TYPESETTING MACHINES. Machines devised to set or compose printers' types auto matically and mechanically. In hand composi tion the types are picked one at a time from a wooden case and then set one after another in the proper order to form the words which it is de sired to print. After the set types have been printed from, they are distributed, i.e. re turned to their proper compartments in the case. (See PRINTING.) The processes of com position and distribution by hand are tedious and expensive, and from quite early times efforts have been made to devise a machine which would perform these tasks more speedily and economic ally. Until within recent years, however, these attempts were not commercially successful. Per haps the first serious attempt to design a machine to do away with hand composition of types was made by Dr. William Church, whose device was patented in England in 1822. His machine was designed to cast types and leave them in reser voirs, and they were set from these reservoirs by pressing keys arranged much like the keys of a piano. After use the types were remelted, the inventor in this way getting around the problem of distribution. Evidently Church was a man ahead of his times. for it was not until a score of years had elapsed that the issuing of patents for typesetting machines began to be frequent. In 1840 James H. Young. of England, completed a machine, which is said to have set types at the rate of 13,000 per hour, but the types had to be arranged in lines, distributed, and, presumably, placed in the magazines by hand, which required three persons besides the machine operator. The first distributing machine patented in America was invented by Frederick Rosenberg, in 1843, and the first English patent on a distributor was taken out by Etienne Robert Gaudens, in 1840. After this among prominent American inventors follow the names of Mitchell, Alden, Felt, Brown, Westcott, Kastenbein, Paige, Richards, Burr, and in recent years Thorne, MacMillan, and Mer genthaler. Among the prominent foreign inven tors who achieved more or less success were Hat lersley, Mackie, and Fraser, in England; SOren sem of Denmark; Fischer and Von Langen. of Germany; and Deleambre, of France. At present only the Thorne, MacMillan. Mergenthaler, and Lanston machines are much used, but the com mercial success reached by some of the earlier machines was quite remarkable. The Alden ma chine was at one time used in the New York Tribune office, Ten of the Mitchell machines, invented in 1853, are said to have been used at one time in a single office. In 1872 the London Times began to use the Kastenbein ma chines, and finally set the whole paper by them. In 1880 the Burr machine was tried in the New York Tribune office, and three of these machines were in use there for some years. In 1884 the Fischer and Von Langen machine was used in the office of the Cologne aazettc. All these successes,
however, have been so far outdone by the Thorne, MaeMilian, Mergenthaler, and Lanston machines that only these four need he mentimwd further.
The Thorne machine, a combined setting and distributing machine, consists of an upright cyl inder with vertical channels around a periphery, each channel holding a line or column of types, one channel holding a's, another b's, and so on. The lower half of the eylinder is stationary, and its channels contain the distributed types. The upper half of the cylinder turns with a step by step motion, and its channels contain the lines of type to be distributed. The motion of the upper cylinder is such as to bring its channels opposite those of the lower, when an instant's pause oc curs, permitting any type which is opposite a channel in the lower cylinder, whose projections correspond to its own nicks, to drop down. Then the upper cylinder is rotated one step, bringing the channels again in coincidence. The type is set from the channels in the lower cylinder, the lowest type being pressed out radially when the operator depresses the key which governs it. A rapidly revolving plate whirls the type around and delivers it to an endless belt, which carries it to a setting-up mechanism. Here the type is turned upright and added to the continuous line of types, which is slowly pushed along, as type after type is added, toward the justifier, which divides it into lines of column or page length. The machine described is an excellent example of combined setting and distributing machine. In the MacMillan machine the setting and the distrib uting are done by separate machines. The maga zines of the setting machine are removable, being exchanged for full ones as fast as they become empty. The operator ejects the types from the magazines by pressing suitable keys, and they are set up in long lines to be justified by band, The distributor consists of a horizontal wheel with radial channels, in which the types to be dis tributed are placed. The frame surrounding the wheel contains other radial channels having pro jections corresponding to the nicks in the types. The movable magazines are placed radially in connection with these outer channels. When the wheel slowly revolves, the types pass from the channels of the wheel into the outer channels whenever a type comes opposite one whose pro jections correspond to its nicks. The MacMillan machine is a fairly typical example of the sep arate setting and distributing machine. Both the Thorne and the MacMillan machines set types which are previously made by the regular type-founding process. (See TYPE PouNnixu.) This is a distinction which should be noted be fore proceeding further, since the Mergenthaler and Lanston machines, instead of composing pre viously cast types, themselves cast the types as they are desired by the operator.