ASME names linotype printing machine a historic landmark

John Varrasi
ASME Communications

The linotype machine of 1890, which increased the speed of newspaper composition by 500 percent and spurred the growth of publishing in the late 19th century, last month was deemed an ASME Historical Engineering Landmark.

ASME named the square-base linotype machine a landmark at a ceremony on July 23 at the International Printing Museum in Carson, Calif. ASME designates landmarks based on their social and economic significance as well as on their contribution to the historical progress of mechanical engineering.

Past president Robert Nickell (left) congratulates Mark Barbour, executive director & curator of the International Printing Museum in Carson, Calif. following the presentation of ASME's commemorative plaque to the museum for Otto Mergenthaler's Square Base Linotype Machine.

In the years before German instrument maker Ottmar Mergenthaler developed the linotype, compositors working by hand assembled individual letters and punctuation marks character by character onto lines of text, a laborious task involving long hours. The linotype brought mechanization and speed to the process, creating molds of letters from an operator's keystrokes and arranging the letters and other characters into a justified line.

The linotype machine, containing 5,000 parts, was durable and reliable, prompting Thomas Edison to call it "the eighth wonder of the world."

Mark Barbour, executive director & curator of the International Printing Museum speaks to attendees about the Square Base Linotype Machine at the designation ceremony on July 23 in Carson, California

The efficiencies brought by the linotype enabled newspaper operators to print larger editions and expand circulations, spurring the news industry. The linotype also reduced the costs of book publishing.

The developer formed the Mergenthaler Linotype Co. to distribute machines to customers around the world. The square-base linotype brought "commercial and practical success" to Ottmar Mergenthaler, reads the plaque that ASME presented to the International Printing Museum at the recognition ceremony.

The museum houses the only square-base linotype known to exist, from the total of 366 models manufactured and distributed between 1890 and 1892. It was sold originally to the Providence Journal.

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