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The invention of a machine to replace the labor-intensive task of setting type by hand was one that many inventors had tackled during the 19th Century.
The difficulty was not in creating the text, but in returning the characters to a proper position for future use.
Mergenthaler solved this problem by placing type molds on the sides of specially keyed matrices.
The matrices would be lined up and hot lead alloy forced to fill the matrices, creating the line of type.
Then the matrices would progress through the machine, where a special keying system on one end of the matrix, unique for each character, would allow the matrix to drop only into the correct storage slot, ready for future use.

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