Type-setting by Machinery.--Its Practicability.--Various
Machines devised.--The Brown Type-setter and Distributer
described.--Simplicity.--Reliability.--Speed.
In the last chapter we described type-setting by hand. Let us now for
a few moments look at the method of doing this by machinery. This is
the last achievement of that inventive enterprise which we have seen
to be so efficient in all the history of the art; and it deserves
some mention here, both for what it already is, and for what it so
confidently promises. On witnessing this most interesting and curious
operation, one wonders, first, that such a work, apparently requiring
the constant exercise of mind and intelligence, can be so rapidly and
perfectly done by machinery; and then, observing the simplicity of the
instruments and the certainty of their work, one wonders again that it
has never been done before.
It is our aim in this history to illustrate the prominence machinery
has held in the several departments of the art, and how much our
literature and books owe to its aid; and it is remarkable that
this work of setting and distributing types is the only branch of
the printer’s art which has not yet received its share of aid from
labor-saving expedients. When we consider the great improvement which
has been made in presses within the past few years, whereby the
number of impressions is multiplied from 250 to nearly 30,000 per
hour, and when, on the other hand, we consider that in the department
of type-setting these four hundred years have brought no advance or
improvement, but that this work is done in precisely the same slow
manner in which the inventor of movable types first ranged them into
line in the fifteenth century, it is strongly suggested that the
contributions of genius have not been altogether impartial and just,
and that here remains a great field of inventive enterprise as yet
uncultivated. And when it is further considered that in the estimate
of our most extensive publishers full half the present cost of our
books and periodicals is in the labor of setting the types, the
question urges itself, How has it happened that this important branch
of human industry has been so overlooked by inventive genius? Is there
any inherent difficulty which makes it impossible to do the work of
type-setting by mechanical appliances? The wonderful adaptation of
machinery to all other forms of human labor and service suggests
antecedently that it must be possible also here. Led by this faith in
the possibility of the thing, and urged by the actual necessity of
doing something to expedite this branch of the work, many inventors
have of late years been studying upon this problem. But the mechanical
type-setter is essentially a modern invention: it is the contribution
of this age to the art. About twenty years cover the whole period of
these efforts. It seems to be a law of human progress that a number of
failures must precede the successful effort, every failure contributing
its quota to the ultimate success, either through its suggestions of a
better way, or by serving as a warning and indication how _not_ to do
it.
Several type-setting machines have been devised, some of them very
ingenious; but one after another failed to stand the test of actual
work. It is not, however, half so strange that many should fail as
that any should succeed in so great and delicate a work. So vast and
difficult is the problem, that many of the best mechanicians of our
day, whose knowledge of the capabilities of machinery gives their
judgment peculiar weight, have pronounced it an impossibility, and have
classed these efforts with the fascinating but visionary chase after a
method of perpetual motion. But inventors are a peculiar race, as is
seen in the case of Gutenberg, especially endowed with an indomitable
faith in the possible; and they are continually attempting and doing
things with little other apparent motive than the fact that the world
has supposed them impossible.
The inventor of the machines we have examined, Mr. O. L. Brown, of
Boston, has made a careful study of the subject for years, and seems
finally to have found the secret, both of simplicity and success.
Especially is the device for setting the types so simple that it might
perhaps more properly be called an instrument than a machine. The
Type-distributer strikes one as more curious and wonderful, inasmuch
as it is entirely automatic, and is operated by steam; but it is an
adaptation of one of the most common and familiar mechanical principles.
The Type-setter comprises a case, a stick, and a justifier. The case
consists of a series of grooves or channels ranged side by side, each
just wide enough to receive a line of type. There is no limit to this
case, either in the number of channels, or their length. In these
channels, the types stand upon their feet, and the case is set at
such an angle that they slide downward by their own gravity, and rest
upon the bar which closes the lower ends. Across the foot a shield is
placed, provided with openings for the types to pass through as they
are set; and an index, showing the letters and sorts which the case
contains. Corresponding openings in the rear allow the tongue, which
forces out the letter, to enter.
