Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/873

 FEINTING 849 machine for type casting and setting is very- ingenious. About 1846 Timothy Alden of Massachusetts, subsequently of New York, be- gan the construction of a composing and dis- tributing machine, and after his death in 1858 his brother Henry W. Alden made further im- provements. This machine set and distributed the types simultaneously ; but as this did not work satisfactorily, two machines have been recently (July, 1875) built under the direction of Mr. A. 0. Richards : one a distributor, which is automatic, having for its fundamental prin- ciple Alden's idea of an excavated rim, which, by means of conveyors in a cylinder revolving horizontally, guides each type to its proper place ; the other, the type setter, consisting of upright channels containing the type, and an endless band with belts at the two sides, which together conduct the types to the mouth of the receiving channel, where they are placed upright in a continuous line. In the French exposition of 1855 'several machines were ex- hibited, one of which, by Christian Storenson of Copenhagen, was pronounced by M. Didot and the other judges to " approach nearer than any other to the accomplishment of the long desired object." This machine composed and distributed simultaneously; the matter was placed in a kind of basin, from which the machine picked out each letter, deposit- ing it in proper position in the composing part. The distribution was effected by hav- ing a special set of .nicks on each sort, no two having the same arrangement. The types passed by their own weight along a channel in which were openings with projections corre- sponding to the respective nicks in the type, each one of which is prevented from passing through any but its proper hole, just as the wards of a lock prevent any key except its own from turning. This machine, it was said, would do about as much work as three compositors. Other machines, working with much greater rapidity, have been produced. One by J. H. Young of England (1840) is said to have com- posed 13,000 sorts an hour, but the type had to be distributed and justified by hand, occupy- ing three other persons. In 1853 Mr. William H. Mitchel of New York produced a very ingenious composing machine, of which ten were at one time in operation in a single office. This machine is in shape like a harpsichord piano, with 34 channels standing in a nearly vertical position across its entire length, and with a corresponding keyboard. In connec- tion with each channel is an endless belt of linen tape, which conveys the type to the re- ceiving belt running obliquely across the line of all the others, by which it is deposited on a wheel similar in shape to a coarse circular saw, which places it in an upright position in a continuous line on the receiving channel. The arrangement is such that the types travel the same distance before reaching the receiv- ing channel, so that, however rapidly the keys may be touched, each will appear in its order. In the distributing machine, invented at a later period, the types are arranged in a single line in a channel placed upon the top of the ma- chine, along which they are pushed by means of a weight suspended over a pulley. On the backs of the types are nicks, different for each letter. The types drop one by one into open slots in a cylinder revolving horizontally, where they hang suspended by a pin at a height gov- erned by the nicks ; the bottom of the types reach below the edge of the cylinder, which in the course of its revolution brings each let- ter opposite to its receiving channel, where it touches a small projection fixed in the station- ary rim below the cylinder, by which it is dis- placed from the slot, and drops in a perpen- dicular position into the channel; this when full is transferred to the composing machine. Several other machines have been invented and in use in England, among which are those of Robert Hattersley of Manchester (1856), and A. Mackie of Warrenton (1865) ; the lat- ter is still engaged in perfecting his invention. A very recent machine, which after more than 20 years' labor has been produced by M. Del- cambre, a native of France, is now (1875) on trial in New York, under the care of the inven- tor. The types are arranged, as in other ma- chines, in perpendicular channels, from which they are liberated by keys; each when set free falls upon an inclined plane of metal, in which is a separate groove for each sort, through which it slides by its own gravity until it reaches the receiving channel. These grooves have a curvilinear, sometimes a wind- ing course, so that each sort, however distant may be its original position from the point of delivery, has the same space to travel, and thus each must reach that point in the order in which its key was struck. The grooves often cross each other, but at each point of intersec- tion is a valve which by the striking of the key moves so as to open the required groove and close the other. The distributing ma- chine, also operated by keys, takes the types from the page and distributes them into slides for the composing machine. These machines occupy but little space, and will without ad- justment set and distribute two or more sizes O f type. In all the above mentioned machines the labor of justifying, which is equal to near- ly one half of the whole, must be performed by hand. In 1852 Charles W. Felt of Salem, Mass., began work upon a machine designed, as he says, " to distribute, set, and justify the type and also to lead the matter and make a register of the same, by which distribution and resetting of the same could be performed by the machine automatically." This is the only machine by which all the work pertaining to composition has been accomplished ; I it has not yet been sufficiently simplified for practical use. Mr. Felt is now engaged in per fecting a justifying machine to be used with any type setter. Stereotyping and Electro- typing. The proof slips having received the