The Linotype And Modern Printing, How We Have Conquered Distance
From the children's book How We Have Conquered Distance, 1935.
The Linotype and Modern Printing
A machine was finally built by a man named Ottmar Mergenthaler, of Baltimore. It is called the Linotype Composing Machine. This machine has inside of it many little patterns, or dies, for making type. By touching keys, such as are on a typewriter, these little dies will fall into words in a line. As fast as a line of dies is made, the line is carried along inside the machine. Each die is filled with melted type metal. This makes a whole line of type all in one piece. As soon as the metal is cool, it can be used for printing books or newspapers.
The linotype machine can also put the little dies back in place to be used again. After the type is used, it is melted and used over and over. Today in all parts of the world typesetting machines are used. They are of several kinds. Each is in some ways like the first machine. These machines have different names and do the work in different ways, What have these machines done for communication?
Men through the years have learned to set type with machines. They have also learned to print with great power driven presses that print both sides of the paper at once. These great machines now print a whole newspaper at a time and fold it up ready for the newsboy.
