Improvements in the Vice Adjusting Mechanism of Linotype Machines.
Year: 1899

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Vice Adjusting Mechanism of Linotype
Machines.
I, WILLIAM HENRY LOCK, Manager and Secretary of The Linotype Company.
Limited, of 188, Fleet Street, in the City of London, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention (a communication from the Mergenthaler Linotype
Company, of Tribune Building, New York, U.S A.) to be as follows:
The present invention relates to improvements in the vice adjusting mechan-
ism of linotype machines It has been developed for use in the Meigenthaler
linotype machine. In that, a composed line of matices and space bars, is held
between the vice- jaws which grip it in the direction of its length. One of
them is moveable to and from the other under the control of the vice screw
which engages in a backing up nut outside it. This screw is turned to close the
vice to grip the composed line and to open it to release the same.
But a capac-
ity for adjusting the open distance of the vice for a change in the length of line
is necessary. This has been conferred hitherto by a detachable connection located
somewhere between the vice screw and the agent that works it, and which con-
nection can be severed at will, in order that the vice screw may be turned
independently of the said agent
According to the present invention, there is interposed between the jaw and
nut, a connection which allows the operator to disconnect them, adjust the vice
opening and reconnect them, without opening the machine to expose them
and also without having to turn the vice screw. One, and perhaps the preferable
form of the invention, is a series of notches or holes held out longitudinally
from the movable jaw in the direction of the nut and extending past it to out-
side the machine. Where it passes the nut, it engages with it in a way that,
if need be, one can be moved without the other. There is a releasable catch or
detent on or in the nut and close to the series of notches, adapted to engage
with any one or more of the latter that may then be facing it, such engagement
sufficing to hold the jaw rigidly to the nut The said rod exposes its outer end
to the operator, so that all the latter has to do to change, the distance between
the vice jaws, is to disconnect the catch or detent from the particular part of the
series with which it was engaged, push in or pull out the series of notches for
the proper distance, and re-arrange the said catch or detent with the particular
part of the series above mentioned which will then be opposite to it
To thin 7th dow of Waha 1900
CHAS. S. WOODROFFE, Fel. Ch. Inst. P.A.,
Agent for the Applicants.

page_text: Improvements in the Vice Adjusting Mechanism of Linotype
Machines.
I, WILLIAM HENRY LOCK, Manager and Secretary of The Linotype Company
Limited, of 188, Fleet Street, in the City of London, England, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed,
as they have been communicated to me by The Mergenthaler Linotype Com-
pany, of Tribune Building, New York, U.S.A., to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The present invention relates to improvements in the vice adjusting
mechanism of linotype machines such as the Mergenthaler linotype machine
described in the specification of Letters Patent 14582 of 1890. In that one, the
composed line of matrices and space bars is held for justification of the line
and casting of the linotype, between the two jaws of a vice where it is gripped
in the direction of its length. One of the jaws is moveable to and from the
other under the control of a screw which engages in a backing up nut outside
it
But a capacity for adjusting the open distance of the vice for a change in
the width of the column or the page for which the machine is working, is
necessary, and for that reason, it is customary to make the moveable jaw adjust-
able in respect of its normal working distance from its fellow The state of
the art in respect of the means for actuating the screw and adjusting the posi-
tion of the adjustable jaw will be found in the specification above mentioned
and in those of Letters Patent 8228 of 1898 and 617 of 1899
The object of the present invention is to provide means between the adjust-
able jaw and the backing up nut by which the distance between the jaws may
be set more quickly and more easily than heretofore, to any multiple of the
printer's unit, and the invention itself consists in a backing up device notched
or toothed according to a scale of units, beaning against or connected to the
adjustable jaw, a way in the backing up nut through which the backing up
device can slide, and a locking device adapted to engage at once with both the
said nut and backing up device in any position to which they two may be set
so as to hold them together therein and the adjustable jaw at the corresponding
distance from its fellow.
Referring to the accompanying figures which are to be taken as part of this
specification and read therewith,
Figure 1 is a rear elevation of the top of the vice frame of a Mergenthaler
linotype machine:
Figure 2, a horizontal section on the line 2-2 of Figure 3, and
Figure 3, a perspective view of the moveable and adjustable jaw and the parts
which control its position.
P1 is the vice frame; p³, the fixed vice jaw; p¹, the moveable and adjustable
vice jaw; 265, the backing up nut; and 23, the vice screw. This screw, it should
be noted, is only turned as a vice screw, that is for closing and opening the vice
So far, all the parts just described are as heretofore But the said screw has
been long enough to close and open the vice in any position of the nut 765 along
the vice frame P¹.
According to the present invention, the screw 20 is no longer than is necessary
to open and close the vice. The backing up nut 265 does not bear up against
the jaw directly, nor travel with it through its range of adjustment. The
backing up device is shewn as a bar 1 which is capable of sliding freely to and
fro through the nut pin a way 2 aligned with the direction of the motion of

page_text: the jaw p. The respective end of the said bar 1 may either simply bear up
against the jaw p', as shewn by the full lines, or it may be grooved annularly,
let into the said jaw and be held to it by a pin 3 as indicated by the dotted
lines in Figures 1 and 3. 4, 4, are the teeth on the bar 1. They are equidis-
tant according to a scale of printers' units. 5 is a loose pin fitting in a hole
in the nut p. The face which is to engage with the bar 1, carries teeth 6
of the same size and pitch as the teeth 4, and the hole for the pin 5 opens into
the way 2 so that the teeth 6 can engage with the teeth 4 in the way shewn
in Figure 2. 7 is the milled head of the bar 1 and 8 that of the pin 5.
The position of the jaw p¹ is adjusted by withdrawing the pin 5, pushing the
bar 1 farther through the nut 265 or drawing it farther back, as may be required
and re-inserting the pin 5 in its hole in the said nut, with its teeth 6 towards
the bar 1, when the said teeth 6 will engage with those teeth 4 on the bar 1
which are then opposite to them, and lock it in the required position.
It is obvious that it is the teeth 6 of the pin 5 that are the essential part
of it, and for that reason the position of the pin 5 may be varied, or an equiva-
lent be substituted for it without departing from the scope of the invention. At
the same time, the vertical pin illustrated is preferred because it is at once
simple and easily got at.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim 19:-
1. In a linotype machine, the hereinbefore described combination of adjust-
able vice jaw; screw; nut controlled thereby; a backing up device toothed to
scale and carried by the said. nut; and a device for locking it in any adjusted
position with respect to the nut.
2. In a linotype machine, the hereinbefore described combination of adjust-
able vice jaw; screw; nut controlled thereby; toothed bar; way in the nut
for it to slide in; pin toothed on one side to engage with the said bar, and
hole in the said nut, opening into the said way to give the teeth of the pin
access to those of the bar.
Dated this 7th day of November 1899.
CHAS. S. WOODROFFE,
Chartered Patent Agent.