Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!
John R. Rogers invented the Typograph in 1890. It was a simple linecaster, and so cheaper to buy than more complex machines. The Typograph was marketed to small print shops rather than to newspaper printers.
Its matrices were suspended on wires. As the operator selected characters from the keyboard, the corresponding matrix slid down the wire to the assembly point. After use the operator tilted back the frame of wires, and the matrices slid back to their original positions.
Built in Manchester, this Square-Based Model 1 Linotype is one of the first British-made linecasters. The model’s square base was later made smaller, and then changed to a star shape.
Model 1 Linotypes had a 90-character keyboard. The back-loaded single magazine could take matrices up to 11 point in type size.
THE WHITTAKER COLLECTION of linecasters was put together by Mr H Peter Whittaker whose company sold and repaired linecasters.
The collection is currently in storage room 2 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.
To see the various machines, use the Related Pages menu.
Many thanks to Graham Rains for digging out this very atmospheric photograph of him operating a Model G Intertype at Druckman Press, Hemel Hemstead, Hertfordshire, UK in 1984.
Intertype fan? Don’t miss the Intertype Chat section of the Metal Type Forum.
Many thanks to John Nixon for sending in this article. Says John: “The attached article appeared in The Imprint magazine, which was a printing union publication in New Zealand.
“The contributor, Tom Atkinson, was the Deputy Day Printer when I started my apprenticeship in 1970.
Taken from a Linotype brochure published in Berlin in the 1930s. Some quite unusual machines.
Linotype fan? Don’t miss the Linotype Chat section of the Metal Type Forum.
Thanks to Richard Goodwin for sending in these photographs taken at the Quincy Patriot Ledger between 1969 and 1975.
Thanks to Teo Pelho, from Finland, for sending in these pictures, taken at the Deutsches Museum, Munich and the Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany.
I have very little information about the pictures, so if you think you can “flesh out” any of the captions, please post your suggestions here. Please refer to the pictures by number.
Andy Taylor took this video of Amberley Museum volunteer Richard at work on the West Sussex, UK attraction’s Model 78 Linotype.
Richard looks like an experienced operator, his keyboard technique is very smooth – not the “pick and peck” method seen on so many of these type of videos.
