1. Introduction

This Notebook gathers reprints of (or if that is not possible, citations of) literature about the Barth Type Caster of an essentially promotional (rather than detailed technical) nature, whether by the Cincinnati Type Foundry, American Type Founders, or third parties.

For technical literature see ../ Technical Accounts.

For the patent literature literature see ../ Patents.

There is necessarily an overlap between the promotional literature gathered here and the Gallery of Images from the Traditional Printed Literature.

Contents:

• Cincinnati Specimen Book (1888)
• Inland Printer (1891)
• World's Columbian Exposition (1893)
• ATF Specimen Book (1923)

2. Cincinnati Specimen Book (1888)

The Barth "Automatic Type Machine" is mentioned briefly in the Preface to the 1888 edition of the Cincinnati Type Foundry's Seventeenth Book of Specimens:

"Our newly-invented and patented Automatic Type Machines enable us to use a superior metal, and give a finish and accuracy to our type not equalled in the world."

This specimen book is online in the Cincinnati Type Foundry Notebook.

3. Inland Printer (1891)

The first illustrated description of a Barth of which I am presently aware appeared in an article in The Inland Printer in November 1891 which was devoted to the Cincinnati Type Foundry. {IP 1891} It was one of a short series of articles on American type foundries. The entire article is reprinted by CircuitousRoot in the Cincinnati Type Foundry notebook.

It is interesting that while the earlier reference in the 1888 Cincinnati specimen book claimed that the caster was "newly invented," this article presents a different view of the developing mythology of the Barth: not that it was original, but that it was an improvement on European machines which were "altogether worthless."

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(The version shown here was digitized by Google from the University of Michigan copy and is available via The Hathi Trust. Hathi ID: mdp.39015086781526. It is of regrettably poor resolution, but until I scan an original it is the best I have.)

4. World's Columbian Exposition (1893)

American Type Founders displayed their manufacturing technology at the World's Columbian Exposition (the Chicago World's Fair, informally) in 1893. Three years later, the specimens section of The Inland Printer reproduced in facsimile an award to ATF for their equipment. The text explaining this was in the "Business Notices" section.

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( The Inland Printer, Vol. 17, No. 3 (June 1896): 320, 333.)

5. ATF Specimen Book (1923)

ATF printed 60,000 copies of their last big specimen book in 1923. Certainly every printing shop in the country had a copy, at least until the advent of phototypesetting. This brief description of the Barth was probably the most widely known, within the trade at least. Interestingly, Linn Boyd Benton is mentioned here by name, but Henry Barth is not.

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(The image above links to a PDF version of this page. For a closer look at just the image of the Barth, see the "ATF 1923 Specimen Book" section in ../../ Galleries of Images -> Images from the Literature Notebook. For reprints of the entire 1923 specimen book, see the unfinished CircuitousRoot 600dpi reprint or the complete Sevanti Letterpress 400dpi reprint.)