UK terminology

[jonathanjo]

Hello

I'm researching some terminology: could any Linotype users tell me what UK Linotype users called the piece of metal forming a single line of type?  Did you use "slug" from the American usage?

Indeed I'm interested in what people around the world called it: I believe in Spain it was just called a línea (line).

Many thanks for any and all details.

Jonathan.

[Dave Hughes]

In my experience they were usually called "lines" or "slugs."

I don't remember any other names being used.

Welcome to the Forum @jonathanjo 

[jonathanjo]

Thank you very much, and so swift!

Did you also use "slug" for line-width "fat leading"?  (Ie vertical spacing bigger than leading.)

I see a machine called a "slug cutter" at this letterpress auction

Jonathan.

[Dave Hughes]

Did you also use "slug" for line-width "fat leading"?  (Ie vertical spacing bigger than leading.)

That is not a technique that was used very much in newspaper production, where I worked, but I think we would have called them "blank slugs."
 

[jonathanjo]

Sorry for so many questions: we have to ask before everybody forgets!

in newspaper production, where I worked

Can I also ask how you marked a given news story when in galley or galley proof?  Ie in the line at the beginning, not intended for the final paper, which had a "working title".  When I worked in US newspapers in the 1980s we used photoset galley, with a "slug" at the top with a key phrase as a working title.  Which I understand is standard US newspaper practice since Linotype and endures through to fully computerised use. New York Times story about "slug" as working title


Jonathan.

[Dave Hughes]

I've not really worked on a newspaper where header slugs were used.

On the Yorkshire Evening Press the whole story (headings, intros and body text) would be assembled and proofed before being delivered to the stone for positioning in the page. So the story would be identified by the heading.

I do recall a comp at the South London Press in the early days of photosetting who identified his files with the use of Roman Numerals!