MECHANICAL COMPOSITION IN PRINTING—TURPAIN. 125 
several lines are made by cutting the defective part out of the ribbon 
and substituting a piece of corrected ribbon. Corrections of one or 
two letters are made in the line by the ordinary nippers after it is 
cast. 
Keyboard.—In the latest model of the electrotypograph (1907) the 
keyboard has in all 97 keys, 90 of which, by means of a shift key, 
allow the writing of 180 characters. One key is reserved for justifica- 
tion; its manipulation is entirely mechanical, the operator having 
only to press it at the end of each line without any preliminary read- 
ing. One key is added for the feeding holes, 0, in the ribbon; another 
large key for variable spaces and finally four keys for the fixed spaces, 
1 em, 2 em, etc. 
(2) Casting machine——The perforated ribbon or band, taken from 
the composing machine, is transferred to the casting machine (fig. 
11). These two machines are entirely independent. The perforated 
bands can be composed at leisure and the type cast as needed. This 
is not one of the least advantages of machines casting movable char- 
acters, and as the electrotypograph is a perfect 
example of this class of machines, its superiority 
is particularly marked. It permits the printing 
of a limited number of copies of a work, and since 
the perforated bands are preserved, a new edition 
may be printed by again casting the type. Thus 
as many successive editions as desired may be 
produced without new composition, or the storage Fic. 12.—Matrix disk 
of a considerable stock of type or stereotype plates. ome ee 
Thus, by a process more economical than+stereo- 
typing, one of the desires of the bookseller is realized. One large 
printing office in Saxony before the Revolution, and before the inven- 
tion of stereotyping, was able to furnish books at prices much lower 
than its rivals by preserving the composition in storage and printing 
in proportion to the demand. But at the price of how much inactive 
capital! + 
The perforated band of the electrotypograph of MM. Meray and 
Rozar passes through the casting machine in an opposite direction 
from its make-up. The lines are thus cast letter by letter in an oppo- 
site direction, from right to left. In this way, the machine knows, be- 
fore commencing a line, the exact value of the spaces it must furnish. 
This is another manifest advantage of this machine. 
The molten metal is injected into a mold, one end of which is 
closed by an indented matrix, where the face of the character is 
formed. A movable carriage holds 29 disks on the facets of which 
are cut the matrices. Each disk has three facets at angles of 45° 
(fig. 12). The middle facet bears a small or lower-case letter, the 
one to the left the capital or upper-case of the same letter, and the one 
