Page:The Riverside Press-1911.djvu/14



After the selection of a suitable style of type and size of pages, the manuscripts are put into type either by machine or by the old method of hand-setting. For rapid, regular work the machines are generally used, and to the uninitiated their operation is little short of marvelous. They are the latest models of the Lanston Monotype, and consist of a keyboard and a casting mechanism. The keyboard is operated very much like a typewriter, but instead of printing letters it simply makes perforations in a roll of paper which indicate the type character that is to be made by the caster. Compressed air, passing through the perforated rolls, directs the movements of the casting machine in the casting and setting of the type. Unlike the linotype, which casts in lines, the monotype casts the individual type, which, after it leaves the machines, is handled in the ordinary way and may be corrected by hand. These machines are in the north wing of the main building, connected with which is a new two-story building, finished in 1909, and especially designed for the use of the hand-compositors and the proof-readers. Well lighted and away from the noise of the machinery, this building furnishes almost ideal conditions. Some work still requires hand-composition, and the equipment