Ottmar Mergenthaler

Born: 1854 | Died: 1899

Inventor

Ottmar Mergenthaler was born in Bad Mergentheim, in Franconia in south east Germany. For financial reasons he could not study engineering as he originally wanted and became a watchmaker instead. In 1872 he emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland to escape from unemployment in Germany and because he had family ties in the US.

Mergenthaler started working in the printing industry and tried to accelerate the printing process. He founded his own company in 1882. His experiments finally lead to the invention of a machine that allowed an operator to automatically set metal type. He presented his invention to the New York Tribune in 1886. At the presentation of this new invention, the editor exclaimed: "Ottmar, you have done it again! A line of Type!” and from then on the new machine was known under the name “Linotype.” The linotype revolutionized the printing industry, reducing costs by speeding up the printing process.

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