Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!
Historical items
Many thanks to Robin Kenworthy for sending in this article, originally published in a book called “Typographical Printing Surfaces” shortly after 1907. The Graphotype was an early rival to the Monotype system, but had the keyboard and casting system in the one machine.
Robin has a museum-worthy collection of machines, type and matrices as well as an extensive library on the subject of letterpress.
Tony Shaffstall from Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, got in touch with Metal Type to give us details of the Shaffstall Transistor Mat Detector that his father (Everett G Shaffstall) invented.
Tony sent in the patent application (10 pages with some nice illustrations) dating from 1960 and a 1965 copy of the Installation Instructions and Trouble Diagnosis (72 pages).
Deep in the countryside of Wiltshire, in the UK, lies the disused World War Two Airbase RAF Wroughton. In six huge, decaying hangars named in typical military style: L1, L2, etc. lie thousands of the modern world’s greatest treasures, guarded round-the-clock by British Army veterans.
The Airbase acts as a storage facility for the Science Museum. The Museum’s public face in South Kensington can only show eight per cent of their massive collection.
“Stop the presses! Make over the front page!” Typewriters swing into action, Linotype machines click, compositors’ fingers fly, and cold metal quickly becomes hot news!
Type metals of “Wilkes” brand, produced solely by the Glidden-owned Metals Refining Company, are used in the make-up of typical American newspapers. They are used in printing magazines distributed to millions. Many of the printed pieces you receive … the books you read … are printed with “Wilkes” type metal, the accepted national standard of fine quality.
Many thanks to Ian Cottom, from York, who sent in this photograph which he bought from the Gazette and Herald newspaper in 1946!
There are six pages of Yorkshire Evening Press photos on Metal Type. Check the “Related Pages” menu to see the rest.
Many thanks to Bill Nairn, from New Zealand, for sending in these photographs — they show a Linotype Comet 300, complete with a Fairchild operating unit attached to the linecaster’s keyboard and the perforating keyboard. The whole set-up is in full operational condition.
Says Bill: “In New Zealand, we had the opportunity to restore a Linotype Comet 300, complete with Fairchild Operating Unit (attached to the Linotype keyboard) and the perforating keyboard.
This article, taken from a Mergenthaler Printing Company publication, dated 1890 describes the “New Linotype” to newspaper proprietors, etc. It also compares the machine to the earlier “Blower” machine and the un-named “most prominent typesetting machine.”
The document compares “The most prominent typesetting machine” and the old “Blower” Linotype to the new model:
Robert Griffith sent in some scans of this 1920s advertising brochure for the Model 14 Linotype. It appears to have been produced by the Chicago office of Mergenthaler.
This Linotype may be equipped with one, two, or three full-size magazines which are interchangeable with those of all single- and multiple-magazine Linotypes using quick-change Model 5 magazines.
Many thanks to Jim Daggs, of Ackley Publishing Company, Ackley, Iowa for sending in these photographs.
The advertisement states: “Model 12 Linograph — The All Purpose Machine.
Many thanks to Jim Daggs, of Ackley Publishing Company, Ackley, Iowa for sending in these photographs.