Some Notes on Printing Machinery *

Abstract

After a preliminary section dealing with type and type faces in general, and the methods of generating the matrices from which letters are cast, the author describes the machinery used in the two broad divisions into which the work of producing a printed page can be divided: (a) composing and typecasting; and (b) actual printing, or “machining”. The paper deals only with the machinery used in the production of the Proceedings of the Institution.

Composition is carried out on Monotype keyboard machines, provided with groups of keys, arranged like those on a typewriter; the keys when depressed cause perforations, varying with every key, to appear in a paper roll fed through the machine. The finished roll, looking like a pianola roll, is then “played” on the typecaster and the perforations in it form a code which virtually gives instructions for the fresh positioning of the matrix case for each letter cast. The galleys of newly cast type emerge from the caster, are divided into page lengths, and assembled as complete pages in “formes” which are then taken to the printing machines. The press used for this work is of the “two-revolution” pattern, printing the sheet during one revolution and delivering it during the next. The mechanism for reversing the bed is described, also the special arrangements for feeding the sheets to the machine.