Does it do kearning? Serious question.
No. If you wanted to kern, the best you could do was shave the end of the slug
Actually, you could also alter the spaces between words, but not the characters relationship to each other. Rubber type changed everything, including the ability of bolshie printers to deliberately drop the type-packed forms on the floor just before edition time.
No, not really on the early machines which made slugs with vertical sides. Later models?