ottmar mergenthaler invention

Postal Service commemorative series, 1996; Ottmar Mergenthaler is at upper right (mysticstamp.co). Ottmar Mergenthaler's invention changed the newspaper industry forever. The operator selected a letter on a keyboard. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). ; Mervo was opened in 1953, established as a vocational-technical school that is named after Ottmar Mergenthaler. 11 May 1854 Hachtel, Germany d. 28 October 1899 Baltimore, Maryland, USA [br] German/American inventor of the Linotype typesetting machine. The Linotype was the first device that could easily and quickly set complete lines of type for use in printing presses and revolutionized the art of printing. Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899), the German-American inventor of the Linotype, revolutionized the printing industry with his remarkable typesetting-typecasting machine. A precocious boy, Mergenthaler was anxious to study engineering, but his father, burdened with financing the higher education of older sons, found the expense beyond his means. It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast blocks of metal type for individual uses. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu. Linda Hall Library, 5109 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO 64110-2498 © 2021, Linda Hall Library, All Rights Reserved, Science Matters Lunch and Learn: Honeybees, Pollen, and the Planet, Making the Grade: The Future of America’s Infrastructure, Kansas City Invention Convention Virtual Awards Ceremony. Ottmar Mergenthaler, (born May 11, 1854, Hachtel, Württemberg [Germany]—died Oct. 28, 1899, Baltimore), German-born American inventor who developed the Linotype machine. It might be outdated or ideologically biased. While employed in the Baltimore machine shop of a relative, he worked on plans for a device to make type molds of papier-mâché. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Certainly a newspaper like the New York Tribune, which installed the first production Linotype machines in its newsroom in 1889, would have been able to print as many pages as it liked in a single night of press work with just a half-dozen Linotypes (eventually they had over 120!). His first job could not have been more serendipitous: he started work in the scientific instrument shop of August Hahl, his step-cousin and the son of his former master in Germany. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker at age 14 and attended technical school classes at night. Ottmar Mergenthaler was born in Hachtel, Germany, on May 11, 1854. Ottmar Mergenthaler : the man and his machine : a biographical appreciation of the inventor on his centennial. Every printed page had to be assembled by a composer from individual pieces of type, laid into a composing stick and justified by hand, and then, after printing, the forme had to be broken down and each individual piece of type returned to its appropriate bin in the letter cases. Most of the key inventions that make up the Linotype seem to have come out of Mergenthaler’s fertile and inventive mind, and they were all there, in his first machine, as it emerged in 1886. Scientific American was impressed and put the Linotype on the front page of their Mar. Mergenthaler invented one of the least heralded but most vital components of the modern information age: the Linotype machine. It was a beautiful, functional piece of machinery. The biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the linotype Oak Knoll Books New Castle, Del 1989. Mergenthaler, who was a mechanical whiz and had trained as a watchmaker, and who was working at a tool shop in Baltimore, was asked by an entrepreneur in 1876 to have a go at building a mechanical typesetter. Ottmar is buried in Loudon Park cemetery in Baltimore, and there is even a stained-glass window honoring the Linotype in Baltimore’s Zion Church. For many decades the company that produced his invention was called the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. Updates? While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. On July 3, 1886, the first Linotype machine invented by German inventor Ottmar Mergenthaler commenced operation for the New York Tribune. The Linotype was a fixture in every print shop except the very smallest right up until 1978, when offset lithography and phototypesetting made the Linotype as obsolete as the composing stick. Ottmar Mergenthaler was born in Hachtel, Germany, on May 11, 1854. Grab a copy of our NEW encyclopedia for Kids! And then, perhaps the most ingenious part of Mergenthaler’s invention, the matrices were mechanically separated, transported by conveyor up to the top of the machine, where they moved down the line, pushed by screw drives, and automatically fell into the correct bins for each letter, thanks to little coded notches at the top of each type matrix. [br] Mergenthaler came from a family of teachers, but following a Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Did you know that prior to Ottmar Mergenthaler’s invention of the linotype machine, no newspaper in the world had more than eight pages? & Schlesinger, Carl,. A precocious boy, Mergenthaler was anxious to study engineering, but his father, burdened with financing the higher education of older sons, found the expense beyond his means. But without him, most Baltimore authors-and authors everywhere-would have had a harder time getting published. Ottmar Mergenthaler is born on May 11 in Hachtel, Bad Mergentheim. ; Reid's hostility to labor led him to bankroll Ottmar Mergenthaler's development of the linotype machine in 1886, which quickly spread throughout the industry. Moore told him he held a patent on a typewriter for newspapers which was designed to eliminate type-setting by hand, but that it just did not work. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Most Linotype machines were scrapped in the late 1970s, but a few have hung around. Ten years later, he had a successful Linotype machine. Ottmar Mergenthaler. Ottmar Mergenthaler: 10 things to know about Linotype’s inventor 1. Ottmar Mergenthaler, a German/American inventor, was born May 11, 1854. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Postal Service in 1996 issued a commemorative series called “Pioneers of Communication,” Mergenthaler was one of the four chosen to be honored, at the upper right of the block of four (second image). How Do I Become a Wildlife and Conservation Biologist. Australian/Harvard Citation. Ottmar Mergenthaler, the world-famous inventor of the Linotype machine, was dying of tuberculosis in 1898. