Pantographs for Design

1. Design

In addition to their application as cutting tools, pantographs are of course useful simply as aids in the drawing office. In type-making, however, this seems to have been done relatively infrequently.

2. ATF - Benton's 1899/1905 Optomechanical Pantograph

In 1906, Benton described in general terms ATF's methods for making matrices. [1] One of the methods involved the use of a drawing pantograph to enlarge type from design drawings done about an inch in (capital) height to larger versions for inspection and later use with a wax plate method of working pattern production. He did not illustrate the "delineating machine" used for this.

In a 1909 article in The American Machinist [2] W. J. Kaup also described these same ATF methods and illustrated the machine used for "Delineating the Characters": [3]

[click image to view larger]

This is almost certainly a simplified version of the pantograph patented by Benton in 1899/1905 (US 790,172); see ../ Specific Pantographs in More Detail -> ATF's Design Pantograph for a discussion of it. (I'm calling it his "1899/1905 Optomechanical Pantograph," but neither Benton nor ATF named it that; I just need a name for it which doesn't use the problematic term "delineator.")

3. ATF - The Designing Room Circa 1912

We know that a pantograph was present in ATF's "Designing Room" in their Jersey City plant cira 1912, because they show a picture of it in their 1912 specimen book. [4]

[click image to view larger]

(The image above links to a 2048 pixel wide JPEG reduction of the original scan, which is suitable for most viewing. Here is a full-resolution version (6496x4640, 59 Megabytes): atf-1912-american-specimen-book-1200rgb-0000-09-crop-designing-room-6496x4640.png)

However, this machine is clearly not the "1899/1905 Optomechanical Pantograph" noted earlier. Instead, it resembles the one illustrated in Kaup's 1909 American Machinist article as the machine for "Delineating On [a] Wax Plate." See ../ Specific Pantographs in More Detail -> ATF's Wax Plate Pantograph for a discussion of it.

4. Notes

1. In Hitchcock, Frederick H. The Building of a Book. (NY: The Grafton Press, 1906) . Linn Boyd Benton wrote the chapter on "The Making of Type," pp. 31-40.

1. From Kaup, W. J. "Modern Automatic Type Making Methods." American Machinist. Vol. 32 (December 16, 1909): 1042-1046.

3. But see the note on the problems of the term "delineate" in Benton's machines for a discussion of the problems in using the term "delineator" for this machine.

4. From American Specimen Book of Type Styles (NY: American Type Founders Company, 1912). Scanned by DMM from my tattered copy, s/n 38187.