The Wicks Rotary Typecaster

1. Wicks Rotary Typecaster

See { Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 5-39 } especially for the contributions of Lucien Alphonse Legros to this machine and the Wicks company.

See also { Legros & Grant, Typographical Printing Surfaces (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1916) }

The { Inland Printer, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Oct. 1885): 67 } cites the typecaster of Frederick Wicks (England) as being able to cast one hundred types per second.

This image of the Wicks Rotary Typecater is from { John S. Thompson's History of Composing Machines (1904), p. 78. }. Thompson gives its rate of casting at 60,000 types an hour.

The Wicks Rotary Typecaster, as illustrated and discussed (with further technical images) in { Legros' "Typecasting and Composing Machinery" (1908)}. Legros is by far the best source that I know of.

{Legros, 1908, Plate 32, Fig. 47}

Here's an engraving of the Wicks Rotary Typecaster as illustrated in the { 1911 edition of the Encyclopædiadia Britannica }.

{EB11, v. 27, p. 544}