Ottmar Mergenthaler

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Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899), the German-American inventor of the Linotype, revolutionized the printing industry with his remarkable typesetting-typecasting machine.

Ottmar Mergenthaler was born in Hachtel, Germany, on May 11, 1854. He became an apprentice watchmaker in Bietigheim at the age of 14. After 4 years there, he emigrated to the United States. He found immediate employment in the Washington, D.C., shop of August Hahl, where various types of scientific instruments, including a great many models of new inventions required for the patent application, were made. Mergenthaler's talents were soon recognized, and his services became much in demand.

Shortly after Hahl relocated his business to Baltimore in 1876, Mergenthaler was asked to correct defects in a writing machine devised by Charles T. Moore and James O. Clephane. The machine was intended to produce print by typewriting words upon a strip of paper, which would then be reproduced by a lithographic process. Mergenthaler corrected the defects in the model but became convinced that it would never perform satisfactorily. At Clephane's suggestion, Mergenthaler attempted to devise a stereotyping machine which would impress characters on a paper matrix; pouring molten metal over the assembled matrices would produce a stereotype plate for printing. By 1878 the machine was built but, as Mergenthaler had anticipated, difficulties were experienced in separating metal from matrix. The search for a reliable improvement over the laborious hand-setting of type continued.

By this time Mergenthaler was obsessed with the problem, and he pursued private efforts at a solution while continuing as a general instrument maker. In 1883 he established his own shop in Baltimore and built additional machines with paper matrices. Then he hit upon the idea of using metal matrices, casting type bars directly from them, one line at a time. After a line of matrices with indented characters was assembled and justified, molten type metal was introduced, producing a line of type ready for printing. All these processes, as well as the redistribution of the matrices, were performed by the single machine.

By July 1884 Mergenthaler had constructed the first direct-casting Linotype; it was patented in August, and in December the National Typographic Company was organized to manufacture it. On July 3, 1886, a Linotype was used to compose part of that day's issue of the New York Tribune. The machine's use spread quickly throughout the United States and abroad. Although Mergenthaler withdrew from the company manufacturing the Linotype in 1888, his interest in his invention remained as strong as before. He patented at least 50 improvements to it before his death.

Mergenthaler was a friendly, personable man. He delighted in his family and in his love of music. He died in Baltimore on Oct. 28, 1899, survived by his wife and four children.

Further Reading

The best sources for Mergenthaler's life and his invention are George Iles, Leading American Inventors (1912), and Thomas Dreier, The Power of Print - and Men (1936). The former contains a remarkably thorough, illustrated explanation of the Linotype in all its operations. See also Edward W. Byrn, The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century (1900), and Waldemar B. Kaempffert, A Popular History of American Invention (2 vols., 1924).

Additional Sources

Bellas, R. C., Ottmar Mergenthaler's marvel, Baltimore: Xavier Press, 1986.

Mergenthaler, Ottmar, The biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the linotype. recent findings, researched and edited by Carl Schlesinger; introduction by Elizabeth Harri, New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Books, 1989.

Ottmar Mergenthaler
Ottmar Mergenthaler
Born	May 11, 1854 (1854-05-11) Hachtel
Died	October 28, 1899 (1899-10-29) Baltimore
Cause of death	tuberculosis
Nationality	German
Occupation	inventor
Known for	linotype

Ottmar Mergenthaler (May 11, 1854 – October 28, 1899) was a German inventor, who has been called a second Gutenberg because of his invention of a machine that could easily and quickly set movable type. This machine revolutionized the art of printing. Before Mergenthaler's invention of the linotype in 1884, no newspaper in the world had more than eight pages.

Mergenthaler was born in Hachtel, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He was the third son of a school teacher, Johann Georg Mergenthaler from Hohenacker in Waiblingen. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker in Bietigheim before moving to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1872. In 1878, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He invented the linotype machine in 1886, a machine that allowed an operator to automatically set metal type, which revolutionized the printing industry. He died of tuberculosis in Baltimore in 1899.

Legacy

An operational linotype machine is on display at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, in the museum's print shop. Baltimore’s vocational high school, Mergenthaler Vocational Technical Senior High School, which opened in 1953, is named after him, although it is commonly referred to simply as "MERVO." Mergenthaler Hall on the Homewood Campus of the Johns Hopkins University was constructed in 1940-41 with money provided by Eugene and Mrs. Ottmar Mergenthaler, son and widow of Ottmar Mergenthaler.

External links

• Baltimore History Site
• Overview of Mergenthaler's life
• Ottmar Mergenthaler at Find a Grave
• Iles, George (1912), Leading American Inventors, New York: Henry Holt and Company, pp. 393-432, http://www.archive.org/details/leadingamericani00ilesrich 

Persondata
NAME	Mergenthaler, Ottmar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	German inventor of linotype
DATE OF BIRTH	May 10, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hachtel, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
DATE OF DEATH	October 28, 1899
PLACE OF DEATH	Baltimore, Maryland

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