Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Linotype

LINOTYPE, a machine, operated by finger-keys, which automatically produces and assembles, ready for the press or stereotyping table, type metal bars, each bearing, properly justified, the type characters to print an entire line, the linotype is the invention of Ottmar Mergenthaler. Beginning in 1876, he perfected his device in 1886, the first newspaper to use it being the New York “Tribune.” The device has since been greatly improved by means of spacing facilities, etc., and is adapted for book work as well as for newspapers. Its manipulation may be roughly approximated to that of a typewriter. The linotype does not set type. It produces a slug or line of metal upon which the characters to be printed stand out after the fashion of reading matter for the blind.