| Show successful TYPE MACHINE ix Is the manufacture of paper and inn in every branch of 0 the printing and publishing business save that of typesetting great improvements have been made especially during the present century but the art of typesetting type setting is substantially in the same condition tod ayin most printing establishments that it was when movable types were first used many inventors nave have racked their brains in the effort to devise a machine which would replace fe intelligent tell igent compositor wires levers lever and springs have haive often been arranged in such a manner as to grasp the meaning of copy as well as many of the genus referred to ap appear ea to do but the obstacles wab which have most puzzled inventors are the distribution of the type after being set and used and the justifying of the lines yn in other words several ma chiaese have been invented and u used sed which would set the type but it has been necessary to distribute it in the old way another portion of the work of setting type which has hitherto been done bt by hand exclusively to is the justifying or spacing out to the proper length of the lines but a machine has at length been so far perfected that it will do all the work of setting and distributing t the tie type except justifying Iti it is called the thorn typesetting type setting and distributing machine and has been in use tor for some months in the office of the hartford conn evening post we are in receipt of a copy of mat paper dated the contains engravings end and a full description of the thorn mi machine chine coupled with the statement that all of the reading matter of the Is issue e was set by the machine As chis invention is a great stride in the direction of cheap and rapid typesetting type setting which means cheaper and more abundant reading matter we subjoin a part of the description s crip tion ot oi it given by the post the thorne typesetting type setting machine consists of two iron iroff cylinders about fifteen inches in diameter placed perpendicularly one above the other in the external surface of each of which tire are cut longitudinally ninety channels or receptacles for the types which are to be used in it within the char chamois nels of the lower cylinder are inserted wards or small steel projections e extending c in various relative positions through entire length which correspond respectively with nicks spec bally made in the me type lype purpose of 01 which is in distributing toe the letters letter to automatically divert each letter from the mass of letters in the upper or distributing cylinder to its appropriate place in the lower or setting cylinder so that each channel in the latter ball receive types of only the particular character intended tor for and adapted to it the work of distribution is thus carried on automatically by the revolution of the tha upper cy cylinder idaer upon its axis which in rapid issi cession places the various types in position tion to be released from the distributing cylinder when they instantly drop of their own weight into orderly position in the setting cylinder as above indicated the type setting is performed by manipulations upon a key board on oa which the characters of the language are represented very MU much ch as upon an ordinary t typewriter type pe writer f these keys communicated communicate directly erectly with the setting cylinder above mentioned each stroke of a key releasing a letter and by the aid of a revolving disc transferring it from its channel in the cylinder to its place in the continuous line of reading matter which the operator is setting this continuous line is broken up into shorter lines and justified to a proper length tor the columns of a newspaper or the ages pages of a book according to the w 91 k on which the machine to is employed the process of distributing the types is carried on as before indicated automatically cally and with very much greater rapidity than and at the same time with tue tae setting when the setting cylinder is lull fall the distributing cylinder ceases to revolve but may be started at the will of the oper ator whenever it be becomes cornes necessary ter to replenish the former and thus the distributing mechanism is active or at rest according to the demand made upon it by the activity of the operator it is an exceedingly interesting feature of the machine which alone gives it great advantage over baud band work that no time Is required to fill tile the cases the auto automatic batic distributing cylinder rendering log the supply of types in the setting cylinder continuous and inexhaustible haus tible are required to operate each machine machi neone one atthe at the keyboard a second to break up and justify the lines and the third to keep the distributing cylinder loaded and maintain a general supervision with expert help one machine will set and distribute six thousand ems per hour or from live five to six times as much as the most rapid hand compositor the work is not particularly laborio usand it is found by experience that intelli I 1 gent girls we vie fully as well adapted as men to become effi efficient clent operators The machines in ania office have until recently been run by an electric motor but they are now connected with both the mo motor torand and the steam engine which furnishes power tor for the machinery in the press room as a provision against possible detent detention iOu by accident to either source they are so light running that a single horse power is sufficient for half a dozen machines several leading newspapers in the country are having portions of their tope pe set by machinery but the hart rd evening post past is the first to entirely I 1 dispense with hand composition arom from the success of the thorne machine it would appear that the days of manuscript makers worst foe the compositor compoi tor are numbered and that to earn a must seek some other caf callins fing but this evil ifft if it bean be an evil will probably be in part comann coenen sated by toe ane fact that a new empey ment will be opened to girls and women thousands of whom are likely to to be wanted as operators of typeset type set 1 ting machines |
