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Subject: Re: Preserving the lost art of letterpress


Author:
Wes
[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
Date Posted: 15:25:57 11/03/14 Mon
In reply to: Brian Jones 's message, "Preserving the lost art of letterpress" on 19:01:22 11/02/14 Sun
 Although it's been many years since we've done any letterpress work, at the place where I work we still keep some of the old time stuff around, mostly a few trays of type, just to remind us of where we came from.

I'm probably one of the last people in the news business who has set type by hand. I never did it very much and never really learned my way around a California job case, but I can at least say I did it. There have been many revolutions in the technology since then, and I do things with the click of a mouse today that I would never have dreamed possible when I started out -- mostly because it wouldn't have been possible.

Letterpress, at least as far as newspapers go, is pretty much a dead issue. There are a couple places left in job printing where it's convenient if you happen to have the equipment sitting around, and there are a few old timers who still have it.

I remember one night back in the early '90s during all the turmoil following the fall of the Communist Party in Russia, when Boris Yeltsin shut down Pravda. Some TV reporter was doing an interview with some gal who had worked there for years, and I don't remember what she was saying because I was looking over her shoulder, to see a row of Linotypes! At the time Pravda was (or at least had been) arguably one of the most influential papers in the world, and they were still printing it with technology right straight out of the 1920s or thereabouts. That said an awful lot to me.

I never learned how to run a Linotype -- they were not easy to learn, they were slow and obviously heading for the scrap yard at the time I started in the business. But, I'll tell you what, if you ever get a chance to watch one working, perhaps at a museum or something, take the time. There are cams and levers and pushrods and all sorts of things I don't have terms for, all working together in a beautifully choreographed mechanical dance. It's hard to believe they could work at all, let alone work as well as they did.

We have come a long way since the days of the Linotype, but I can't help but wonder if we have lost something in the process.

-- wes



>Greetings
>
>For those of you who used to get ink on your fingers,
>I came across an article on the BBC web site.
>
>The article is about John Barrett of Chicopee,
>Massachusetts. He has a warehouse of old letterpress
>printing equipment.
>
> >href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29855934">http
>://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29855934
>
>Think in my early computer typesetting days I had more
>fonts available than the local daily and weekly
>newspapers. Typesetting has certainly changed in the
>last 40 years or so.
>
>Brian
>
>--
>Worcester, UK
[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:
[> [> Subject: Re: Preserving the lost art of letterpress


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[ Edit | View ]
Date Posted: 19:50:58 11/05/14 Wed

>We have come a long way since the days of the
>Linotype, but I can't help but wonder if we have lost
>something in the process.
>
>-- wes
>
My first job in a print shop was in a letterpress shop. As a trainee helper one of my duties was cleaning the "dog box".

When a printer finished a job the old forms with type had to be broken down and the hand set type cleaned and returned to the proper case ( you had to recognize which face with-out help). The used linotype slugs were called dog type and thrown in a box under the table that was called a dog box. To clean the dog box you gathered all of the slugs washed them with acetone to remove dried ink and other debris and then melted the lead type down in a crucible and poured new pigs in a cast iron mold. When cooled the pigs went to the linotype to be used for setting type. All of this was done with-out any protective equipment of any kind. The linotype operators sat at their machines for hours at a stretch breathing the fumes of molten lead coming off of the machine.

The breathing of lead fumes by printers ( and painters ) is why at one time the common saying was that all printers and painters were alcoholics. Research done in more recent times has shown that the ingestion of alcohol helped to relieve the symptoms of lead poisoning.

While I would not want to forget how we used to do things and I'm proud that I experienced the old ways I have to say that I'm glad that I (and others) don't have to breathe the fumes of lead and all of the solvents that we used ( in cold type, hot type and offset)!

An older journeyman told me when I started in the printing trades that you just had to accept that exposure as the price you paid for having a good paying job!

Kirby
[> [> [> Subject: Re: Preserving the lost art of letterpress


Author:
Brian Jones
[ Edit | View ]
Date Posted: 17:27:24 11/06/14 Thu
Greetings

>
>>We have come a long way since the days of the
>>Linotype, but I can't help but wonder if we have lost
>>something in the process.
>>
>>-- wes
>>
>
>While I would not want to forget how we used to do
>things and I'm proud that I experienced the old ways I
>have to say that I'm glad that I (and others) don't
>have to breathe the fumes of lead and all of the
>solvents that we used ( in cold type, hot type and
>offset)!
>

When I started work, the local newspaper had about 20 Linotype machines, plus one or two Ludlow type casters.

A few of those Linotypes had changeable magazines for the character sets. The majority had a choice of 8pt Times Roman with either Bold or Italic option.

