History of the Linotype Company

17. Epilogue

299 EPILOGUE 17 THE INVENTOR There were rumors that Mergenthaler died destitute in a poorhouse (though he actually died in his home), and by some accounts Mergenthaler was considered a millionaire. Some measure of his wealth can be established by the fact that his executors posted an $800,000 bond after his death. His realty consisted of his Baltimore residence and the Locust Point factory. The personal inventory, totaling $486,665.98, listed nine securities (including 550 shares of National Typographic Company stock valued at $4 each, and 48 shares of Mergenthaler Linotype Company stock at $200 each), cash totaling more than $33,000, a collection of vehicles (two buggies, a carriage, a road cart, and two sleighs), two horses, and a cow. Mergenthaler’s will, drawn up about two weeks before his death, listed only one bequest: $2,000 for the German Orphan Asylum. He left one-third of the remainder to his widow, Emma, and the remaining two-thirds in trust “to be applied to the liberal support, maintenance and education of my children.” Each son was to receive his share of the principal at age 21; his daughter was to receive the net income from her share at age 21, and her principal was to remain in trust. In the will Mergenthaler advised his wife “in view of [her] inexperience, not to do anything affecting her property without the advice of her legal agent.” While Mergenthaler was alive, much of his income had come from several aspects of the Linotype operation. At various times he had received a salary, advances, contracts to build machines , dividends on his stock, and royalties on the machines, plus the income from his own Baltimore factory. At the time of his death, about 5,000 Linotypes had been built; based on the royalty of $50 per machine, the sum paid to him would have amounted to about $250,000. Payment of the machine royalty to Mergenthaler’s estate likely continued until the early 1920s. The Mergenthaler-Hine agreement of 1890 stipulated that the $50 royalty would be paid to the heirs for each machine using his inventions secured by letters patent. Company Treasurer Frederick Warburton, responding to a 1914 New York Times letter stating that Mergenthaler died a poor man, countered that error by saying that royalties paid to the estate had averaged more than $50,000 per year since the inventor’s death. President Dodge reported in 1916 that1 “contrary to common opinion, the company paid large sums to Mergenthaler for his inventions, and is Above right: Emma and Ottmar Mergenthaler, circa 1899. Right: Front door of the Mergenthaler home at 159 W. Lanvale Street, Baltimore, in the 1880s 300 continuing the payment of the royalty to his heirs.” Two years later Dodge said that the company had paid “Mr. Mergenthaler and his estate substantially more than $1 million in royalties.” Later Annual Reports are silent about the royalty payment. A company -published biography prepared in 1936 stated that about $1.5 million had been paid in royalties . Based on that figure, it is likely that the royalty ended in the early 1920s. By that time about 30,000 machines had been built in the United States, and Mergenthaler’s last patents would have expired after running their course of 17 years. MERGENTHALER’S DEATH Mergenthaler’s health continued to decline, and on October 28,1899, he died from tuberculosis at his Baltimore home with his family at his bedside. Of his last hours the Baltimore American said, “so keen was his interest in all current events that so soon as he awoke in the morning, after a restless slumber, he requested that the morning papers be brought to him.”2 His funeral was conducted three days later at his home by Lutheran and Presbyterian ministers. Men from his Baltimore factory served as active pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers included James O. Clephane, his original backer; Abner Greenleaf, his co-executor; Lemon G. Hine, former Mergenthaler Printing Company president, and Frederick Warburton, secretary-treasurer of the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. Above right: This is how the grave memorial looked when Mergenthaler was buried. Right: Today, the statue on top of the monument is missing. Loudon Cemetery staff have no records as to when it was destroyed or removed. Above: His church, Zion Lutheran, still stands. Left: Behind a staircase in the church is a stained glass window with a panel (below) showing the Blower Linotype. Right: In the church library is the Tiffany ceiling...