Improvements in the Moulds of Linotype and analogous Machines.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 4th July, 1895.
Complete Specification Left, 7th Apr., 1896-Accepted, 16th May, 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Moulds of Linotype and analogous
Machines.
We, THE LINOTYPE COMPANY, LIMITED of No. 6 Serjeant's Inn, Flect
Street, in the City of London, Sole Manufacturers, Licensors, and Vendors under
the "Linotype" Patents, and CHARLES LEWIS IRELAND of No. 11 Hulme Street,
Oxford Road, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to improvements in the moulds of linotype and analogous
machines and the object of it is to provide for the adjustability of the mould
cavity in respect of both the length and thickness of the linotype or printing bar.
In carrying the invention into effect, in respect of the length of the mould
cavity; we provide, at one end of the mould, a rectangular piece of a suitable
length but narrower than the width of the mould cavity, so that its sides stand
away inwardly from the side faces of the mould block instead of being flush with
them. This stop serves as a distance piece between the top and bottom portions of
the mould block at that end of it. The actual end of the mould cavity is provided
by the end of an interchangeable liner. This is U shaped, the legs being adapted
to embrace the sides of the stop and to be flush with the side faces of the mould
block, and the closed end to bear up against the stop, the free ends then standing
flush with the end of the mould block. A series of these interchangeable liners is
fitted to each mould block. Those of a series are alike in all respects save as to
the distance from the inside end of the U to the opposite edge thereof, in which
respect each liner of the series differs from all its fellows.
The necessary variation in respect of the depth of the mould cavity (thickness
of the linotype) is effected by the substitution, at each end of the mould block, of
a liner of the desired thickness.
Hitherto, it has been the practice in the case of the mould wheel of the linotype.
machine, to provide an abutment aligned with a chord of the arc, against which
abutment the top of the mould block could bear for the purpose of acquiring radial
immobility during the rotation of the wheel, according to the present invention, we
depend upon the connection between the lower portion of the mould block, or
a flange like continuation of it, and the wheel, for securing to the said block,
the desired radial immobility. This connection is effected by a device of the
key and slot, or dowel and dowel pin type or of any other type mechanically
equivalent.
Dated this 4th day of July 1895.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Agents for the Applicants..

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Moulds of Linotype and analogous
Machines..
"
We, THE LINOTYPE COMPANY, LIMITED, late of No. 6 Serjeant's Inn, but
now of No. 188 Fleet Street, both in the City of London, Sole Manufacturers,
Licensors, and Vendors under the "Linotype Patents, and CHARLES LEWIS
IRELAND, of No. 11 Hulme Street, Oxford Road, Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :—
Our invention relates to improvements in the moulds of linotype and analogous
machines. It is applicable to all machines capable of casting a printing bar or
linotype in a mould up to or against which there is held a line of matrices and
space bars temporarily assembled for that purpose. The objects of it are two fold.
That of the first part of it is to provide improved means for altering the length of
the mould cavity; while that of the second part is to provide improved means for
holding the mould cavity immoveable upon the surface which carries the mould.
The invention in its entirety is particularly applicable to the mould of the
Mergenthaler linotype machine, and for the reason that the machine is better
known than any other, and is, moreover, the only one in use in this country, we
have chosen the application to it of the present invention for the purpose of this
Specification.
Referring to the accompanying figures, which are to be taken as part of the
Specification and read therewith:-
Figure 1 is a front elevation illustrating the application of the present invention
to the mould wheel of a Mergenthaler linotype machine.
Figure 2 is a sectional plan taken along the line 2-2 of Figure 1.
Figure 3 illustrates in front elevation and plan, a series of three interchangeable
liners.
•
Figure 4 is a vertical section taken along the line 4-4 of Figure 1.
Figure 5 is an end elevation from the left hand of the mould block without an
interchangeable liner in it, and also of the key, both detached from the mould wheel
and from each other.
Figure 6 is a rear elevation of the key.
It must be explained that in the above mentioned machine, the mould cavity is a
slot in a so-called mould block which is bolted to the face of a wheel. The latter
is vertical while the slot is horizontal and parallel with a diameter of the wheel.
The mould block consists of four pieces, a top piece or cap plate, a bottom piece or
lower body plate, and two intermediate liners or space plates. The opposite faces
of the top and bottom pieces correspond with the sides of the body of the linotype,
and the two liners with its ends, respectively. The four pieces in question
are held together by a screw passed through each end of the top piece and the
respective liner into the bottom piece.
