Linotype typesetting machine
The Linotype is a typesetting machine that in the historical development of the set of procedures such as the time following phototypesetting a link between hand set and desktop publishing represents (DTP). It was developed by Ottmar Mergenthaler and presented for the first time in 1886 as a so-called "blower" model. "Linotype" gave the name to the Linotype company (with companies and production facilities in the USA, England and Germany), which manufactured the Linotype typesetting machines and sold them worldwide.
functionality
The typesetter operates a keyboard through which he enters the text to be composed. If the typesetter types a letter, a die , a metal mold for a letter , falls out of a magazine . These individual matrices are ranked rows to each other until the width of the printing area is approached. Word spaces are formed by width- adjustable space wedges ; these space wedges automatically exclude the line by changing the word spacing width to full line width.
The completed line is then filled with liquid metal (alloy of lead (85%), antimony (11%) and tin (4%)) - the result is a line with raised letters (total height 23.567 mm), which gives the name line of types . In the event of setting errors, the entire affected line must be set again and cast with this method. - The line blocks created with the Linotype are then manually arranged page by page to form printing blocks .
The letter matrices used to cast the lines are returned to the die magazine after casting via an "elevator" and a coded rack; by means of different tooth codes on the individual matrices, they are automatically transferred to the corresponding letter channels in the matrix magazine and are available there for reuse. - The space wedges to form the word spacing run through a similar cycle, but are in a separate magazine.
Use and development
The Linotype typesetting machine was mainly used for newspaper typesetting. In parallel to the further development of the technical application options (including an increasing variety of fonts), the machines were increasingly used for typesetting for books, magazines and general printed matter. There were Linotype typesetting machines with up to six main magazines for different fonts and font sizes. In addition, there were machine versions with additional side magazines in order to be able to include frequently required special characters. Mixer models made it possible to use different fonts or characters within one line. - The typical setting performance on a manually operated Linotype typesetting machine was approx. 6000 characters per hour and was dependent on the skill of the operator and the complexity of the sentence. Later Linotype typesetting machines controlled by punched tape achieved an output of approx. 25,000 characters / hour.
The first series model of the Linotype typesetting machine built by Mergenthaler in 1886 was called the "Blower" because the dies were transported by compressed air on the way from the die magazine to the line collector. The "Blower" was replaced in 1889 by the fundamentally improved "Simplex" model, in which u. a. the die transport to the line collector has been replaced by a more reliable belt transport.
The basic model "Simplex" has been followed by continuous further developments of the machine over the decades. At the three production sites in the USA, Great Britain and Germany, machines with country-specific specifications were created. At the same time, type and matrix production developed into an important component of Linotype typesetting technology. The worldwide use of Linotype typesetting machines also went hand in hand with the production of numerous non-Latin fonts and matrices for languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, etc.
On December 31, 1976, the production of Linotype typesetting machines in the Berlin factory ended. Machine production in the USA was stopped in 1971; in England production continued until 1984, even if only in small numbers (approx. one machine per month). - It should be mentioned that for many years there was also a production of typesetting machines in St. Petersburg on the basis of Berlin Linotype documents, which reached Russia at the end of the war. These typesetting machines, built in Russia under the name Neotype Rossija, were mainly used in the Eastern Bloc countries of that time. - As early as 1913, two machines directly competing with the Linotype typesetting machine appeared in the USA. After the expiry of the patent periods, two typesetting machines comparable to Linotype came onto the market under the names “Intertype” and “Linograph” and, as undeniable replicas, showed only a few serious deviations from the Linotype concept.
The metal typesetting technique and with it the Linotype typesetting machine was gradually replaced by photo typesetting from around 1970 . - Compared with today's typesetting possibilities on a computer with its software and the associated exposure systems, the Linotype typesetting machine and lead type offered relatively limited typographic application possibilities. Nevertheless, the machine was considered an ingeniously designed product from the start, the technical concept of which remained largely unchanged for almost 100 years. From the very beginning, the Linotype typesetting machine developed into a crucial component in the communication of knowledge in printed form in the world of newspapers and printing.
Origin of name
The name of the process is said to go back to a typo : When Mergenthaler tried out his machine for the first time, he forgot the f . When the line was printed he read a line o types .
Other accounts name the editor of the New York Tribune , Whitelaw Reid , as the namesake. During commissioning, he is said to have exclaimed: “A line of types!” And thus gave the machine its name.
Linotype versus Monotype
The Linotype worked differently than the Monotype . On the Linotype, a whole line was set and poured in one operation using matrices. For the monotype, a perforated tape was first produced separately, then each letter was cast as an individual type on a second machine and the whole thing was put together to form a line and then a block. The monotype was mainly used for scientific typesetting with a variety of different characters.
gallery
The sculptor Peter Marggraf typeset book text on the line typesetting machine “Linotype” in lead for book printing
Linotype (demonstration)
Linotype matrices with two characters each (letter molds)
Linotype matrix line (without word spacing wedges) in the "collector" (readable the right way round)
Linotype matrices for the word "Wikipedia"
Linotype matrices, cast side for the word "Wikipedia"
Spatienkeil (variable word spacing) of the Linotype typesetting machine
Linotype cast line "1973"
Line block - side view
Line block with cast lines
The Linotype melting pot with casting wheel
Functional diagram of the Linotype typesetting and casting machine
100th birthday of Ottmar Mergenthaler : postage stamp from 1954
Advertisement for Linotype typesetting machines around 1905
literature
- Linotype GmbH (Ed.): Linotype instruction book. Description of how the various Linotype models and additional equipment work, as well as their operation, treatment and care . Linotype GmbH, Berlin / Frankfurt-Main 1958.
- Willi Mengel: Linotype achieved its goal . Will & Rothe, Mainz 1955.
- Manfred Raether: Linotype - Chronicle of a company name ; Self-published e-book, Schöneck 2009
- Fritz Schröder: The Linotype Breviary. 2nd Edition. Linotype GmbH, Berlin 1951.
- Herbert Hoffmann: Low-voltage technology for machine setters, industrial union for printing and paper, Stuttgart 1971.
- John Southward: Progress in printing and the graphic arts during the Victorian era . Publisher: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & co. London, 1897 Note in the book: The whole of the Roman Type of this book has been set up by the Linotype Composing Machine, and machined direct from the Linotype bars by Georgee W. Jones, St. Bride House, Dean Street, Fetter Lane, London EC
- COMPOSITION BY THE LINOTYPE MACHINE By Frederick J. Warburton in: The Building of a Book . A Series of Practical Articles Written by Experts in the Various Departments of Book Making and Distributing. Introduction: Theodore L. De Vinne. Editor: Frederick H. Hitchcock Publisher: The Grafton Press, New York 1906 - Project Gutenberg - online
Web links
- Ottmar Mergenthaler Memorial, Bad Mergentheim
- The history of Linotype at Typolexikon.de
- Technical description (video, part 1)
- Technical description (video, part 2)
- Linotype: The Film
- Linotype line-casting typesetting machine with 2 magazines (double decker), built in 1928 ( memento from January 11, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ) in the museum of the Erdenberger printing company