Machinery Collection

Machines of all kinds for printing, typecasting, typesetting, cutting, folding, camerawork, platemaking, stereo and many others. For letterpress, offset, foil printing, stampmaking, labelmaking.

Our collection of machines features both old technology and new. After all, what is new today will be old tomorrow. We include quite a few examples of `new' technology, already outdated after just a few years.

Typesetting systems (traditional and modern) include Asian and European language machines and founts.

Technical notes and historical notes about the machines are included within this Collection. Technical notes about matrix systems for use in these machines are also included, but notes about particular typefaces would be found in our Founts Collection (see below).

Monotype Composition Caster

This machine composes type by casting new, single types in correct order, ready for printing. Spaces between words are varied by the system (in steps of 0.0005 inch!) to exactly justify each line.

The system was devised by Tolbert Lanston and others in the USA with British cooperation about 1890.

The Monotype system was immediately popular with book printers. It was used for newpapers only to a limited extent. "The Times" in London used them: it was for that paper that the Monotype Corporation first produced the typeface "Times New Roman".

There were numerous Monotype installations in Australia.

The Monotype Composition Caster can also be used for casting types `in bulk' for later hand-setting

Linotype Linecaster

The museum has about 30 Linotypes ranging in date from 1905 to about 1980 and varying in condition from excellent to hopeless.

The function of the Linotype (and its competitor the Intertype) is to produce lines of type. These lines are generally called slugs, an engineering term meaning a piece of metal.

A slug is a strip of metal, about 23 mm wide, a few mm thick, and up to (typically) 100 mm long. The letter-forms are cast (in reverse, like a stamp) along one of the narrow edges. The thickness of the slug is set by the operator to suit the point-size of the type and the length is set to suit the printing-width of the job being set.

When in position to be printed, a number of these slugs are set side-by-side, with only the type face visible.

The 23 mm measurement (above) is called the type height. Although it varies a little between countries, it is an absolute within any print-shop. The linotype slugs can be interspersed with type of other systems such as hand-set. They are all the same height.

The slugs are produced by pressure die-casting. The molten type-metal, held in a small melting pot, is pumped into a mould, where it solidifies almost instantly.

The top face of the mould is covered by the letter-forms which are to be cast onto the slug. These letter-forms are called matrices (or mats for short).

The mats are assembled by the operator into words, with space-mats or space-bands between them. When one line of mats is complete, the whole line is transported by the mechanism to sit over the cavity of the mould and be squirted with hot metal.

After the line is cast, the mats are transported to the top of the machine from where they are returned to the magazine in which they are stored.

Ludlow Typograph

The Ludlow is a slugcasting machine. In this it is similar in its output to the Linotype.

But where the Linotype composes the mats by keyboard action, the Ludlow operator composes the line of mats by hand from a matrix case, similar to a typecase.

This is of course slower, per line, than keyboarding. But there is less waste of time in changing faces and sizes.

The Ludlow was (still is) used for headlines and display lines, but it can also produce type right down to the smallest sizes.

It is a very versatile machine, simple to use and maintain. It is likely to outlast the Linotype in production uses. There are still plenty of them is use in Australia.

The museum has about 10 Ludlows.

Our Founts Collection

A fount [Spelt as 'font' in US English, and pronounced 'font' in any dialect] is an old typefounder's term for the quantity of type made in one founding. [OED]

In the printing sense, the fount of type was meant to be an inexhaustible supply of letters (of the one face and size), from which a book was composed. Each fount is stored in a type case, a kind of tray with about 90 compartments, or perhaps a pair of cases if larger compartments are required.

As the compositor used up the letters, they would be topped up. Work would stop if the `case' ran out of any letter.

The collection includes many founts of type, new and used, with the majority ranging up to 60 years old. Some are older, with many from foundries long since closed. Most are stored in cases, and some `tied up' on galleys.

For the typefoundry, there are many founts of matrices for making hand-set type. It is relevant to note that unlike a fount of type, a fount of typecasting mats has only one of each character. So it is not a fount in the truest sense. But it was obviously convenient to use the same term.

For the linecasters (Linotype, Ludlow, etc.) the matrix founts are stored and used in magazines or matrix cases, and there are many of each letter.

Founts of matrices are listed here, but their technical notes will be found along with the machine that uses them.

The Adana Press

The press shown (above and below) was marketed as "Number 2, High Speed". The press was bought second-hand by Michael Isaachsen in 1952 in Adelaide, South Australia and is still available for use. At the time, Mr Isaachsen recalls, a number of schoolboys had Adana presses.

The Adana Company This company based in London started making presses possibly around the 1920's and they specialised in small units suitable for hobbyists. Nevertheless many commercial printers made use of them and of course many commercial printers began with an Adana and moved to larger presses later.

The presses were all of the letterpress platen type in many variants.

Occupational Therapy is a profession which makes use of Adana printing presses in programs designed to provide an interesting activity for people recovering from illness or regaining skills after a disability. Many O.T. departments in Australian hospitals have an Adana press. To support their range of presses, Adana also made and/or marketed a range of printing types and ancilliary units like hand-lever guillotines and thermographs.

Adana were absorbed (around 1990?) by the Caslon group one of whose specialties is thermography.

Adana High Speed Presses: There were three models in this series, No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. They may have commenced production in the 1930's.

The Museum has no examples of Number One High Speed. It is the smallest, with a type area around business-card size.

Number Two H/S is well represented, as is Number Three.

No. 2 H/S has a print area of 4 x 6.5 inches. This is the measurement inside the four-wall bed, which is removable to facilitate lock-up directly in the bed. The provided chase has inside measurement of 4.125 x 5.75 inches. No quoins are needed in the bed or in the chase, as each has grub screws on two sides for lock-up.

No.3 H/S has a print area of 8.625 x 5.625 inches, which is the measurement inside the chase. Quoins are needed.

Adana 53 and 85 Models: These are the latest models, having come into production around 1950. The Model 53 was discontinued around 1985, while the Model 85 is possibly still being produced. There were a number of design changes over its years but it is still recognisably the same machine.

The 85 and 53 both had variants with a feeder for overprinting on rolls of self-adhesive labels. Label advance was by a claw which found the gap between labels. Butt-cut labels, therefore, were unsuitable.

The Museum has a number of each, including the variants equipped for automatic feeding of roll labels.

The 85 has a print area of 8 x 5 inches inside the chase. Quoins are needed. The 53 has a print area of 5 x 3 inches inside the four-wall bed which has grub screws to hold a chase or to lock up directly. The provided chase also has grub screws for lock-up.

Other models included treadle and motorised free-standing presses with ink cylinders (rather than disks) and horizontal-bed, tabletop units with few moving parts.