Mergenthaler Linotype Sales Literature

General Overviews

image link-topic-sf0.jpg

By "General Overviews" I mean, in this particular instance, overviews by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company explaining what a Linotype is, what it does, and how it does it. For general overviews of the Linotype product line at any given point in history, see the Machines and Product Lines Notebooks.

image broadside-divider-sf0.jpg

Explaining the Linotype

image link-blank-sf0.jpg

The Big Scheme of Simple Operation

1940. This document was published as a booklet, and also incorporated into various other publications (for example, as the first chapter of Linotype Machine Principles and of the Linotype Maintenance Manual).

It is online on Bill Spurling's www.linotype.org site. It is probably the best general introduction to the Linotype.

image broadside-divider-sf0.jpg

Promoting the Mergenthaler Linotype Company and Its Products

[click image to read at The Internet Archive]

image link-to-mlc-1916-announcing-specimen-book-of-type-styles-sf0.jpg

The Book of the Matrix (1916)

The Book of the Matrix[:] Announcing Specimen Book of Type Styles . (Brooklyn, NY: Mergenthaler Linotype Company, 1916). While this is in theory a prospectus for a type specimen book, it contains no specimens and little typographical information per se. Rather, it emphasizes the manufacturing capabilities of the Mergenthaler company. 16pp. It contains photographs of the Mergenthaler main office (Tribune Building), selling offices, and Brooklyn plant (exterior and some interior views). Also photos of Linotype Models 16, 17, 18, 19 and 9. Also an intermediate development of the image of "The Hand that Keeps the World Informed."

The icon here links to a presentation of this document at The Internet Archive. Here is a local copy of the PDF (140 Meg): mlc-1916-announcing-specimen-book-of-type-styles-0600rgbjpg.pdf Thanks are due to Greg Fischer (The Linofish) for preserving this booklet and making it available.

If you got here via a search for Mergenthaler Linotype specimen books, see instead Matrix Data, Specimens, & Typography for Composing Linecasters.

[click blank image to go to page]

image link-blank-sf0.jpg

Linotype Leadership

1930. [NOT DONE]

image link-blank-sf0.jpg

The Eighth Wonder [film]

Mergenthaler Linotype Company. Harold Lea, writer and director. Wallace Duquet, narrator. The Eighth Wonder. (Brooklyn, NY: Mergenthaler Linotype Company, 1961 [date by Carl Schlesinger; no date on film itself]) Made by Film Productions, Inc. A promotional film. 23 minutes. N.B., the title is "The Eighth Wonder", not "The Eighth Wonder of the World".

Shows a surviving Blower Linotype in operation. Mergenthaler vertical pantograph (cutter below plate), first cutting a working pattern (raised) and then cutting a punch. Hardening and tempering of punch. Some views of matrix manufacturing. Driving punches by machine, rapidly. A very little on Linotype manufacturing itself, including early CNC machining. Tape control (Teletypesetter or compatible) of the Linotype Comet and Model 29 mixer. The assembler front swinging out and keyrod rack removal on the Comet (nice!) Hydraquadder. Rangemaster Model 35 mixer. Quite a bit on the Linofilm System.

Available from Carl Schlesinger; see ../../../../typemaking/bibliography/index#linotype-eighth-wonder.

image broadside-divider-sf0.jpg

The Teletypesetter as a System

Note: The TTS crosses many boundaries and the literature on it is distributed in several locations throughout CircuitousRoot. For an index to this, see ../../../ TTS Literature Locations.

The Teletypesetter is also addressed in a number of sections in the Linotype Sales Manual.

[click image to read at The Internet Archive]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-sf0.jpg

Linotype Handbook for Teletypesetter Operation

The Linotype Handbook for Teletypesetter Operation. (Brooklyn, NY: Mergenthaler Linotype Company, 1951.) This is a "semi-technical" executive-level overview of the capabilities of the Teletypesetter system as a whole. Its audience is the newspaper or printing company executive planning organization and purchases. It isn't a keyboard operating manual.

Thanks are due to Dave Seat of Hot Metal Services, http://www.HotMetalServices.com for preserving this document and making it available.

The icon above left links to a presentation of this Handbook at The Internet Archive, where it may be read online conveniently. Here is a local copy of the PDF (533 Megabytes): linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-0600rgbjpg.pdf

The illustrations from this Handbook are good, and they present a brief visual summary of the various components of the Teletypesetter system. Here they are as individual images. (Each image below links to a 2048 pixel wide version. Links to the original full-resolution scans follow.)

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-008-comet-illustration-sf0.jpg

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-013-standard-perforator-sf0.jpg image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-016-standard-perforator-in-use-sf0.jpg

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-017-keyboard-sf0.jpg image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-018-scale-sf0.jpg

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-020-multiface-perforator-sf0.jpg image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-021-multiface-perforator-tray-sf0.jpg

NOTE: If you happen to have any "counting magazines" (see the photo above right) gathering dust as unknown curiosities in the back of your shop, please contact me (dmm@Lemur.com). I have two Multiface Perforators which are missing them.

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-023-operating-unit-sf0.jpg image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-036-operating-unit-installed-on-comet-sf0.jpg

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-031-tts-tape-sf0.jpg image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-037-tts-transmitter-distributor-sf0.jpg

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-038-tts-reperforator-sf0.jpg image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-1200rgb-039-tts-model-20-printer-sf0.jpg

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-0600rgb-041-crop-4656x6144-scale-2048x2703-sf0.jpg

Here are the original page scans (1200dpi RGB PNG images, except the final one). They average about 70 Megabytes each (except for the keyboard image, which is 31 Megabytes, and the Comet image, which is 203). The final image is 600dpi and is only 9 Megabytes.

And finally, because I started out as a computer geek at the end of the paper tape era, here is the chart from this book for producing "eyeball characters" on 6-level tape in Teletypesetter code:

[click image to view larger]

image link-to-linotype-handbook-for-teletypesetter-operation-1951-hms-0600rgb-034-crop-eyeball-character-chart-sf0.jpg

(Click on the above for a 3 Megabyte PDF.)

About the images


Select Resolution: 0 [other resolutions temporarily disabled due to lack of disk space]