Phototype composing machine with rotary character drum

Claim 1

A phototype composing machine having a continuously rotating character carrier, aperture means through which a selected character is projected, and a continuously moving carriage mechanism for putting character images on a sensitized sheet in side by side relationship, and comprising means for varying the speed of said carriage mechanism and the position at which a selected character on said character carrier is illuminated for imaging on the sensitized sheet, said means including a line register wherein the widths of all previously exposed characters are cumulated, a carriage position register wherein a value representing the instantaneous position of said carriage mechanism is stored, comparator means responsive to the values stored in said line register and said carriage position register for producing an output indicative of the relative position of the already composed characters and the position of the carriage mechanism, an addition unit for modifying the output of said comparator means depending on the width value of the character next to be composed, means for varying the speed of the carriage mechanism and for shifting said aperture means in accordance with the modified output of said comparator means, and means for controlling the exposure of a selected character whereby a composed line is imaged in the order in which the characters are to appear.