The Wicks Rotary Typecasting Machine?

I wonder if anyone who has made of a study of typecasting might know the answer to this. I’m researching the transition from hand-mould made type to machine-cast type, which of course starts in earnest with the Bruce. All the usual suspects are easy to find in historical records, like the later Barth and Thompson and so forth.

But I find reference in a few historical places, including a 1950s History of Technology series, the alleges the Wicks Rotary Typecasting Machine could produce 100 sorts per second through some kind of high-speed spinning multi-matrix system, spitting out 60,000 pieces of type a day. It was reportedly in use at newspapers starting in the late 1880s (Wicks owned a paper), and avoided distribution at the end of a day’s work while providing fresh type (though how it was distributed INTO cases nothing says).

I can find illustrations and patent details, but nearly the same description of text appears everywhere across about 70 years, and not often. All the other machines, people talk about far more and in different terms, and many of them survive in museums or in active operation in some foundries and workshops.

It seems like the Wicks’ machine was a patented device that could not conceivably have been built? I know, the Linotype would have made it irrelevant by the late 1880s for the same sort of work and similar benefits. But I’m so mystified that this feels like it was inserted into history.

(I’ve read David MacMillans page on this and its references.)

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