The ads are typical WWII patriotic propaganda that was found in the advertising of many, many companies.

The post Intertype WWII Advertising 1942/43 appeared first on Metal Type.

The post Whitcombe & Tombs, NZ, Advertisement appeared first on Metal Type.

Said Tony: “When I was a kid I accompanied my dad to many newspapers in the area where he would, late in the evening, install these devices on the Mergs. I was in grade school and didn’t understand what he did but I was mesmerised watching those machines run — still am.”

More details of this device can be found here: Shaffstall Mat Detector

The post Shaffstall Mat Detector Brochure 1960 appeared first on Metal Type.

“All letterpress apprentice Printers had to attend the school once a year for two weeks during the first three years of their apprenticeship.

“No student loans in those days. Travel, accommodation, food etc was courtesy of the New Zealand Government.”

The post New Zealand School of Printing, 1971 appeared first on Metal Type.

The ‘794’ has been designed to meet the particular requirements of large newspaper offices. It will become the standard all-purpose ‘Linotype’ for three very good reasons.

Reliability

Ease of operation

Simplicity of maintenance

These are the factors that all composing room managers look for in their typesetting machines and these are the features that Linotype and Machinery Limited have built into this new model.

In newspaper offices where machines must double on tape and manual operation — where four magazines are a must to meet frequent body size changes, where seconds count and where ‘down-time’ must be kept to the bare minimum — the ‘794’ is specified to meet these requirements. But today they are not only the requirements of newspaper offices — general printing is a tough, competitive industry and it needs tough, competitive tools. This is why the ‘794’ has been introduced — and why it will answer the needs of newspaper, jobbing and book houses alike.

The machine, as the name implies, is the natural four magazine development from the very successful high speed model 79, which has become the standard, twelve-lines-a-minute tape-operated ‘Linotype’ in many printing offices all over the world. However, it should be understood that Linotype and Machinery Limited have not merely added two additional magazines to the 79, nor have they merely speeded up the model 78.

The ‘794’ is a new machine with many entirely new features. It incorporates a large number of facilities which are of significant production value. These are of importance in both manual as well as tape operation, and any operator will see immediately how and why.

In designing the machine, every effort has been made to bring all controls within easy reach of the operator seated at the keyboard and minimize the amount of effort and time necessary to make the normal changes which are required in ordinary newspaper or general Jobbing production. At the same time, the various essential ‘safeties’ on the standard machine have been considered and in a number of cases improved or redesigned. In particular, the power control box has been split so that all low voltage equipment is in one section of the box entirely separate from the high voltage equipment. There are also a number of special features which are well worth amplifying.

Hydraulic Magazine Change

Selection of each position and spreading is now fully automatic from push button control. Any change, whether from first to second or first to fourth, requires only one operation of the appropriate button. These are situated a few inches above the right-hand side of the keyboard. The new ‘safeties’, which are visually apparent to the operator in a series of lights next to the selection buttons, are completely effective in ensuring that no magazine change is possible while any matrix remains in circulation. This alone will save many pounds in matrix replacement over the year, as well as considerable operator time, as he will no longer have to satisfy himself that the distributor is clear before changing magazines.

Operator’s Control and the Indicator Console

These are at eye level and virtually at the operator’s fingertips and incorporate all the main machine functions. Machine on/off, Thermo-Blo, Magazine change and indicators, Fount indicators, Assembler spring adjustment and when fitted, the Shaffstall controls and indicators.

Other Control Points

A new control panel has been introduced immediately to the left, but out of the way, of the operator’s left knee. This includes the air cylinder control, which means that the operator can see the delivery slide and test the adjustment while at the keyboard. The operator is now able to control the full movement of the delivery slide by means of two knobs which operate a double-action air cylinder. In the same panel there is now positioned the mouthpiece temperature control which also indicates by lamp the on/off period of both crucible and mouthpiece. The crucible control box has been simplified and reduced in size, but remains in the normal position, with the same electrical arrangements.

Striker and Keyrods Assembly

This is now one unit and can be removed as such when cleaning.

The Hydraquadder

Incorporates the automatic end of paragraph device which again reduces operator action and is, of course, effective for tape control.

Chute Assembly

This has been stabilized by the addition of a spring loaded flap in place of the feather control, which eliminates periodic adjustment by the operator.

Assembler Brake

This is now fitted with a new return lever at the assembler itself, which enables the operator to release tension in the line when making a character change, with far less effort.

Ejector Lever

This has been redesigned and the lever itself has been strengthened.

Main Cam Guard

This can be applied as an optional extra designed to both protect the operator from the movement of the cams and also incorporate a rail on which to hang up to eight metal ingots.

General Accessibility

The box frame now carries the intermediate shaft drive motor which, apart from removing a general obstruction from the back of the machine, is easily accessible without having to swing the keyboard and assembler front. For reasons of both improved safety and accessibility to the top of the distributor, the whole of the guards at the back of the machine, which are also used as steps, have been redesigned.

