James Ogilvie (J.O.) Clephane was not having an easy time at his job. As a stenographer in Lincoln’s cabinet, he needed to produce multiple copies of his records in a quick, easy method—one that did not exist (Romano, 2014, p. 6). Clephane, always looking to the future, commissioned an inventor named Charles Moore to produce a “writing machine” (Romano, 2014, p. 6). Moore, in turn, made his way with his defective design to the Hahl shop in Baltimore where Mergenthaler was employed, and promised them $1,600 if they could make the design work (Romano, 1986, p. 23).
Moore’s design detailed “a table-top machine composed of rows of finer keys and a cylindrical roller containing successive circle of metal letters of the alphabet” (Romano, 1986, p. 23). This early version of the Linotype was intended to use lithography, but multiple uses of the lithographic rotary machine showed that the method yielded unreliable results of varying quality (Schlesinger, 1989, p. 5-6). After tinkering with the system for some time, Clephane and Mergenthaler were forced to change direction (Romano, 1986, p.28).
Clephane decided to switch the system from a lithographic method to a stereotypic process. Invented in 1793 by William Ged, the process involved “[making] a plaster mold of metal type…From the mold additional metal plates could be cast” (Romano, 1986, p. 29). Clephane substituted papier-maché for plaster, and the prototype of the rotary stereotypic system was completed in 1878 (Schlesinger, 1989, p. 7). This machine was unsuccessful to say the least; problems included faulty castings, inconsistency in the impressions, and problems keeping the paper damp (Schlesinger, 1989, p. 8). However, these failures paved the way for the invention of the Linotype.
A Line of Type 
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