Improvements in or relating to Linotype Machines.
Year: 1896

page_text: Improvements in or relating to Linotype Machines.
I, EDWARD GEORGE LEONARD of Fox Street, Sheffield in the County of York,
Compositor, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The object of my improved devices permitting the setting up half or any suitable
measure of type or matter in one piece on existing Linotype Machines, is to dis-
pense with half-measure moulds which are generally used and also half-measure
ojectors and use in their place full measure moulds and ejectors so that the Lino-
type machine can be used for either full, half or any suitable measure without any
stoppage of the machine or loss of time, and the type requires no making up as is
generally the case as it is completed when leaving the Linotype Machine.
I fix a small bracket preferably under the Assembly slides having a slot or space
for a sliding connection or flat rod to the Linotype Machine and attach or fix any
suitable attachment to the assembly slide of the Linotype Machine having a pin
fastened or affixed thereto in any suitable manner, or a screw with a cramping
piece so that by turning the screw the attachment has the cramping piece in prox-
imity to the sorew and when required can be held tight or loosened on the assembly
slide. On the said screw or pin, preferably on the outer side, I attach any suitable
connection or flat rod with notches which receives its motion from the assembly
slide and works in the slot or space of the aforesaid bracket. When the notch of
the flat rod or connection in its motion comes in contact with the slot or space in
the fixed bracket and the star wheel of the machine, receiving the matrices in the
assembly box, forces the matrices into their position and when the star wheel
binds or pushes against the last matrix, the flat rod or connection is lifted up so
as to form a complete line of type, but of course this is whether quarter, half, three-
quarter or full line of type required and graduated by the number of notches on
the flat rod or connection, as it acts as a gauge which then forms the half or
nny
measure down line, and by lifting the connection or flat rod by the fore finger it
passes the notch and enables the operator to complete the line or parts thereof.
I do not bind myself to the manner in which I obtain my motion from the Lino-
type Machine for operating the connection or flat rod, or the number of rods, or
the number of notches, I may use in either one or more rods; or to the shape of
the bracket with slot or space, or the position in which I may fix it on the Linotype
Machine.
Thus I obtain a method of setting up either half, third, fourth or any suitable
measure and also save time and labour, and I obtain good results without stopping
the machine, the line of type being delivered by the machine, completed.
Dated this 29th day of August 1896
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Linotype Machines.
I, EDWARD GEORGE LEONARD of Fox Street, Sheffield in the County of York,
Compositor, do hereby declare tho nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by tho
following statement :-
The present invention relates to assembling mechanisms of linotype, type-setting,
and other composing machines used in the production of printing surfaces.
A linotype machine presents a bank of finger levers to its operator, and also other
similar levers and analogous parts grouped within his reach and which he may be
called upon to operate, the objects of such grouping being (a) the prevention of
his having to leave his seat to get at them and (b) the keeping of them within his
view. The depression of each finger lever, acting through suitable mechanism,
effects the release of the corresponding character, in the form of either a type
matrix or of a type die, from the magazine which contains the whole fount of
characters. As the characters together with the necessary spaces, are released from
their respective places in the magazine, they are assembled in a convenient place,
preparatory to the next step in the production of the linotype. So long as the copy
consists of lines of regular length, or of lines no more irregular than are the first
lines of paragraphs or quoted lines of verse, the operator finds his work of composi-
tion straight-forward from start to finish, but it is not always that the work is
straight forward. It is no unusual thing, especially in connection with sporting
news, for the operator to be called upon to compose from such copy as the following
seven lines which have been reproduced from a newspaper report of a certain
cycling event.
1. L. and J. Franks
2. G. W. Bishop
Dover Road C.C.
St. Andrew's C.C.
Tandem 135
Single
660
134
1174
3. E. and H. Sames
Unattached
Tandem
128
0
4. W. Fagg
5. H. Lock
Norwood C.C.
Single
127
220
Putney A.C.
Single
126
295
6. W. H. Fenwick
and A. Payne
Ranelagh C.C.
