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Happy Birthday Ottmar Mergenthaler, Father of The Linotype!
Ottmar Mergenthaler, dubbed the 2nd Gutenberg by some, was born on this day, May 11 in 1854.
Mr. Mergenthaler was a German inventor who birthed The Linotype Machine – an apparatus that set full lines of movable type for use on printing presses. This machine was revolutionary, in that it increased the productivity of hand-typesetters dramatically and cut costs of commercial printing operations, allowing bigger, longer newspapers and pamphlets to be set up and printed in less time.
image from INFOMERCANTILE.COM
Mergenthaler was a watch & clockmaker by trade, and arrived in Baltimore, MD in 1872. When he was 32 years old, he had become partner in the print shop to which he had apprenticed, and introduced the first linotype machine. A single operator could set, justify, and re-distribute type with the machine, which had keys that worked similarly to a typewriter.
image from TODAYINSCI.COM
The New York Tribune first used the linotype commercially in 1886. By the turn of the century, there were over 10,000 linotype machines in use!
Check out this awesome informational video from the 1960′s about modern linotype machines…
Written by robin on 05/11/2010 in Blog | Design Resources | Graphic Design | History | News | Printmaking | Video
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