Linotype machineIn 1886, the first Linotype machine to be put into commercial use in the U.S. was installed at the Tribune newspaper of New York City. Its success was immediate. At the close of 1886, a dozen of them were at work at the Tribune*. A decade later thousands of linotype machines were in use around the world. The work of at least three men hand-setting type could be done by one operator at a keyboard who could cast a line of type at a time. It was for that capability that Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune, gave the Linotype its name. Ottmar Mergenthaler invented, patented and continued to improve the machine.«[Image: from an 1889 magazine article.] |