Tandom 123
730
Each of the first six lines is broken up into six portions or measures. The first
portion consists of the position number at the head of the line together with the
immediately following "leader"; the second portion, of the name of the com-
petitor who occupied that position; the third, the name of his club; and so on.
Neatness of work demands that the initials of all the portions relating to the
same part of the report shall register column wise with each other. Now the operator
by his composition of the first line, has, in respect of the distances between the six
portions thereof, fixed the point, in the case of each of five of the lines, at which
the said portions in it shall respectively begin. He must, therefore, either treat
each portion as a single piece, or in some way or other attain the capacity for the 4
above described columnar registering being attained as he composes each of the
following lines. By piece is meant as much as a whole line as can be composed
straight ahead without finding oneself baulked.
The object of the present invention, stated broadly, is to provide the operator
with a combined indicator and stop adapted to be actuated by the machine itself, 4
and which shall automatically indicate to him where, throughout the composition
of each following line, occur the points in the copy at which the finger keys corres-
ponding with the initial characters of the portions, must respectively be depressed,
and which shall, further, be capable of stopping the composition at any of the said
points. With such automatic indicator and stop, each line is composed as a single &
piece one, thereby obviating all such contingent alterations of mould, ejector blade

page_text: or other part of the machine, as might have become necessary if the operator had
been compelled to treat each portion as a single piece.
The invention has been developed with special reference to, and for use upon,
the Mergenthaler Linotype machine; and partly because of that and partly
because that machine is the only linotype machine in practical use in this country,
the application of the said invention to it, has been selected for illustration and
detailed specification.
Referring to the accompanying figures,
Figure 1 is a part front elevation of the Mergentlialer Linotype 'machine.
Figure 2 is a transverse section taken along the line 2-2 of Figure 1.
. Figure 3 is a front clovation of a 4-portion detachable automatic indicator on an
enlarged scalo.
Figure 4 is a front elevation of a 3-portion detachable automatic indicator
including part of the clamping device.
Figure is a sido elevation of Figure 4 including the head of the clamping
Iscrew.
Figure 6 is a front elevation of a.2-portion non-detachable automatic indicator
and its clamping device.
Figure 7 is a front elevation of a 4-portion non-detachable automatic indicator.
Figure 8 is a transverse section taken along the line 8-8 of Figure 1.
Figure 9 is a plan of an automatic indicator, its clamping device and a portion of
a moving part which carries it.
The Mergenthaler Linotype machine above mentioned and hereafter described in
part, is described in detail in the Specification of Letters Patent 14582 of 1890.
To facilitate reference thereto, those parts of the machine which occur in the
accompanying Figure 1, are marked with the same reference letters as are used in
the said specification.
The Mergenthaler Linotype machine, as manufactured and used at the present
time, uses type matrices (as distinct from type dies), assembles them in line to-
gether with a complement of space bars, during the process of composition;
transfers the composed line to the casting mechanism; and then casts and delivers
elinotype. These matrices, Y, are separable metal plates and are not mechanically
connected with each other or with any part of the machine. The fount of them
is stored in a magazine carried by the top of the main frame A of the machine
and from which they can descend by gravity. This they do, one by one, as non
as their respective detents are moved away by the depression of the respective
finger keys, falling through a series of channels G. The mouths of these channels
are aligned obliquely across the front of the machine just behind the bank of finger
keys above mentioned and therefore in front of the operator. The lowest of the
channel mouths is nearest to the place where the matrices. Y, and space bars Z,
are assembled into a lino; and the highest, furthest from it. Beneath the oblique
row of the channel mouths, there is a constantly running belt H, upon which the
matrices Y, drop and lie. They are carried along by it and delivered, feet first, down,
a decline h', in the direction of the mouth of the assembling block I. This latter
consists, as far as the act of assembling the matrices and space bars, is concerned,
of a pair of horizontal bars adapted to receive between them the said matrices and
space bars, if the latter are presented vertically and side on. The necessary change
of position from oblique to vertical, is effected by a star wheel h³, mounted upon a
horizontal axis standing transversely of the oblique path of the matrices Y, the
said wheel revolving in the vertical plane. The axis of this wheel his below the
said path, and occupies such a position that, at one moment, a portion of its peri-
phery is practically part of the path; and at the next moment, that portion is
turned up into the vertical position, and towards the mouth of the said assembling
block I. In the interim, a matrix Y has come down upon the wheel periphery;
and the above described change of position, suffices to up-end that matrix and to
Cliver it, vertical as to position but horizontal as to direction of motion, into the
assembling block. The first matrix to enter meets a block J which has received the.

