Nicholas Bodley wrote:

>
> What lovely news, to know that hot type is still being designed and cast!
> Very nice pictures; imho, worth the wait, if you have dialup.
>
> Puzzled: As I recall, the cavities in the copper didn't have the very-flat
> bottoms that correspond to the inked impression surface of the final type
> slugs. Seems that there must be some intermediate steps between the
> very-skilled "cavity cutting" and the matrix (mold) that creates the
> printing face. Plainly, I don't know anything about the intervening
> stages. (As a retired electronic tech, though, I know instinctively how
> well at least some lead alloys combine with copper!)

Type-cutting works as follows. After the designs are made, the
punch-cutter cuts the shape of the letter, in reverse (actual size), on
the end of a steel (or other very hard metal) rod. (This is the valuable
original artwork that must be preserved forever.)

This image is punched into a flat metal, surface, which is fitted into
an extremely precisely machined apparatus, the matrix, which makes it
possible for all the individual pieces of type to line up precisely.

Molten lead (type-metal) is poured into the matrices, one piece at a
time, and when these cool, they solidify and shrink away from the sides
a tiny bit, so you can drop them out; and you have type.

Linotype machines assemble matrices into lines, and the typemetal is
poured _after_ the text is set.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...