The first part of the present invention is limited to devices for altering the
length of the mould cavity. For that reason, it is quite independent of the
mechanism which surrounds the said cavity as well as of the mechanism which
provides for its co-operation with the assembled line and the metal injector.
Several devices have been proposed for making the mould cavity adjustable in
point of length. All of these agree in making one liner adjustable longitudinally
to and from its fellow liner at the opposite end of the mould cavity. This has
necessitated the provision of a distinct piece to serve as a stationary distance piece
between the top and bottom pieces of the mould, and through which the holding

page_text: screw at that end of the mould block is passed. The adjustable liner is either
slotted or shaped, to adapt it to slide past the stationary distance piece, which
latter and the slot are further positioned and proportioned relatively to each
other in such a way as to make the said piece serve as a guide for the adjustable
liner.
In carrying the present invention into effect so far as the first object of it is
concerned, we provide each mould block with a series of interchangeable liners,
one for each length of the mould cavity.
A is the mould wheel; and a, the bush by which it is mounted upon the stud
about which it is revolved by suitable gearing which engages with its toothed
periphery a. a², a² are holes through the said wheel. They stand at equal
distances from each other and symmetrically of the axis of the wheel. Their
function is to fit over studs projecting towards them from the front of the
machine for the purpose of holding the mould wheel immoveable during the act
of casting.
B is the top piece or cap plate of the mould block; and C, the bottom pièce or
lower body plate. D is the fixed liner at one end of the mould cavity E, and F is
the stationary distance piece at the other end. Both fixed liner and distance piece
are of the same thickness for the purpose of holding the opposite faces of the
pieces B and C parallel with each other. d, fare the holding screws. The screw
hole through the liner D.is shewn in Figure 2 as oval instead of being round.
The object of this oval shape is to facilitate getting the liner into its exact working
position between the top and bottom pieces B and C, when the four pieces of the
mould block are being put together-it has nothing to do with making the
said liner adjustable in respect of its working distance from the interchangeable one
opposite it.
The width of the distance piece F is less than that of the opposite faces of the
top and bottom picces B and C or (what is the same thing) than the width of an
interchangeable liner, by an amount necessary to make room for the bifurcations.
Both interchangeable liner and bifurcations are described further on. The distance
piece stands midway between the front and rear faces of the mould block, leaving,
therefore, the same space before as behind it.
G, G, G, are our improved interchangeable liners. It has already been pointed
out that the invention provides a series of them for each mould block. The number
of liners comprised, in a series is a quantity variable according to the requirements
of each case.
Figure 3 assumes that a series comprises three liners. There is in
each series, one for each length which it is desired to give to the mould cavity E.
This last statement refers only to the length of the mould-cavity-the question of
thickness is dealt with later on. Each liner carries a pair of bifurcations g, G.
Each one is of the same length as the distance piece F and as wide as the space
either before or behind it. All the liners of the series are replicas of each other in
respect of size, shape, position and function of their bifurcations. They are
incapable of adjustment between the top and bottom pieces B and C in respect of
their distance from the fixed liner D. There is only one of them in the mould
block at a time. The ends of the bifurcations and the side edges of the liner stand
flush with the respective end and front and rear faces of the mould block. The
length of the mould-cavity is altered by substituting one liner G for another.
These liners are, for that reason, specified as interchangeable to distinguish them
from the single adjustable one of the previous devices before referred to.
Such a substitution is indicated by the dotted line across the bottom piece C in
Figure 2.
Any change that may be required in the depth of the mould cavity, i.e., in the
distance between the two parts B and C, which distance corresponds with the
required thickness of the linotype, is effected by substituting thicker or thinner
iners at both ends of the mould cavity and stationary distance piece to match as
heretofore.
As to the second part of the invention, it must be explained that in one position:

page_text: of the mould wheel of the Mergenthaler linotype machine, the front face of the
mould block stands over the rearwardly projecting toes of the matrices of the
assembled line; the rear faces of the matrices and space bars composing that line,
being then in contact with the said front face. The line in question is then and
there subjected to a strong push by the moveable yoke and the space bar lifting
plate in the manner specified in the Specification of Letters Patent No. 145821890
The base of the push in question, being on the other side of the mould wheel, the
direction of it is across the mould cavity and tends to push it out of the casting
position. In the other position, which is required subsequently to the one just
mentioned, the mould cavity must register with the ejector blade behind it and the
trimming knives in front of it. Hence the necessity of some device for holding the
mould cavity immoveable upon the mould wheel with reference to its axis.
device has hitherto taken the form of an abutment in the mould wheel, aligned with
a chord of the arc of it, and against which the top of the top piece of the mould
block bore.