page_text: This
me of yielding resistant for a reason which will forthwith appear. The block in
question is capable of a horizontal motion between the bars of the said assembling
blork I. It is held flush with the mouth of the latter, by the pull of a spring or
weight, but the strength of such pull is adjusted to be less than that of the push
of the line of matrices and spaco bars which is gradually increasing in the said
assembling block under the action of the star wheel 4. The consequence is that,
although the said block J does in a seuse resist the entrance of each matrix
into the assembling block, it yields before the increasing length of line.
yielding resistant is carried by a horizontal bar j which slides in suitable guides
fast on the front of the machine and in front of the operator. Figure 1 includes
several parts of the machine which are not concerned in the present invention,
Fuch as the shifter arms L, L'; the independent slides by which they are guided
in the main frame A; the horizontal guide M through which the shifter arms
move with the composed line between them on its way to the casting mechanism;
the lover by which the said shifter arms L, L', are inoved to the lett; the link 151
by which the said lever is connected to the slide of the arm L'; the piston rod
and the cylinder of a pneumatic device for controlling the speed at which the
said shifter arms are moved to the left; a link connecting the right end of the
bar to the pulling spring already referred to; a horizontal slot in the said
bar; an indicator, adjustable upon the said har for the length of the line to he
composed; and its stop 10 fast upon the main frame A. All the foregoing parts
ara as heretofore.
is the automatic indicator and is the automatic stop for it. The former is a
bar adapted to be loosely held to the bar j, and the latter (the automatic stop) is a
bar projecting outwards from the main frame A, to which it is made fast and over
which last mentioned bar the indicator must move step by step with the bar j as
the latter is pulled by the growth of the composed line in the assembling block I,
and in the same direction too. The indicator is provided with a series of
shoulders, the number of shoulders in a series being oue less than the number
of portions in the copy.
The action of the invention is as follows. Referring to the sample of copy
quoted above, let it be supposed that the operator has just completed the composi-
tion of the last line of the preceding portion of his copy. Before beginning to
enmpose the first of the seven lines in question, he counts up the number of por
tions in his copy and finds it six. He then selects an indicator having five
shoulders, that is one less than the number of portions. Such an indicator is illus-
trated in Figure 3. The right end of it is held to the bar ; by a clamp described
in detail further on, but this holding must be of such a kind that the indicator
can rise or fall upon it as upon an axis. For the reason that the bar j moves
from right to left when it is going through its working stroke, it is the right end of 4
the indicator that is clamped to the said bar and to the right end of the latte
as well, the indicator standing parallel with the said bar j and its free end pointing
to the left. The said free end of the indicator is then placed upon the stop is
and the operator begins to compose the first portion, vis:-"1...." The first
shoulders comes up to the stop j as soon as the space which represents the white 4
between the first and the second portions, is in the assembling block. If the
operator now proceeds with the composition of the second portion, the first matrix
in it would be jammed between the star wheel A and the said space. But as the
indicator is immediately before his eyes, he sees the engagement of the stop
and the first shoulder 1, whereupon he lifts the nose of the indicator and begins
the composition of the second portion, riz:-"L. and J. Franks." The entrance
of the first or "L" matrix into the assembling block, moves the indicator"
accordingly whereupon the operator removes his finger and the next of the
inoline .e., the one which extends from the first to the second shoulder
drops upon the stop. The remaining portions of the line are treated in the &
same way. It may be remarked that the first and second matrices of the sixth
portion will obviously be quads because of the first two characters "1," of the sixth

page_text: portion in the second line. The utility of the invention makes itself more apparent
in the lines succeeding the first one, for the reason that the occurrence of the before
mentioned points in the copy at which the second and following portions in each
respectively begin, is given automatically an always with the same exactitude as
in the case of the first line; thus the action of the indicator j is always in full
view of the operator, and even if he neglected its indication, the automatic stop
would prevent him from bungling the piece in hand.
