TYPE-CASTING MACHINES. 189 



Upon a type-writer, a rate of sixty words per minute from dicta- 

 tion is not very higli. The Senate Hansard reporters of Canada 

 employ several type-writers who average from sixty to seventy 

 words and over for considerable periods of time. Allowing the 

 speed of the operator on the type-casting machine to be twenty- 

 five per cent less, we have at least forty-five words per minute as 

 the practical rate of the machine. This is equal to seven thousand 

 one hundred and five ems per hour. As alreadj^ said, I saw one 

 man at the Linotype set for half an hour from a phonograph at a 

 rate of nearly eight thousand ems per hour, and the setting was 

 as " clean " as that of the average compositor. 



Summing up the comparison between hand setting and ma- 

 chine casting, I find : 1. The machine is much more easily learned. 



2. No type is required. 3. Less space and fewer hands are needed 

 in the composing-room. 4. Setting is cleaner, and probably one 

 third cheaper. 5. Justification is automatic and perfect. 6. By 

 changing the matrices, which can be done in half an hour, a 

 different style of type becomes available. 7. " Leading " can be 

 done much more quickly. 8. There is no "pi-ing,^' or mixing up of 

 type. 9. Fewer typographical errors are likely. You do not 

 have inverted letters, nor mistakes due to the type having been 

 wrongly " distributed " in the case, which are a source of frequent 

 typographical blunders. 



Drawbacks and Possible Complications. — It will be asked, 

 How is it that these remarkable machines have not at once sprung 

 into popularity ? — so cheap, so rapid, so easily learned, so econom- 

 ical ! How is it that so little has been heard about them ? Well, 

 the patents were only perfected last year, and the machines are not 

 yet being made fast enough to supply the demand. Meanwhile, 

 there are many possible complications, the fear of which must 

 cause the average printing-office to hesitate to try the machines. 1. 

 The machines require power to drive them effectively. The fail- 

 ure of power for any reason would seriously interfere with them, 

 although they can be driven by foot-power in an emergency. 2. 

 They require gas or gasoline for their furnaces; the failure of 

 the gas from leakage, or cold, or accident, would stop the machines. 



3. The molten metal in the melting-pot must always be at a tol- 

 erably even temperature ; otherwise the casting is bad, perhaps 

 impossible. It is claimed that this difficulty has been overcome 

 in the Linotype, and that the temperature of the molten metal 

 is automatically kept at a temperature varying not more than 

 10° Fahr. A column of mercury is connected with the melting- 

 pot, and when the temperature causes the mercury to ascend 

 beyond a certain point, it lowers the gas-jets which supply the 

 heat. When the mercury descends below a certain point, it turns 

 on the gas more strongly. 4. The machines are composed of many 



