Varitype replaces Linotype in Chicago newspaper strike

[Mechanic]

As often happens I was looking for stories related to Linotype, when I ran across an item in Time reporting the outcome of the 1949 ITU newspaper strike and how the paper continued to publish using VariType.

To the surprise of the printers, and most newsmen, the strike did not cripple Chicago papers; they went over to Vari-Type without missing a day (TIME, April 25). By last week, even Randolph recognized that Taft-Hartley would not be repealed soon, and that VariType had him licked. He settled for a contract that did lip service to the ban on closed shops, without disrupting the union's monopoly Under the settlement, the VariType machines will be wheeled into the back room, and Chicago's newspapers will again use linotype, as soon as possible—one to three weeks. But the publishers will keep the machines handy, just in case..

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800775,00.html#ixzz1FJAneNsv

Some information re VariTyper

The Varityper (also known as the Vari-Typer or VariTyper) was a highly ingenious "word processor" of the pre-digital age. This machine could use over 300 different type styles and write in 55 languages; it could adjust the space between characters, and even produce right-justified copy. Even though the Varityper enjoyed a successful career of about 60 years, you may never have seen one, for the machine was not generally adopted as a standard typewriter. Instead, it found a niche as a "cold typesetting" or "office composing" machine: it was generally used to produce neat, camera-ready copy for offset printing, at a cost much lower than that of conventional printer's methods.

Still more: http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/varityper.html