Technikatörténeti szemle 13. (1982)

TANULMÁNYOK - Nagy Zoltán: Kliegl József szedőgép-vázlatáról

The principle of stamping the letters was first applied in the 1890s by Tolbert Lanston for his first experimental Monotype composing-machine. This machine stamped the letters on lead bars. Lanston adapted the ever since sidly used typecasting composing machine only later. Kliegl elaborated and laid down in the mentioned sketch an ingeniously contrived new alphabet as well. The letter faces are constructed of upright lines arranged in two or three columns. The length of the lines and the combination of their hight position makes the letter distinguishable. He drafted essentially an alphabet with unified width in his sketch. The signs elaborated are early predecessors of the present system of symbols ment for machine reading e. g. the Wim Crouvel CRTS alphabet. No reference to capital letters can be found in Kliegl's drawing, neither to the way he immagined the equalization of the line endings i. e. justification. His plan was not put into practice, it survived only as a sketch.