US Patent: 636,914
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Universal milling-machine
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Patentee:
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Ottmar Mergenthaler (exact or similar names) - Baltimore, MD |
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Patent Dates:
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Applied: |
May 11, 1898 |
Granted: |
Nov. 14, 1899 |
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Jeff Joslin Vintage Machinery entry for Ott. Mergenthaler Co.
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Description: |
The inventor is well remembered today as the inventor of the linotype machine, a very important innovation in printing, especially for newspapers and magazines. The idea of casting a line of type by assembling a line of female letter-molds was wholly his idea and he spent several years designing and refining the machine before he introduced it to the market, to great success. Mergenthaler died young of tuberculosis, just a couple of weeks before this patent was issued.The Ott. Mergenthaler manufactured milling machines for a few years, and then dropped that business in favor of making adjustable reamers, milling cutters, and taps. The Linotype business had been sold to a separate entity, the Mergenthaler Linotype Co. of Brooklyn.This milling machine is a universal design "which are capable of general or universal work in which the various cutters or milling-tools may be arranged to act in various positions and at a variety of angles." Such machines were already well known but early universal machines were overly complex and, in allowing the milling head to be angularly adjusted, sacrificed rigidity. This patent covers the universal milling machine that was sold by the Ott. Mergenthaler Co. On this same date Mergenthaler was granted several other patents, including for milling machines, but all of those patents are specialized for the production of the "matrices" used in the linotype machines. |
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