Preliminaries
News and Updates. Organization of this site. A Selected Index destined never to be up-to-date.
Surveys: Type Processes and Machinery
Historical, conceptual, and other general surveys of relief typemaking and printing techologies. Reprints of general literature of the field, including The Inland Printer . Typographic Examples and Instruction.
A List of Current Typefoundries.
Also: CircuitousRoot's equipment: a quick look, the state of the Typefoundry and Press, and type & matrix inventories. Rigging Tales.
Mechanics: Type Machinery In Detail
Detailed technical studies of (mostly) typemaking and (some) printing machinery. Reprints of literature specific to individual machines.
Emphases: Linecasters (Linotype/Intertype, Ludlow; the Teletypesetter). Typecasters (Thompson, Neurnberger-Rettig). Strip-Casters (Elrod). Composing Room Equipment (Saws, Type Mortisers, etc.)
Also: A list of all type specimen and matrix information on CircuituosRoot .
Use: Type Machinery Operation
[Setting Type by Hand and Printing from It.] Casting Machine Operation: [Linotype/Intertype], [Ludlow], [Elrod], [Thompson], [Monotype Type-&-Rule]. [Presswork.] [Binding and Finishing]
The Circuitous Root Typefoundry and Press is a strange sort of undertaking, I suppose. It is my hobby/nonprofit project to restore, research, understand, use, and (most importantly) to document a small collection of old typecasting and letterpress equipment and technical literature.
I think of it primarily as a typefoundry, because my interest is in all the ways of making and using relief printing type - but mostly making. I run both linecasting machines (Linotype and Ludlow) and typecasting machines (Thompson). In the future I hope to add stripcasting (Elrod), a Lanston Monotype display caster, and the making of matrices by various processes. CircuitousRoot is a private typefoundry and press, in the tradition of the "private press" movement. By this I mean only that I will cast and print whatever I wish, for myself and for my friends, rather than take on commercial business.
Even so, the primary product of the foundry and press will not be the type I cast or the sheets I print, but rather the collection of "Notebooks" which I am writing and presenting here to document my experiences with and research into this equipment. It is a great irony that while this technology produced virtually all of the world's print for well over a century, much of the detailed technical knowledge of its operation was itself never committed to print and has remained an oral tradition of a now vanishing tribe. I'm just trying to learn and preserve this knowledge before it is lost forever.
Note: In 2011, and a bit to my own surprise, I became a professional typefounder and linecaster as well. I'd like to keep my hobby/private typefounding/printing activities separate from my commercial undertakings. CircuitousRoot will remain the location and imprint for this noncommercial work. For my professional typefounding, LemurType LLC, see www.LemurType.com
A 2008 search of the USPTO records indicated that while "LINOTYPE" remains a trademark in category 9 for software and typefaces, the original trademark in category 7 for a "machine for producing type bars" / "typesetting machine" (registered 1909-06-29) had expired in both its original and later registrations.
A 2008 search of the USPTO records indicated that the trademark "INTERTYPE", originally registered 1913-06-03, was expired.
A 2008 search of the USPTO records indicated that the trademark "LUDLOW" in category 7 for printing machinery, registered 1949-11-01, was expired. A search for "ELROD" discovered no trademark registration at all.
A 2008 search of the USPTO records indicated that while "MONOTYPE" remains a trademark in category 9 for typefaces and their digital storage, the original trademarks in category 7 for a "type casting and composing machines" and in category 16 for "paper ribbons or controllers" for the same (both registered 1906-02-27) had expired
The ITU Lessons in Printing [Unit II] Display Composition, from which the linking illustration for "Preliminaries" is taken, was copyright 1957. This copyright was not renewed, as would then have been required. It therefore passed into the public domain upon the expiration of its original copyright in 1985.
The Mergenthaler Linotype Company Linotype Leadership, from which the linking illustration for "Surveys: Type Processes and Machinery" is taken, was copyright 1930. This copyright was not renewed, as would then have been required. It therefore passed into the public domain upon the expiration of its original copyright in 1958.
The Intertype Corporation Streamlined Intertype Line Composing Machines, from which the linking illustration for "Mechanics: Type Machinery in Detail" is taken, published without copyright notice at a time when such notice was required to secure copyright. It therefore passed into the public domain upon its initial publication.
The Ludlow Company Ludlow Model M, from which the linking illustration for "Use: Type Machinery Operation" is taken, published without copyright notice at a time when such notice was required to secure copyright. It therefore passed into the public domain upon its initial publication.
The photograph of pied mats is one that I took of mats that, indeed, I pied. As I'm using it as a linking image here, I'll put it in the public domain.
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2008-2010 by David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
Circuitous Root is a Registered Trademark of David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons "Attribution - ShareAlike" license. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ for its terms.
Presented originally by Circuitous Root®
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