The machines here are all intended primarily to cast individual types and non-strip material. Slugcasters (which also could produce non-strip material, of course) aren't covered. Stripcasters aren't covered, save to the degree that those category-defying Monotypes could (for some machines) cast both in non-fusion (ordinary type and finite material) and in fusion (stripcasting) mode.
Types of Type Casters
[NOT DONE] What is a "Foundry" typecaster vs. a "sorts" caster vs. a "display" caster vs. a "composition" caster?
Typecasting Machines Before Bruce
[NOT DONE] Most notably, the Church typecaster/typesetter/press. (But I've scanned Church's 1822 patent for his typecasting and typesetting system and put it online at The Internet Archive)
Pivotal (Bruce) Typecasters for Foundries
[NOT DONE] Pivotal typecasters made for type foundries. Exclude here the Nuernberger-Rettig, which is a pivotal caster but which was made for end-user sorts casting (see "Sorts Casters (Excluding Monotype)," below).
Other Victorian Typecasters
[NOT DONE] Non-"foundry automatic" typecasting machines postdating Bruce's second machine but predating the "modern" sorts casters of the 1890s which are technically unrelated to Bruce-style pivotal typecasters.
Sorts Casters (Excluding Monotype)
Typecasters from approximately the 1890s to the present which aren't (a) intended for foundry use, or (b) designed by Monotype. The material gathered here includes manuals for both the Thompson and the Nuernberger-Rettig (Universal) typecasters (even though the Nuernberger-Rettig is a pivotal caster; it was marketed to end-users for sorts casting).
Noncomposing Monotype Typecasters
[NOT DONE] Various Monotype casters which were incapable of casting composed work, but instead cast fonts and sorts. Also these machines when used in "fusion" mode to cast continuos strip material. Thus: The Type and Rule Caster. The Giant Caster. The Supercaster.
I'll exclude here the Thompson (see Sorts Casters, above) which was acquired by Monotype. I think that the Monotype Material Maker could cast only material, and so I cover it within the Strip-Casters section.
Other Typecasters as Parts Of Composing Machines
[NOT DONE; But perhaps just link to their treatment as composing machines?] Sears Typo-matrix (IP 31.3). Goodson Graphotype (IP 31.6). Electrotypograph (IP 31.6).
Unidentified Machines
[NOT DONE] At the US Bureau of Printing and Engraving, circa 1917. In England, before 1897.
Ancillary Equipment
[NOT DONE] [Things to keep your typecaster running. This may for the most part end up pointing to other sections, especially linecasters, for things such as remelt equipment. But I also need to include typemetal assay equipment, as well, someday.
Notes: For literature on the Margach Automatic Metal Feeder (which according to the report of one current owner was fitted to at least one Thompson caster), see: Margach Feeders in Common Casting Equipment
DeVinne's The Practice of Typography (1900) is in the public domain.
The ATF Specimen Book was copyright 1923. A search of the copyrigh records failed to disclose a renewal. I believe therefore that it passed into the public domain upon the expiration of its original copyright in 1951.
Legros' "Typecasting and Composing Machinery" (1908) is in the public domain.
The 1911 edition of the Encyclopædiadia Britannica is in the public domain.
The 1920 edition of the Encyclopedia Americana is in the public domain.
The Nuernberger-Rettig advertisement is taken from the Chicago edition of the 1911 Printing Trades Blue Book (Chicago: A. F. Lewis & Co., 1911). It is in the public domain. Scanned by the author from the original.
The 1896 Typographical Journal and the article in it by "Skopeo, of No. Six" are in the public domain.
The 1917 Keystone View Company Stereographic View Card partially reproduced here is in the public domain.
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2008 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/2.0/ for its terms.
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