Below and in front of the case, sliding back and forth upon a track
at the will of the operator, is the stick, or mechanical hand, which
takes the letters from the case. The stick consists of a semicircular
groove for receiving the type, and a lever or key for operating it.
The uppermost end of the stick forms an indicator, pointing to the
index upon the shield. The key is provided at one end with a tongue, or
plunger, for lifting the type, and the other forms a handle for working
it. The whole weighing but a few ounces, it is moved with the greatest
ease from letter to letter. The operator, seizing the handle with the
thumb and finger, runs it nearly opposite the letter to be taken. It
is so arranged with an adjusting gauge that no greater accuracy of
stroke is required than in playing a piano. As the handle of the key is
depressed, a type is thrust out into the stick. As the handle is raised
again, a “follower” pushes the type just lifted sufficiently down
the channel to allow the next one to be taken in the same way. This
operation is repeated till the stick is full, when it is run to one
end of the track, and the line slipped into the justifier. The stick
is then ready for another line; and, when several are set, they are
justified by hand.
In all machines that have heretofore been produced, use has been made
of a set of keys to take the letters from the case; and at first
thought these would seem to have an advantage over this with its
single key. But experience has proved it otherwise; for the object is
not merely to take the letters from the case, but also to form them
into line; and this last has hitherto proved the most difficult and
expensive part of the work. A case capable of holding one hundred and
fifty lines of type the size of this in which this book is printed is
about thirty inches in length; and when one letter is taken from one
end of the case and the next from the other end, the difficult thing
is to bring them together into line quickly, surely, and with perfect
safety. It will readily be seen that in this passage there is likely
to be loss of time, and the types are liable to misplacement, and, in
the case of the more delicate, to breakage. That nothing is gained
by multiplying the keys, will at once be seen when it is considered
that the keys, however many there may be, must be struck singly, and
time allowed for disposing of each letter as it is indicated. The
operation of type-setting is not like that of playing the piano, where
several keys are struck simultaneously; but, on the contrary, care
must be taken not to touch more than one at a time. In short, that
nothing is gained, but much is lost, by this multiplicity of the keys,
becomes apparent when we consider the complication which it involves.
The machine we have seen in operation contains one hundred and fifty
letters, and uses but one key; and this key is of the simplest
construction. The motion of the key which lifts the letter puts it
also in its place in the line. If stationary keys were employed, a
key would be required for each letter, which would increase the first
cost a hundred and fifty times, and the liability to get out of order
in the same ratio, besides making a machine more difficult to learn,
and without increasing the speed. But the advantages of the single key
are found to be many besides its simplicity and cheapness. It allows
the use of any number of different characters, it is not liable to get
out of order, its parts are all in plain sight, and it is limited in
speed only by the skill of the operator. One of its greatest advantages
is that the line of type being set is always before the eye of the
compositor. He is constantly observing the process of its formation;
and there is therefore no occasion for the “outs” and “doublets” that
are so frequently made in the machines that carry the line away from
the operator’s sight.
This Type-setter was brought to perfection several years ago; but the
necessity of a distributing machine was soon realized. In the setting
of types by machinery, it is needful that they be ranged in lines,
instead of being laid in boxes, as for hand-composition. To do this by
the slow process of hand-distribution would more than counterbalance
the time gained by the setter. It was first attempted to employ cheap
labor for the work; but this was not satisfactory, and was soon
abandoned. For the full utility of the setter, therefore, some method
of distribution is imperative. Consequently Mr. Brown sought among
the distributers already projected by other inventors something that
might be adapted to accompany his setter. But a careful examination of
everything that had as yet been produced found nothing that promised
to be satisfactory; and he turned his attention to the only remaining
expedient, namely, to create a new one. After five years of study and
labor, he produced a distributer which, for simplicity of design and
reliability of action, is a fit complement and companion for the setter.
