Where's Marty? Learning About Ottmar Merghenthaler At The Baltimore Museum Of Industry
Hi everyone!
We wrapped up Museum Week on Friday at a place that I personally find fascinating. We were on site at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
The amount of things invented and designed in Baltimore that have had a world-wide impact is amazing. It is a great place to take kids. As for adults, with your database of life, I think the words "FOR REAL" will be spoken while wandering the beautifully presented exhibits more than a few times. And for this day's visit we chose just such an exhibit: the print shop.
Did you know that a Baltimore watchmaker named Ottmar Mergenthaler changed the way the world printed everything with his invention of the Linotype machine. (He is the same Mergenthaler the high school is named after, though you may know it as Mervo Tech.) Before that, printing was done by placing one steel letter at a time in a frame in order of printing. The letters were then inked and a blank sheet of paper placed on top. A hard press roller then moved across the metal letters and there you had a printed page. A guy you may have heard of, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the method and printed a bible letter by letter. And, thus, printing was born.
But Ottmar Mergenthaler's machine took the process to new and much, much faster levels. Every major newspaper in the world eventually used the Linotype machine. At one point, the Baltimore Sun had 75 of them working 24/7 to print its award-winning newspaper. (Line of type….Linotype.) At the BMI, this local inventor's machine still lives and works. By the early 1970's, the Linotype was phased out for newer tech, but a Baltimore inventor changed printing unlike only one other in history.
As always, here is the site for you to use for more information. But with free parking, and a beautiful site right off of Key Highway, this is a museum better visited in person for sure.
TGIF everyone! Have a great weekend, be safe, and find ya some fun!
- Marty B!
