Re: Another Mystery Photo

[Dr. Leland Whitson]

Both photos are of the Linotype Junior which was developed by John Rafael Rogers while the Chief Engineer for Mergenthaler.  We have two of them at the International Printing Museum in Carson, California. This design was under taken to provide a less expensive machine in response to competition such as the Unitype.  The Linotype Junior uses the same keyboard as the Linotype and was promoted to small, primaryly country, shops.  It sold for $1,500, about one half the price of the full sized machine.

On Roger's original machine, the Rogers Typograph, the hanging matricies would go back and forth thus the same mats were used over and over.  On the Linotype Junior, they revolve around the wire structure and as such wear evenly.  That complicated superstructure on the top of the machine contains the mats and the suspension wires on which they travel is the magazine and can be changed with great difficulty in order to change founts.

Leland

Dr. Leland Whitson
Trustee & Docent Director
International Printing Museum
Carson, California, USA
whitsonetal@socal.rr.com