Then came the linotype: the compositor's dream. Now, instead of standing, a compositor could sit comfortably in front of a keyboard and lever. To select a letter he pushed a key, as you would with a computer, and it is pushed into place. When he needed a space he could insert a "space band." Once the end of the line is reached and it needs to be justified, the compositors simply moved the lever to adjust the width of the bands. Once a line was justified, the linotype used it to make a pattern of the line, called a "slug," with quickly hardening molten metal, then sent this mold to its place with the other lines of the article, ready to print. The machine reset all of the letter molds used, never making a mistake. Lines could be produced as fast as the compositor could type, which was significantly faster than 350 words per hour.
The linotype resulted in a more efficient way of printing, allowing more newspapers, books, and pamphlets to be sold. This was fantastic for business owners considering they had to pay less people to composite, and were able to produce more of their product. The linotype found a home at the New York Tribune, the Chicago News, and the Louisville Courier-Journal, finding limited success as they had to work kinks out of the system, a process which included the production of a user’s manual, which was a fairly new concept at the time. After all of these problems were solved, the linotype was invaluable to printing companies. In 1889 the New York Tribune saved $80,000 because of this new machine.
Many would say that the linotype eliminated jobs formerly done by skilled professionals, and while that is true, it created jobs in the manufacturing and the maintenance of the machines. They were very complicated in nature, and not many would understand exactly how they functioned. Since they were so heavily relied upon, a broken linotype would affect the scheduled printing of newspapers and pamphlets as a manual compositor wouldn't. It also made a very strenuous job much less physically demanding. It also made books and newspapers much cheaper and more widely available to the public, and during the industrial revolution when education was scarce, any small push towards making information accessible benefited a lot of people.
Positive Impacts
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