When the composition of the line is completed, the assembling elevator G is raised and the line is transferred, as indicated by dotted lines, first to the left and then downward to the casting position in front of the slotted mold seated in and extending through the vertical wheel K, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.  The line of matrices is pressed against and closes the front of the mold, the characters on the matrices standing directly opposite the slot in the mold, as shown.  The back of the mold communicates with and is closed by the mouth of a melting-pot M, containing a supply of molten metal and heated by a Bunsen burner underneath.  Within the pot is a vertical pump-plunger which acts at the proper time to drive the molten metal through the perforated mouth of the pot into the mold and into all the characters in the matrices.  The metal, solidifying, forms a slug or linotype bearing on its edge, in relief, type-characters produced from the matrices.  The matrices and the pot are immediately separated from the mold, and the mold wheel rotates until the slug contained in the mold is presented in front of an ejector blade, where the slug is ejected from the mold through a pair of knives, which trim the sides to the required size, into the receiving galley, as shown in Fig. 4.

[Illustration:  Fig. 3.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 4.]

After the line of matrices and spaces has served its purpose, it is raised from the casting position and moved to the right, as shown by the dotted lines and arrows in Fig. 2.  The teeth in the upper ends of the matrices are engaged with a toothed bar R, known as the second elevator.  This elevator swings upward, as shown by dotted lines, carrying the matrices to the level of the upper end of the magazine, and leaving the spaces or justifiers behind to be transferred to their magazine H.

The distributing mechanism consists essentially of a fixed bar T, lying in a horizontal position above the upper end of the magazine, and having along its lower edge, as shown in Fig. 2, horizontal teeth to engage the teeth in the upper end of the matrices and hold them in suspension.  The teeth of the matrix for each letter differ in number or arrangement, or both, from the teeth of matrices bearing other letters, and the teeth on the lower edge of the distributor bar are correspondingly varied in arrangement at different points in the length of the bar. (See Fig. 2.)

The matrices are moved forward into engagement with the distributor bar and also into engagement with the threads of horizontal screws U, which are extended parallel with the distributor bar and constantly rotated so that they cause the matrices to travel one after another along the distributor and over the mouths of the channels in the magazines.  Each matrix is held in suspension until it arrives over its proper channel, where for the first time its teeth bear such relation to those of the bar that it is released and permitted to fall into the magazine.