Kingsmere at Moorside

The year 1914 marked the appearance of Washington Ludlow's first typograph machine. This remarkable invention permitted typesetters to quickly cast a full line of lead type in one operation using supplied brass matrices, a procedure which was for the time a major technological improvement over the usual hand-set foundry type methods. Casting type the Ludlow way necessitated the creation of an entire range of new Ludlow typefaces, a development which made Ludlow not only a major manufacturer of printing machinery, but also one of the world's leading sources of professional type design. Renowned typographers such as Douglas C. McMurtrie and Ernest F. Detterer created original faces at Ludlow's request. Robert Hunter Middleton was Ludlow's design director for over fifty years, and during his distinguished career produced an entire library of typefaces representing virtually every known typographic style. He is recognized as one of the most prolific type designers of all time. Today, new Ludlow computer fonts are in preparation, including optically-correct versions of many classic Ludlow typefaces, drawn directly from the originals in the Ludlow company library.