US672200A - Linotype. - Google Patents

Description

Patented Apr. I6, |90I. M. H. WHITTAKER & C. H. WEST.

Ll N 0T Y P E (Application led Jan. 18, 1901.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT EEieE.

MATTHEW HENRY WHITTAKER,-OF SALFORD, ANI) CHARLES HENRY WEST, OF LEEDS, ENGLAND, ASSGNORS TO THE MERGENTHALER LINOTYPE COMPANY, oF NEW YORK, N. Y.

LINOTYPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 672,200, dated .April 16, 1901.

Application iiled January 18, 1901. Serial No. 43,800. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that we, MATTHEW HENRY WHITTAKER,residing at Salford,in the county of Lancaster, and CHARLES HENRY WEST, re-

siding at Leeds, in the county of York, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Linotypes; and We do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact Adescription of the invention, such as 1o will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The present invention relates to improvement-s in linotypes and leads to be used therewith.

A linotype is a bar of type-metal as long as a column or a page of printed matter is wide and having along one of its edges the typefaces duly composed, spaced, and justified into Words for printing a line. The mold for the ty pe-faces is constituted by a line of formative cavities or matrices proper in a line of matrix plates or bars and that for the body of the linotype by a slot of the proper size in a suitable mold-block. When the two molds just described are made to register with each other in the proper respective positions and the back of the body-mold is closed, melted type-metal is injected into the compound mold, a linotype being thereby cast. The sides and ends of the slot above mentioned are parallel with each other respectively, and all its angles are right angles, the 1inotypebody having necessarily a corresponding form. Gonsequentlythe linotypes are not adapted when they are set on their feet on an impression-cylinder with the said feet parallel with the cylinder-axis to'fit 'close up to each other over their sides, because the latter are parallel with each other and only linotypes having tapered sides can fit up to each other in such a position. This incapacity of parallel linotypes for fitting close up to each other over their sides does not matterin printing-offices Where curved stereo-plates are 45 used on the impression-cylinders,b`ut it makes itself felt whenever it is desired to print from linotypes held on the impression-cylinder or in a fudge-box parallel with the axis of the said cylinder. A lead differs from a linotype ,is left in working position.

only in not having the type-faces described above.

The object of the present invention is to adapt the mold for linotypebodies or for leads to cast taperingr ribs on one side thereof, thereby producing what is practically a taper linotype or a taper lead, as the case may be, wider across the top than across its foot by as much as the radius of the impression-cylin der may render necessary to provide for the taper linotypes or leads fitting close up to each other over their sides when they stan-d in the above-mentioned position on the impression-cylinderin the fudge-box. Hitherto a parallel linotype or a parallel lead has been ejected or pushed out of the mold of a Mergenthaler linotype-machine between a pair of parallel knives which have trimmed both its sides, land now if tapered linotypes or leads are wanted the knife on the ribbed side of the linotype or the lead is moved out of working position. If, on the other hand, parallel linotypes or leads are Wanted, the said knife This capacity on the part of thel knife on the ribbed side of being moved out of working position and back again is no part of the present invention, being already Well known.

When leads-that is, linotype-bodiesonly are to be cast in a linotype-machine, the mold for printing-faces is replaced by a plate which closes the respective side of the slot o. It is obvious that if the linotypes themselves must be tapered from printing edge to foot the leads must be tapered likewise. That being the case, the present invention is as applicable to the casting of one as it is of the other.

The term linotype Wherever it is hereinafter used is to be read as including the term lead Referring to the accompanying drawings, which are to be taken as part of this specification and read therewith, Figure lis a front elevation of a mold-block'of the well-known Mergenthaler linotype machine; Fig. 2, a plan of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, an inverted plan of the cap-plate oi' the said mold-block; Fig. 4, a perspective view of an improved or tapered linotype made according to the present invention; and Fig. 5, a transverse section of three such linotypes, showing how they can fit close up to each other over their sides.

1 is the capplate; 2, the bottom plate; 3 3, the end liners, and $4 the screws holding the four parts together in the respective positions, thereby constituting the mold-block and establishing the slot o. rlhe opposite faces of the plates 1 and 2 constitute the above sides of the slotI and the opposite faces of the liners 3 3 the above-mentioned ends thereof.

5 5 are transverse grooves in the face of either the eap-platel or in that of the bottom plate 2. For convenience sake they are in the face of the cap-plate 1. Two only are shown; but that number may be increased. No matter how many there are they are arranged symmetrically along the said face. These grooves are shown as semi-eircularin cross-section. They maybe of any shape that will give the resulting ribs 6 6 a good bearingsurface against the adjacent linotypes 7; but they are all equally tapered from one end to the other, the depth at the deepest end being proportioned to the radius of the impressioncylinder on which the linotypes 7 east in the slot are to stand. The taper is grad ual from the deepest end to practically nothing or nearly to that at the opposite end of the said grooves, as shown in Fig. 3, and is so positioned across the face of the plate that the deepest end is next to that side-front or rear, as the case may he-of the slot o which corresponds With the tops of the linotypes.

We are aware that linotype-slugs of uniform thickness have been provided on the side face with ribs also of uniform thickness,

as in Letters Patent No. 436,532, and this we do not claim, the essence of our invention lying in the use of tapered ribs whereby a form composed of linotypes is adapted to be locked up solidly around a cylinder or other curved supporting-surface of a press.

9 is a springplate held by a screw 10, pressing through one end of it down into the plate having the grooves 5.

1l is a small hemisphere having a portion of it less than one-half projected by the springplate 9 through a suitable hole 12 into the respective groove 5, near the deepest end of it. There is one plate 9 and sphere 11 combined with each groove 5, the object of such combinations being to prevent the taper of the grooves contributing to the linotypes beginning to leave the slot 0 before the proper ejecting mechanisln acts on them by engaging in notches 13 in the ribs 6.

We claim- 1. The herein-described linotype, having the body of uniform or Substantially uniform thickness, with a plurality of tapered ribs on its side.

2. A linotype having a body of substantially uniform thickness, having on one side a series of raised ribs of decreasing thickness from the printing edge toward the base.

In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in the presence of two Witnesses.

MATTHEW HENRY WHITTAKER. CHARLES HENRY WEST.

Witnesses:

JosI-I HY WHITAKER, JOHN HY WILLIAMSON.

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