During a working day several editions of the daily news were published and rushed out to street sellers. Now the circulation figures are much lower and the printing of a single early edition is done miles away.

Brian
[> [> [> Subject: Re: Preserving the lost art of letterpress


Author:
Ralph Reinhold
[ Edit | View ]
Date Posted: 18:37:35 11/26/14 Wed
When I was in 7th through 10th grade, my mother was a linotype operator in a weekly called the Necedah Marquee.

I usually was a general gofer between the time school let out and my mom was done. On Thursdays, that was usually pretty late. So, among my duties was to go across the street to a bar and get shorties on Thursday night. In those days, no one thought anything of a kid getting beer for his folks. In fact, one night, the town cop helped me haul it across the street. Well, that was what I thought at the time. Now, I know he was checking to make sure that was what I really was doing.

If the paper folder decided to have a bad day on Thursday, I folded papers along with the rest of them. If the stack on the end of the press misbehaved, then I was to remove each sheet and restack them on a large table (where they usually were stacked awaiting the folder) In fact all my duties on Thursday were to help the flow (including the beer).

Other than that, I was to clean the dog box (although I don't remember that name). We used kerosene, thought. I also skimmed the pot and poured the ingots. (I'm sure both were against the child labor laws.)

I often set small ads and poured more than one molded ad when the typesetter was busy. I didn't put away the broke down individual type, but put it in piles of each font. I think the last year, I was putting them away.

When I went to the Huntsville Times to place an ad one time, I mentioned that my mom had been a linotype operator. The salesman had to take me back to show me where they had one preserved. They also had a job press and and one of those chest of drawers type things that held the type trays.

Another place I stopped had one of those little things where you set the type before you placed it in the galley.


>
>>We have come a long way since the days of the
>>Linotype, but I can't help but wonder if we have lost
>>something in the process.
>>
>>-- wes
>>
>My first job in a print shop was in a letterpress
>shop. As a trainee helper one of my duties was
>cleaning the "dog box".
>
>When a printer finished a job the old forms with type
>had to be broken down and the hand set type cleaned
>and returned to the proper case ( you had to recognize
>which face with-out help). The used linotype slugs
>were called dog type and thrown in a box under the
>table that was called a dog box. To clean the dog box
>you gathered all of the slugs washed them with acetone
>to remove dried ink and other debris and then melted
>the lead type down in a crucible and poured new pigs
>in a cast iron mold. When cooled the pigs went to the
>linotype to be used for setting type. All of this was
>done with-out any protective equipment of any kind.
>The linotype operators sat at their machines for hours
>at a stretch breathing the fumes of molten lead coming
>off of the machine.
>
>The breathing of lead fumes by printers ( and painters
>) is why at one time the common saying was that all
>printers and painters were alcoholics. Research done
>in more recent times has shown that the ingestion of
>alcohol helped to relieve the symptoms of lead
>poisoning.
>
>While I would not want to forget how we used to do
>things and I'm proud that I experienced the old ways I
>have to say that I'm glad that I (and others) don't
>have to breathe the fumes of lead and all of the
>solvents that we used ( in cold type, hot type and
>offset)!
>
>An older journeyman told me when I started in the
>printing trades that you just had to accept that
>exposure as the price you paid for having a good
>paying job!
>
>Kirby
[> [> Subject: Re: Preserving the lost art of letterpress


Author:
Ian
[ Edit | View ]
Date Posted: 17:30:14 11/06/14 Thu
> But, I'll tell you what, if you ever get a
>chance to watch one working, perhaps at a museum or
>something, take the time.

There is a Printing Museum in Penrith, NSW that is, outer western Sydney, that has a Linotype. I don't know if they actually use it for real, but I was in a group visit where they set up and cast a line of type for us to see. Marvellous.

Ian
[> [> Subject: Re: Preserving the lost art of letterpress


Author:
Gregory Taylor
[ Edit | View ]
Date Posted: 05:15:28 11/08/14 Sat
Daniel Boorstein, former librarian of congress, discussed printing as "the art preservative of all others". I know he was quoting from somewhere but the concept remains. Printing is a major start to preserving not only arts but entire cultures.

