1. The object of the first is to cast metallic types with extraordinary expedition, and to arrange them for the com positor.
2. The second machine selects and combines the types into words and sentences. And S. The third is for taking impressions from the types so arranged.
1. Type-Founding Apparatus.—The machine for casting the types is shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4 of Plate CCCCLXIX, the first being a plan, the second an elevation, and the third a section of the machine. In these figures a is a box holding the melted type metal (which flows from the foun tain d) having in front of it the mould b, (Fig. 3.) and b b Fig. 5, formed by a steel bar, with a number of vertical grooves to hold the metal. Below this mould are placed the matrices c c, which form the letter or face of the type. By means of a plunger e, a portion of the melted metal is displaced from a, and rushes with force into the grooves of the mould bar, and into the matrices. The machine ope rates in the following manner. A fly-wheel g, driven by hand, moves the shaft h, carrying the cam-wheel i i. As soon as the cam, seen at 1, Fig. 3, is slid from beneath the end of the lever j, the plunger e is drawn down by a weight appended to j, and forces a portion of the metal into the moulds and matrices. As the cam wheel advances, a pro jecting part of its periphery, 2, raises the end of the lever k, and a short arm at the reverse end of the shaft, which carries this lever k, shifts the mould bar b laterally, and brings its grooves under a series of punches, extending from the bar / /, Fig. 2. The matrix bar c is now unlocked by a cam 3 bearing against the end of the lever m, the re verse end of which slides back a bar holding a series of wedges n n, and thereby permitting the matrix bar to de scend the one-eighth of an inch, so as to withdraw the ends of the cast types from these matrices. Another cam 4 striking the upper end of the lever o o, causes the reverse end of it to draw forward the matrix bar c, from beneath the types. The cam 5 now pushes back the arm p of a compound lever, and causes the other arm q to force down the bar 11 with its punches, which push the types out of the mould bar into the guides r, which are square tubes formed to the figure of the types, and twisted one quarter round, in order to bring the body of each type into the proper position for the composing machine. After the the types have descended in the guides, a pair of guide cams t (Fig. 3.) between which the end of the lever v cause by their obliquity the lever v to vibrate and slide the projected bar w backwards and forwards, so that at every operation of the machine the types are pushed backwards in ranges of the box s, each type preserving its erect po sition. When the cam 5 has passed the lever ft, the weight
attached to it causes the punch bar and punches I to rise into their former position. The cam 6 now pushes back o, brings the matrix bar beneath the mould bar, and the ma trix bar is locked up by the cam 7, which, acting on the end of the lever 111, pushes the wedges into their original situation. The grooves for the moulds are replaced over the matrices by the friction roller at the end of the lever k, descending from the elevated part of the periphery of the wheel i i at 8, and shifting back the mould bar. One en tire revolution having been performed, the cam I is again brought under the end of the lever j, which raises the plunger e to be ready for a second operation.
The mould bar has many turnings cut through it, (as shown in Fig. 6.) for the passage of cold water to cool the type metal. The water is conveyed by a pipe x, and dis charged by an aperture at y.
Composing Apparatus.—The types being arranged in files of letters, are placed in boxes or slips, shown at a, a, Fig. 7. b b are a number of jacks, each of which has a key attached to it, as in the harpsichord. There are four rows of keys, as in Fig. 8, in order that any one of them may be touched by the finger; and c c, Fig. 7. is a number of slits corresponding to the keys, through which the heads of the jacks pass. Each file of letters stands exactly over the head of its jack. When the finger presses on the key b 1, Fig. 8. the head of its jack b 1 pushes forward the lower type of the file a, against which it stood, to the front part of the plate c. As the key b 1 descends, the lever e is raised by the descent of d, and the end of e enters a snail groove in a snail wheel f, connected by a train of wheel work to a barrel g, containing a spring intended to act as a clock-movement, to give motion to the arms h h in front. The lever e acting as a trigger, lets off the clock movement, whenever a key is depressed, and the wheel f evolves once on the descent of each key. Each of the revolutions of f raises and depresses the connecting rod by the crank on its axle. This causes the shaft j and the collecting arm h to vibrate, so that each turn of f gives a pendulous motion to the arms h, h, and brings together the collectors k, k, which slide the type from any part of the plate c to the centre, and this type is pushed down through an aperture in the plate into the curved channel n, n, which answers the end of a composing stick. This is done by the front part of the lever in, which descends while the rod 1 is pushed up by the wheel f. The types may now be ta ken in the usual manner from the composing stick, and arranged into pages.