h like a
typewriter in appearance, containing every character in common use (225
in all), and at a speed limited only by his dexterity he plays on the
keys exactly as a typewriter works his machine. This is the sum total of
human effort expended. The machine does all the rest of the work;
makes the calculations and delivers the product in clean, shining new
type, each piece perfect, each in its place, each line of exactly the
right length, and each space between the words mathematically
equal--absolutely "justified." It is practically hand composition with
the human possibility of error, of weariness, of inattention, of
ignorance, eliminated, and all accomplished with a celerity that is
astonishing.

[Illustration: THE LANSTON TYPE-SETTER KEYBOARD
As each key is pressed a corresponding perforation is made in the roll
of paper shown at the top of the machine. Each perforation stands for a
character or a space.]

This machine is a type-casting machine as well as a typesetter. It casts
the type (individual characters) it sets, perfect in face and body,
capable of being used in hand composition or put to press directly from
the machine and printed from.

As each piece of type is separate, alterations are easily made. The type
for correction, which the machine itself casts for the purpose--a lot of
a's, b's, etc.--is simply substituted for the words misspelled or
incorrectly used, as in hand composition.

The Lanston machine is composed of two parts, the keyboard and the
casting-setting machine. The keyboard part may be placed wherever
convenient, away from noise or anything that is likely to distract or
interrupt the operator, and the perforated roll of paper produced by it
(which governs the setting machine) may be taken away as fast as it is
finished. In the setting-casting machine is located the brains. The
five-inch roll of paper, perforated by the keyboard machine (a hole for
every letter), gives the signal by means of compressed air to the
mechanism that puts the matrix (or type mould) in position and casts the
type letter by letter, each character following the proper sequence as
marked by the perforations of the paper ribbon. By means of an indicator
scale on the keyboard the operator can tell how many spaces there are
between the words of the line and the remaining space to be filled out
to make the line the proper width. This information is marked by
perforations on the paper ribbon by the pressure of two key