Category: UK/Europe

Burlington Press & Electrical Press

Mike Wilson
I’m on the Linotype in Burlington Press, Bridlington, a one-man operation (my Dad and my mother) until his death in 1978. I’m probably on holiday from Aylesbury, where I was department overseer on the Bucks Herald. I worked a brand new Intertype there, a model that came out before the days of the Elektrons etc. A ten-line-a-minute job with a blower etc. But I could still keep a line hanging. But despite the blower the mould got so hot that it would splash often, and the union man told me to slow down or everyone would have to work at my speed. They promised me an output bonus but it never materialised.

Mike Wilson also sent in these pictures of himself and his father.

Linotype fan? Don’t miss the Linotype Chat section of the Metal Type Forum. Read the Full Article . . .

Printing House Museum

Linotype keyboard
The linotype keyboard. Spacebar to the left, then lower case, numbers, etc. are in the blue section and caps on the right. There is an expanding spaceband on the tray above. The blue section also contained the now little-used ligatures (fi, fl, ff, ffi, ffl).

The photographs on the following pages were all taken at The Printing House Museum, Cockermouth, Cumbria, UK. The museum unfortunately closed down in 2010.

Linotype fan? Don’t miss the Linotype Chat section of the Metal Type Forum. Read the Full Article . . .

London Evening News 1980

London Evening News stonehands
Dick McWilliams and colleagues round the stone at the London Evening News. The picture was taken the day the paper folded at the end of 1980 after losing out in the circulation war with the London Evening Standard. Dick (a sub) is to the right with glasses and no apron.

All smiles round the stone as the London Evening News bites the dust in 1980. Picture sent in by Dick McWilliams.

Yorkshire Evening Press

Stonehands
Yorkshire Evening Press stonehands posing in front of a Ludlow, late 1970s. The guy leaning in from the left is John Bradley, the big guy to the right at the back is Bob Procter, next to him Derek Johnson, left of him John Langthorp (wearing the “hat”) and the man at the front in the grey jacket was Frank Smith.

There are six pages of Yorkshire Evening Press photos on Metal Type. Check the “Related Pages” menu to see the rest.

Welcome to Metal Type

METAL TYPE is the place for printers, typesetters and newspaper workers, who fondly remember those letterpress days, to come and reminisce.

The site originally concentrated on the ingenious Linotype mechanical typesetting machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1884. Read the Full Article . . .