Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!
This short piece from Merchant of Alphabets describes the brand new Pravda printing plant in 1934.
ON THE very first day of my arrival Gene Garin, with pride and enthusiasm, took me out to the new Pravda plant – the dream come true of their deliberations four years ago.
How a Linotype matrix is made from Merchant of Alphabets by Reginald Orcutt.
FAR MORE than the layman may find it easy to appreciate, every good type letter is fraught with human spirit. Whether its essence stems from the Humanists of the Renaissance, or comes from the artistic expression of to-morrow morning, its beauty and clarity – and thus its legibility and function – stem from the genius and personality of the artist who designed it and the craftsman who brought it into being.
Roy Bowker’s story of the possibly unique “banging in” ceremony at Spicers, London.
SO WHERE do I start? Well my first insight to the printing game was at secondary modern school when the teacher asked if anybody was interested in joining a printing class that was being started. My hand went up basically because a friend of mine had volunteered.
Bob Turner’s second story for this site is the fascinating story of his print career to date.
HERE I sit in beautiful Dunedin, Pinellas County, Florida. 68 years old, semi-retired, working part-time for a direct mail operation where I make plates for the offset presses, run an MBO folder and bore the kids with my stories about the “good?” old days. How did I get here?
Bob Turner’s certainly kept up with the times. Still working part-time in the print industry at the age of 68.
We had to pay a scrap dealer to haul it away after I disassembled it. Sad!
Two spoof April Fool’s day articles that appeared in the Guardian (UK) newspaper. Many thanks to Ernest Bray for submitting these.
Population: (1973 census) 1,782,724 consisting of approx. Europeans and mixed race 640,000; Flongs 574,000 Creoles 271,000; Malaysians 1,17,000; Arabs 92,000; others 88,000.
Mike Wilson tells us of his career on the Bridlington Chronicle, Yorkshire, UK.
MY EAGLE CLUB DIARY has the following note for Monday, 8th September, 1952: “Started work at 8. Did metal for Linotype. 12-1 dinner. Left at 4.30.” On Thursday the 11th: “After dinner went to sorting office.”
Alan Young tells us of his days as possibly one of the last Linotype operators.
STARTED my career at Wolf Composition in Reading, Massachusetts, USA in 1964.
Another fascinating story from Dean Nayes takes us back to the Salt Lake City Tribune in the 1950s.
I RETURNED to the Salt Lake Tribune just a few months after going through the first time, on my way back to Denver, to get my family, and return to San Francisco.
Dean D Nayes aka The Itinerant Typographical Engineer tells a story from his travels in the 1950s.
IN 1956, myself, and a friend, Joe McGowan, left the Rocky Mountain News in February, after the Xmas layoffs.