Emily C. Pearson

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.