Mike Wilson also sent in these pictures of himself and his father.
I’m on the Linotype in Burlington Press, Bridlington, a one-man operation (my Dad and my mother) until his death in 1978. I’m probably on holiday from Aylesbury, where I was department overseer on the Bucks Herald. I worked a brand new Intertype there, a model that came out before the days of the Elektrons etc. A ten-line-a-minute job with a blower etc. But I could still keep a line hanging. But despite the blower the mould got so hot that it would splash often, and the union man told me to slow down or everyone would have to work at my speed. They promised me an output bonus but it never materialised.This is the mid-60s and I’m working at Electrical Press in Maidenhead. They had a mono department and a single Intertype. We handled Shooting Times & Country Magazine, Railway Magazine and many other titles. I worked the machine days and another fellow worked nights.My Dad (George Herbert Wilson) on his Lino. He was a machine man really but when made redundant he started Burlington Press. He started work on 4th July 1927 and finished on 13th April 1968. For that loyalty he got £456 9s 3d redundancy, worked out at £17 4s 6d, a week. Pathetic. However he took with him a Heidelberg platen and an Arab platen, plus odds and ends, and started Burlington Press.I don’t know where I got this Linotype ruler from. Perhaps it was my Dad’s. One end looks as though it’s been in the metal pot.
Linotype fan? Don’t miss the Linotype Chat section of the Metal Type Forum.
