Fig. 3 is a perspective of the complete Morgenthaler linotype machine.
The Munson Method of Power Type Composition has been recently sim pli fied and improved, so that features formerly criticised or excepted to by practical printers have been eliminated. It has been considered that most of the typesetting and composing machines heretofore placed before the public were limited in their capacity for work by the ability of the operator, and that, with the average manipulation, from one-half to three-quarters of the capacity of a well-constructed machine remains idle. The object of Mr. Munson's inventions is to overcome this defect in typesetting machinery, and to make it possible to work up to the absolute maxitnum speed. Ile uses three machines, viz.: A preparatory perforating machine. a typesetting nmehine, and a type-distributing machine. The preparatory per forating machine is small and simply constructed. It is provided with a keyboard that can be worked by any typewriter operator at ally time or in any place, and the result (a strip of paper having a series of transverse rows of perforations) CM afterward be used to operate the typesetting machine. By this plan two, three, or possibly Inure persons can be employed simultaneously in keeping one typesetting machine constantly at work. This preparatory or "compositor's " machine works as follows : To each letter, point, figure, space, quadrat, etc., is assigned a particular row of perforations in the ribbon, the rows being made to differ front one another by changes in the combinations of The operator has only to see that he deirresses the proper keys in their right order, the machine itself taking care of the combinations and insuring the correct perforations of the ribbon. The operator determines as lie goes along where each column line of type shall end, in substantially the same way that a typewriter operator decides where each line of typewriting, shall end. That is, he is guided by :in index moving: along a graduated scale, and also by the sound of a hell that is struck automatically a little before the end of the line is reached, just as the typewriter operator is guided by the " carriage scale " index and bell of that machine. When the end of a column line is thus fixed upon by the operator (whether the division comes after a word, after a hyphen -dividing a word, or after a point, figure, or other character), be marks the terminus of the line by touching a key that causes to be inserted at that point in the ribbon a row of perforations that represents a peculiar type, called the "line divider." lie then proceeds in like manner to compose the next line.
The typesetting machine has no keyboard, but is automatic in its action, and is operated entirely by mechanical power, its work being directed by the perforated still). Automatically it does the following things : (I) It sets matter in a long, continuous line of type, this line consisting of a succession of separated short lines, each of which has the requisite length and the proper terminal division to make it, when spaced and justified, a correct and suitable column line. (2) It spaces evenly, and justifies with exactness each of such column lines, and then deposits it with the column of type on the galley. (3) When matter is required to be
leaded, it inserts leads between the lines of type as they are moved on to the galley.
The type used with these machines is the ordinary type made and sold by typefounders. The power type distributor is entirely automatic ; that is, it will not require the "dead" matter for distribution to be fed into it by hand, but a whole page or column of type may be placed on its table, and the machine itself will do the rest. It separates the foremost line of type from the others, and then picks off each individual type and places it in its proper reservoir.
The Electric Linotype based upon the inventions of Mr. Shuckers. and further improved by Mr. Homer Lee, is an automatic type-bar casting machine, differing from the Mergenthaler and Rogers machines in that, instead of using female characters of the matrix order, it employs male or cameo characters secured to the ends of bars arranged in the arc of a circle over a key-assembling channel, the bars being arranged in lines radial to their key channel. Any number of bars with like characters may be used. The bars are released, one at a time, by electromagnets operated from a keyboard. When released, each bar falls by gravity with its type end in place in the assembling channel in front of the operator, each ceeding bar, as it falls, taking its place alongside of the preceding bar. The automatic justi fying spaces are similarly released by a proper key and electromagnet to fall in place between the type bars, and when the line is completed the machine automatically clamps the types in place. and at the same time moves the justifying spaces simultaneously all to equal distances, so that the line is automatically justified at the time it is clamped rigidly in place. The soft lead bar is then fed beneath the line of clamped type bars, and is moved up into forcible conti.et with the type faces by a proper plunger, which causes the soft lead bar to be impressed with a line of characters which thus appear in the bar in female or intaglio form. The plunger then withdraws, the soft lead bar is released and moves forward into position in line with the mouth, of a type-bar mold. The molten type metal is then automatically forced into the mold against the face of the matrix, the mold withdraws slightly, and carries the cast type bar around in contact with a rear knife, that trims the under face of the type bar and deposits it in proper order into a galley, to be afterward taken to the composing table, As soon as the plunger withdraws, and the soft metal bar is thus released, other bars may be fed in, one at a time, automatically, so that the matter of the first bar may be dupli cated one or more times, as may be necessary. When a new line is to be set up. the operator pulls a candle, and the type bars move back to their normal positions ready for the operator to assemble another series of bars. The automatic justifier referred to is the invention of Mr. Knickers, and forms a very important part of the machine, and is, in fact, necessary to all automatic linotype machines, and is one of the most ingenious parts of the machine.