Ottmar Mergenthaler

Inventor of the Linotype machine, born in Hachtel, SW Germany. Apprenticed to a watchmaker, his interest was in engineering, which he learned through evening classes. After emigrating to the USA in 1872, he worked in a machine shop belonging to a relative, where he developed the famous Linotype typesetting machine in 1886, and worked on many other inventions.

Ottmar Mergenthaler (May 10, 1854 – October 28, 1899) was a German inventor, who has been called a second Gutenberg because his invention of a machine that could easily and quickly set movable type revolutionized the art of printing.

Mergenthaler was born in Hachtel, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He was the third son of a school teacher, Johann George Mergenthaler from Hohenacker in Waiblingen.

Baltimore’s vocational high school, Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School, which opened in 1953, is named after him, although is it commonly referred to simply as "MERVO." Mergenthaler Hall on the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University was constructed in 1940-41 with money provided by Eugene and Mrs. Ottmar Mergenthaler, son and widow of Ottmar Mergenthaler.