The Typograph was invented by John R. Rogers at the end of the nineteenth century. It was introduced to the public in 1890.
It seems that Rogers and Mergenthaler have been working on the same idea of 'a line of type' simultaneously, withouth knowing of each other. However, Mergenthaler commercialized his Blower-Linotype in 1886, and also patented the idea to cast a full sentence simultaneously, with US patent 311,350 filed 1883-03-12 and issued 1885-01-27.
Figure: Patent 311,350 regarding a method of and means for producing printing surfaces (Click to download).
At the time that the Typograph came out, the Mergenthaler Printing Company started almost immediately with litigation and threats in the trade press against it (Kahan, 2000, p.87ff).
The Rogers Typograph Company reacted in 1892 by buying the Electric Typographic Company of NY. This way, it acquired the Schuckers patent covering the double-wedge spaceband (Kahan, 2000, p.97-98).
Figure: Patent 474,306 regarding a mechanism to justify composed lines of type (Click to download).
This put Linotype in a difficult position, because the Linotype was heavily dependent on the double-wedge spaceband. Mergenthaler started developing his own version of it, but was unsuccesful. To solve the situation, the Linotype Company bought the whole Rogers Typograph Company. This allowed them to keep using wedged spaces in the Linotype. Rogers started working for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. From this collaboration, the Linotype Junior came forth.
The Typograph wasn't sold in the United States anymore. However, it became popular in Europe among smaller printing shops because those machines were cheaper than the larger Linotype. At the moment, we don't have information why the Linotype Junior wasn't sold in Europe, and why the Typograph still existed in Europe.
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