AUTOPLATE, a machine for rapidly casting curved plates for newspaper printing, such plates being accurate replicas of the original type formes. Before the advent of this machine, the casting of stereo plates was done by various manual processes. The autoplate reduces these manual operations to a single mechan ical and highly accurate process, casting three or four plates per minute. The original autoplate was the invention of Henry A. Wise Wood of New York in 1900. It has since been greatly de veloped and several types of machine have been produced.
The actual process of the making of the finished printing plate on the Junior autoplate may be summed up as follows: The linotype slugs, or other type matter, are locked up, making what is known as the "forme." On this forme is laid a specially prepared piece of papier mache known as the "flong." Over this are laid a blanket and a sheet of rubber or other suitable material, and the whole is then passed through a mangle press. The flong thus takes an accurate cast of the original type matter. This Hong is then placed in a matrix dryer for about two minutes in which it is shaped and dried. The "matrix flong" is now placed in the mould box of the autoplate, and a charge of molten metal is pumped in by a single stroke of the pump. After a lapse of about 13 seconds, the plate is ready for the next operation of cutting off the tail (the metal not required) and for ejection. The plate is then transferred by hand to the autoshaver in which it is bored accurately, cooled and delivered ready to be placed in the newspaper printing machine. (S. E. B.)