Frank Romano on Flongs and Stereotypes

[Dave Hughes]

Here's another great video from Frank Romano covering the subject of stereotypes.

He explains how the technology changed the production of both books and newspapers.

What They Th!nk: Flogging Frank


https://d3a577syzx0or3.cloudfront.net/video/2024-03-frank-stereotype.mp4

[fsattler]

I am doing research on making flong, to do stereotype casting for my museum.

I have an old book, Stereotyping and Electrotyping by Fredrick Wilson.

I have been trying to make the Paper Mache formulas, with not so good results.

Anyone ever made flong successfully and what's the secrete formula? Are there any videos on this subject?

I also made a smaller version for the casting block.

thanks in advance.
Frank
nmih.org

[Paul W. Nash]

I have made flongs by various means, chiefly when trying to prepare a page for the Printing Historical Society's Epitome of printing of 2015, and found it very difficult.

The recipe Wilson gives for a paste to make the flong can work, but I found it easier (with advice from a French printer, Frederic Tachot) to use just flour-and-water paste, with a series of layers of paper, from fine to coarse (smooth tissue, rough tissue, smooth mould-made, rough mould-made, thick mould-made or blotting-paper) to make the flong.

I then oiled the forme, placed the wet flong on the surface, then layers of damp felt, then some sheets of dry paper, then put the whole lot in a standing press with as much pressure as I dared for 24 hours.

I have also made flongs quite successfully by the completely different method recommended in a German encyclopaedia of 1705 (which is probably the first account in print of stereotyping using flong).