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Linotype turns text into hot metal
| Before the time when we had lithographic printing (where a
water repellent coating on a printing pate determines where ink is
deposited) there was letterpress. One way to set the page was to pick letters from a tray
and line them up in a block. It was the concept of moveable type that
Gutenberg introduced
to Europe and improved the productivity of the printing business. Setting type was slow
but engraving a plate was an even slower
process.
To improve productivity, the linotype machine was introduced. This
mechanical marvel allows each line of type to be cast in hot metal ready to
make the printing block. |
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It starts when a key is pressed and a letter drops down one
of the chutes (left). Below left you can see the keyboard, letters in
their reservoirs and the chute.
The whole machines is driven by a complex series of leather belts (Below
right).
The typesetter has a small reserve of special characters to insert
manually if the
character is not one that is held in the chutes. |
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When the time comes to press what we would call the 'carriage return' key to move to
a new line, the characters are gripped by the machines and moved into a
mould where molten metal is poured in to produce a line of letters. Once
the metal has set, the flat piece of metal is trimmed and dropped into the
print-block that the typesetter is preparing.
All these operations carry on while the typesetter is preparing a new
line. There are 4 casting stations so that the work of selecting the letters
does not have to pause while the line is cast in hot metal. |
| Once the line of letters has been used to cast the text-line, the very
clever set of pulleys moves the letters back into the appropriate
reservoirs in the chute. It identifies the letter and lines it up for re-use
in the appropriate chute by using the notches at one end of the the
individual letters
(right). If you are reading anything printed before the 1970s it is
probable that it came from a linotype machine, similar to this antique which
was operating at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2008. |
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Traditional
bookbinding
Print on demand production line
© Chas Jones 2008
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