J. W. Schuckers’ double-wedge justifier.
An [illustration] shows the two-letter matrices of a special Mergenthaler machine. The upper is usually a body character and the lower an italic, a small capital or a black face. These lower matrices are lifted a little by a key so as to come in line with upper matrices. In this way the compositor has at command two distinct fonts. Groove E receives the ears of the matrices. In a normal position D receives the ears of the matrices elevated to produce the secondary characters. In this way the matrices are held in position as casting proceeds. Five double-wedge justifiers will be observed between the matrices. These devices, invented by J. W. Schuckers, form an essential part of the machine. Justification, let the reader be reminded, is so spacing the contents of a line that it shall neatly end with a word or syllable. In typewritten manuscript the lack of justification leaves the ends of lines jagged and unsightly. Mr. Schuckers at the end of every word places a pair of wedges. When the operator is close to the end of a line he pushes in the whole row of wedges in that line; the outer sides of each pair remain always parallel, and as pushed in these outer sides are just sufficiently forced apart to space out the line with exactitude. To lift a table or a desk, and at the same time keep it always level, we may use pairs of wedges in the same manner; they must, of course, be much larger and thicker than those used in linotypy. See next page for an [illustration].
A, two wedges partly in contact.
B, two wedges fully in contact, outer sides parallel.
To-day a book may be reproduced without any recourse whatever to the type long indispensable. A photographer takes the volume, and repeats it in pages of any size we wish, dispensing not only with the type-setter or the type-caster, but even with the proofreader, since a camera furnishes an exact fac-simile of the original work. If the book is illustrated, a further economy is enjoyed; its pictures are copied as faithfully and cheaply as the letterpress.
Ingenuity in Copying and Decorating.
A feat which is a mere trifle as compared with reproducing a book by photography, turns upon a loan from an old resource. Confectioners from time immemorial have squeezed paste out of bags through apertures into ornaments for wedding cakes and the like. With similar bags decorators force a thin stream of plaster into a semblance of flowers, fruits, and arabesques on their ceilings and cornices. On the same plan, with pressure more severe, soap is forced, from a tank through a square opening to form bars for the laundress. Increasing the pressure once again, clay for bricks is urged forth, to be divided into lengths suitable for the kiln. Lead pipe is manufactured on the same principle, recalling the production of macaroni. A further step was taken by Alexander Dick, the inventor of Delta metal; by employing hydraulic pressure on metals at red heat he poured out wires and bars of varied cross-sections, superseding the method of drawing through dies.
Frost as a Servant.
Cold as well as heat may be employed in a novel manner. The flesh of birds, beasts, and insects is now frozen hard, so as to be sliced into extremely thin sections clearly showing the details of structure. How a freezing process may aid the miner was shown first in Germany in 1880, when Hermann Poetsch, a mining engineer, had to sink a shaft near Aschersleben, to a vein of coal, where, after excavating 100 feet, a stratum of sand eighteen feet thick, overlying the coal, was encountered. It occurred to Poetsch that the great difficulty occasioned by the influx of water through the sand could be overcome by solidifying the entire mass by freezing. To do this, he penetrated the sand to be excavated with large pipes eight inches in diameter, sunk entirely through it and a foot or two into the underlying coal. These were placed in a circle at intervals of a metre, and close to the periphery of the shaft. They were closed at the lower end. Inside each of these and open at its lower end was a pipe an inch in diameter. This system of pipes was so connected that a closed circulation could be produced down through the small pipes and up through the large ones. An ice-machine, such as brewers use, was set up near by and kept at a temperature below zero Fahrenheit. A tank filled with a solution of chloride of magnesium, which freezes at -40° Fahr., had its contents circulated through the ground pipes described. Thermometers placed in pipes sunk in the mass of sand showed 51.8° Fahr. at the beginning of the process. The circulation was kept up and on the third day the whole mass was frozen. Within the continuous frozen wall the material was excavated without damage from caving in or inflow of water. The freezing entered the coal three feet, and to a distance six feet outside the pipes. The circulation was kept up until the excavation and walling were complete. On a somewhat similar plan tunnels have been bored through difficult ground. Of late years at Detroit, and elsewhere, serious breaks in water-mains have been repaired after a freezing process has solidified the stream.