Linotype in art history

[Mary H.]

Hello everyone, I'm an art historian working on paintings by the Greek-American artist Chryssa. She often used linotype plates in her work, and this website and all of you on the forum have been so helpful in my research, so thank you! I've reached out to a couple of linotype experts for interviews, but I also wanted to tap the collected wisdom here; any insights or recommendations for further reading you might have would be much appreciated.   

First, under what circumstances would a newspaper dispose of linotype plates during the 1950s to early 1970s (so, before they stopped using linotype printing altogether)? My understanding is that the metal can be melted down and reused many times, but does it "wear out" at some point?

When newspapers did dispose of plates, how did they usually do it? Were they sold as scrap metal?

I know that "etaoin shrdlu" was a common set of letters used to fill out and dispose of a line with a mistake in it, but were there circumstances where other, apparently random letters might be used? For instance, "odsky tuwdylyp piyrscrawy"?

Does anyone have experience with Chinese-language linotype machines? Or perhaps know where I could find more information about them? These would have been machines used by Chinese diaspora communities in the US.

Thanks again!

[Dave Hughes]

Hi Mary, Thanks for getting in touch.

I've got to say that I am unfamiliar with this artist's work, so I have been carrying out some internet research.

For the benefit of others, here are a couple of examples of her work:



Americanoom, 1963



The Gates to Times Square, 1964-1966

Although I can see that the works are graphics/newspaper themed, I couldn't really spot anything in them that could be described as a "Linotype plate."

Am I just looking at the wrong ones? Can you shed any further light?

[Mechanic]

Hi Mary,
I'm not sure what you are referring to, when you talk about Linotype plates. I believe you are referring to the lines of type cast by the Linotype machine. When Ottmar Mergenthaler demonstrated the Linotype in 1886 one of the people looking on was amazed when a line of type was cast. He said it is a line of type. and that is how it got it's name.

In the printing industry the lines of type are called slugs. They are cast from a pot containing molten type metal, which is mainly lead 85% antimony 11% and tin 4%.

You can print directly from Linotype slugs and job printers and small newspapers did. Large daily newspapers use the pages made up of Linotype slugs to make curved stereo printing plates to go on large rotary letterpress machine, which print in excess  of 70,000 newspapers an hour.

The slugs are melted down in large melting pots and recycled. samples of the metal are examined by metal suppliers to maintain the correct percentage of the various metals. They then supply metal to be added to the large remelt pots to correct the balance of the metals.

As Dave said I don't see any evidence of Linotype in use in the art samples he found.

I just happened to have a couple of Linotype slugs, so I have taken a photo, which I have posted here.

Update I spent some time and did find examples of Linotype art. I will post it as a new reply.
 

[Mechanic]

I found this on the internet attributed to  the Greek-American artist Chryssa.

It is columns of inked Linotype slugs. Some of the type may be from a Ludlow and some handset   

[Dave Hughes]

Does anyone have experience with Chinese-language linotype machines? Or perhaps know where I could find more information about them? These would have been machines used by Chinese diaspora communities in the US.

In China they would probably have used Soviet-built "Neotype" machines instead of the Linotype.

There are some pictures here: Linotypes in Mongolia

[Mechanic]

I know that Mergenthaler did experiment with a prototype Chinese Linotype. I believe, but don't know for a fact, that they tried to use matrices with portions of the Chinese characters so that several matrices side by side would form the symbol for the word.
Mergenthaler finally gave up on the idea.

[Mary H.]

Hello everyone, and thank you for your responses so far! Apologies for not offering more detail regarding the artworks I'm researching; I'm so wrapped up in them that I sometimes forget other people don't know them.

To clarify, Chryssa used linotype slugs to make prints and also as "stamps" in many of her paintings. I've included a picture of a representative painting below. It's called Classified Ads and was made in 1977, so I imagine she could have used cast-off slugs from a newspaper that had transitioned away from linotype printing.



However, Chryssa also made similar paintings in the late 1950s, and I'm not sure how she obtained the slugs then, given @Mechanic's very helpful explanation of casting. She also has some paintings that feature gibberish, so she may have worked with a linotype operator to get custom-made slugs for some projects.

The Chinese-language slugs she used would have come from newspapers based in New York City's Chinatown, so probably not made with a Soviet machine, but those photos are fascinating!

[Dave Hughes]

At the risk of stating the obvious, do you know if Chryssa had a friend or relative that worked for a newspaper.

It would have been possible for them to "borrow" some old slugs for a few days, then return them to the composing room, perhaps?