Lino or monotype?

[konsole]

I was at a yard sale yesterday and the home owner was into printing. He had a shelf of small glass jars full of what I knew had to be either linotype or monotype, but I've never seen the stuff before so I had to make an educated guess. The small glass jars had these labels on them.....

12 - EN QUAD
12 - 3 EM
12 - EM QUAD
12 - 4 EM
12 - 5 EM
24 - 3 EM
24 - 4 EM
24 - 5 EM
24 - EN QUAD

I can't figure out if what I have here is linotype or monotype, and the alloys are different enough to matter. Apparently both are mostly lead with a significant amount of antimony and tin. Linotype seems to be longer strips with a series of letters, while monotype is single letters by themselves. Most of the stuff I have is in single letters, but there are some that have a handful of letters on the same piece. Some letters are quite large at around 1/2" in height, while most are around 1/8" in height. There are also other designs then letters. He had a steel block that was about 1 foot on each side, and inside that block he had the letters clamped together to form words and sentences, and each line was separated by a thin spacer plate. I've heard that these spacers are the same alloy as the letters?

Any idea if this is monotype or linotype?

Mostly single letters...


The spacer plates...

[John Boy]

Any idea if this is monotype or linotype?

Your hardness test will tell you which it is

[depoloni]

Single letters usually means monotype. Mono (one) type.
Lines of type are usually linotype. Literally, line-o-type.

The spacers could be anything it seems - from mono to lino to softer alloys even. JB had it right - the surest way to know is to test the stuff, presuming it's monotype it should read 25-28 by all accounts, lino will be close to 22.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I still have about 30 lbs. of the same small sized single letters that I got when a hospital "in house" print shop was removed. They are all monotype alloy.Robert

[RogerDat]

They are not linotype since they are not in strips with words on them but single (mono) letters per block. They could however be Foundry type or Monotype which are different alloys used for single letter printing blocks. I can't tell for sure from the picture but if the block has a groove or notch along one side it is foundry type. letter block smooth sided is monotype. Difference is mono would be 9/19/72 and foundry is 15/23/62 alloy.

Also linotype tends to get depleted then refreshed so the actual alloy can vary a bit, foundry and mono did not get re-melted for each printing so they will be more consistent.

Spacers can be anything, since they did not pound against the paper to print or get cast with sharp letter edges they had no need to be hard, high tin alloy. But sometimes they were a hard alloy. If you try to bend the spacers and they snap rather than bend they are not plain lead but a harder print alloy. Beyond that hard/soft test the exact alloy has to be tested for or just guessed at based on hardness matching up to one of the printing lead alloy BHN hardness. Assume that alloy mix a small batch and try it out and if it shoots good use it like that. Too hard add plain, too soft add more printing alloy. Get the right recipe and you are good to go for the rest of that bucket.

Me I would either sort the spacers into soft/hard if they seemed to be more than one type. Then melt each type into a few big ingots, like bread loaf pan sized. Then take one of each type to a scrap yard to have it gunned. Then you know what you have. Assumes there is a scrap yard that will gun it available.

[konsole]

The spacers do bend and dont snap. Some of the blocks have that notch you are talking about so I'll have to separate those out. It looks like 3 different groups to separate into for now... 1- The letters without a notch, 2- the letters with a notch, 3- the spacers

[konsole]

I skimmed through all the letter blocks and they all have the round notch going across them. So what I have here is all foundry type. I'm still not sure what alloy the spacers are though. Also there are 2 of these blocks that have 2 holes running through them and are almost 6" long, definately some form of ""type lead because they arent ferrous, too heavy to be aluminum, they have a bluish(lead) tint to them, and I cant scratch them with a fingernail. If I remember correctly these where part of the assembly that the owner had setup ready for printing...

[konsole]

I calculated the block, with the 2 holes in them, to be about .37-lb per cubic inch. Pure lead is .41-lb per cubic inch, but ""type lead has the lighter metals tin and antimony, so mid to upper .30's-lb per cubic inch is what I would think ""type lead would weigh.

[clodhopper]

3M, 4M, 3N quad are spacers used in handset type, They may be monotype or they may be soft lead in composition.
In junior high school I took 2 years of print shop. Where we learned to handset type. Often, when the teacher stepped out of the room an errant M-quad or two would fly across the room and strike an unsuspecting student.
They hurt pretty good, being made of lead for mass, with square corners.
Don't ask me how I know, they also flew pretty true.

[RogerDat]

Spacer are what they are. Totally lack consistency. The thick ones may well be some form of commercial printing alloy. They had to be cast and purchased. The thin ones could be cut from sheets in-house.

I have a bucket of the things to sort. Some I can fold in half and some snap almost as soon as you bend them and some at about 45* angle. I'll sort the spacers, gun a sample of each pile at the local scrap yard. Punch it into the lead alloy calculator and use it.

Konsole since I know you sell lead I should point out printers lead is better left in original form rather than turned into ingots. Assures buyer of the type of metal they are getting. You check for notch on letters to know it is foundry, buyer will want to do the same in order to know they are buying foundry type. Sort of like the difference between a silver coin (known silver content) vs. a bar claimed to be silver. Even if buyer trusts you if they ever wants to resell some they have the same issue with that buyer.

Stuff is generally clean enough folks don't even melt their own down in advance, just feed it to the pot when they get ready to cast. No need to label and easy to add a "couple more ounces" by just dropping in a few more letters. Harder to do with an ingot. Tends to be added in smaller amounts too.

[konsole]

Konsole since I know you sell lead I should point out printers lead is better left in original form rather than turned into ingots. Assures buyer of the type of metal they are getting. You check for notch on letters to know it is foundry, buyer will want to do the same in order to know they are buying foundry type. Sort of like the difference between a silver coin (known silver content) vs. a bar claimed to be silver. Even if buyer trusts you if they ever wants to resell some they have the same issue with that buyer.

Yes I was thinking the same thing. They are already clean alloy and a buyer would much prefer seeing the blocks in raw form to verify what they are. My hands got a little dirty skimming through them, but not that much.