The general organization of the machine will first be described. After
this the details will be more fully explained and attention plainly
directed to the various parts which require special consideration.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
The machine contains, as the vital element, about sixteen hundred
matrices, such as are shown in Fig. 1, each consisting of a small brass
plate having in one edge the female character or matrix proper, and in
the upper end a series of teeth, used as hereinafter explained for
distributing the matrices after use to their proper places in the
magazine of the machine. There are in the machine a number of matrices
for each letter and also matrices representing special characters, and
spaces or quadrats of different thicknesses for use in table-work. There
is a series of finger keys representing the various characters and
spaces, and the machine is so organized that on manipulating the keys it
selects the matrices in the order in which their characters are to
appear in print, and assembles them in a line, with wedge-shaped spaces
or justifiers between the words. The series of matrices thus assembled
in line forms a line matrix, or, in other words, a line of female dies
adapted to mold or form a line of raised type on a slug cast against the
matrices. After the matrix line is composed, it is automatically
transferred to the face of a slotted mold into which molten type-metal
is delivered to form a slug or linotype against the matrices. This done,
the matrices are returned to the magazine and distributed, to be again
composed in new relations for succeeding lines.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
Fig. 2 illustrates the general organization of the machine.
_A_ represents an inclined channelled magazine in which the matrices are
stored. Each channel has at the lower end an escapement _B_ to release
the matrices one at a time. Each of these escapements is connected by a
rod _C_ and intermediate devices to one of the finger-keys in the
keyboard _D_. These keys represent the various characters as in a
typewriter. The keys are depressed in the order in which the characters
and spaces are to appear, and the matricies, released successively from
the lower end of the magazine, descend between the guides _E_ to the
surface of an inclined travelling belt _F_, by which they are carried
downward and delivered successively into a channel in the upper part of
the assembling elevator _G_, in which they are advanced by a star-shaped
wheel, seen at the right.
The wedge-shaped spaces or justifiers _I_ are held in a magazine _H_,
from which they are delivered at proper intervals by finger-key _J_ in
the keyboard, so that they may pass downward and assume their proper
positions in the line of matrices.
When the composition of the line is completed, the assembling elevator
_G_ is raised and the line is transferred, as indicated by dotted lines,
first to the left and then downward to the casting position in front of
the slotted mold seated in and extending through the vertical wheel _K_,
as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The line of matrices is pressed against and
closes the front of the mold, the characters on the matrices standing
directly opposite the slot in the mold, as shown. The back of the mold
communicates with and is closed by the mouth of a melting-pot _M_,
containing a supply of molten metal and heated by a Bunsen burner
underneath. Within the pot is a vertical pump-plunger which acts at the
proper time to drive the molten metal through the perforated mouth of
the pot into the mold and into all the characters in the matrices. The
metal, solidifying, forms a slug or linotype bearing on its edge, in
relief, type-characters produced from the matrices. The matrices and the
pot are immediately separated from the mold, and the mold wheel rotates
until the slug contained in the mold is presented in front of an ejector
blade, where the slug is ejected from the mold through a pair of knives,
which trim the sides to the required size, into the receiving galley, as
shown in Fig. 4.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
After the line of matrices and spaces has served its purpose, it is
raised from the casting position and moved to the right, as shown by the
dotted lines and arrows in Fig. 2. The teeth in the upper ends of the
matrices are engaged with a toothed bar _R_, known as the second
elevator. This elevator swings upward, as shown by dotted lines,
carrying the matrices to the level of the upper end of the magazine, and
leaving the spaces or justifiers behind to be transferred to their
magazine _H_.
The distributing mechanism consists essentially of a fixed bar _T_,
lying in a horizontal position above the upper end of the magazine, and
having along its lower edge, as shown in Fig. 2, horizontal teeth to
engage the teeth in the upper end of the matrices and hold them in
suspension. The teeth of the matrix for each letter differ in number or
arrangement, or both, from the teeth of matrices bearing other letters,
and the teeth on the lower edge of the distributor bar are
correspondingly varied in arrangement at different points in the length
of the bar. (See Fig. 2.)
The matrices are moved forward into engagement with the distributor bar
and also into engagement with the threads of horizontal screws _U_,
which are extended parallel with the distributor bar and constantly
rotated so that they cause the matrices to travel one after another
along the distributor and over the mouths of the channels in the
magazines. Each matrix is held in suspension until it arrives over its
proper channel, where for the first time its teeth bear such relation to
those of the bar that it is released and permitted to fall into the
magazine.
The speed of the machine, which is commonly from four to five thousand
ems per hour, but which has reached ten thousand and upward in
competitive trials, is due to the fact that the matrices pursue a
circulatory course, leaving the magazine at the lower end, passing
thence to the line and to the casting mechanism, and finally returning
to the top of the magazine. This permits the composition of one line,
the casting of another, and the distribution of a third to proceed
simultaneously.