Improvements in Mechanism for Holding Type Matrix Blanks and Setting Type Moulds for Casting from the Matrices.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 5th May, 1898
Complete Specification Left, 6th Feb., 1899-Accepted, 5th May, 1899
Improvements in Mechanism for Holding Type Matrix Blanks and
Setting Type Moulds for Casting from the Matrices.
We, WILLIAM HENRY LOCK, Manager and Secretary of The Linotype Company
Limited, of No. 188, Fleet Street, in the City of London, and CHARLES WALTER
PASHLEY, of Sinderland, Dunham, in the County of Chester, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
:-
The present invention relates to improvements in mechanism for holding type
matrix blanks and setting type moulds for casting from the matrices.
The first part of it relates to improved mechanism for holding a blank whilst
the formative cavity in which the type face will be eventually cast, is being cut.
Two vice jaws are engaged by a vice screw of a special construction, it being
right and left-handed from the centre outwards and prevented from any motion
other than one about its axis, by a stop engaging with it at midlength. The two
screw-threads are of the same pitch. The stop consists, preferably, of a pointed
screw turning in a fixed nut and having its nose engaged in a V-shaped groove
in a collar on the shank of the screw.
Each jaw is provided with a ledge which overhangs it for a short distance; and
against which ledges, the matrix blank is held up from below by a spring or its
equivalent, in such a way as to provide that the bottom of the formative cavity shall
be parallel with the face of the blank.
An adjustable stop is provided opposite the opening between the jaws, and against
which a blank can be pushed, to provide for all the cavities in a fount being cut
in the same position on the blanks.
The second part of the invention relates to improved means for setting the
mould of which a matrix cut in the vice just described, forms a part.
A matrix is thicker than the width of the type for which it was cut, the excess
being aistributed equally on each side of the cavity in that matrix. Thus the
matrices vary in width in the same ratio as do the type faces. The sides of the
mould are movable from and towards each other for types of different widths.
The matrix is set with its cavity down on the mould, being held in that position
by a pair of movable jaws or registers. There is provided a guage having two
diameters. One of these is the width of the type, and the other is the thickness
of the matrix. The smaller diameter is inserted in the mould opening and the two
holders of the mould pushed up to it, whereby the mould is set for width of type.
That insertion of the smaller diameter in the mould opening, places the larger
diameter between the two registers above mentioned. The latter are then pushed
up to it, thereby setting them to receive the matrix, in which position they are
made fast.
Any type can then be cast without again altering the registers, for as these
approach or recede from each other, the mould opening becomes smaller or larger
in the same ratio.
Dated this 4th day of May 1898
CHAS. S. WOODROFFE,
Agent for the Applicants.

page_text: Improvements in Mechanism for Holding Type Matrix Blanks and
Setting Type Moulds for Casting from the Matrices.
We, WILLIAM HENRY LOCK, Manager and Secretary of The Linotype Company
Limited, of 188, Fleet Street, in the City of London, and CHARLES WALTER
PASHLEY, of Sinderland, Dunham, in the County of Chester, 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:
The first part of the present invention relates to improvements in mechanism
for holding type matrix blanks; and the second part, to improvements in
mechanism for setting type moulds for casting type from the matrices.
Referring to the accompanying figures which are to be taken as part of this
specification and read therewith:
Figure 1 is a plan of the first part:
Figure 2, a plan also, but shewing a cut matrix blank held in the mechanism:
Figure 3, a vertical section taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 1.
Figure 4, a vertical section taken along the line 4-4 of Figures 1 and 3;
Figure 5, a plan illustrating the second part:
Figure 6, a side elevation corresponding therewith: and
Figure 7, is a side elevation of the mould setting gauge.
Figure 8, is a front elevation; Figure 9 a plan; and Figure 10, a side elevation,
of a modified adjustable abutment.
