Mergenthaler, Ottmar

Mergenthaler, Ottmar (ôt`mär mĕr`gən-tä'lər), 1854–99, American inventor of the Linotype (see printing). Mergenthaler was born in Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1872 and was employed to inspect and repair clocks in the government buildings in Washington, D.C. After 1876 he lived in Baltimore, where he perfected his linotype, first patented in 1884 and put into operation in 1886 in the office of the New York Tribune. The machine revolutionized the publishing industry by allowing lines of metal type to be set from a keyboard similar to a typewriter instead of each piece of type being set by hand.

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Mergenthaler, Ottmar

(born May 11, 1854, Hachtel, Württemberg—died Oct. 28, 1899, Baltimore, Md., U.S.) German-U.S. inventor. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1872. While working in a Baltimore machine shop he began experimenting with type molds, and in 1884 he patented the Linotype typesetting machine. The reduced costs achieved by thus speeding up the typesetting process led to a dramatic expansion of all kinds of publishing.

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Mergenthaler, Ottmar 

Born May 11, 1854, in Hachtel, Wiirttemberg, Germany; died Oct. 28, 1899, in Baltimore (USA). Inventor in printing, creator of the Linotype machine. Mergenthaler moved to the USA in 1872. In 1884 he invented the Linotype, and in 1885 he perfected the machine’s design. Mergenthaler’s invention was used by the American entrepreneur P. T. Dodge, who in 1886 organized the Mergenthaler Linotype Company.

REFERENCES

Reshetov, S., comp. Nabornye mashiny, ikh izobretenie i razvitie. Moscow, 1932.
Thoma, F. “Ottomar Mergenthaler.” Wissenschaft undFortschritt, 1955, fasc. 5, p. 150.