Linotype Machine.
A Linotype machine in the Fort Witten Farm & Transport exhibits building. My wife and I joined family to tour the Historic Crab Orchard Museum in Tazewell, Virginia. The information sign about the machine reads,
"Linotype Machine
1886-1970s
Before computers were developed the Linotype was used to print all books and newspapers.
Southern Office Supply in Bluefield used this machine from 1940 to 1997 to print newspapers and books.
By 1453, Gutenberg had invented a printing press which required that each letter be hand-set. This method of setting type was used until another German (who moved to the US) developed the Linotype machine Ottmar Mergenthaler unveiled the Linotype in 1886 exploding the publishing world. Prior to the Linotype, composing words for one page of a newspaper required 25 to 35 hours of labor. The linotype reduced the time to 3 hours.
Mergenthaler created a comprehensive set of tiny brass molds. Up to 1,100 of these molds stood at attention in an overhead storage tray, waiting to be released at the command of the operator's keyboard, dropped to a conveyor belt, and assembled in order with several dozen similar molds in a single line. The line of molds was then placed in front of a pot of molten lead. At precisely the right moment, a plunger filled the molds with what immediately became a very hot "line of type" - a whole number of which lined up to form a column or "galley" of type.
A competent operator could produce in excess of two galleys of newspaper columns each hour. Before computers were developed the Linotype was used to print all books and newspapers."
Linotype Machine.
A Linotype machine in the Fort Witten Farm & Transport exhibits building. My wife and I joined family to tour the Historic Crab Orchard Museum in Tazewell, Virginia. The information sign about the machine reads,
"Linotype Machine
1886-1970s
Before computers were developed the Linotype was used to print all books and newspapers.
Southern Office Supply in Bluefield used this machine from 1940 to 1997 to print newspapers and books.
By 1453, Gutenberg had invented a printing press which required that each letter be hand-set. This method of setting type was used until another German (who moved to the US) developed the Linotype machine Ottmar Mergenthaler unveiled the Linotype in 1886 exploding the publishing world. Prior to the Linotype, composing words for one page of a newspaper required 25 to 35 hours of labor. The linotype reduced the time to 3 hours.
Mergenthaler created a comprehensive set of tiny brass molds. Up to 1,100 of these molds stood at attention in an overhead storage tray, waiting to be released at the command of the operator's keyboard, dropped to a conveyor belt, and assembled in order with several dozen similar molds in a single line. The line of molds was then placed in front of a pot of molten lead. At precisely the right moment, a plunger filled the molds with what immediately became a very hot "line of type" - a whole number of which lined up to form a column or "galley" of type.
A competent operator could produce in excess of two galleys of newspaper columns each hour. Before computers were developed the Linotype was used to print all books and newspapers."