John Raphael Rogers

Background

John Raphael Rogers was son of the Rev. John Almanza Rowley Rogers and Elizabeth Lewis (Embree), born in Roseville, Illinois, United States

Education

His father was connected with Berea College, Kentucky, in its early days, and after spending three years as a student there, John went to Oberlin College, from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1875.

Career

He began teaching in the public schools of Michigan and later accepted a position in Berea College. From 1877 to 1881 he was superintendent of schools at Lorain, Ohio. For the next two years he was engaged in railroad engineering work in Iowa and Michigan, at the end of which time he returned to Lorain to teach, remaining there until 1888. Meanwhile, he had become interested in mechanical type setting, having, as early as 1881, begun experiments with the view of finding a way to space the lines of type, that is, to "justify" them, mechanically. He worked steadily on this problem in his spare time for seven years, and on September 4, 1888, obtained a patent (No. 389, 108) for a machine making stereotype matrices. Thereupon, he gave up his teaching position in Lorain, moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and organized the Rogers Typograph Company to manufacture this machine. Two years later, however, his Typograph came into competition with the Mergenthaler Linotype, and through a suit brought against Rogers' company, the Mergenthaler company obtained an injunction upon the production of a slug. Prior to this, Rogers had devised a form of double-wedge space band and applied for a patent. This invention brought him into a three-cornered interference suit with Ottmar Mergenthaler and another inventor, Jacobs W. Schuckers, who had filed applications for patents involving similar principles about the same time. The wedgespacing mechanism was essential to each inventor's machine, and Rogers bought Schuckers' application. After some years of litigation, credit for the broad principle of the double-wedge was awarded to Schuckers and the right to utilize it became the property of the Rogers Typograph Company. Since the Linotype also required the double-wedge space band, the Mergenthaler company finally bought all the assets of the Rogers company, and in July 1895 the two were consolidated. Rogers then entered the employ of the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in Brooklyn, New York, as consulting engineer and chief of its experimental department, in which capacity he served for the remainder of his life. Rogers must be given much credit for broadening the scope and increasing the usefulness of Mergenthaler's original one-letter Linotype. He considered thousands of ideas submitted by machinists and operators and developed and refined those that were worth while, making them commercially profitable. In the course of his many years he patented between 400 and 500 devices in the field of composing machines. He was one of the few inventors whose ability yielded due financial reward, and this he used largely for the education of young people. He was for many years a member of the board of directors of the American Missionary Association and a trustee of Oberlin College and of Berea College.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Linotype instruction book;: A detailed description of the mechanism and operation of the linotype with instructions for its erection, maintenance, and care,
  • Complete specification: Improvements in machines for making printing surfaces
  • ORIGINAL PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 5859 FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO LINOTYPE MACHINES (RYERSON STREET, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK).

Membership

member of the board of directors of the American Missionary Association;

trustee of Oberlin College;

trustee of Berea College;

Connections

He was married twice: first, on December 25, 1878, to Clara Ardelia Saxton of Oberlin, who died in 1932; second, to Mrs. Marion Rood Pratt of Cleveland, Ohio, who with two adopted daughters survived him.

He died in Brooklyn, New York, and was buried in Berea, Kentucky

Wife:

Marion

He was married to Mrs. Marion Rood Pratt of Cleveland, Ohio

Wife:

Clara

He was married on December 25, 1878, to Clara Ardelia Saxton of Oberlin, who died in 1932;