MONOTYPE 



3894 



MONROE 



motion swings out as it rounds curves and comes 

 to its usual position with no jar. The German 

 line is an elevated one running above the 

 streets and part of the way swings out over a 

 river, but the same principles could be applied 

 to the ordinary surface car, hanging only a foot 

 or so from the ground. 



In the United States a Massachusetts com- 

 pany began experimenting with a like device 

 in 1914, attempting to improve upon the origi- 

 nal German model. 



MONOTYPE, moriotipe, a delicate and in- 

 tricate machine which casts and sets type, one 

 letter at a time, as a compositor would take 

 them from his case and arrange them into 

 words. It is one of the two chief kinds of type- 

 casting and setting devices, the other being the 

 linotype, which differs from the monotype in 

 that it casts and sets type in a solid bar of 

 metal the length of a line of print (see LINO- 

 TYPE) . 



The monotype is used in setting the type for 

 fine books and in any kind of publishing where 

 a more leisurely process is possible than that 

 followed in the great metropolitan newspaper 

 offices. When the news is received "hot and 

 hot," as the saying is, and edition follows edi- 

 tion with bewildering rapidity, it is necessary 

 to use such a machine as the linotype, which 

 produces printing type in response to a single 

 pressure of the operator's finger. The mono- 

 type does not do this. It is made in two parts, 

 and two distinct processes are required to pro- 

 duce the type. 



One part of the monotype is a machine look- 

 ing somewhat like an ordinary typewriter, but 

 having a much larger keyboard, containing all 

 the letters and characters used in printing 



257 in all. By pressing the keys, the operator 

 releases tiny metal punches, which make per- 

 forations in a paper ribbon. At the end of each 

 word a spacing key is struck, and when the 

 line is nearly filled out, a bell warns the opera- 

 tor that he will have to begin a new line. 

 The keyboard of the monotype turns out, not 

 type, but only a paper ribbon with perforations. 



The second part of the machine is much more 

 complicated in structure, and to the inexperi- 

 enced eye the things that can be done with it 

 suggest a kind of magic. The ribbon, with its 

 many tiny holes, is fed into the casting ma- 

 chine backwards. It passes over a board hav- 

 ing on its surface many small perforations ex- 

 actly corresponding to all that may be punched 

 in the ribbon. When any perforation or series 

 of perforations passes over similar holes in the 

 board, a jet of compressed air operates a little 

 piece of mechanism, which, as deftly as any 

 human printer, picks up the proper matrix 

 the mold from which letters are cast and car- 

 ries it to the casting box, where it forms the 

 letter in melted type-metal. The newly-made 

 letter is carried to a galley; letters become 

 words, words extend into lines, and when a line 

 is finished the machine properly spaces it. 



One of the advantages of the monotype is 

 that if errors are made in a line or word, they 

 can be corrected just as in hand-composition, 

 since all the letters and spaces are separate. In 

 the case of the linotype, on the contrary, the 

 solid line containing a fault has to be recast. 

 When operated by a skilled workman the mono- 

 type is capable of doing high-class work repre- 

 senting a wide range of type, including large 

 advertising type and borders in varying de- 

 signs. G.B.D. 



United States Capitol 

 in 1820 



-ONROE, munro' ', JAMES (1758- 

 1831), an American statesman, fifth President 

 of the United States. Monroe's election to the 

 Presidency was the climax of a long public ca- 



reer in the course of which he held almost every 

 possible public office. Beginning as a member 

 of the Virginia assembly, he was in turn a 

 member of the Congress of the Confederation, 



