Standard Compositor, 1925

[Dave Hughes]

This magazine advertisement appears to be offering a German-made machine for sale in Denmark.

I have certainly not come across this one before.

It would appear to deliver slugs virtually at floor level!


Standard Compositor - Hot metal typesetting machine by bogtrykkeren, on Flickr

[listohan]

It would appear to deliver slugs virtually at floor level!

Perhaps that is why it didn't catch on.

[Dave Hughes]

Perhaps!

The more you look at the machine, the stranger it seems.

Hard to see a melting pot, or pig hanger. Does it even have a mould wheel? 

[Dan Williams]

What is more difficult to understand, is the distributor. The best that I can tell, mats are inserted at a single point, into the escapments at the top of the machine. Then, somehow the mats find their way to their respective slot in the magazine.
It is difficult to tell whether the machine was successful. It might have succeeded, but a world war completely devastated the German economy. Language barriers and time prevent our knowing much of anything about it. Perhaps our German friends can research this.

[Dave Hughes]

Some more pictures of this machine have been added to Flickr.

I wonder if there are any of these machines still in existence.


Here is a closer view of the front:


Standard Compositor - Hot metal typesetting machine by bogtrykkeren, on Flickr


That strange, centralised distribution mechanism:


Standard Compositor - Hot metal typesetting machine by bogtrykkeren, on Flickr


And a side view showing the magazines:



Standard Compositor - Hot metal typesetting machine by bogtrykkeren, on Flickr

[Nick Smith]

Thanks for posting these pics. The statement that the machine was invented by Petri-Palmedo is a bit misleading, since it was very closely based on the Bellows Electric Compositor of 1897 - see the relevant articles in Huss's book on mechanical typesetting. It would be nice if one of these machines had survived somewhere!

Nick Smith

[Dave Hughes]

Thanks for the info Nick. You know your stuff.