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Electrotype Matrices

Last month we published Mr Conner's reply to Mr Schraubstadter on the subject of electro-matrices, in addition to a brief note of our own on the subject. After our article was in type, we received the Inland Printer with Mr Schraubstadter's rejoinder. Part of his article we have anticipated in our own remarks; the remainder we quote:—

I made no effort to convince the reader that copper strikes are bad; only that electrotype matrices are capable of casting just as good type. I am willing to let the specimen books speak for themselves, as the writer wishes. Compare the old products with the modern faces of the Johnson, Central and Great Western foundries! No more elegant borders and word ornaments than those of the Johnson typefoundry are in existence, and some of the finest scripts in that establishment, and those of George Bruce's Son & Co., Cleveland, Central and Great Western foundries were cut on metal.

I have never known an electro-matrice to « give way on the sides, » or the rivets to part. Neither is there any necessity of « making the top too narrow." Rightly made, the face cannot pull up or bulge out on the sides. It must be a sorry workman who could have such a thing happen to him.

Electrolysis copies the finest finish as well as the most minute imperfection. Not a scratch but will be reproduced in perfect facsimile. Well made it is impossible to detect the difference between the copy and the original; but no workman can cut two punches alike, and if, as often happens, the matrix is spoilt, and the punch broken, an electrotype alone can give a fac-simile. In copying faces the modern typefounder « faces » and touches up the type, so that they are usually better than the originals.

The shoulder on the side is rubbed from the type, after casting, and cannot therefore be accounted an advantage. The largest foundry in the world—Miller & Richard, Edinburgh, Scotland—cut all their punches without shoulders on the sides, so that the matrices will cast without rubbing; and other progressive foundries are doing likewise.

Under the supervision of a competent man, the battery for depositing the copper will always « work the same, » and with ordinary care an-electrotype matrice will be as straight as the original—something impossible with a large strike.

The proposition, that had electro-matrices never been made type-founding would be as far advanced, and punch-cutters would have produced anything required, with far superior finish and accuracy, is absurd. The German typefounders have an agreement which prevents one founder from copying the productions of another by means of electrolysis. He is at liberty to cut punches, and when one brings out a good series his competitors usually copy it. This naturally gives a stimulus to punch-cutting. But how do the productions of Germany compare with those of our own country?

No doubt the improvement in the casting machine and mould have much to do with the improvements in type, but let us give the metal cutter and electrotype matrix their share of the credit.

Neither Mr. Wehrly nor any one else can be said to have cut the first type in metal. From soldering on accents, etc., cutting gradually developed itself in a number of places, but to Mr Ruthven belongs the honor of perfecting the present system, and founding the new school of engravers.

If the proprietors of the Typographic Messenger will state that they never use electrotype matrices in their foundry I am willing to admit that I am wrong, and I challenge them to make such a statement, for I know that no foundry, however small could go on without them.

Marder, Luse, & Co., in the Chicago Specimen for January, take the matter up as follows;—

In our opinion this is a useless discussion. The whole truth of the matter is, each of the processes of letter-cutting and matrix-making has its advantages over the others in some particulars. The wise and experienced founder employs the process best adapted for the work in hand. There is no question but the steel-drive copper matrix is superior to the electro-matrix for the production of some classes of type, for the reason that the work can be better done by cutting on steel than metal; and just as certainly is there no question that there are classes of type which can be made better by the process of cutting on metal and making the matrix by the electrotyping process. Perfection of face and the quality of type produced do not depend upon either process of matrix-making, but they do depend upon the skill of the workman in the execution of all the various processes necessary to the production of the finished type. As to relative cost of the two processes, neither has any decided advantages over the other. We believe a large majority of the typefounders of the country will agree with us in the position we have taken on the middle ground regarding the two processes of letter-cutting and matrix-making.

If this be correct, some of the opponents of electro-matrices have written very inaccurately on the subject. The Modern Printer, London, asserted some time ago that to produce a single original series of job-letter by the steel-drive process would « bankrupt » the piratical houses who are turning out copies of American and German faces by the ton. Yet the Specimen states that the cost of the two processes is about the same. Of course the pirates do not pay for originals at all, either on steel or metal—a single fount of finished type answers their purpose.

According to Mr Schraubstadter, it was Mr Edwin Starr who first succeeded in producing matrices by the electrotype process. Ringwalt, in his Encyclopaedia of Printing, attributes the invention to Mr James Conner, the founder of the New York Foundry, who died in 1861. The account of Mr Conner's experiments, extracted from a biogra-graphical notice in The Printer of May, 1859, is very interesting, especially when we remember how fiercely the system has been attacked in Conner's Typographic Messenger:

In the course of his experimenting, Conner took a long primer-italic capital T, and inserted it through a piece of stereotype plate. This was attached to a piece of copper wire by soldering; some zinc was attached to the other end of the wire; a weak solution of sulphuric acid was made and placed in a vessel; a solution of common blue vitriol in another apartment; then the matrix and the zinc were placed in their respective apartments, and the process of extracting the copper from the sulphate, through galvanic action, commenced, and the copper obtained was thrown on the intended matrix.

Conner and his assistants then took a small cut of a beehive, and, setting this in the same way, obtained a perfect matrix, which is now in use in Conner's foundry. These successes encouraged him to other experiments on a larger and more valuable scale. Mr Conner, therefore, ordered a fancy fount of type, which he originally had cut on steel, selecting therefrom a perfect alphabet, points, and figures, and then shaved a stereotype plate on both sides. This he lined off into sizes, equal to the matrices he desired to make. He then made the necessary openings through the plate, and inserted the types designed to be precipitated on, which he cut off and soldered on the back. This proved a highly-successful experiment, as it gave him a perfect set of matrices at one precipitation. This plate is still to be seen at Mr Conner's establishment, and is regarded as a great curiosity—being supposed to be the first alphabet thus made, in this or any other country.

His next experiment was made on a more extended scale, and to this end, the apparatus was enlarged so as to admit three founts of fancy types, which were placed in communication with the precipitated metal. Thus divided, each matrix would fall apart without the labor of sawing. This experiment, however, was by no means successful. From the circumstance of wood being introduced as dividing lines, and becoming wet, it swelled—such swelling causing the type to spring from the bottom of the trough. In the process of precipitation, only a very thin shell was formed on the face of the type, about the same quantity having found its way to the bottom, in consequence of the springing of the dividing-lines, and the throwing of the lines off their feet. All these difficulties have been since overcome, and his establishment has several thousand precipitated matrices that can scarcely be told from those made from a steel punch.