This
According to this second part of the present invention, the combination of
abutment and top piece of the mould block, is replaced by a connection between the
bottom piece of the said block, or between a flange like continuation of it, on the
one hand, and the mould wheel or other surface to which the mould block is made
fast on the other; such connection being of a type capable of holding the mould
cavity steady in any of its working positions. This connection is suitably effected
by a device of the key and slot, or dowel and dowel pin type, or by one of
any other type which may be the mechanical equivalent of either of the aforesaid.
The type of connection which we prefer is a combination of a slot in the said
surface, a second one in a flange on the mould block and a key engaging in both.
It is illustrated in Figures 4, 5 and 6.
It is obvious that the necessity for the mould cavity being held immoveable in its
respective working positions, is quite independent of the fact that, in the
Mergenthaler machine, the mould block is carried by the wheel. Consequently,
this second part of the invention is not limited by the surroundings of the mould
cavity but is applicable under all circumstances where it is exposed to any influence
capable of moving it out of its working position.
In the Mergenthaler machine, the top of the sloth is the abutment above
mentioned, the slot being dimensioned to receive the rear portion of the mould block
and for it to fit the same exactly. Further, the top piece B has a flange i; and the
bottom piece C, one, i¹. Both of these flanges have hitherto fitted up to the
surface a³, (that being the one up against which they are required to fit),
the flange being held to the same by screws i³.
The present invention requires the flange to be so positioned on the bottom
piece of the mould block, that when the latter is in working position with reference
to the surface a³, it stands away from the latter for a short distance, and the
bottom edge of it to be developed into a rearwardly extending horizontal ridge
wide enough to fit up against the said surface a³. jis a slot in the said surface.
It is parallel with the normal working position of the mould cavity E. The
bottom side of it (in the case of the wheel, the edge nearest the axis) is in the same
plane as the top surface of the ridge when the latter is in its working position,
while the top side of it stands a little below the bottom of the slot h. k is the key
before mentioned. It is, preferably, of exactly the same contour as the space
bounded by the flange, the opposite face of the slot j, the bottom piece C and the
ridge, so as to fill it and to bear equally over all the surfaces concerned, but the
important surfaces are evidently the top and bottom sides of the slot j and the top
surface of the ridge 3. Both it and the flange are drilled to pass the screws
loosely.
The bottom piece C being always in one position with reference to the surface a³
and to the other parts of the mould block, it is obvious that the top piece B will
stand away from the abutment h when a pair of liners of less than the maximum
thickness is in the mould block. Figure 4 indicates the presence of the thickest

page_text: pair. It is true that when the thickest pair of liners is in the mould block, the top
piece B will be in touch with the abutment C, but such being in touch is only a
matter of coincidence-it is not relied on as a part of the present invention.
It is obvious also that the relative positions of the above mentioned abutment
and the connection between the bottom piece C and the surface a³-these being
opposite to each other-may be reversed, and that such reversed position remains
within the scope of the present invention.
The illustrated duplication of the slots h, j, is no part of the present invention.
Its occurrence is due only to the fact that it is the custom to fit a Mergenthaler
mould wheel with two mould blocks, each having a mould cavity of a different size
from its fellow on the opposite side of the wheel.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :---
1. The combination with a linotype mould bluck, of a series of interchangeable
liners adapted by the substitution of one for another in the mould cavity, to
vary the length of the latter, as set forth and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
2. The combination with a linotype mould block, of a series of interchangeable
liners adapted by the substitution of one for another in the mould cavity, to vary
the length and depth of the latter, as set forth and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
3. The combination of the linotype mould block, the surface to which the cavity
of the said mould block is to be held inmoveable and the herein before described
connection for so holding it, as and for the purposes described.
4. In a linotype machine, the combination of a mould wheel having a slot in its
face; a mould block with a flange depending therefrom so situated thereon as to
stand off from the face of the mould wheel when the mould block is in working
position thereon; a ridge on the said flange bearing on the said face, and a key
adapted to fill the space bounded by the said flange, slot, mould block and ridge, as
shewn and for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 7th day of April 1896
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
No. 22 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.