Mystery Machine!

[Dave Hughes]

I shall stick my neck out here and declare, at this early stage, that I expect this one to run for some time, perhaps never to be solved! 

Many thanks to George Finn for sending in this picture, which he says was first published in 1894.

I'm not sure even if George has the answer. Maybe he'll let us know!

[Mechanic]

Yes Dave, I know the answer, but only because the name of the machine was printed below the picture. I was then able to do some research which turned out to be very interesting.

[Dave Hughes]

That's good!

Am I right in presuming that the machine isn't featured anywhere else on Metal Type? There are some obscure ones!

From the date I would guess it is a machine for assembling founders type.

[Mechanic]

I believe that I have looked at all the old machines on Metal Type. I also searched for it by name without finding an entry.

It is a linecasting machine.

[AlanB]

Is it a Paige compositor, the one Mark Twain lost all his money on?

[Dan Williams]

I think it is a Monoline.

[Mechanic]

Yes Dan, it is a monoline. I thought with your Intertype background you'd be the most likely to ID the machine.

The Monoline, is a linecasting machine, invented in 1892 by Wilbur S. Scudder . The New York Times reported on July 1, 1894, that the Mergenthaler Linotype Company was granted an injunction against the Monoline Composing Company from making and selling its typesetting machines which it is alleged, infringed on the patents granted to Mergenthaler. The suit was brought against Herman Ridder of the New-Yorker Staata-Zeitung, Charles J. Canda, F. E. Canda, Lemon G. Hine, S. P. Thomas, Wilbur S. Scudder and the Monoline Company.

The injunction must have been overturned as Monoline continued to be manufactured. However, the Monoline's life was short as they ceased production in 1910.

Now at least two of the names may be familiar to Intertype users. Wilbur Scudder, the inventor of the Monoline, and Herman Ridder of  the New-Yorker Staata-Zeitung. Herman Ridder raised the capital for Wilbur Scudder to start the International Typographical Machine Company. Scudder, was formerly a technical director at Linotype. He was joined by B. F. Soper and W.E Bertram along with other Mergenthaler engineers and designers who were dissatisfied with Linotype.

Reportedly the Gutenberg Museum has one of the Monline machines.

[Dan Williams]

Hoorah!
I wasnt exactly sure, although I had seen the picture before. I was inclined to associate it with Scudder, Shuckers or one or another of those key inventors. There apparently was some intrigue in those early years, between the Typograph, Linotype, and other manufacturers.
That much I can remember, apart from my dusty box of reference books.