The Type-distributer consists of a rotating ring, about ten inches in
diameter. At regular intervals in the edge of the ring are recesses
for holding the types while being carried to their places. Radiating
from this ring are the channels into which the types are distributed;
and which, when full, are transferred to the setter, and constitute a
part of the case. At one side is a galley, which receives the page
to be distributed. From the galley, the machine takes one line at a
time, and lifts it into a channel, in which it is fed towards the
distributing-ring, but a little below. From the inner end of this line
the types are lifted one at a time, and enter the distributing-ring.
This ring has an intermittent motion, and each motion brings one of the
recesses directly over the line. One after another the types are forced
up into these recesses. A recess is large enough to receive the largest
type, and is formed by cutting a larger slot in the ring, and inserting
a set of levers. The levers are simply straight pieces of sheet brass
or steel about two inches long, with a hole near one end, through which
the pin passes on which they turn. These levers, placed one upon the
other in sets of six or more, form one side of the recess. A slide or
ejector, which forces out the letter when it arrives at its proper
place, forms the back of the recess. When a letter is fed into the
ring, it stands in this recess, and any nick that may have been made in
the edge of the type will be opposite one of the levers. As the short
arms of these levers shut against the edge of the type, some of them
entering the nicks, the long arms take a corresponding position. It
will be seen that a slight variation in the position of the short arms
gives a much greater variation in the long arms. The relative position
of these long arms, acting in connection with the keys, determines
where the type shall be ejected. These keys slide out and in, and each
motion of the ring brings each set of the levers successively in front
of each key. The keys all advance a short distance, and try the ends
of the levers; and, wherever the shape of the keys corresponds to the
position of the levers, the key advances farther, and, acting upon the
ejector, forces out the letter. The operation is on the same principle
as the common lever-lock; the levers with the type forming a certain
combination which will move around until it arrives opposite its own
key. The lock will then be unlocked, and the letter forced out. The
keys are the slides, which are placed in the stationary part of the
machine, inside the rotating ring, and radiating from the centre.
The type are placed in the machine just as they come from the press,
the galley being adjustable to any size of page; and any letters that
the machine cannot distribute are simply transferred to the “pi-line,”
where they stand in regular order, and can be distributed by another
machine or by hand. The type used is the common type cast at our
foundries, as described on page 225. For the setting-machine no change
is made, but for the distributer, this being automatic, it is prepared
by a simple system of nicks in the back of the letter. These nicks
are added very quickly and cheaply; but this necessity will soon be
obviated, as the foundries are already making matrices or moulds for
casting founts of type containing the distributing-nick.
The question which will doubtless decide the fate of this and all other
machines for the purpose is the question of speed.
The machines we have described, notwithstanding their newness and
the necessary inexperience of the operators, make an economy of more
than fifty per cent. in the time of doing a given amount of work. The
distributer, being run by steam and tended by a boy, does the work
of several men. This is a great gain; twenty-five per cent. has been
thought an amount very desirable to be reached. It seems, too, that
skill in operating the setter is easily acquired.
As an illustration of this, may be given the case of a young girl who
had never seen the inside of a printing-office, and who was induced
to try the new machine. She was initiated into the ready use of the
type-setter in five minutes’ instruction. Seizing the mechanical hand,
which takes the letters one by one as rapidly as thought can spell from
the groove-like case, in the first hour, with the rapid click, click,
of the new-found “key,” she set very correctly six hundred ems, and in
the second hour accomplished the task of a thousand ems.
An office boy was as successful. After a few hours’ acquaintance
with the machine, it is common for mere children, in dispatch and
correctness of execution, to rival workmen who have had long experience
in type-setting by hand.
The setter has been operated in competition with two superior
compositors of many years’ practice, and has done more work than
both, on fair and equal terms. Such being the results in the present
condition of the machinery, it is only just to conclude that this is
an invention which not only does honor to the art, and is an important
step in its progress, but must contribute materially to the cheapening
of books and the dissemination of literature, and so serve the highest
interests of human life.
[Illustration: STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.]
[Illustration]