182 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. . 



in- Tims equipped, he can, I believe, do steadily and regularly 

 the work of three fair hand compositors. He does not handle 

 type; has no "stick-; is not required to do any justification nor 

 any distnbutiug. He sits in front of a machine and works a 

 key-board and a lever, and the machine does everything else 



^ow to outline the working of the type-casting machine. A 

 key-board similar to that of a type-writer fronts the machine 

 There is a key for each letter of the alphabet. The operator 

 sits in front of the key-board. Let us suppose that he wishes to 

 set the word new." He touches the key n. The touch on the 

 key releases from a magazine in rear of the machine a mold 

 technically called a matrix, for the letter n. The matrix, which 

 IS of brass, slides down into a receiver near the key-board Next 

 the operator touches the key e. A matrix for the letter e is 

 released and slides down alongside the letter n. The operator 

 touches the key w. A matrix for w comes down and ranges itself 

 alongside e Now m the receiver we have, what ?-the word ne^o 

 m type ? No, nothing of the kind. We have three little brass 

 molds standing side by side, from which, if we poured molten 

 metal nito them, we would get the word new in a solid cast. But 

 there is no type. The machine knows nothing of type whatever, 

 tliough, for convenience' sake, we are calling it at present a type- 

 casting machine. -^ 



But the time is not come to put molten metal into the three 

 little molds or " matrices." An entire line should be set not 

 merely a word. Suppose the line is to be, "new things come to 

 pass." The operator proceeds to touch key after key for the suc- 

 cessive letters until the matrices for the whole line are ranged 

 side by side. Now at this point comes in what was for years the 

 great problem in type-casting by machinery. As the end of a 

 line of matrices or type is approached, it may not be possible to 

 fit m an even word or syllable. Padding, or " justifying," becomes 

 necessary. In setting by hand, the compositor does this with 

 little lead slugs, called " spaces," inserted between words. How 

 IS this to be done by a machine ? Inventors long stuck at it. But 

 they have found out how. The process is simple in action, though 

 difficult ^to describe without a model. Roughly speaking, the 

 " spaces " or slugs which are used between each word in the line 

 of matrices are compensating wedges, the bottoms of which pro- 

 ject below the matrices. When the line of matrices requires 

 justification," a touch on a lever by the operator causes the 

 bottoms of the compensating wedges to be struck by a cross-bar, 

 which forces the wedges up between the words until the line is 

 solidly filled out. 



The line of matrices or letter molds is then ready to receive a 

 cast. Where is the molten metal ? It is in the machine. This 



