The linotype is not a type-setting and type-distributing machine, but one in which the form is stereotyped line by line; hence its name of linotype. The mould, or matrix, is made up of a number of brass matrices, each of which consists of a flat plate having on its edge a letter incised. One of these is represented on Fig. [313b] wherein a is the hollow letter. At the upper end the plate is cut into a number of notches like the teeth of a saw, only that some of the teeth have their points cut off, leaving steps, as it were, with faces parallel to the longer edges of the matrix. There may be seen one of these at b, and on the opposite side of the V-shape, three may be observed. The number and arrangement of the cut-away notches is different for the matrix of each letter (or sign), and special to it. The meaning of this will be seen presently. The diagram Fig. [313c] will help us to see how these matrices are assembled by touches of the finger on the required letters as marked on the keyboard at D. The matrices are assorted and stored in separate channels in the “matrix” magazine, A, a portion of its cover being here represented as broken off in order to show the channels. It will readily be understood that, by a system of levers connected with each key, the corresponding matrix is released by means of an escapement (B´), and falls down one of the channels E on to the travelling belt F, which conveys it to composing stick G, in which the matrices successively assemble in the order to constitute a line (Fig. [313c]), in which observe that the several words are separated by spaces formed by long wedges of steel, the thick ends of which hang down considerably below the line of matrices. These are dropped one by one from a store at I (Fig. [313c]), when required, by a touch on the key-bar J; two of them are shown in position in the assembling stick G. In Fig. [313a] a bell is seen in front of the keyboard, and this is automatically rung by a mechanical device when the line of matrices is approaching in length to that allotted to the work. At this point the operator has to consider whether he can complete the line with another, or with how many syllables of a word, and he touches the keys of the required letters. The assembling stick then contains all the matrices comparatively loosely packed side by side, for the words are as yet separated by only the thin edges of the space wedges. A touch of the operator on a lever brings into play another part of the mechanism by which the composed line is bodily lifted a short way, then moved horizontally, and conveyed to the “mould wheel,” in which there is a slot, adjustable in length and width, and the line is here firmly pressed against the face of the wheel in such a way that the slot coincides with the line of hollow letters on the edges of the matrices, as shown in Fig. [313b]. This moulding arrangement is not the least ingenious device in this machine, and well deserves attention. Before the moulding takes place, but while the line is in its place, the wedge spaces are pushed up through the matrices by another portion of the mechanism, and thus the line is immediately “justified,” as the printers term it; that is, the wedges rise up, separating the words, more or less, until the line has exactly its assigned length, and the words are, at the same time, separated by equal spaces. A melting-pot behind the mould-wheel contains a quantity of fusible metal, resembling stereotype metal, which is maintained at just the temperature of fluidity by a regulated gas burner. At the right moment a plunger is forced into the fluid mass, causing it to rise through a kind of spout to the level of the slot in the wheel, and be forced through that into the line of letters. The metal instantly solidifies in the mould, the line of matrices is removed on a bar to a new position at R, Fig. [313c], and the wheel then makes a quarter of a turn, bringing the mould from the horizontal into a vertical position (Fig. [313e]). The linotype is subjected to the operation of certain knives (not shown), by which it is pared smoothly to the exact thickness and height required, and finally ejected, as shown in Fig. [313e], dropping in its proper order into a receiving galley. The line, as completed, has the shape represented in Fig. [313g], and a number of these lines assembled constitute a “form,” answering all the purposes of the ordinary forms consisting of separate type. These last, after having served their purpose, must be “distributed,” that is, each single letter must be returned to the case from which it was taken by the compositor; but the linotype form, after use, is simply returned to the melting-pot for its metal to be recast into new forms. The forms can, of course, remain standing for any length of time at the mere expense of keeping the metal unemployed. One advantage of the linotype is that the printing is all done from new clean-faced forms, instead of the old and dull-faced characters of ordinary type that have been much used, but have to be resorted to under ordinary circumstances.
Fig. 313e.—A Finished Line entering Galley.
Fig. 313f.—The Melting Pot and Mould Wheel.
It may occur to the reader that errors in linotype would be much more difficult of correction than those occurring with the ordinary type composed by hand. If by chance a wrong matrix appears in the line, this can be changed by hand at once; but supposing that the operator overlooks some error in reading the assembled line, which, observe, he reads with the characters arranged as they will appear in the impression, or that he has misread his manuscript, and the line is cast, assembled into a “form” with the rest, and then in the printed proof the error is discovered, how is it to be rectified? Simply by removing the faulty linotype from the form, and casting a new one. This is so quickly and easily done that it has been found by actual test between linotype and ordinary type matter containing the same defects, that the former could be corrected in less than one-third of the time required for the latter.
We left the line of matrices at R (Fig. [313c]), and we must now indicate the method by which each is automatically returned to its own magazine, an operation for which much ingenious mechanism has been contrived, of which the details cannot be well described in this place. The line having reached R, the space wedges are disengaged from it and removed to their receptacle at I, while the matrices become engaged by their teeth in the grooves of a horizontal bar, and then the bar is grasped by a lever which lifts it up to the distributing arrangement at the top of the machine, where the teeth of the matrices come to the exact level of the grooves of the distributor bar T. The line is then pushed laterally, the sides of the matrices become engaged in the hollows of two parallel screws U, by which, while suspended only by such of their inclined teeth as the corresponding groove of the distributor can support, they are made to slowly travel along from left to right until each reaches a certain point, namely, that at which its sustaining V grooves on the bar are interrupted by cuts which permit it to drop into its own special magazine. A little consideration will show how, by various combinations of the notches on the matrix, and corresponding cuts at the right places in the grooves of the bar, each matrix may be made to move along until it reaches a determinate place, and there dropped. Compare Fig. [313b] and Fig. [313i]. Each matrix thus again deposited in its proper magazine has completed the circuit of the machine, or, at least, has passed from the bottom of its magazine to the assembling stick, hence to the mould, and, by the distributor, finds its way back to the top of its magazine, whence, in its turn, it will descend to perform again the same duty.
Fig. 313g.—The Finished Line.
