Category: Location
Christophe Plantin Print Shop
Many thanks to Mike Topper for sending in these pictures he took at the Christophe Plantin Museum in Antwerp.
Austrian Type Height
Many thanks to George Hamilton from Vienna, Austria for sending in this story.
I WAS in Bad Ischl (Austria) a week ago, sought out an antiquarian bookstore for anything on printing and was told by the prop that there was nothing, but on the way out I looked down and under a stack of stuff there was a case of what appeared to be wood type.
British Print Trade Union Cards 1946-1993
From the late Dave Bowles’ collection of London Fleet Street compositors items comes this great collection of trade union membership cards from 1946 right through to the 1990s.
This page was updated in 2023 with additional cards from the collection of Joseph Henry Davis.
Automated Typesetting, 1971
Many thanks to George Finn for sending in this video from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Says George: “The video was extracted from a video tape I was given when I retired in 1989. It was used to give visitors an overview of newspaper production prior to taking a tour of the plant. Sorry the quality is not the best.
Preservation in NZ
Terry Foster, a long time contributor to Metal Type, describes the uphill struggle he faces trying to get public backing for preserving letterpress machinery in New Zealand.
While the recent increase in public interest in letterpress printing is welcome, it would seem to be centered around the “craft and artisan” areas, not so much larger, more industrial equipment.
Book Impositions
Parekura Horomia 1950-2013
Many thanks to long-time Metal Type contributor Graeme How for sending in this article.
Said Graeme: “Our local Member of Parliament Parekura Horomia died this week at the age of 62. He started his working life as a linotype operator at the Gisborne Hearld.
Dropping In!
Thanks to Les Smith for sending in this story. Says Les: “Another story from a typesetting company in Sydney, Australia.”
THE TIME had come to replace the Royal in the basement.
High-Speed Russian
Many thanks to Pete Roberts for sending in this amusing anecdote from his days at the Cambridge University Press.
WAY BACK in 1969 I was a young Monotype keyboard operator at Cambridge University Press. Keen to ‘get on’, I volunteered to study Russian at night class (unpaid) with a view to typesetting Russian at work.