Dean Nayes sent in this amusing story about a very ingenious Linotype operator.
DURING my travels across the United States I came across a very ingenious Linotype operator.
He had taken a lower case e matrix, cut it out, turned it upside down, and somehow managed to restore the mat so it would cast within a line all right.
At times, when a new operator was working, he would insert this lower case e into the magazine of his machine, leave it for some time, then retrieve it without the operator knowing.
Soon, the galley proofs would come back to the new operator, with a lower case e upside down.
He would be instructed to run out all the lower case e’s and cast a line so they could find the culprit.
But, of course, there was no upside down e, leaving the operator wondering what in the hell happened to his machine.
Did you enjoy this story? If so, you may be interested to know that it appears in “Printers’ Tales” available as a paperback or ebook.