The object of the first part of the invention is to provide improved means for
the matrix blank being instantly and positively placed and then held in a position
proper for the formative cavity in which the type face is to be cast, being cut
firstly to the proper depth in the matrix blank and secondly in the proper position
therein with reference to the edges of the blank, without any adjustment being
necessary for the particular conformation of the desired type face.
Referring to Figs. 1 and 4, 1 is the body of a vice, and 2, 3, are the two
vice jaws facing each other in the usual way. They are capable of moving to and
from each other by reason of V-shaped depending pieces 4, 5, respectively fast
to the said jaws and engaging in a correspondingly shaped groove 6 extending
centrally along the body 1. 7 is the stem of the vice screw. As it is necessary
that the motions of the two jaws 2, 3, should be to and from each other and equal,
the screw body 7 has two screw threads 8, 9, of different hands and of the same
pitch. The said threads control the two jaws 2, 3, by engaging in two screw-
threaded extensions 10, 11, of the pieces 4, 5, in the way described further on, the
said extensions acting as nuts, being respectively screw threaded to fit the screw
threads 8, 9. The said extensions or nuts 10, 11, project into a second groove 12
in the said body 1, both nuts 10, 11, and groove 12 standing symmetrically under
the jaws 2, 3, and the pieces 4, 5. The only motion of which the vice screw is cap-
able is one of rotation about its axis, which motion it receives through a handle 13
fast on one end of it which projects beyond the body 1 to receive the same. The
said screw is held against longitudinal motion by a stop which engages with its
middle. This stop consists, preferably, of a piece 15 sliding in a way or guide 16
in the frame 1 and held up to its work by a set screw 17. The stop has a
nose 18 suitably shaped to engage in a V-shaped groove 19 cut in a collar 20
fast on, or in one piece with, the screw stem 7, the groove 19 being at right angles
with the axis of that stem, and the nose 18 of the stop filling it from side to
side. In addition to the nose so filling the groove 19, it embraces about a

page_text: quarter of it in the way shewn in Figure 4. The set screw 17 works in a screw
threaded block 21 held to the front of the vice body 1. It is provided with a
locking nut 38.
22, 22 are abutment pieces fast on the top of each vice jaw and projecting
horizontally therefrom in the direction of the opposite one, their under surfaces
being in the same horizontal plane for the matrix blank 23 to abut against.
Its top surface is held up to the abutment pieces 22 by a suitable device bearing
upon the bottom surface of the blank 23, such as a spring in the vice body 1.
The device which is preferred, consists of an eccentric 24 mounted upon a shaft 25
capable of being turned about its axis in bearings in the vice jaws 2, 3, by a
suitable handle 26 fast upon the projecting end of it. The cam 24 is held to the
shaft 25 by any suitable means, preferably by a set screw 27 passing through it
and engaging in a groove 28 in the shaft as wide as the nose of the screw is thick,
the object of the groove as distinguished from a hole of the same size as that
nose, being to permit of longitudinal adjustment of the cam 24 along its shaft 24.
This shaft is prevented from moving longitudinally in its bearings by any suitable
device, such as collars 29, 29, fast on it and bearing against opposite sides of one
of the jaws. The longer radius of the cam and the handle of the shaft 25 both
project from the same side of the shaft 25 in order that the position of the
handle which is outside the vice, may indicate that of the cam.
The machine described in the Specification of Letters Patent 11938 of 1895
may be taken as the type of those in which the process of cutting above mentioned,
is carried out. The cutting tool has no motion beyond that of the rapid rotary one
about its own axis. The vice holding the blank is moved vertically upwards for
depth of cut and to and fro horizontally in any direction for extent of formative
cavity. The abutment pieces 22, 22, above, and the cam 24 below the matrix
blank, provide for the top surfaces of all the blanks to be cut, standing in the
same plane during the cutting process, so that as the vice has an exactly defined
vertical motion towards the cutter, it is obvious that the formative cavities 30 in
all the blanks 23 will be cut to the same depth.