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.) Ottmar Mergenthaler BirthdayThursday, May 11, 1854 BirthplaceHachtel DiedSaturday, October 28, 1899 NationalityGerman Occupation inventor Known for Linotype The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). Ottmar Mergenthaler, (born May 11, 1854, Hachtel, Württemberg [Germany]—died Oct. 28, 1899, Baltimore), German-born American inventor who developed the Linotype machine. The machine reduced costs by speeding up the printing process; hence it fostered a dramatic expansion of all areas of publishing. He became an apprentice watchmaker in Bietigheim at the age of 14. In 2012, a documentary film was made about Mergenthaler’s invention, called Linotype: The Film. Biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler and history of the linotype, : Its invention and development early training although ottmar mergenthaler was born in hatchel, germany in 1854 and received his early training as a watchmaker in württemberg, his creative career started and flourished after he arrived in washington, d.c. in 1872 at the age of eighteen. I have not seen it, since the producers have managed to keep it off YouTube, but you can view a charming two-minute trailer here, where there are many gratifyingly clanky shots of a Linotype in action. Mergenthaler was a watchmaker and inventor born in Hachtel, Germany, in 1854. Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899), the German-American inventor of the Linotype, revolutionized the printing industry with his remarkable typesetting-typecasting machine. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ottmar-Mergenthaler, The Baltimore Literary Heritage Project - Biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler, American Society of Mechanical Engineers - Biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler, Ottmar Mergenthaler - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Like the other pioneers of our series “Pioneers of Printing” such as Alois Senefelder and Tolbert Lanston, he revolutionised not only the art of printing but also our industry. Dr. William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. The matrix for the next letter settled right next to it when its key was punched, and so on until the tray was full, and all the molds for the letters were in the proper order. Mergenthaler’s new machine enabled one operator to be machinist, typesetter, justifier, typefounder and type-distributor. Get this from a library! Meanwhile, another line of type was being prepared, and another, and all one had to do was form them up and the page was ready to print. I have not yet found statistical figures that show how many type composers are needed to keep up with one linotype operator, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the ratio were 50 to 1. Around 1880, the composing room was the principal bottleneck in the printing industry. This device proved impracticable, but Mergenthaler became dedicated to the problem involved—setting type by machine. Mergenthaler later patented other successful inventions, but developing the Linotype remained his life interest. Too weak to hold a pen, the inventor, whose breakthrough had made possible cheaper and larger newspapers and books, still burned with a desire to tell his life's story. Ottmar Mergenthaler (May 11, 1854 – October 28, 1899) was a German inventor, who has been called a second Johannes Gutenberg because his invention of a … Comments. When cooled, the slug, as it was called, dropped down into another tray, one full “line o’ type”, ready to print. Corrections? Then the set of matrices moved a short distance to what was called the mold disk, where hot pot metal was injected and a cast made of the line of letters. Ottmar Mergenthaler’s invention of the linotype composing machine is regarded as the greatest advance in printing since the development of moveable type 400 years earlier. Biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler and history of the linotype, : Its invention and development [Mergenthaler, Ottmar] on Amazon.com. Here is a matrix for the letter “S” (being held upside-down). We have a number of their publications in the Library, including a serial, the Linotype News, published from 1922 to 1966. and Schlesinger, Carl,. Between 1883 and 1885 German-American clock-maker and inventor Ottmar Mergenthaler of Baltimore invented the first mechanical typesetting machine or composing machine … Ottmar Mergenthaler, the inventor of the Linotype machine, was born on May 11, 1854. Biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler and history of the linotype by Ottmar Mergenthaler, 1898 edition, in English SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing [br] b. Omissions? “Pioneers of Communication”, U.S. The Linotype machine (/ ˈ l aɪ n ə t aɪ p / LYNE-ə-type) was a "line casting" machine used in printing sold by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related companies. Baltimore has always had a soft spot for Mergenthaler, since he was their adopted son, and there is a working Linotype in the Baltimore Museum of Industry (at the far end of the room, on the right). Wikipedia Citation Mergenthaler, Ottmar. During the 400-plus years between Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type and the advent of personal computers, one of the most significant innovations in publishing was Ottmar Mergenthaler’s linotype machine. When the U.S. A true visionary and a pioneer in communication, Ottmar Mergenthaler revolutionized the art of printing with the... 2. Ottmar Mergenthaler, a German/American inventor, was born May 11, 1854. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Born May 10, 1854 - Died October 28, 1899 Ottmar Mergenthaler's invention of the linotype composing machine in 1885 is regarded as the greatest advance in printing since the development of moveable type 400 years earlier. Much of the shop’s … Although Ottmar Mergenthaler was born in Hatchel, Germany in 1854 and received his early training as a watchmaker in Württemberg, his creative career started and flourished after he arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1872 at the age of eighteen. In 1886 he produced his Linotype, which, by bringing copper matrices into brief contact with a molten but fast-cooling alloy, rapidly molded column widths of type. Ottmar Mergenthaler, who spent much of his life in Baltimore, made a major advance in printing technology-he invented the linotype-which enabled printers to create and assemble type far faster than could have been done previously. The museum archives holds one of the few surviving copies of Mergenthaler’s long-lost autobiography—Biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler and History of the Linotype, Its Invention and Development (Baltimore, 1898)—thanks to a generous donation by Frank Romano. Grab a copy of our New encyclopedia for Kids newspaper industry forever a legal analysis and makes no as... Upside-Down ), 1996 ; ottmar Mergenthaler ( 1854-1899 ), the Linotype in,... Is the fourth child of village schoolteacher Johann Georg Mergenthaler ( 1854-1899 ), the biography ottmar! 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