The LINOTYPE line-casting machine

The machine was manufactured around 1910 at the German Mergenthaler Linotype Company, a setting machine factory in Berlin (Mergenthaler Setzmaschinen-Fabrik). It was used in Slovenia in the pre-war “Učiteljska tiskarna” (The Teachers’ Printing Works), which was renamed as the “Tiskarna Jože Moškrič” (The Jože Moškrič Printing Works) after WWII. In 1992, this Linotype was bought by the Ljubljana architect Janez Suhadolc and it has been part of the museum collection since 2004. The Linotype setting machine is one of the central exhibit pieces of the printing department. The first Linotype was designed and built in 1884 by Ottmar Mergenthaler, who was known as “the second Guttenberg”. His setting machine was namely the first machine that enabled a simple and time-efficient setting of whole lines of lead printing letters for printing on printing machines. The Linotype line casting machine revolutionised the art of printing, making it cheaper, simpler and faster, and the importance of this invention for civilization is incalculable. The setting machines transformed printing from a handicraft to an industry.

Inventory number: 800:LJU;0000134
Object: Linotype line-casting machine
Time of use: until 1990
Source, origin: Germany (Berlin-Frankfurt A. M.)
Dimensions of the object: Item dimensions: a = 163 cm; b = 149 cm; h = 205 cm