Author Description

One summer's day in 1886, the publisher of the New York Herald suddenly exclaimed: "Ottmar, you have cast A Line Of Type!" The "line" in question was a hot metal slug that had been produced by a brand new machine called The Blower. This hissing apparatus, which scooped its type from a boiling pot of lead, was the latest in an endless series of attempts to set type mechanically - and the first one that worked. After that memorable afternoon in 1886, the machine would be called "Linotype." Its inventor, a German emigre named Ottmar Mergenthaler, has been recognized as one of the genius inventors of the 19th century.