Gawd, I love those machines.
My great grandfather was a linotype machinist. I wish I could have hanged out with him while he worked.
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2 comments:
A friend of my dad ran a printing shop where they had a couple of these machines. They were noisy, hot contraptions with hot smells. But there was a magic on the mechanicals coming together.
As I sit back and remember, I can't help and wonder where all that lead go. Linotype leads makes for fine bullet casting material. :)
A high school journalism class had the students assembling type letter by letter. Remember, all the letters and punctuation were backwards. With practice, one could distinguish between the letter 'b' and 'd' and 'p', as example. Each letter or number or punctuation mark had its own bin filled with hundreds of copies. It's easy to imagine, given these were all made of lead, how heavy the bins would be. And the pieces were small, about 1/8" x 1/16". God help you if you spilled a tray after composing a written article. Check the soles of your shoes, the lead type is stuck in the tread.
Earlier in life, I took a tour of the newspaper printing plant. They had an entire squad who did nothing but fit lead type to steel trays. Those trays fit into a larger tray the size of an actual page of the newspaper. I found that the lead type are actually used to print a rubberized sheet which fits onto a large drum which spins on the horizontal axis. The rubberized sheet then makes impressions on a second rubberized sheet fitted to a rotating drum. That second sheet is what transfers ink to paper. All this done for every article, every advertisement; hundreds of times a day. Then repeated each and every day to come.
One thing I have not figured out; what with all the handling of lead that these typesetters weren't stigmatized with being crazy like the hat makers or lacquer sprayers.
Rick
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