The Thorne Typesetting Machine 1894

[Mechanic]

Not a QWERTY or an ETAOIN keyboard.

The Thorne typesetting machine did not have to wait for matrices to be returned to cast subsequent lines. Nor was it restricted to having key levers jamming because the operator was too fast.

Thorne claims the layout of their keyboard is so that the operator may play with the utmost rapidity.



Read more:-


https://archive.org/download/ThorneTypeSettingMachine1894/ThorneTypeSettingMachine1894.pdf

[Dave Hughes]

Got to say George, that the keyboard looked pretty good.

I can well imagine getting used to it, dare I say that it is possibly better than the Linotype keyboard. 

The arrangement of the caps over the lowercase letters would seem to me to be preferable to being at the opposite end of the keyboard

[Mechanic]

Yes Dave, but the Linotype keyboard would have been much more complex. The speed claimed for the machine is impressive, six or seven lines a minute for a 7pt 22 pica column. Keeping the sorts up for larger newspapers would have been a challange.

Casting new type for each line was the way to go.

[Dave Hughes]

Did you know that this website is over 20 years old?

There are some great threads on this Forum that have receded into the background over the years.

In the coming weeks and months I plan to seek out and revive some of those gems.

If you have a particular favourite you would like to be given this treatment please let me know.

[Dave Hughes]

While we're on the subject of the Thorne Composing Machine, there's another old thread here, from back in 2011: Another Balloon Deflated

On that thread there's a typographically beautiful PDF reporting on a talk given in October 1890 by John Southward presenting a paper to the Balloon Society of Great Britain, at St. James' Hall entitled: "Type-composing machines of the past, the present, and the future."

In it he argues that the Thorne machine is superior to the Linotype!

Also don't miss some great pictures here on the main site: Early Typesetting Machines