On the Linotype at the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum, there are a couple of parts that I can’t find in any of the parts manuals I have: There is a lug on the slide that transfers the matrices from…
Category: Mystery Parts
An interesting type duplicating mould
Yesterday I was at the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum in Queenston Ontario. The museum is not open to the public right now, but members still meet there to work on organizing and cataloguing the collection, and I was in…
Mystery Diecase Combs Identified!
I previously posted about some Monotype diecase combs which were too long for any diecases that could be used on the Composition Caster. I did not think they were for the newer Monomatic caster because I thought the diecases for…
Mystery Monotype Diecase Combs
When running a Monotype Composition Caster to cast from cellular matrices, the matrices are usually contained in a diecase, which holds a 225, 255, or 272 matrices in a grid arrangement. The caster positions this diecase to select the appropriate…
Mystery Matcase Solved!
Thanks to Mark K. Digre on the Letterpress mailing list, I think the mystery of the strangely-sized cellular matrices has been solved! The mechanism for using this matcase is described in US patent number 1079321. Essentially, the caster is fitted…
Mystery Monotype Matcase
I have a matcase for Monotype composition casting that is a bit of a mystery to me. Some of it is easy to figure out: This case contains 14-point 175A Bodoni and 14-point 79J Caslon Bold (with french accents). I…
Yes! Another Press!
We recently acquired a Vandercook 320 in somewhat rough shape. I plan on fixing it up and we will probably sell it because it is bigger than what we need (we think). Alternatively we might sell our Challenge MA-15 instead.
An Unusual Monotype Mould
I found an unusual Lanston Monotype 30pt display mould (for the Composition caster and Type and Rule caster) at my last visit to Don Black’s. What intrigued me was that the top of the blade appeared to be split into…
Monomatic Parts
I got a big lot of what appeared to be justification wedges for a Monotype composition caster from Don Black last week, many of them brand new, still in the protective plastic dip from the factory. It turns out, however,…
Tagged with: Don Black
Strip Moulds at Don Black’s
While I was at Don Black’s today, Don mentioned that in the process of cleaning up their warehouse (a daunting project which appears to be coming along well) he found a few boxes of what he thought were Monotype parts.…
Tagged with: Don Black
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