The Boston Type Foundry, which started as a stereotyping plant, passed through an experience as a co-operative concern under the direction of the employees who owned the stock. As is usually the case with such enterprises, it was unsuccessful until finally the majority of the stock got into the possession of Gorham Rogers, from which time it was operated as in the ordinary way and attained a high degree of success, doing very fine work. Mr. Conner, foreman in this foundry, who had started as a stereotyper in 1827, was sent to St. Louis to open a branch establishment which was very successful and later became famous as the Central Type Foundry. Conner invented an electrotype matrix to take the place of the matrices which had formerly been made by driving a steel punch into copper.
The Dickinson Type Foundry also did work of a very high grade. Perhaps the most fortunate thing that ever happened to it was the entrance into its service in 1868 of Mr. Joseph W. Phinney. Mr. Phinney was born in 1848, and after a varied experience as a printer in several places, went to Boston in 1868, later entering the employ of the old Dickinson Type Foundry, in the selling department. He soon distinguished himself in the service of the Dickinson Company and after a time became one of its partners. His skill, artistic taste, and ability soon made him one of the leaders in type design as well as one of the great figures in the type founding business. For many years Mr. Phinney has exercised an influence for good in type founding which it would be difficult to overestimate. On the establishment of the American Type Founders Company in 1892 the Dickinson concern became one of the constituent firms and Mr. Phinney’s leadership was recognized by his election to the position of Vice-President of the new concern. Mr. Phinney has remained in Boston as the head of the New England branch of the business and is one of the active and leading officers of the great type founding company.
Certain improvements in the manufacture of type which have brought it to its present perfection remain to be recorded. The most important of these were made by Barth, Marder, Benton, and Nicholas J. Werner. Henry Barth was born in Leipsic, Germany, in 1823, and learned the trade of mathematical instrument maker. Before 1840 the Bruce type caster was seen in Germany and (not being protected by German patents) was imitated by German type founders. Barth was engaged by Brockhaus, one of the more important German printers, who maintained his own bindery and type foundry and now added a machine shop primarily for the purpose of building Bruce machines. Barth spent several years in the employ of Brockhaus making type foundry tools and had two years’ service in the German navy. He came to America in 1849 and at first practiced his trade as a maker of mathematical instruments, but before long connected himself with the Cincinnati Type Foundry. Here he invented a machine to cast type by direct steam pressure without the pump. The machine was successful, but for various reasons did not come into general use. He then built a 14 × 18 job press, long well known as the Wells jobber. During his service with the Cincinnati Type Foundry the hand-casting machines were entirely replaced by steam machines, and in 1853 he invented the kerning machine. About the same time the first shaved leads were made under Barth’s direction. At first the shaving was done on a hand machine, but later he devised a steam shaving machine. During the course of a long service to the industry Barth was the author of many important inventions and improvements in the details of type founding. He died in 1907.
To John Marder we owe the development of the American point system of type bodies. The Marder system was not immediately adopted, but as developed by later inventions its superiority was so great that in spite of the trouble and expense involved in the standardization of type it finally became universal.
L. B. Benton introduced the use of accurate unit width of type. Previously the width of the letters had varied with each character. This resulted in a multiplicity of widths of type. Benton’s theory was that quicker typesetting and more uniform spacing could be obtained by having the types standardized on a minimum number of widths and securing the proper space between characters by modifying the shapes of certain letters to conform to these widths. Benton’s type was popularly called “self-spacing” although the name was misapplied. Another disadvantage then existing was that similar style type faces from different foundries did not line, and even the height-to-paper of types varied. Type sizes which were supposedly the same, in reality varied considerably in different foundries. The confusion and difficulty for the printer arising out of this lack of standards may easily be imagined. Each foundry had its own width and size of type, and in many cases its size varied by a considerable fraction of a point from that of other foundries. Very probably this condition was deliberately maintained by some foundries for the purpose of holding the entire trade of their customers, the idea being that if the types coming from different foundries did not go together well the customer would naturally be led to buy all of his type in the same place. The improvement of these conditions was brought about by the introduction of the point system of bodies, Benton’s unit width, and the perfection of the lining and unit set systems now in use.
Some important foundries held out against these improvements for years, but the demands of their customers, who perceived the great advantages of the standardized type, finally compelled adhesion to the new system. One important result of these changes was the invention of the punch-cutting or engraving machine. The adoption of the improved system required the production of a vast number of new punches which had formerly been cut by hand. It was impossible to find enough skilled workmen to meet this demand and the engraving machine now used for making punches was accordingly devised by Benton.
The field for the artistic development of type is inexhaustible, but it is difficult to imagine how type, as a mechanical product, can be improved beyond its present condition. The completeness and perfection of the system, the excellence of the machinery, and the skill in processes which have been developed make the product apparently perfect.
CHAPTER III
Composing and Type-Casting Machines
With the great expansion of printing in the early part of the nineteenth century, and with the invention of greatly improved presses, there appeared a natural impatience with the slow process of hand composition. It seemed a strange comment on human inventiveness that while new machines had been found for doing so many kinds of man’s work, while the simple screw press of Gutenberg had developed into the steam-driven platen and cylinder, and while so many improvements had been made in the manufacture of type, the setting of type was exactly where it was in 1450. More than 350 years had introduced practically no changes in the primary process of arranging type into words and sentences. What could be done to apply human ingenuity to this process?
This question was asked by inventors all over the world. Naturally the first line of approach to the answer was from the direction of a machine which should mechanically take up the types and place them in the stick, in other words, a mechanical composer or typesetting machine. Unsuccessful attempts in this line were made as early as 1820 or 1822. The experimenters were not deterred by failures and commercially successful typesetting machines were finally invented, among which may be named the Rogers, the Thorne, and the Simplex. The mechanical typesetter was successful for certain kinds of work and went a long way toward meeting the general need.