rs being provided with
springs for "justifying" purposes. The papier-mache matrix lines
resulting from pressure against the characters were secured upon a
backing sheet, over this sheet was laid a gridiron frame containing a
series of slots, and into these slots type metal was poured by hand to
form slugs bearing the characters from which to print. This system was
immediately followed by a machine which cast the slugs automatically,
one line at a time, from the matrix sheets.

It was in this work that Mergenthaler received the education which
resulted in his great invention and in due time he presented his plans
for a machine which was known as the "Band" machine. In this machine
the characters required for printing were indented in the edges of a
series of narrow brass bands, each band containing a full alphabet,
and hanging, with spacers, side by side in the machine. The bands
tapered in thickness from top to bottom, the characters being arranged
upon them in the order of the width-space which they occupied. By
touching the keys of a keyboard similar to a typewriter, the bands
dropped successively, bringing the characters required into line at a
given point; a casting mechanism was then brought in contact with this
line of characters, molten metal forced against it through a mould of
the proper dimensions, and a slug with a printing surface upon its
face was thus formed. This was recognized as a great advance and was
hailed with delight by the now largely increased company. The
necessary funds were provided and the building of the new machine
undertaken. But Mergenthaler continued active, and before a second of
the "Band" machines could be built, he had devised a plan for dealing
with the letters by means of independent matrices. These matrices were
pieces of brass measuring 1-1/4 inches by 3/4 of an inch and of the
necessary thickness to accommodate the character, which it bore upon
its edge in intaglio; they were stored in the newly devised machine in
vertical copper tubes, from the bases of which they were drawn, as
required, by a mechanism actuated by finger keys, caught by the "ears"
as they dropped upon a miniature railway, and by a blast of air
carried one by one to the assembling point. Wedge spacers being
dropped in between the words, the line was carried to the front of the
mould, where "justification" and casting took place.

Success seemed at last to have been reached, and now the problem was,
first, how