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Transistor Mat Detector
The Shaffstall Transistor Mat Detector pictures are spread over two pages:
Page 1, Page 2
Tony Shaffstall from Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, got in touch with Metal Type to give us details of the Shaffstall Transistor Mat Detector that his father (Everett G Shaffstall) invented.
Tony sent in the patent application (10 pages with some nice illustrations) dating from 1960 and a 1965 copy of the Installation Instructions and Trouble Diagnosis (72 pages).
Both these publications are available for download from Metal Type in PDF format.
Patent Application (2.6MB) Click here to download.
Instruction Manual (21.9MB) Click here to download.
An illustration from the 1960 patent application
The Shaffstall Transistor Mat Detector was a series of devices that were attached to a linecaster running at high speed from TTS tape.
The purpose of the device was to stop the linecaster in the event of a malfunction.
As these linecasters were often more or less left to run unattended a malfunction could be very costly in terms of damage to matrices, the machine or cause a lot of corrections to be required if they were not promptly stopped.
An illustration from the Shaffstall Electronic Mat Detector instruction manual showing the device on an Intertype Monarch
A small selection of Letterpress Ebay listings appear below. A much bigger selection appears here. Linotype-related Ebay listings are here.
