Jtdy 12, 1877] 



NA TURE 



215 



&c., and which, by simple mechanism, punch correspond- 

 ing holes in the paper when pressed down by the fingers. 

 This operation being quite independent of the machine 

 last described, can be carried on at any slack lime, or 

 when the type-setter is in use, and the prepared paper 

 can be put away until the machine is ready to work from 

 it. This is a special advantage of the system which 

 printers will readily appreciate ; and it possesses another 

 of great value, and that is thar parts of v.ords of two to 

 eight letters, and several short words, can lie set up simul- 

 taneous y, as the compartments are so filled that letters 

 likely to come together are in contiguous divisions and 

 may be released by tiie mechanism at the same moment. 

 As an instance of this the eight compartmer ts of one of 

 the boxes are filled with types in the following order : — 

 W i t h a t S and spaces, so that the ten words 

 wit, with, it, that, hat, hats, at, as, is, .ind has, may 

 be drawn by one operation, and the preparation of the 

 paper for such combinations is no less simple, for it is 

 performed by depressing several keys at once, as in 

 playing chords in music. 



By this system of type-setting, using one, two, or three 

 perforators respectively, as many as eight, twelve, and 

 twenty-four thousand types may be set up per hour. 



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We have described Dr. Mackie's machine at some 

 length, because it is a very beautiful application of the 

 mathematical laws of permutations and combinations, 

 and of mechanics to the saving of skilled labour, and is 

 itself an interesting example of some of the services 

 rendered by Science to the printer's art. 



Another very ingenious application of Science to type- 

 setting is the ''Clowes" electrical compositor, invented 

 by Mr. John Hooker. In this machine the types are 

 contained in forty-eight nearly vertical troughs or reser- 

 voirs, and are pushed out through a lateral opening at 

 the lower end by a striker under each trough actuated by 

 an electro-magnet, so arranged that, when a current of 

 electricity is sent through its coils, one type is released 

 from its reservoir and drops out. Below the openings 

 of the reservoirs are as many flat running tapes, and 

 when a letter is released it drops on to the tape 

 which is running below it, and is carried by it at 

 the speed of seven inches per second to the edge 

 of the table of the machine, where it is thrown on 

 to another tape running at a quicker speed (about 

 twenty-one and a half inches per second), and making an 

 angle of about 150" with the set of parallel tapes before 

 mentioned. This angle determines the relative distances 



of the reservoirs from tlie quick-running tape, and the 

 speeds are so adjusted to these distances that the time 

 occupied by a type in travelling from the reservoirs to 

 collecting apparatus is exactly the same in all cases so 

 that the types are delivered into the composing-j-/zV,f 

 exactly in their order of release from the reservoirs. This 

 part of the apparatus may in telegraphic language be 

 called the "receiving instrument." 



The "transmitting instrument " consists of a series of 

 rectangular plaies of copper insulated from one another 

 and arranged on a sloping. board representing exactly the 

 compartments in the ordinary compositor's ''Lower Case.'" 

 Each of these plates is in metallic communication v/ith 

 one end of the coil of one of the discharging magnets, the 

 other end being in connection with one pole of a voltaic 

 battery consisting of two small Grove elements. The com- 

 positor sits in front of this set of plates, having the copy 

 before him, and holding in his hand a copper stile or 

 contact piece which is in connection with the other pole 

 of the battery. Every time he touches with the stile one 

 of the rectangular plates of copper a voltaic current is 

 sent through the coils of its corresponding magnet and a 

 letter corresponding to the plate touched is liberated on 

 to the tapes and is instantly carried to the composing- 

 stick. The collecting apparatus is extremely ingenious 

 and is worked by a quick running cam by simple 

 mechanism, which is a beautiful specimen of workmanship. 



By this machine as many as 15,000 letters per hour 

 may be set up ; and it possesses the advantage over other 

 systems that it can be worked by any ordinary com- 

 positor at case, and requires no special training for its 

 manipulation. 



Of other type-setting machines there are exhibited in 

 the collection examples of Kastenbein's system, which is 

 adopted in the Times office ; the Hattersley compositor, 

 in which the types are, by the depression of keys, shot 

 down vertical grooves, by which they are guided to the 

 composing frame, and by which it is said that types may 

 be set at the rate of 8,000 per hour. Muller's machine, 

 which is represented in the collection by a model, is a 

 well-made apparatus, intended to set type at a speed of 

 5,000 letters per hour. Both this and the Hattersley 

 machine set up the type in columns, ringing a bell at the 

 end of each line. 



Heinemann's apparatus is an exceedingly simple 

 machir.e, depending upon quickness of hand and eye 

 in .liming a pointer at the particular divisions of a comb- 

 shaped series of guides, by which the types are withdrawn 

 from the reservoirs corresponding to those divisions. It 

 is a well-made machine, and its simplicity is a safeguard 

 against its becoming deranged. 



The operations of type-founding, of paper-making and 

 folding, of lithography, and steel engraving, which are all 

 more or less dependent upon scientific aid, are all repre- 

 sented at South Kensington, but we must reserve their 

 consideration for a future notice, as well as a description 

 of an interesting gas-engine, exhibited by Messrs. Crossley 

 Brothers, which is admirably adapted for laboratory 

 purposes. 



From what has been said it will be seen that the Caxton 

 Exhibition is an exceedingly interesting and instructive 

 one, and will well repay several visits. C. W. C. 



NOTES 



We are glad to see that the first grants from the Research 

 Fund of the Chemical Society have just been made. They are 

 as follows : to Dr. C. R. A. Wright 50/. for the investigation of 

 certain problems in chemical dynamics ; to iVIr. G. S. Johnson 

 25/. for a research on double salts with potassium tri-iodide ; to 

 Mr. E. Neison 25/. for a research on octyl compounds ; to Mr. 

 Carleton Williams 25/. for a research on hydrocarbons con- 

 taining the group Isopropyl twice ; and to Mr. George Harrow 

 10/. for a research on derivatives of aceto-acetic ether. 



