Typographic "material" consists of several kinds of things:
(I don't really know if non-cast brass and steel rule would be considered "material"; I suspect that this is a fine semantic distinction that nobody has ever bothered making.)
Ordinary linecasting machines such as the Linotype/Intertype and Ludlow can cast individual slugs and rule up to the limits of their mold size. (As could, I believe, various Monotype machines when suitably equipped with a Rule Attachment but not casting in fusion mode.) However, often it is useful to have this material in longer strips.
Traditional hand and machine typefounding can also produce this material, but with the advent of machine composition without distribution (the Linotype and Monotype), it became desirable to have this material cast from the same alloy as the type, so that it may all be remelted together. Foundry-cast leads, for example, must be separated by hand from Linotype slugs before remelting the slugs.
Both the Elrod and various Monotype machines can produce strip material in a fashion which appears to be continuous from the point of view of the user (a continuous strip emerges from the machine, to be cut to length as desired). Of these machines, only the Elrod (and its later and less successful copy, the Universal) is a "true" continuous stripcaster, producing solid material directly and continuously from a crucible of molten typemetal. By way of contrast, the various Monotype machines produce their material by fusing together successively cast pieces.
The Elrod had the advantage that there is no possibility of air entering into the casting process. Material cast on the Elrod must, in thoery, be very solid. Its disadvantage is that because its strip is drawn from a mold it cannot create strip material with any typographic pattern on it other than straight lines.
The Monotype material making machines' advantages and disadvantages are just the reverse. Because it casts discontinuously into a mold, the material can be porous. This material can, however, be cast with arbitrary typographical patterns. It is also possible in some of the Monotype machines to operate both in a "fusion" mode to produce strip material and in a "non-fusion" mode to produce ordinary types.
Note: For literature on metal feeders used with thes Elrod and Monotype machines (the Margach and Star are mentioned in Elrod documentation, and my Elrod was equipped with a Monomelt), see the Metal Feeders subsection of Notebooks in the Common Casting Equipment section.
Elrod
The Elrod is a humble and often ignored machine, but it is a technological wonder which continuously casts strips of solid material, of indefinite length, from liquid typemetal. This is Space Age technology from 1917.
Universal (Horn)
This was a clone of the Elrod, produced just after the patents which defined the modern Elrod expired.
Various other Monotype machines could operate both in "fusion" mode to cast continuous material (and so naturally would be treated here) and in "non-fusion" mode to cast individual types, but could not cast composed matter (and so naturally would be treated in Noncomposing Monotype Typecasters ). Because it is easier to cover a single machine in a single section, I'll cover these machines there. They include the Type and Rule Caster, Giant Caster, and Supercaster.
The regular Monotype Composition Caster, treated in Composing Typecasters, had a "Lead and Rule" attachment, but by the time you added it and its prerequisite attachments, you'd basically converted the machine into a Type and Rule Caster which had retained its ability to cast composition.
International
[NOT DONE] [See Graphic Arts Monthly Sept. 1953.] International Sales, Inc., West Memphis, Arkansas.
Taylor & Watkinson
[NOT DONE] Cited in Millington, Roy. Stephenson Blake: The Last of the Old English Typefounders. New Castle, DE and London: Oak Knoll Books and The British Library, 2002. (p. 99): "In 1900 they [Stephenson, Blake] acquired a machine patented and dveloped by Taylor and Watkinson which cast leads, clumps and other spacing material in continuous strip form." Millington indicates that this allowed Stephenson, Blake to drive all other British foundries out of the strip material business.
The Thompson as a Stripcaster
[NOTHING YET] I believe that the Thompson had a (now extremely rare) stripcasting attachment (the last one known to exist was destroyed with Harry Weidemann's typefoundry at its loss in 1982). However, I want to treat of the Thompson all in one location, so this present link is up and over to the main Thompson Notebook.
[Add early machines from Huss.]
Mellen
[NOTHING YET] [US patents 1,139,885, issued 1915-05-18, filed 1914-05-16, and 1,139,887, issued 1915-05-18, filed 1914-11-28. Grenville Mellen. Interesting technically because it used a series of moving molds, and historically because it predated the Elrod.]
Brasted ("Mold Disk" Machine)
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 1,507,456, issued 1924-09-02, filed 1918-09-13. Clair H. Brasted. This patent was assigned to the Ludlow Typograph Company, but this machine is unlike any Elrod they ever produced.
Breit - Stripcasting with Ornament
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 1,422,532, Issued 1922-07-11, filed 1921-05-21. Martin M. Breit. Continuous stripcasting, with rollers after the mold to impress a typographical design on the strips.]
De Nisson & Christie - Dotted Rule
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 1,429,720, issued 1922-09-19, filed 1919-07-30. [Attachment for Monotype stripcasters to form the output into dotted rule. Given the filing date, I wonder if this wouldn't have also specified Elrods if they'd known.]
Dittman
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 1,444,905, issued 1923-02-13, filed 1921-11-03. Cutting mechanism controlled by the strip itself.]
Faupel Vapor Oiler
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 1,466,125, 1923-08-23. Charles F. Faupel.] [Not an entire machine, but just an oiler. Delivers oil in vapor form, not liquid.]
Coats
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 1,503,479, 1924-08-05. Vertical continuous casting. Lubrication through mold itself. Note that this is for general casting of metal rod (and plate), not necessarily the casting of printing material or even specifically the casting of typemetal.]
Bisey
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 1,568,047, 1926-01-05. Sunker Abaji Bisey (UK citizen resident in NY) Adjustable mold. Pulling via a double "conveyor belt" of spring-loaded cups.]
Dahl
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 1,671,088, 1928-05022. Three plungers for smoother flow.] [US patent 1,946,488, 1934-02-13. Rollers to pull material.]
Eldred
[NOTHING YET] [Various US patents, including: 2,135,465 (1938-11-01), 2,048,733, and 1,868,099 and others still pending as of 1938-11-01.] [Continuous casting of metal in general. Curious theories of heat. The inventor appears to have been unaware of the Elrod.]
Honig
[NOTHING YET] US 2,891,660 1959-06-23, for an improved strip puller. This appears to be simply a component improvement, not a complete machine. Curiously, this patent was not assigned to the Universal Mono-Tabular Corp. (or to anyone else), makers of the Universal Strip-Caster under the Horn patents (even though they also made Honig's Multiple Broach and those patents of his were assigned to them).
Anton & Edward Narrow
[NOTHING YET] [Like the Universal (Horn) machine, this appears to be an attempt to re-invent the Elrod at the moment of expiration of the 1931 Hedly patent.] [US patents, including: 2,531,290 issued 1950-11-21, filed 1948-04-12. Anton H. Narrow. stripcasting machine. 2,579,691 issued 1951-12-25, filed 1948-12-05. Anton H. Narrow. mold. 2,807,843, issued 1957-10-01, filed 1956-01-23. Anton H. Narrow and Edward A. Narrow. Lubricator.]
Shidler - Roller Die
[NOTHING YET] [US patent 2,748,922, issued 1956-06-05, filed 1954-02-23. [Roller die for forming designs on rules. Quite like De Nisson / Christie and Breit.]
Shidler's 1954/1956 patent references not only the Elrod, but also the "Universal" and the "B and M" machines as stripcasters. What was the "B and M"?
The Linotype Lead and Rule Caster, although a "material maker," was really a linecaster as it produced discrete slugs of material rather than continously formed strips.
US Patent 1,088,171 (1914-02-14, Adam Helmer Pherson) describes, somewhat schematically, apparatus for casting metal tubes continuously.
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