A Fascinating Film About the Last Day of Hot Metal Typesetting at the New York Times

[cseas]

Check out this great video:

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/...rk-times/?mc_cid=94abc732ac&mc_eid=1b58e1f422

 

[dabob]

Thanks . . . love the old stuff . . . but then I'm an old guy . .

Interesting question . . .how many print planet members have actually run a Linotype????

I for one have and I have owned 4 of them . . . anybody else?

 

[Point918]

Ran one but only in college courses at RIT. First job out of school commercial shop I landed at had 3 of them. As I recall the quality of the type was terrible at least compared to computer typesetters they upgraded to shortly after I arrived. Will check out the video tonight. Thanks for the link cseas.

 

[dabob]

Ran one but only in college courses at RIT. First job out of school commercial shop I landed at had 3 of them. As I recall the quality of the type was terrible at least compared to computer typesetters they upgraded to shortly after I arrived. Will check out the video tonight. Thanks for the link cseas.

I think the quality of type from a well maintained machine and then proofs pulled by a well maintained and properly inked etc. press would rival that of photo typesetters of the day . . . but there was soooooo many variables that were eliminated by photo typesetters . . . and you didn't have to be a machinist to keep the modern ones running . . . it was the beginning of the end of the craft part of our industry . . .

 

[gordo]

In the late 60s I was a part time "mechanical man" doing paste-ups for a graphic designer. We used a company called Eslers in Montreal as they were able to pull galleys of text with consistent weights even if we needed to make changes over the following days that required new text galleys. One other issue besides getting consistent text weight was that if you spilled the rubber cement thinner onto the type the ink would run. Another issue was that if you had to do a text run-around a graphic you'd have to cut out each word from the galley and paste it individually. Sometimes you'd get home and over dinner you'd duscover a word from the galley stuck on your shirt cuff. Ooops!

 

[Alois Senefelder]

Gentlemen,

My vote goes to...................... Monotype


Regards, Alois

 

[mojoprime]

and the corrections... i remember hanging over the light table with an exact knife in one hand and a, e, s, d, g and some other characters in various fonts and sizes rubber cemented to my fingers proofing pages...

 

[WillAdams]

Anyone have any links to the stories about the last compositor at newspaper X Y or Z retiring? Those are a hoot (and sad, since the union sold out for sinecures rather than participating in the computer revolution and preserving their craft).

 

[gregbatch]

I'm a left hander, so I learned to type on the Lino with my arms crossed (only Lino operators will understand). Then came Compugraphic and the Lino did little more than keep my lunch hot.

 

[old guy]

just retired our ludlow about 6 months ago. can get type high foil stamp dies to do the business cards and letterpress announcements we were doing without a melted bucket of lead in the shop.

 

[gregbatch]

just retired our ludlow about 6 months ago. can get type high foil stamp dies to do the business cards and letterpress announcements we were doing without a melted bucket of lead in the shop.

Lead, tin, and antimony, to be exact.

 

[dabob]

Anyone have any links to the stories about the last compositor at newspaper X Y or Z retiring? Those are a hoot (and sad, since the union sold out for sinecures rather than participating in the computer revolution and preserving their craft).

No stories about the last compositor . . . but I did witness the Detroit News changing to Photo typesetting in the 70's . . . when their confidence in the phototypesetters was high enough the composing room, which was on the second floor of their new building, had an outside wall removed and a debris bin moved into place beneath it . . . the guys taking the linotypes out just used sledge hammers and broke the Lino's into pieces and threw them into the dumpster below . . . it was a sad/happy day there.

 

[gordo]

If your are of a sensitive disposition do not look at the attached photos. This was found behind a furniture store near Colwood BC. BTW there's a whole bunch of interesting historical stuff in the Wayback View section of my blog: http://the-print-guide.blogspot.ca/s...%20Back%20View