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Browse All : Typesetting machines - History and Printing - Technological innovations and oil on canvas
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Title
Ottmar Mergenthaler and the Linotype
Creator
Thom, Robert A., 1915-1979
Summary
On July 3, 1886 Ottmar Mergenthaler, an immigrant watchmaker from Wurttemberg, Germany demonstrated to the New York Tribune a machine which was regarded as one of the 10 greatest inventions of all time: the Linotype. Type for nearly every newspaper in the world and most books in the United States was composed by Mergenthaler's machine. His basic innovation was that of circulating matrices, pieces of brass punched with letters, figures and punctuation marks. When an operator tapped the Linotype's keys, the pieces were brought together into a line, automatically spaced, for faces which made a cast impression in type. The matrices were then automatically returned to the machine for future use.
Title
Tolbert Lanston and the Monotype
Creator
Thom, Robert A., 1915-1979
Summary
A year after Mergenthaler brought out his first Linotype in 1886, another inventor, Tolbert Lanston, received a patent on his composing machine, the Monotype. The principal advantage of the American's invention over the Linotype was that the Monotype could cast individual characters and assemble them in a justified line instead of setting an entire line of type, or slug. Lanston's machine, which was commercially established in 1894, has undergone many major improvements since its inception. But today Monotype setting is considered equal to or even superior to hand setting analog metal type.
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