The Linotype.

Manawatu Herald, 2 November 1893, Page 2

The Linotype.

The following extract from a a lecture; entitled " A Journalist's Recollections," by Mr John Farrell, one of the editors of the MancJuster Courier will be read with interest : — " Not only have we rapid printingpresses and rapid methods of conveying news, but the work of the compositor himself is being performed by machinery at a much greater rate than is possible by the ordinary method. " There are several descriptions of type-setting machines. Some set up ( type but leave the distribution afterwards to be performed as it is at present, by hand, or by a separate machine which has been constructed for that special purpose ; but the most remarkable invention -of the kind is the Linotype, a machine of extraordinary complication, and yet perf .Tilling its work with wonderful smoothness, accuracy and precision. The machine, which occupies about the superficial area of a kitchen dresser, by a combination of most mtrienf-p and beautiful mechanical movements, not only .sets type in lines, but having completed the line, adjusts it, stereotypes — that is to say, takes a metal casting of it. and then itself removes the type to another part of the machine, and actually distributes it for further use, " The manipulator works the machine- by means of finger keys somewhat similar to those of a type-writing machine, and the speed at which it works may be imagined when I tell you that with an ordinary newspaper compositor the average rate is thirty lines per man, while on the Linotype three hundred lines can be set up in the same time."