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Biography of Ottmar MergenthalerName: Ottmar MergenthalerBirth Date: May 11, 1854 Death Date: October 28, 1899 Place of Birth: Hachtel, Germany Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: inventor Ottmar Mergenthaler Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899), the German-American inventor of the Linotype, revolutionized the printing industry with his remarkable typesetting-typecasting machine.Ottmar Mergenthaler was born in Hachtel, Germany, on May 11, 1854. He became an apprentice watchmaker in Bietigheim at the age of 14. After 4 years there, he emigrated to the United States. He found immediate employment in the Washington, D.C., shop of August Hahl, where various types of scientific instruments, including a great many models of new inventions required for the patent application, were made. Mergenthaler's talents were soon recognized, and his services became much in demand.Shortly after Hahl relocated his business to Baltimore in 1876, Mergenthaler was asked to correct defects in a writing machine devised by Charles T. Moore and James O. Clephane. The machine was intended to produce print by typewriting words upon a strip of paper, which would then be reproduced by a lithographic process. Mergenthaler corrected the defects in the …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…his invention remained as strong as before. He patented at least 50 improvements to it before his death.Mergenthaler was a friendly, personable man. He delighted in his family and in his love of music. He died in Baltimore on Oct. 28, 1899, survived by his wife and four children. Further Reading The best sources for Mergenthaler's life and his invention are George Iles, Leading American Inventors (1912), and Thomas Dreier, The Power of Print--and Men (1936). The former contains a remarkably thorough, illustrated explanation of the Linotype in all its operations. See also Edward W. Byrn, The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century (1900), and Waldemar B. Kaempffert, A Popular History of American Invention (2 vols., 1924).Bellas, R. C., Ottmar Mergenthaler's marvel, Baltimore: Xavier Press, 1986. Mergenthaler, Ottmar, The biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the linotype. recent findings, researched and edited by Carl Schlesinger; introduction by Elizabeth Harri, New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Books, 1989. |