Taken from the book “Operation and Mechanism of the Linotype and Intertype” by J Ashworth, first published in 1955.
Used with Linotypes and Intertypes, these saws extend the scope of work from the keyboard to cover line measures from one em to lines of any length. Very narrow measures can be set as normal-measure work at the keyboard, and the slugs cut on the saw to the measures required.
Slugs are handled in quantity. The saw cuts them in bulk, working with the safety of lines instead of separate types. Cutting is quick and accurate; clamp a handful of slugs on the table of the machine and it cuts, trims and polishes the sawn ends of the slugs to accurate dimensions. Slugs can be mitred and the saw can be put to work in many ways as a companion machine to the linecasting machine.
The saw is simple to operate. The measure is set to a scale which indicates to fractions of a point. The slugs are placed on the table and clamped. The saw is switched on, the table with the slugs is pressed gently past the saw blade and trimmers, then the table is returned. Unlocking of the clamp frees the slugs, accurately trimmed ready for make-up.
In setting display lines of varying widths, the operator need not make frequent changes of measures on his machine. The lines can be set on full measure slugs and in make-up run through the saw to be cut to the various measures required. Another advantage of the saw is in cutting slugs to narrower measures than the minimum of four ems which the machines cast.