The Pioneer Days and Tolbert Lanston
Tolbert Lanston (1844-1913) was
a born inventor. He was one of those rare people who, without any training
in engineering, could devise original ideas. It was a machine for classifying
and tabulating statistics by the use of perforated card that suggested
to him the basic idea of a Monotype Keyboard and Caster, and he patented
his earliest models in 1887. A Monotype Machine was first demonstrated
in London in 1887, and the whole project would have failed if a British
syndicate had not provided the necessary capital with which to finance
it. In December 1897, The Lanston Monotype Corporation was formed.
The Lanston Monotype Corporation:
1897 - 1931
Following improvements to justification
in 1897, John Sellers Bancroft redesigned the casting machine in 1899
which incorporated a more efficient matrix-case mechanism. During this
time in England, construction of Works premises commenced at Salfords
in Surrey which was completed in 1900. H.M. Duncan (technical advisor
to Lanston) returned to England where he held the position of Technical
Director until his death in 1924. In the first 8 years of the century,
installations exceeded 1,100 casting machines and 1,550 keyboards. During
the following years, many improvements were made to the casters and
keyboards and in 1928 an entirely new 'Super Caster' was introduced
which functioned independently from a keyboard. During the 1920's and
1930's, an ambitious typecutting programme was started which led to
the introduction of fonts such as Baskerville, Bembo, Garamond and Times
New Roman. In 1931, the company name was changed to The Monotype Corporation.
More
old Monotype photographs here!
The Monotype Corporation: 1931 -
1992
The production of Hot Metal machinery
dominated the pre- and post-war years until 'Monophoto' filmsetters,
based on a hot-metal design, were introduced in 1955. At about the same
time the 4-line mathematical system was introduced for hot-metal casting
and was then adapted for filmsetting. In 1963, the extended matrix case
was developed as well as a keyboard with keybanks of 14x12 rows. The
mid-sixties saw the start of the computer age in phototypesetting and
in 1967, the Corporation presented its electronic perforator, for automatic
justification and tabular composition. The 'Monophoto' 600 filmsetter
and 600 tape perforator were shown st GEC Milan in 1969 and the 1000
and 2000-series filmsetters were developed in the following years, the
latter being the fastest filmsetter of its day.
In the late 60s and early 70s
a number of companies introduced phototypesetters using Cathode Ray
Tube light sources. These were inherently faster than existing mechanical
systems but produced poorer quality output. Monotype did not adopt this
technology but investigated the feasibility of using a scanning laser
beam as a light source. This investigation led to the development of
the Lasercomp which was introduced in 1976. This was the world's first
raster scan laser based typesetter. The Lasercomp was arguably several
years ahead of its time - it was only some 10 years later with the advent
of PostScript and page make up programs on powerful standard computers
that this capability came into common usage.
Monotype Systems Limited: 1992 - 2002
The IPA Group purchased the company
in 1992 and changed the name to Monotype Systems Limited. The objective
of this new company, as the name indicates is to integrator products
in the Prepress Industry whilst concentrating on the development of
RIPs and and workflow systems with the flexibility to interface to all
major imagesetters and CTP devices. The company is located in a purpose-built
building on the original Monotype site at Salfords in Surrey. IPA Systems
takes over worldwide distribution.
Visit the 'Products'
Section of this Website for more information about todays product range
and connectivity solutions.
alfaQuest Technologies Limited: 2002
- present
In June 2002 Monotype Systems
adopts a new name and identity at the expiration of the previous trade
mark license. AlfaQuest Technologies Limited continues the development
of leading pre press software to support the worldwide market. IPA Systems
continues the worldwide distribution of alfaQuest products as well as
products from other companies in the IPA group.
