The invention of the steam engine in the late 1700s marked the beginning of more massive changes in Western society. Factory work brought thousands of country people into rapidly growing cities. The pace of life quickened, as did the need to communicate quickly with larger numbers of people.

​

Until the 1800s, books were the most common printed materials. In the 1800s printers began to find ways to print larger type for posters, broadsides, handbills, and other kinds of messages. Type foundries developed new, bolder typefaces to satisfy the need for more forceful messages. Magazines and newspapers grew in popularity and began to include advertising.

​

Printing technology also changed. Steam power increased the speed of both printing and paper-making. The Linotype Machine, developed in 1886, eliminated the need for people to put lines of type in the correct order by hand before printing. Preparation for printing became faster, and the cost of printed materials went down. Cheaper books, magazines, and newspapers meant that more people could afford to read them, and demand expanded.

​

​

The Linotype Machine

The Linotype machine operator enters text on a 90-character keyboard. The machine assembles matrices, which are molds for the letter forms, in a line. The assembled line is then cast as a single piece, called a slug, of type metal in a process known as hot metal typesetting. (Invented by German immigrant Ottmar Merganthaler and patented in 1886.)

​