Composition Archives - Page 3 of 15

Model C Nebitype Restoration

Nebitype Model C — Rob Clarkson standing beside the Nebitype

The Press Gang team that work as volunteers in the print shop in The Settler Building at Taranaki Pioneer Museum in Stratford NZ had a great win over Queen’s Birthday week-end 2019 with the first composed line being cast on their recently-acquired Model C Nebitype line casting machine (Serial No. 78).

It was donated to us by The Printing Museum, Wellington, NZ in 2018. From the beginning of restoration of the machine Rob Clarkson has been at the forefront although there’s been a handful of other people that have helped along the way, notably John Nicholson, with grateful assistance from Doug Holland. Read the Full Article . . .

Linotype Model 1 Video

Rubén Brizuela, who runs a letterpress print shop in Mendoza, Argentina is the proud owner of this Model 1 Linotype, which is in full working condition.

He would like to see the machine taking pride of place in a museum somewhere, but nobody seems interested. Read the Full Article . . .

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. Read the Full Article . . .

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.

We have another page of union membership cards, covering the period 1924-1945 here: British Print Trade Union Cards 1924-1945. Read the Full Article . . .

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. Read the Full Article . . .

“Banging In” at Spicers

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. Read the Full Article . . .