i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



TYPE-CASTING MACHINES. 



By p. D. EOSS. 



TN the composing-room of the New York Tribune some forty 

 -L type-casting machines have been used for several years. The 

 foreman informed me in October last that all the ordinary read- 

 ing-matter in the Tribune was being "set" by these inventions, 

 and expressed himself perfectly satisfied with the working of the 

 machines. As a rule, he said, not one of them was out of order, 

 and on the average each did the work of three fair compositors.' 

 In a printed circular issued by the patentees of the machine the 

 foreman, Mr. G. W. Shafer, declares that, compared with what 

 the same amount of setting would cost if done by hand by com- 

 positors, " the machines save the Tribune office sixty per cent— 

 probably more." 



My object in visiting New York at that time was to look into 

 the type-casting process. The result of the visit was a conviction 

 that the problem of setting type by machinery has been solved. 

 Small printing establishments may not benefit from it for a 

 few years. Large establishments, particularly large newspapers, 

 may profit at an early date. The New York papers are looking 

 to this. The business manager of the World, Mr. G. W. Turner, 

 informed me that he had ordered one hundred machines. In 

 the composing-room of the Brooklyn Standard-Union I saw six- 

 machines working. I was informed that orders for machines had 

 been placed by the New York Sun, Herald, Times, and Mail and 

 Express. Outside of New York, the Louisville Courier-Journal 

 uses thirty machines, and says it saves fifty per cent of what 

 hand composition used to cost it. The Providence Journal uses 

 twelve machines, and claims to save two hundred and fifty dol- 

 lars per week. The Chicago News says it is saving fifty per cent 

 m the cost of composition. These are only some of the news- 

 papers which state that they have been using the machines 

 regularly and successfully during the past year. Four machines 

 ordered by the Canadian Government have been used in the Gov- 

 ernment Printing Bureau at Ottawa for some months, and, in 

 reply to a question in the House of Commons recently, the Secre- 

 tary of State, Hon. J. A. Chapleau, said that they were satisfactory 

 and economical. 



^ All this goes to show that the type-casting principle has ob- 

 tained a practical footing in the market. In discussing the sub- 

 ject, I propose to confine myself as much as possible to my per- 

 sonal experience and investigations. If I state anything which I 

 do not know personally or have not been told at first hand by 

 disinterested persons, I will give the source of my information. 



