US707523A - Master type-bar for matrix-plates. - Google Patents

Description

No. 707,523. Patented Aug. l9, I902.

J. R. REYNOLDS.

MASTER TYPE BAR FOR MATRIX PLAT ES.

(Applicatim z filed Dec. 5, 1901. (No Model.)

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JOHN R. REYNOLDS, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO GOODSON GRAPHOTYPE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY MASTER TYPE-BAR FOR MATRIX-PLATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 707,523, dated August 19, 1902. Application filed December 5,1901. berial No. 84:77 (N model.

r0 (tZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JOHN R. REYNOLDS, a

citizen of the United States of America, and

a resident of Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Master Type-Bars for Matrix-Plates, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvementsin 1o typebars for the production of the matrixplates employed in connection with type casting and composing machines of various kinds, the object being to produce a simple form of master type-bar which can be made with extreme accuracy andon which the Various characters can be engraved with similar accuracy of alinement and spacing, so that a number of these type-bars constituting a set of the original or master type for a complete font of characters can be assembled and looked up in such accurate spacing and alinementin both directions that the matrix-plates made therefrom can be employed with an accurately-spaced standard index-plate of the casting and composing machine, thereby enabling a single standard index-plate to be interchangeably employed with all the matrixplates comprising the various fonts or sizes of type employed by that machine.

0 It is desirable to preface the detailed description of this invention by a brief statement of the conditions under which these matrix-plates are used and of their relation to the cooperating devices with which they 5 are employed.

One of the matrix-plates is commonly employed for each font or style or size of type employed by the type casting and composing machines referred to. These matrix-plates, which are usually thin plates of copper, each contains upon its face a separate mold or impression of the face of each and every character of its particular font or style of type. The matrix-plate is mounted upon the casting-machine with its face closely adjacent to a mold for casting the bodies of the type and is usually mounted upon two carriages or slides which are adapted to move at right angles to each other and to carry the matrixplate in the plane of its own face, so that by the proper movement of these slides any one of the said impressions in the face of the matrix may be brought into coincidence with the body mold, which is adjusted during that movement to suit the required width of the character to be cast. Each of these impressions' in the matrix-plates must be centered with rapidity and extreme accuracy over the body die each time a piece of type is cast. The respective movements of the slides are controlled by various devices in different types of machines, but in most cases in addition to the moving carriages referred to and because ofrthe 'diflicultyof moving them with the requisite speed and stopping them with the necessary accuracy in the respective positions an indexing-plate is employed provided with index-holes arranged to correspond with the matrix-impressions, each of which is therefore finally centered over the body-mold by its own index-hole, into which a tapering pin is projected, thus supplementing the movements of the carriages and increasing the accuracy of the centering operation. These matrix-plates are usually made by the electrical deposition of copper upon the face of a form composed of character-type, which are spaced as nearly as possible in parallel rows and columns at right angles to each other. It is, however, found to be extremely diflicult,if not impossible, with present methods to space and aline this original or master type in a form with suffk cient accuracy to enable the matrix-plates made therefrom to be interchangeably used or even to be used at all in connection with a standard index-plate. It is exceedingly difficult to lock up a column of the most perfect type twice to the same exact position in spacing and alinement in rows and columns which are exactly at right angles or exactly at any predetermined angle with each other. This difiiculty is greatly increased by the circumstance that the type contains certain original errors, which must be taken into ac- 9 5 count and removed or compensated for in arranging aform or set-up from which to make these matrix-plates. The most caref ully-selected type-faces are often found to be twisted or not uniformly centered or not perfectly square with relation to their respective bodies. The type-bodies and spaces also, even in so-called self-spacing type, are found to vary to an appreciable extent in thickness and parallelism,and these variations, although minute in the case of individual type, are liable to be considerable in the aggregate by cumulation or otherwise. Moreover, the slightest departure from perfect parallelism or the presence of particles of dirt are liable to carry the type ofi their feet in the locking-up operation, thereby carrying some of the type-faces out of coincidence and parallelism with their proper plane.

Although the errors of spacing and alinement might be too slight to be noticed in a printed impression taken directly from the entire form of master-type as thus assembled and locked up, yet when the matrix-plate made therefrom is rapidly moved in four different directions and more or less inaccurately centered and the individual characters cast therefrom are transposed in sequence and position, as they must be in the subsequent composition produced by the type-casting ma chine, these errors are doubled and otherwise brought into prominence. It is sufficiently dilficult to cast and compose well alined and spaced and true -printing surfaces by machinery at a commercially satisfactory speed, even when the matrix impressions are perfectly spaced and alined, without super-adding original errors of the matrix itself by inaccurate spacing or alinement or by distorted locking up of the master-type in the form from which these matrices are made. In my present invention these difficulties are obviated and the use of a standard and interchangeable index-plate made possible by engraving the original or master type-faces upon the properly alined and spaced projections of type-bars, which when assembled may be locked up squarely with the horizontal lines and vertical columns of type-faces perfectly spaced and alined and accurately disposed at right angles or at a predetermined angle with each other.

