American Lanston Monotype mould

[John Cornelisse]

I recently bought an American Lanston Monotype mould... Just on Ebay...

These moulds just look quite different, and in fact they are.

- the way these mould are oiled
- is the a low-white mechanism ? How would this function ?
- they sure do not fit on an English produced machine: the type-carrier is not able to pull the crossblock.

Whenever it would be possible to cast with English made matrices on English machines the result would give a different height, as far as I know the inside dept of English matrices differs a few paper thicknesses from those American made...

Here some pictures of it.

                     

                     

                     

                     

                                               

[John Cornelisse]

In the mean time, I did discover how a low-white space can be cast, this
mechanism is totally different from the English way.

It would be interesting to see how that different USA system functions. Is there somebody
with an American Book of Parts, or an American manual ?

[Keri Szafir]

You can find some Lanston Monotype documentation at http://www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/comptype/monotype/literature/technical/index.html

[Dan Jones]

John, that is a nice 12 pt. American composition mould and it can run on an English comp machine, a small lever is fabricated for the upper blade movement; I have seen this on English machines over here as the English composition moulds are not very common locally, so the guys resort to American moulds. Of course, it is 0.030" drive only. Not sure about your comments about the type-carrier hook, also not sure, maybe the guys use the American bridge on the English comp machine.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49367257@N07/4605303036/in/album-72157624005188759/

[John Cornelisse]

At the under side of the mould one screw is missing. All screws have been damaged in some way.
And this screw, is certainly different from all the screws I gathered in my monotype-career, could not
screw any in it on that place... I know somebody, that possibly could help me with it.

.....

I have three early Lanston Monotype books:

two versions of "Monotype Systems", 1912 & 1916
the third is the second 1910 edition of "the monotype casting machine"

Only in the last book a drawing of a small size composition mould is present, but this does
not show anything on a low-space mechanism.

In fact the low-space mechanism, in the very mould I have, is completely different from what
is present in my English built moulds.

Here there is a little spring that pulls the low-space blade, pressing the upper blade will close the mould on top,
the next time the character is pushed inside the carrier, the upper blade will be taken backwards too, and stay that way.

I will post a few pictures of it later.

I have a few extra bridges available, but I think, these will not be able to govern this mechanism. There was
an older system to control the low-quod mechanism, but of this I only saw a picture in an old book of parts..

                         

                         casting a high space or character,                                          casting a low space,
                             the spring is not stretched                                               the string is stretched,
                                                                                                               the upper blade is set forward