Monotype Keyboard

Description

Part of a two-machine hot-metal casting system with the Monotype Composition Caster. The keyboard operator would type the text on the keyboard. When each letter key was struck, a hole was punched on a roll of paper tape. Instructions regarding the size of the type and font to be used were hand-written on the tape. The tape was then passed on to the caster. The Monotype system was invented in the late 1890s by Tolbert Lanston (1844–1913). Each of the two machines, the keyboard and the caster, was operated by a different person. This particular keyboard is currently dismantled.

Object Name(s): keybutton banks

Object Category: TYPE COMPOSITION MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT

Creator: Monotype Corp., England

Linear Dimensions Depth: 94

Materials: metal
Material Part: body

Credit Line: National Print Museum, Dublin