1. Overview

This is the English version of the (American) Model 1. The English version first shipped in 1895. ( {Kahan 2000}, p. 223; {L&M 1964}, p 1.)

The machine was not called the "Model 1" until the advent of the Model 2. ( {L&M 1964}, p 1.)

The 1930s Linotype & Machinery book The Linotype: Its Mechanical Details and their Adjustments ( {L&M Circa 1936}, pp. 11, 19) identifies three variations on the Model 1:

• Model 1 (Old Style), single-letter version.
• Model 1 (Old Style), double-letter version.
• Model 1 (Old Style), "Pica Machine"
• Model 1 (Reconstructed)

Note that it is not correct to refer to this machine as the "Simplex" Linotype. See the Notebook on the "Simplex" Linotype (Never Made In America) for a discussion of why there never was a "Simplex" Linotype in America, Canada, or England. Even such an authority as Basil Kahan is in error in this regard. ( {Kahan 2000}, p. 185)

2. Model 1 (Old Style), Single-Letter

The Model 1 as introduced was a "single letter" machine. That is, it was capable of handling only matrices with one (not two) characters. It could handle type faces up to 11 points and type bodies up to 12 points. (The maximum body size of the type as represented by the matrices is determined primarily by the width of the channels in the magazine. Larger type bodies are also wider. The maximum body size of the slug on which this type is cast is determined by the mold.) It could handle "all measures up to 30 pica ems." ( {L&M Circa 1936}, p. 11) Like all Linotypes at this time, it was a single-magazine machine.

Here is the first advertisement which appeared in The British Printer for the Model 1, in the March/April 1895 number. {BP 1895} In the previous number (January/February 1895) they were still advertising the Square Base. Note that in the ad below they describe it as the "New Improved Quick Change Linotype Composing Machine." The terms "new," "improved," and "quick change" were used so frequently in the history of the Linotype that they are not useful as machine identifiers.

[click image to view larger]

3. Model 1 (Old Style), Double-Letter

The two-letter matrix and the "universal" mold ("adjustable as to length and body") were introduced in England in 1897/1899. ( {L&M 1964}, p 2.) These features must have been applied to the Model 1 because the Square Base was not then in production and the Model 2 would not be introduced until 1906.

Here it is as shown in the 1930s Linotype & Machinery book The Linotype: Its Mechanical Details and their Adjustments ( {L&M Circa 1936}, p. 10). (Note that I am only assuming that this is the old-style double-letter Model 1. It is an Old Style machine (inside galley) rather than a Reconstructed Model 1 (outside galley), and I'm guessing that it isn't the 42-em "Pica Machine." Also, it is just possible in the images below to make out "Linotype and Machinery" on the machine's nameplate. This dates the image to 1903 or later, by which time a single-letter machine would have been very old-fashioned.)

[click image to view larger]

(Please see the "IMPORTANT NOTE on the copyright status of: The Linotype: Its Mechanical Details and their Adjustment " in the legal fine print at the bottom of this page. This image may be in copyright in your country, and is not licensed under the same Creative Commons license as the rest of this page. It is used here under the doctrine of "Fair Use" in US copyright law.)

Now that we've established that this image is an English Model 1, here is the same image (without as clear an identification) from Legros & Grant's Typographical Printing Surfaces ( {LG 1916}, plate 60) This image is in the public domain in the US.

[click image to view larger]

(The image above links to a PDF version created out of a JPEG conversion of this scan. Here is the original lossless 1200dpi scan: legros-grant-1916-plate-060-1200grey-fig-405-english-linotype-single-magazine-crop-5584x7472.png. Unfortunately, when I scanned it I was still scanning monochrome images in greyscale, not RGB.)

4. Model 1 (Old Style), "Pica Machine"

This was "Similar to the Model 1 (Old Style), but capable of "[producing] type faces and bodies up to 14-point, in all measures up to 42 pica ems." ( {L&M 1964}, p 2.)

Exactly why it was called a "Pica" machine is unclear to me. The (American) Model 3 was, according to Leonard Spencer / Intertype Corp., informally called the "pica machine" because it could handle type bodies up to 12 points. That use of "pica machine" makes sense, but "14-point" is a typo for "12-point," it is not what the English Linotype company meant here. Of course, 14-point type is "English" (in the old named body size system), and "English Machine" would have been a rather confusing name for a L&M product. :-)

A 42-pica measure was quite wide for this time. Early American wide-measure machines (the Model 3 of 1907 and the Model 6 of 1908) were 36-pica.

I have no further information on the L&M "Pica Machine" at this time, and no illustration of it.

5. Model 1 (Reconstructed)

This was a Model 1 rebuilt into a machine with an outside galley, the capability of handling 14-point matrices, and a front-removable magazine. A more modern plunger spring arrangement is also evident in the photograph of the machine.

Aside from the Model 2, the English Linotype product line never contained a modern sigle-magazine machine equivalent to the American Model 5 It would seem to me that this Reconstructed Model 1 was intended to fill that market niche. Indeed, it looks an awful lot like an American Model 5.

In the 1930s, L&M said that this machine was "now supplied as a reconstructed machine only." ( {L&M Circa 1936}, p. 19). This leaves open the question of whether or not they ever sold it as a new machine in this configuration.

Here it is as shown in The Linotype: Its Mechanical Details and their Adjustments ( {L&M Circa 1936}, p. 19).

[click image to view larger]

(Please see the "IMPORTANT NOTE on the copyright status of: The Linotype: Its Mechanical Details and their Adjustment " in the legal fine print at the bottom of this page. This image may be in copyright in your country, and is not licensed under the same Creative Commons license as the rest of this page. It is used here under the doctrine of "Fair Use" in US copyright law.)

6. Notes and References

{BP 1895} The British Printer. Vol. 8, Whole No. 43 (1895): p. 48 in the advertising section. Digitized by Google.

{Kahan 2000} Kahan, Basil. Ottmar Mergenthaler: The Man and His Machine. (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2000)

{LG 1916} Legros, Lucien Alphonse and John Cameron Grant. Typographical Printing Surfaces. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1916.

{L&M Circa 1936} The Linotype: Its Mechanical Details and their Adjustments. London: Linotype and Machinery Limited, [n.d., circa 1936]

{L&M 1964} The Linotype Manual. London: Linotype and Machinery Limited, 1964.