Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!
Arthur Johnson tells us about his career and the work he is still doing with Hot Metal in Gulgong, NSW, Australia.
I STARTED my apprenticeship in 1953 at Winn & Co in Sydney Australia a medium sized shop with 2 Linotypes a Model 8 electric pot and a !4 with a gas pot.
George Clark sent in this very interesting list of old printing trade terms.
A Chapel.-A meeting of compositors is called a chapel, and the members of the chapel form a companionship (shortened to ‘ship) pledged to watch over the interests of the London Society of Compositors (L.S.C.) and its members in the chapel.
Roy Daniels tells us about his printing career in Canada from the age of 15.
EMIGRATING to Canada in May of 1949 on the Cunard Ship Acquitania at the age of 12 was a harrowing experience.
Dave Hughes tells of his time on the Yorkshire Evening Press and South London Press, UK.
I WAS first introduced to the Linotype machine in the mid 1970s when I started work as an Apprentice Compositor at the Yorkshire Evening Press, then located in Coney Street, York.
It would appear to be one of the Whittaker company’s early photosetters.
Steve Robertshaw, Ex Whittaker & Compugraphic UK Engineer, updated this page with the following:
It is an early photosetter that used mainly linecaster technology to produce photoset output.
Interested in early photosetting technology? Check out the Early Photosetting Chat section of the Forum.
This is an early, computerised typesetting machine. The operator selects a character on the keyboard, which triggers a stroboscopic flash to set the type.
Four type styles, each with 105 characters, were available to the operator through filmstrips held on a drum.
S.A.M stood for ‘Sets All Matrices.’ It was a hot-metal linecaster made by M.H. Whittaker & Son.
This would then be cast in the machine. S.A.M. could use matrices from Ludlow, Linotype, Intertype and Nebitype companies.
The Intertype Monarch was designed without a manual keyboard. It relied totally on Teletypesetting (TTS) for setting type, using instructions from perforated tape.
It had an output of 14 lines per minute. A suction manifold held the matrices to the delivery belt as they were delivered at high speed to the assembler.
On its introduction in 1962, the Electron was said to be the fastest linecaster in the world.
It used Teletypesetting to automatically select matrices through a keyboard operated via perforated tape.