science · 20 October 1925 · 100 years ago
In 1925, the compotype was patented by its inventor, Clifton Chisholm of Cleveland, Ohio, as an "Embossing Machine" (U.S. No. 1,557,754). The keyboard-controlled machine embossed one line of characters on an aluminum strip with flanged edges. These could be arranged in a holder for several strips in parallel from which several lines of printed material could be produced. Blanks came from a ribbon of metal on a roll, automatically flanged to give a mounting channel shape, and fed between embossing dies. Each character was also printed on a record card, visible during operation. The machine was designed to provide an efficient mechanism for the rapid production of the embossed strips. The patent was assigned to the Multigraph Sales Co. of the same city.
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