was the
financial and organizing genius Of the
group: and John f: Rogers and d.
S. Kennedy, now with the company,
who contributed many radical and
valuable improvements.
The aforementioned Of these men
found and encouraged a machinery
expert who in the end developed into
a mechanical genius th as the world
has rarely seen - tmar .Mergen-
thaler.
Sketch of the nventOr
Ottmar Mergenthal to whom is
due much credit for living made pos
sihle the master conn Sing machine of
toaqv was born ia Nurtemberg. Ger
many. Nav 10, 1854. and died in Bal
timore Maryland October %, 1899
At the age of eighteeu he came to the
United States and entered the enaploy
OF. his cousin, A. Hahl, "a machinst in
Washington. ID. G. In about 1876 a
part of the group Of men already men
toned engaged him at g daily salary
TO help them in perfecting the machine
on which they were working. There
followed years of effort, during which
various machines were produced at
great expense, only TO prove unsuccess-
full.
Like q Typewriter
At last. in about 1888, there came
the first great idea that was destined
to lead the inventors in the right path
Mergenthaler produced for them what
was called the Rotary Matrix Ma
chine" 1T was operated on the prin-
cipIe Of the typewriter The writing
was done not on paper, but on soft
papier-mache strip, which took tht
impression Of the characters. Thus
it formed a mold )r matrix. The mat
rix strips thus formed were cut into
various lengths and put together in
such way as to make full-cOlumn OF
page matrices. Metal was then intro
duced into the matrices and plates
were formed. This machine was built
in dozen different styles, but proved
only moderately successful in actual
practice. The gpier-mache strips
would adhere to TIE metal, and there
were number Of Objectionable fea-
lures about the machine itself. But
the idea of the mttrix machine-a ma
chine that did not need foundry type
of the inventors.
Found Too Slow
Later Mergenthaler built what was
known as the liar Indenting Ma
chine" This machine carried series
of metal bars, each bar bearing upon
one edge a complete font of male print
ing characters, and the bars were pro-
yided with springs for "justifying
purposes. The papier-mache matrix
lines resulting from pressure against
the characters were secured upon a
backing sheet. Over this sheet was
laid an iron frame containing a series
of slots. and into these slots type metal
was poured by hand to form slugs
bearing upon one edge the characters
from which to print. This machine
made possible the production of fairly
satisfactory printing surfaces, but
again trouble was experienced with