History of the Linotype Company

6. The Intertype

129 THE INTERTYPE 6 By 1905 the basic Linotype patents had expired, which opened the company up to competition. Hermann Ridder, of New York state, had always been interested in composing machines and had previously worked with the Monoline and Victorline machines manufactured in Brooklyn by the Amalgamated Typesetting Machine Co. They were about to produce a machine called the Amalgatype, which cast individual type held together in assembly by a metal band. This idea was abandoned, and Ridder entered into an association with W. S. Scudder, who had been a member of the Linotype organization and had also invented the above-mentioned Monoline machine. In 1912 the International Typesetting Machine Company was formed, with a factory in Brooklyn, NY. Its purpose was to manufacture matrices and parts for Linotypes and to overhaul and reconstruct second-hand Linotypes. It was possible to make a machine similar to a Linotype. In 1913 the name of the company was changed to The Intertype Typesetting Machine Company, and the first machine called the Intertype was completed. The First World War, and the fact that Ridder was pro-German, worked against the concern, and their bank foreclosed on a mortgage of $1 million. A receiver was appointed who carried on for some time, but in 1915 Ridder died,1 and in January 1916, the company was discontinued and its assets sold at auction. The capital of the company at this time was $3,977,300, and assets amounted to $1,885,490.2 It had been rumored that the Mergenthaler Linotype Company should buy up the concern, but eventually it was sold to a new combination of companies for $1,650,000, and came to life again in 1916 as the Intertype Corporation with capital of $2,650,000.3 In 1921, the Intertype Company Ltd. was formed in the UK. In December 1926, a subsidiary company was registered in Berlin under the name of Intertype Setzmaschinen G.m.b.H., and in 1931, when protective tariffs were adopted by Great Britain, a small factory was opened at Slough, England, for the partial manufacture and assembly of machines. Originally most of their machines were rebuilt Linotypes, however, by 1917, Intertype was producing three models of its own machine. It incorporated 51 improvement patents. Litigation ensued between the Mergenthaler Linotype Company and the Intertype Corporation regarding patent infringements , which resulted in the Intertype Corporation having to change the infringing parts and pay a sum for those infringing parts they had already sold. The standard Intertype could cast type up to 30 point and also offered a composing stick attachment that competed with the Ludlow headline caster. The first elevator head was hinged and, by using a special The first of many ads defending Mergenthaler Linotype in the Intertype patent war of 1913 One of the first ads run by Linotype warning the industry about the patent issues with the Linograph. 130 stick and spacebands in addition to composing mats set by hand from cabinets similar to ones used by Ludlow, the operator could cast sizes from 5 to 48 point. Intertype mold caps could be changed without removing the bottom part of the mold, so this system provided larger type from a simpler machine. The most important decision made by Intertype was to run the same matrices that ran in the Linotype. This gave users immediate access to a great type library. Intertype machines were typically better built and engineered than Mergenthaler’s, with simpler, more effective mechanisms. While Mergenthaler and Lanston Monotype were known for producing innovative type designs, virtually all of Promotional flyer for the 1914 Linograph showing its features THE LINOGRAPH The Linograph was developed by Hans Petersen (1872–1924). Born in Denmark, Petersen emigrated with his parents at the age of 10, and by the time he was 12 he began working as a compositor in Scandinavian printing shops in the Minneapolis area. Trained on the Linotype, he developed ideas for a simpler and more efficient typecaster, which, with two brothers, he developed into the Linograph Corporation. The business was incorporated in Minneapolis in 1911 and moved to Davenport, IA, in 1912. The Linograph Company Building in Davenport was built in 1919. As Linotype patents expired, the Linograph had a clear field, but the patents were purchased by Intertype in January 1944.4 Linograph Corporation Papers are at the University of Iowa Special Collections, Iowa City, IA. A pristine Linograph is located at the International Museum of Printing in Carson, CA...