COMPOSING MACHINES. In ordinary typography (PRINTING] the types are collected one by one, by the fingers of the compositor, from little cells or compartments, and ar ranged in the proper order for printing. About ten years ago however two very ingenious at tempts were made, by Messrs.Young and Del. cambre in one case, and by Captain Rosenberg in the other, to perform this work by the aid of a machine.
Messrs. Young and Delcambre's first com posing machine was patented in 1840; but by the year 1842 considerable improvements had been introduced in its mechanism. Considered in its latest form, it does not set up types in a state fit for printing from ; but it is intended so to facilitate the process of composition as to enable that to be done by females and chil dren which now requires the services of highly paid men, and to do the work more quickly.
The mechanism for carrying out this in tended object may be described as follows. The general appearance of the machine some what resembles that of a cottage piano forte, without its case. There is a row of keys which are played upon by the fingers of the compo sitor, who is seated in front of the machine. There is one keyto each letter, stop, numeral, space, Pc., required in printing ; so that the number of keys must be very considerable. Each key is marked with its particular letter or other type, and each type is placed in a re ceptacle containing many duplicates of that character. These receptacles are all filled with types by boys ; and one compositor can use the types as fast as two boys can supply them. The compositor seats himself in front of the instrument, with the author's MS. placed be fore him. We will suppose the first word to be The. He places his finger on the key marked with a capital T; the key moves an upright steel lever, the upper end of which pushes a type out of its receptacle. or channel; this type is a T, which slides down an inclined plane, in a little hollow or groove, until it reaches a sort of spout at the bottom ; thence it passes to the justifying-box, where the auto matic action of the machine terminates. Here another compositor takes up the type and ar ranges it in the composing stick, as in ordinary printing. While the T has been thus travel ling downwards, the h and the e have been made to follow, and are treated exactly in the same way ; and so on throughout the MS. The number of persons required to work the machine is five ; viz. two to distribute the type used in previous printing and to supply the types to the receptacles, one to play the keys, one to work an excentric wheel which forces the arranged types into the justifying-box, and one to justify or place the types in. the cora posing stick. Two of the persons are females and three boys ; and these five are said by tin inventor to be able, after six months practice to compose and distribute 6000 types in ar hour ; 1,500 per hour being an ordinary com. positor's work, including corrections.
It is singular that two machines were in progress for the same object about the same time. Rosenberg's Type Composing Machine was patented in 1811, shortly after the first patent of Messrs.Young and Delcambre. The two machines bear a strong general likeness ; but there are sufficient points of difference to marl; the ingenuity which has been shewn in each. Rosenberg's Machine is rather more compact of the two, and effects more by auto matic means—requiring the aid of fewer per sons. In Captain Rosenberg's own statement of the capabilities of his machine, lie claims for it the the power of composing 10,800 types in an hour; of requiring only three persons instead of five; and of distributing the type as well as composing it instead of composing only as in Young and Delcambre's machine.
The compositor, pressing on the keys in succession, forces down the several types from a series of vertical racks in which they had been placed. The types arrange themselves in proper order upon an endless belt or chain, which is constantly passing through the mid dle of the machine from right to left. The types travel along this endless band till they come to a receiver, where theyrank themselves closely side by side until enough are so ar ranged to form one line of the book to be printed. The compositor is warned by the striking of a little bell that the line is full ; and by turning a handle close to him, he re moves the finished line from its place, and leaves room for the next line. An assistant compositor then takes up the finished line, in a small apparatus into which it falls, reads it, corrects any mistakes, and places it in the page of type ready for printing. All the leads for spacing' the type are applied by hand by this assistant compositor. The arrangement of the. types in their original receptacles is so peculiar, that the compositor can sometimes compose or bring down four or five types at one time, by pressing four or five keys at once, as a pianoforte player can do. This may be done whenever the letters of a word succeed each other in the order which they follow in the alphabet. For instance, in the word adopt each letter has a later alphabetical rank than the one which precedes it; so that if the five corresponding keys be pressed down at one time, the five types will be found ranged in their proper order on the endless baud : it is true that they will be unequally distant apart ; but they all become pressed together closely at a later stage of the operations. The word accentuation is given as an example wherein three pressures on the keys will suffice instead of twelve; thus, accenitz—at—ion, in which each of the three groups consists of letters which take rank in their proper alphabetical order.
The Distributing Machine is quite detached from the Composing Machine. When the printing is completed, a line of type is lowered from the galley [PRINTING] into a sort of tra velling carriage, by means of a slider with a handle. The distributor reads over the line, and puts his finger successively on a row of keys, each key corresponding to a particular letter ; the key is raised by the touch, and he moves the carriage sideways until it is stopped by the key which has been thus raised. The type contained in the carriage is by this move ment forced out of the line in which it had previously held a place, and falling down through a recess, it is deposited in a small re ceptacle. By the time the whole line has been thus distributed, by touching the keys as many times as there are types in the line, all the a's are found in ono receptacle, all the b's in an other, and so on. By means of a ' feeding stick,' 200 or 300 of these types of one letter maybe lifted up and transferred from the dis tributing machine to the composing machine, ready to be used over again.
There is considerable mechanical beauty in these two machines, especially Rosenberg's ; and the leading printers would certainly by this time have adopted them had the state.. ments of the respective patentees been borne out. It seems however now fully decided that a book cannot be printed so quickly or cheaply by the aid of these machines as by the ordi nary means.