Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!
This machine was intended to produce display lines of type, such as newspaper headlines, as a Ludlow Typograph set-up would have done in a hot metal shop.
It was also suggested in the publicity material that it would also be useful for setting languages such as Chinese and Japanese, where the number of characters used was greater than the number of keys on the Intertype Fotosetter.
It would appear to be one of the Whittaker company’s early photosetters.
Steve Robertshaw, Ex Whittaker & Compugraphic UK Engineer, updated this page with the following:
It is an early photosetter that used mainly linecaster technology to produce photoset output.
Interested in early photosetting technology? Check out the Early Photosetting Chat section of the Forum.
This is an early, computerised typesetting machine. The operator selects a character on the keyboard, which triggers a stroboscopic flash to set the type.
Four type styles, each with 105 characters, were available to the operator through filmstrips held on a drum.
The material on this page is taken from a brochure published in circa 1960 by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. The brochure showcased the company’s latest machines and innovations, including the Linofilm System.
WITH the perfection of the Linofilm System, Mergenthaler Linotype Company contributes another revolutionary development to the graphic arts.
Taken from the book “Operation and Mechanism of the Linotype and Intertype” by J Ashworth, first published in 1955.
The Intertype Fotosetter, many models of which are in commercial use in the United States, is similar in appearance and general operation to the standard Intertype slug machine.