
Thanks to Metal Type contributor Graeme How for sending in this advertisement from the 1930s.
Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!

Thanks to Metal Type contributor Graeme How for sending in this advertisement from the 1930s.

Many thanks to Anthony Shaffstall (the son of the inventor of this device) for sending in this 1960 advertising material.
Said Tony: “When I was a kid I accompanied my dad to many newspapers in the area where he would, late in the evening, install these devices on the Mergs. I was in grade school and didn’t understand what he did but I was mesmerised watching those machines run — still am.”

Many thanks to Graeme How for sending these pictures in. Said Graeme: “I found these photos I captured while attending the New Zealand School of Printing at Orekei, Auckland, New Zealand, the year being 1971.
“All letterpress apprentice Printers had to attend the school once a year for two weeks during the first three years of their apprenticeship.

The ‘794’ has been designed to meet the particular requirements of large newspaper offices. It will become the standard all-purpose ‘Linotype’ for three very good reasons.
Reliability

The illustrations on this page are from the Ottmar Mergenthaler Museum, digitised by Doug Wilson.
You can read more about how Doug came across these images on the Metal Type forum here: Linotype: The Book.
Many thanks to David Eaves for sending in these photographs, taken in the 1930s, of this commercial general print shop based in Accrington, Lancashire, UK.
David supplied this information on the company: “Jas. Broadley Ltd. were established in 1841 at Clayton-le-Moors, Accrington in North East Lancashire UK.

Thanks to Graeme Howe for sending in these recruitment ads, from the end of 1953.
I would imagine in those days the first one to apply would get the job, and earn enough money to live on. How times have changed!

Many thanks to Chris Greenhill for sending in his grandfather’s collection of British Print Trade Union membership cards.
His grandfather Joseph Henry Davis was born in 1884 and entered the print industry at the age of 14. You can read more about his career in London and view his indenture document here: 1898 Indentures.

Many thanks to Chris Greenhill for sending in details of his grandfather’s long career in the print industry, along with his Indenture document, which was signed in 1898.
Chris says: “I gleaned the following from my grandfather’s last surviving daughter, my aunt.