In dealing with the seventh line, he will compose quads for the first portion,
and one at the head of the second portion.
With reference to the stop j, it must be remarked that the operative part of it
is only as much as is necessary for the shoulders 19 to engage with. It is preferred
that it should be a loop, as illustrated, because a loop embraces the indicator ll
and prevents it from wandering from its path. The bottom of the said loop, is
then the stop proper, and the loop has incorporated with it a bracket by which and
holding screws, the combination is conveniently held to the main frame A.
With reference to the shoulders 3 and the stop js, it must be pointed out that
the presence of the former on the bottom edge of the indicator, and the position of
the stop under the said indicator is obviously the most convenient one, because
engagement between them is maintained by gravity. At the same time, it is
equally obvious that practically the same engagement would be secured by placing
the shoulders in the opposite edge of the indicator and the stop above it, with a
spring to keep the indicator up to the stop. Further, the shoulders 13 may be
replaced by notches or pins; or the inclines between them by horizontals.
The preferred clamp consists of a saddle piece adapted to straddle the bar j,
having a socket 15 projecting horizontally from the front of it and scrow threaded
internally to receive a screw jo, the nose of which carries a pivotted flange 17.
The latter and the screw are held together in such a way that the screw 16 turns in the
said flange without turning it. The indicator is held to the screw in any
convenient way. When a machine is equipped with a series of these indicators,
it is obviously preferable that they should all be detachable and interchangeable
with only one clamp to the series. For that reason, the right end of each indicator
is onlarged and has a vertical notch in its bottom edge whereby it is adapted to
straddle the screw 16 as indicated in Figure 2, the length of the screw being
adjusted so that it shall stop short of pinching the indicator between its head
and the socket 15 when the bar j is clamped. An indicator may be non-detachable
from its clamp as indicated in Figures 6 and 7. The head of the screw 16 may be
shaped as most convenient.
The motion of the bar j is a horizontal one and in front of the operator. For
that reason it is as convenient as might be, that the indicator j" should be clamped
to it. At the same time, ue invention does not limit me in respect of the particular
moving part of the machine from which is taken the power necessary to move the
indicator in sight of the operator. Neither does it limit me to the direction
of the indicator's motion. For if the indicator is moved vertically, spring pressuto
would suffice to keep its operative edge engaged with the stop (properly posi
tioned for its purpose), and would thereby provide for the discharge of all the
fanctions described above.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said iuven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. The combination in a composing machine, of an automatic indicator moved
step by step with the increasing length of line being composed, and an automatio
stop, as set forth.
2. The combination in a composing machine, of an automatic indicator moved
step by step with the increasing length of the liue being composed, an automatic
stop; and means by which the said indicator and stop may be maintained in
engagement with each other.

page_text: 3. The combination in a composing machine, of a bar such as ; moved step by
step by the increasing length of the line being composed, an indicator clamped to
the said bar and capable of an axial motion on its clamp; and a stop with which
the said indicator is adapted to engage.
4. The combination in a composing machine, of an automatic indicator adapted
to be moved step by step with the increasing length of the line being composed;
means by which the said indicator is connected with the said line; an automatic
stop; and means by which the said indicator and stop may be maintained in
engagement with each other.
5. The combination in a Mergenthaler Linotype machine, of a bar j; an auto- 1
matic indicator such as ; and an automatic slop such as j", as set forth.
Dated this 28th dor of Nov 1907
PITILLIPS & LEIGH,
No. 22 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.O.,
Agents for the Applicant.