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Merritt Gally Biography

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GALLY, Merritt (1839–1916). An American inventor, born near Rochester, N. Y. He learned the printing trade, graduated at the University of Rochester in 1863, studied at Auburn Theological Seminary, and in 1866 was ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian church. After three years of pastoral work, however, he was compelled by the loss of his voice to withdraw from the pulpit, and turned his attention to mechanics. He invented the Universal printing press, built an establishment for the manufacture of presses, and obtained many patents on appliances connected with printing machinery. His experiments in regard to automatic musical instruments resulted in the invention of the "orchestrone" and of the so-called counterpoise pneumatic system employed in similar contrivances. His patents, more than four hundred in number, also include a machine for the manufacture of printer's types from cold metal by a process of swaging.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 429.