With reference to the position of the cavity 30 in the top surface of the
blank 23, i.e., at what distances it should be from the sides and ends of it, it
must be understood that as it is to stand half way between the two sides of the
blank 23, the vice is set in such a position in the machine, that a line along the
said top surface midway between the two sides of the blank 23, or in other
words the meeting line of the vice jaws 2, 3, shall bisect the proper position of
the cavity to be cut in that top surface, in the same way that a line through the
centre of the pattern character, bisects it. It only remains to provide an adjustable
abutment for the rear edge of the matrix blank 23 to bear against, so that the latter
may be held in the proper position transverse to the vice screw. A. suitable one
consists of one 31 of a series of nutted and headed screws held in a fixed socket 32
standing up from the back of the vice body. Those of the series differ from each
other only in thickness of the head, a fresh one with a thicker or thinner head
being mounted in the socket for each change in the position of the cavities 30 in
the top surfaces of the matrix blanks 23.
To use the above described first part, the proper abutment is fixed in the
socket 32; the matrix blank 23 to be cut, is held edge up between the jaws 2, 3,
with its rear edge up to the abutment 31 and the jaws screwed together, the
operator pushing the top surface of the blank 23 up to the bottom face of the
abutment pieces 22, 22, as the jaws 2, 3 close upon the blank.
The second part of the invention relates to improved means for setting the
mould of which a matrix cut in the vice just described, forms a part. It will
now be understood from the foregoing, that a matrix is thicker than the width of
the type for which it was cut, the excess being distributed equally on each side
of the formative cavity 30. This part of the invention is illustrated in Figures 5
to 7. Referring to them, 33 is the mould for the body of the type. The mould
is completed by the respective matrix which is set with its formative cavity 30

page_text: exactly over the mould. The sides, 34, 34, of the mould are movable, from and
towards each other for types of different widths. The matrix is held in the
position just described, between two adjustable jaws or registers, 35, 35. That
being the case, it is obvious that there are two adjustments for each fount and that.
those two must bear a definite relation to each other. The improved means. above
mentioned consists in a gauge having two diameters 36, 37. The former is the
width of the type, and the latter is the thickness of the matrix. The diameter 36
is inserted in the mould opening 33 and the two sides 34, 34, are pushed up to
it, whereby the mould is accurately set for the width of type. That insertion of
the small diameter 36 in the mould opening places the larger diameter 37 between
the two registers 35, 35. The latter are then pushed up to it, thereby setting them
to receive the matrix, in which position they are made fast.
Any type can then be cast without again altering the registers 35, 35, for as
these approach or recede from each other, the mould opening 33 becomes smaller
or larger, seeing that each register 35 is made fast to the respective mould side 34.
Referring to Figures 8, 9, and 10, 39 is a bracket substantially similar to the
one illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 as carrying the abutments 31. The series of
the latter are replaced by a micrometer screw 40 with a divided wheel 41 and an
index finger 42. The periphery of the wheel 41 has 25 divisions and the screw 40
has 40 threads to an inch, so that turning one division of the wheel 41 past the
index finger 42, advances or retracts the screw 40, one thousandth of an inch.
The nut of the bracket 39 is split and fitted with a clamping screw 43.
+
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is-
1. The herein before described combination of vice jaws worked by an oppositely
handed but equally pitched screw to and from a line corresponding with a line
bisecting the copy character; abutment pieces carried by the said jaws for the top
surface of the matrix blank to be pushed up to; device for engaging the said
matrix so as to hold its said top surface up to the abutment pieces; and a changeable
or adjustable abutment for the rear edge of the matrix blank to be pushed up to.
2. The herein before described combination of type mould sides moveable to and
from each other; registers or jaws moveable to and from each other and each
capable of being made fast to the respective type mould side; and a gauge having
two diameters, one that of the desired mould opening for width of type and the
other that of the thickness of the matrix.
Dated this 5th day of February 1899
CHAS. S. WOODROFFE, Fel. Ch. Inst. P.A.,
Agent for the Applicants.