Pie-chute and Stacker

This unit, which in the past has always been subject to criticism due to its relatively light construction, has been redesigned. The chute is now a flexible tube which cannot be distorted and cause matrices to jam — and the entrance from the disser is now much more rugged in design.

Special new T.T.S. Features

All ‘safeties’ which become effective during tape operation are now immediately visually defined by the lamp indicators next to the magazine change buttons. This means that immediately the machine stops due to any fault, the operator will be able to locate the cause and make the necessary adjustment with minimum delay.

Automatic Tape Rewinder

For the first time on the Seventy Series range, an automatic, effective and extremely simple tape rewinder is incorporated on the operating unit Cover.

The post Linotype Model 794 appeared first on Metal Type.

This machine was intended to produce display lines of type, such as newspaper headlines, as a Ludlow Typograph set-up would have done in a hot metal shop.

It was also suggested in the publicity material that it would also be useful for setting languages such as Chinese and Japanese, where the number of characters used was greater than the number of keys on the Intertype Fotosetter.

According to print industry historian and President of the Museum of Printing (Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA), Frank Romano: “It was for display type. Never sold. The prototype got such bad reviews that it was never officially marketed. Interesting approach however.”

The part of the machine that photographically exposed the paper was the same as on the linecaster-based Intertype Fotosetter, but the matrices were assembled by hand in a special stick, then transferred to the machine.

These illustrations from the US Patent Office show the stick, and the description below it is also from the patent.

When a line of matrices has been composed in the composing device it is inserted in the machine in a manner now to be described. Referring particularly to Figs. 6, 7 and 8, secured to the top of housing 64 is a channel number 68 which is attached to the housing in any suitable manner such as by means of the screws 70.

As best shown in Fig. 8, the channel member 68 is adapted to slidably receive the slotted support 10 of the composing device which is retained in place in the channel number 68 by a plate 72 secured to the channel by the screws 74 (see Fig. 6) and overlying the channel.

As illustrated in Fig. 5 of the drawing, the composing device slides into channel member 68 until its left-hand end strikes an abutment 76 forming part of an elevator 75 that is described below. The engaging edges of abutment 78 and slotted support 10 are aligned with the left end of housing 64.

As previously indicated, the composed line of matrices is transferred from the composing device to a justifying station by apparatus that includes the elevator 75, the construction of which is best shown in Fig. 3.

Referring to this figure the elevator 75 is of U-shaped cross-section and comprises a front arm 76, rear arm 78 and inter-connecting block 80. Referring to Fig. 7, the composed line of matrices is inserted into elevator 75 by manually grasping the curved end 26 of assembler slide 20 and urging the left-hand end of the assembler slide between the upper ends of arms 76 and 78 until the upper step 49 of shoe 34 engages the end of slot 14. The slot 14 is of such length that when it is engaged by the step 40 the composed line will be properly positioned within the elevator.

Reverting to Fig. 3, the matrices are provided with upper ears 82 and lower ears 84 that extend laterally beyond the sides of the assembler slide 20. The arms 76 and 78 of elevator 75 are provided with the shelves 90 and 92 respectively positioned to engage the upper ears 82 of the matrices of the line. Thus as the elevator 75 is lifted, the line of matrices is moved thereby from the assembler slide 20. This removal of the line of matrices from the assembler slide is particularly shown in Fig. 4.

Are you interested in Early Photosetting machines? Check out the Early Photosetting Chat section of the Metal Type Forum.

The post Intertype Desk Model Fotosetter Photographic Line Composing Machine appeared first on Metal Type.

Many thanks to Eric Earnshaw for sending in this brochure which showcased Allied Newspaper’s Withy Grove, Manchester, UK “Allied House” newspaper plant.

Enjoyed the photos? Well, you’ve found the main page! But there’s another couple of pages on Metal Type you may have missed. More photos here: Withy Grove (no names for the people photographed though, maybe you could help out in the Comments) – and some pics sent in by Eric Saltmarsh here: Men and Machines. 

NEW: Withy Grove Forum

There has been such a large response to these posts that I have decided to set up a special sub-board on the Metal Type forum. I hope people will find it useful.

The post Allied Newspapers 1930s/1940s Pamphlet appeared first on Metal Type.

You can read more about how Doug came across these images on the Metal Type forum here: Linotype: The Book.

If anyone would like to fill in the names of the “Unknown typesetting machines” on this page, please do so in the comments.

The post Early Typesetting Machines 2 appeared first on Metal Type.

These gifts would have been given away at trade shows and exhibitions early in the 20th Century.

Says Rocky: “I don’t know the scarcity of the 2 items attached, but thought you might want to post if you think others might find them interesting. The idea of making a cigar cutter out of a matrix to use at trade show giveaways in the early 1900’s I find quite ingenious.

The post Intertype Trade Show Gifts appeared first on Metal Type.

I would imagine in those days the first one to apply would get the job, and earn enough money to live on. How times have changed!

The post 1953 Recruitment Ads appeared first on Metal Type.