The creation of Linotype is one of the most distinguished
artifacts and inventions in the United States’ entire printing world. Created
and developed by German watchmaker Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1884, it
revolutionised the way type was created, and the world had not seen anything as
innovative or astounding since the creation of Gutenberg. The linotype hugely
increased the speed at which printing was done, and the newspaper industry
excelled because of this creation. Its technique, at the time, was quite innovative
and outside-the-box thinking, and required actual lines of text instead of each
individual letter. The name Linotype is derived from the full name, Line of
Type, which is exactly what the machine is. This machine is very different from
any other machine and there are a number of reasons why. It also had a
professional effect on printed work, which led to the newspaper industry
becoming more popular. Like all products, the Linotype had a rival, and it was
called the Compositor, which promised a faster and practical way of creating
type. Both machines wanted to revolutionise and change the way the print world
saw things, but the Linotype came out on top as its machinery and simplicity
was what people wanted.
The Linotype is quite large and measures at about 7ft tall.
It works by creating a line at time, thus the reason why it is called Line of
Type. Inside the Linotype are matrices, which are small brass parts with the
edges indented with characters. These are assembled into lines to create a line
of text. Once one of these lines are creates, a line of text is automatically
cast via a solid bar which is more commonly known as the Linotype slug. The
person behind the machine, the operator, types the text onto the keyboard and
the Linotype pulls type, which is then able to be printed. The Linotype machine
has four major components that make the machine able to work and function
properly. These four parts are: the magazine, the keyboard along with all its
parts, the casting machinery and the distributing mechanism. The matrices are
held in the magazines and they show the different type cases. The keyboard
works by getting the matrices in the right/wanted order, as it gives complete
control of the machine and allows the operator to write and create lines of
text that they so want. Once the keyboard is set with all its different
functions, the rest of the process is automatic.
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| Linotype Model 4 |
The matrix is the very foundation of the Linotype machine,
as casting a line of text and returning all the matrices back to their places
is essential for the Linotype’s success. To produce a single line of text with
the Linotype machine, three steps must be accomplished. First, the matrices
must all be composited into a line. Secondly, the slug (line of text) must be
cast. Thirdly, and lastly, the matrices should all be distributed back to where
they originally were.
The sequence in which the Linotype machine works is quite
simple if you understand the basics of a printing press. The person behind the
machine, the operator, presses the desired characters and letters on the keyboard,
which releases the selected matrices from the magazine. The matrices are then sent
to an assembling elevator, where they are all put in order. The letters are
then engraved into the matrices, after which this line of matrices goes to
where they are cast, the casting unit, where a plunger injects molten metal into the mould. The slug is then put into
the galley tray, where the lines are held in the correct order. While this is
happening, the matrices are being sent to the second elevator and are
distributed into the magazine, where they are supposed to be. Once the Linotype slug has been created, it is taken to the
proofing area, where it is locked in a bed press and inked and printed to check
if there are any mistakes or flaws in the text. If there are any, the slug goes
back to the composer. When the slug is correct, it is signed off and sent to
the press.
The keyboard of a Linotype machine is quite similar to a typewriter. It has 90 keys and is separates letter cases, as all the lowercase letters are on a side depending how often they are used. All the uppercase letters are on the other side. All of the symbols that are not letters are situated in the middle of the keyboard, in between the lowercase and uppercase letters. The unfortunate thing was that although this machine was very complex and was very innovative in its time, it had no backspace key or anything to erase the past commands. If a mistake was made, the operator would run their fingers down the first two rows of the keyboard so that the slug would come out as ‘etaoin shrdlu’. This would mean that they would have to recast thee slugs, but on occasion these mistaken slugs would make their way into the newspapers and prints, making it a joke in the printing industry.
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| This is the keyboard of a Linotype machine, all the lower-case letters on the left, the upper-case letters on the right and all the symbols in the middle. |
The creation and development of Linotype drastically sped up
the printing process, as prior to the creation of mechanical printing everything
would be printed by movable, individual letters. Many people were needed for
print, as they needed to set the type by hand, which meant that countless
people were hired to try and speed up the process. This did not work out as
planned, and printing with movable type was chaos. It would take very long to
find letters and assemble them into lines, in order. It was a very slow,
tedious and tiring work, and this meant that printing newspapers or books would
take a very long time. Many a time would a typesetter run out of letters, or
sorts, as they were called, thus the saying, “out of sorts.” This was very
frustrating for workers as they had spent a very long time trying to assemble a
line. The Linotype machine massively increased the workload and was much
faster, efficient and less time-consuming. It also only needed one person to
operate it, which meant that a single man could do the work of five or six men.
Naturally this kind of speed in the workforce made the initial workers fear
they would lose their jobs. However, this was quite the contrary, as the speed
at which they were creating magazines, newspapers and books was so fast
compared to their original work speed that they needed more men to work the
machines.
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| As you can see, the text has individual letters and characters in it, which proved to be a much slower process. |
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On this image, you can see a very clear difference in the way it holds text, as the whole line of text is on this one bar, known as the Linotype slug.
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The creation of the Linotype machine led to many other pioneering
breakthroughs in the 19th century and early 20th century.
However, it was not born overnight. It had many competitors and had been
thought about for at least twenty years prior to the Linotype machine. All
these machines before the Linotype machine had not been as successful as the
Linotype, leaving the Linotype machine to prove the best. Its simplistic, reliable and easy to use design
had made it that much easier to choose between the Linotype machine and other
competitors, such as the Paige Compositor. It completely changed the way the
print world works as it was much more available to the public, as well as its
high production rate. The fact that it took almost no labour compared to a job
you would need six people for was astounding. These qualities of the Linotype machine
had locked in its fame and soon it was all over the globe. It was
internationally seen as a success. It is a machine that will not be forgotten in
the print world, as it revolutionised typesetting and printing.