Figure l of the drawings is a plan view, and

-Fig. 2 is a side view, of a form made by assembling ten of my improved type-bars in column form. Fig. 3 is a plan view, Fig. 4 is a side view, and Fig. 5 is an end view, of one of the type-bars composing the column. of Figsrl and 2.

One of these master type-bars 7 is shown in detail in Figs. 3, 4, and 5. They are made from blanks the faces of. which are accurately planed or milled parallel and square and may be of any convenient height, as of ordinary type, for example. The length of the bar is suited to the number of characters and spacing desired in each line of the matrizcplate. The bars here shown are each adapted for ten characters, the position of which is accurately determined in the making of the blank by cutting away portions of the upper edge of the bar to form the projections 8, upon the upper faces of which the type characters are to be engraved. One side 9 of these spurs remains in coincidence with the side of the type-bar and serves as a base plane for alining the bottoms of the engraved characters. The left-hand faces 10 are accurately and preferably equally spaced lengthwise of the bar, and these faces are employed as bases for locating one side of their respective letters. The width of each projection is in accordance with the setwise width of the letter to be engraved thereon.

For considerations connected with the operation of the casting and composing machines with which the matrix-plates are employed the characters constituting a font are usually classified into certain widths, which are arranged in vertical columns, each comprising characters of the same width, as indicated in Fig. 1. In order to aline my respective columns ofcharacters accurately, I locate the left-hand or gaging faces of the respective projections 8 at the same exact position on all the bars of a set, preferably by spacing them at equal intervals from the left ends 12 of the bars, so that when any set of bars is locked up or assembled, as shown in Fig. 1, the gaging sides of the projections are accurately alined in two directions at right angles or at any desired angle to each other. The thickness of these type-bars is made in accordance with the desired spacing of the lines of the matrix-plate. That spacing is usually equal to the setwise spacing of the characters in the line, so that the pointwise thickness of my type-bar would, as herein shown, usually be equal to the setwise spacing of the faces 10. The width of the projections 8 pointwise of the line is in accordance with the required pointwise dimensions of the characters. The characters are engraved upon the faces of the respective projections, as indicated in a general way by the lower line 13 of Fig. 1, each character being located by or compared with the gaging- faces 9 and 10 of its own spur, thereby insuring the engraver against errors of spacing and alinement to which he might otherwise be liable. When a set of the engraved type-bars are set up as in Fig. 1 and locked together, the character-faces are found to be accurately spaced and alined in both directions in lines and columns which are parallel and at right angles to each other. Any desired number-of bars may be assembled in a form and the characters may be disposed in any desired number and arrangement upon the bars. A matrix-plate made from such a form or set-up will be found to be in accurate working coincidence with a similarly spaced and alined standard index-plate, and any number of matrix-plates made from similarly-spaced master type-bars may be interchangeably used in connection with the same index-plate. I

I claim as my invention-- 1. A master-type-bar blank provided with projections for the characters spaced and alined in accordance with the predetermined positions of those characters.

2. A master-type-bar blank provided with projections spaced and alined in accordance with the predetermined positions of the desired letters, the width of the said projections transversely of the bar being substantially in accordance With the pointwise dimensions of the desired type-bodies.

3. Ablank for a line of master-type, having a thickness equaling the desired pointwise spacing of the lines provided with projections of a width substantially equaling the required pointwise dimensions of the mastertype.

4. A blank for master type-bars, provided with a line of projections for the type-faces, the Working sides of the said projections beins equally spaced from one end of the bar.

5. A blank for master type-bars provided with alined projections arranged in the order of their decreasing setwise dimensions from one end of the bar toward the other, the gaging or workingsides of the projections being also spaced at equal intervals from one end of the bar.

6. A blank for master type-bars provided with alined projections for the type-faces, spaced longitudinally of the bar, one face of each of said projections being coincident with one face of the bar.

7. A blank for master type-bars provided with a line of spaced projections for the typefaces, having one face of each projection coincident with the side of the type-bar, and having the working sides of the respective projections spaced at equal intervals from one end of the bar.

8. A series of blanks for master type-bars, provided with alined projections for a line of master-type, the projections being similarly spaced on all of the bars, whereby the series of bars when engraved and assembled form a column of master type-faces alined in both directions.

JNO. R. REYNOLDS.

Witnesses:

WM. H. I-IoNIss, CARRIE M. BRECKLE.

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