Although it's been many years since we've done any
>letterpress work, at the place where I work we still
>keep some of the old time stuff around, mostly a few
>trays of type, just to remind us of where we came from.
>
>I'm probably one of the last people in the news
>business who has set type by hand. I never did it very
>much and never really learned my way around a
>California job case, but I can at least say I did it.
>There have been many revolutions in the technology
>since then, and I do things with the click of a mouse
>today that I would never have dreamed possible when I
>started out -- mostly because it wouldn't have been
>possible.
>
>Letterpress, at least as far as newspapers go, is
>pretty much a dead issue. There are a couple places
>left in job printing where it's convenient if you
>happen to have the equipment sitting around, and there
>are a few old timers who still have it.
>
>I remember one night back in the early '90s during all
>the turmoil following the fall of the Communist Party
>in Russia, when Boris Yeltsin shut down Pravda. Some
>TV reporter was doing an interview with some gal who
>had worked there for years, and I don't remember what
>she was saying because I was looking over her
>shoulder, to see a row of Linotypes! At the time
>Pravda was (or at least had been) arguably one of the
>most influential papers in the world, and they were
>still printing it with technology right straight out
>of the 1920s or thereabouts. That said an awful lot to
>me.
>
>I never learned how to run a Linotype -- they were not
>easy to learn, they were slow and obviously heading
>for the scrap yard at the time I started in the
>business. But, I'll tell you what, if you ever get a
>chance to watch one working, perhaps at a museum or
>something, take the time. There are cams and levers
>and pushrods and all sorts of things I don't have
>terms for, all working together in a beautifully
>choreographed mechanical dance. It's hard to believe
>they could work at all, let alone work as well as they
>did.
>
>We have come a long way since the days of the
>Linotype, but I can't help but wonder if we have lost
>something in the process.
>
>-- wes
>
>
>
>>Greetings
>>
>>For those of you who used to get ink on your fingers,
>>I came across an article on the BBC web site.
>>
>>The article is about John Barrett of Chicopee,
>>Massachusetts. He has a warehouse of old letterpress
>>printing equipment.
>>
>> >>href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29855934">htt
>p
>>://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29855934
>>
>>Think in my early computer typesetting days I had more
>>fonts available than the local daily and weekly
>>newspapers. Typesetting has certainly changed in the
>>last 40 years or so.
>>
>>Brian
>>
>>--
>>Worcester, UK
[> [> Subject: Re: Preserving the lost art of letterpress


Author:
mark farmer
[ Edit | View ]
Date Posted: 20:03:28 11/26/14 Wed
This is stretching the memory cells, but I remember an old lino type on The Twilight Zone. Several scenes where the old typesetter writes a story before it happens. I was fascinated by the machine.

On The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, isn't the newspaper man setting type when he is beaten up by the bad guys?

I enjoy the depth & variety of the contributions of the forum ... really, we're too good for Wes but he's all we have.



>Although it's been many years since we've done any
>letterpress work, at the place where I work we still
>keep some of the old time stuff around, mostly a few
>trays of type, just to remind us of where we came from.
>
>I'm probably one of the last people in the news
>business who has set type by hand. I never did it very
>much and never really learned my way around a
>California job case, but I can at least say I did it.
>There have been many revolutions in the technology
>since then, and I do things with the click of a mouse
>today that I would never have dreamed possible when I
>started out -- mostly because it wouldn't have been
>possible.
>
>Letterpress, at least as far as newspapers go, is
>pretty much a dead issue. There are a couple places
>left in job printing where it's convenient if you
>happen to have the equipment sitting around, and there
>are a few old timers who still have it.
>
>I remember one night back in the early '90s during all
>the turmoil following the fall of the Communist Party
>in Russia, when Boris Yeltsin shut down Pravda. Some
>TV reporter was doing an interview with some gal who
>had worked there for years, and I don't remember what
>she was saying because I was looking over her
>shoulder, to see a row of Linotypes! At the time
>Pravda was (or at least had been) arguably one of the
>most influential papers in the world, and they were
>still printing it with technology right straight out
>of the 1920s or thereabouts. That said an awful lot to
>me.
>
>I never learned how to run a Linotype -- they were not
>easy to learn, they were slow and obviously heading
>for the scrap yard at the time I started in the
>business. But, I'll tell you what, if you ever get a
>chance to watch one working, perhaps at a museum or
>something, take the time. There are cams and levers
>and pushrods and all sorts of things I don't have
>terms for, all working together in a beautifully
>choreographed mechanical dance. It's hard to believe
>they could work at all, let alone work as well as they
>did.
>
>We have come a long way since the days of the
>Linotype, but I can't help but wonder if we have lost
>something in the process.
>
>-- wes
>
>
>
>>Greetings
>>
>>For those of you who used to get ink on your fingers,
>>I came across an article on the BBC web site.
>>
>>The article is about John Barrett of Chicopee,
>>Massachusetts. He has a warehouse of old letterpress
>>printing equipment.
>>
>> >>href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29855934">htt
>p
>>://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29855934
>>
>>Think in my early computer typesetting days I had more
>>fonts available than the local daily and weekly
>>newspapers. Typesetting has certainly changed in the
>>last 40 years or so.
>>
>>Brian
>>
>>--
>>Worcester, UK

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