Barth Typecasters in Use?
Thanks to Briar Press, Henry Barth’s great-granddaughters have connected and are now joyfully sharing family information. Henry was Manager of the Cincinnati Type Foundry about 1900, and was a rather prolific inventor in his field. I’m hoping someone of you knows whether there are any Barth Typecasting machines still in use and where I might be able to see them. I would also like to see another of Barth’s inventions in use, the Army Press. Thanks in advance for any leads. (Thanks Steve Saxe for the lead on Gregory Walters in Piqua, Ohio. I will get in touch with him.)
Barth type casting machine.jpg
Army press.jpg
Try Patrick Gossens in Antwerp - he has all manner of typecasting equipment, much of it up and running.
Patrick has the Barth casters, and other equipment, used by Dale Guild, but I don’t think they are unpacked from their trip to Antwerp. I don’t know of any others extant, but I am not an expert.
Bob
Patrick along with Hugh Macfarlane are actively getting much typecasting machinery up and running. They were certainly ‘at it’ last August when I visited. And indeed, type was being cast albeit the early stages.
If anyone would like to contact Patrick, I have his details. Please message me if so.
Alternatively he may comment here but is a very busy chap.
Dr. David M. MacMillan of Mineral Point, WI, a name frequently seen in these pages, also owns a Barth type casting machine.
There are a line of dusty, unused founders typecasting machines, adjacent to the not dusty and sometimes in use Monotype machines at the Type Museum in London Kennington. These are I think not Barth machines, but
produce similar output, using matrices from Stephenson Blake and others. These machines may have come from them as well. In passing, Stevens Shanks usually thought
of as a traditional typefounder, by the 1950s in fact used
modified Monotype composition casters with extra heaters and home made matrix holders. Fact, I saw them in use
in their Southwark Street basement. .
Riscatype similarly used extra heaters. The late John Eickhoff (proprietor of Acorntype) told me that when they closed, either Mouldtype or Startype (I can’t recall which) swooped in and bought the heaters or the complete pots to ensure no other would-be type manufacturer obtained the heaters. John bought a lot of Riscatype’s mats, (especially borders) as well as other equipment at the dispersal sale, and was in a position to know these details.
John had a regular heater in his Supercaster and told me he used to add extra antimony until it was visibly pooling on top of the lead and tin in iridescent swirls, in order to produce somewhat harder type.
Bgg,
I sold an Army Field press to Paul Akin a few years back.
It was in very good working condition.
I still have a few pictures of it.
Jon / Mpls