Roy Brachet, a Linotype operator on the paper for 25 years, took these pictures on the day of the last hot metal edition of the London Evening Standard.
Last Hot Metal London Evening Standard
Category: Newspaper
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.
Composing Chapel Rule Book, 1958
From the late Dave Bowles’ collection of London Fleet Street compositors items comes this rule book.
These items were usually produced “in-house” set on a linecaster and produced on a proofing press.
A History of Mechanical Composition
I wrote this thesis back in 1979 as part of City and Guilds studies. I have reproduced it here exactly as it was written.
IN THIS thesis I am setting out to give a brief summary of mechanical composing machines from Mr Church’s first unsuccessful effort back in 1822 to the present day.
Bridlington Chronicle
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.”
A Measured Approach
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.
Salt Lake Deadline
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.
Pennsylvania Pre-Press
Ex Linotype operator Thomas A Berkheiser tells of his time working on the Shamokin News-Dispatch in the 1960s and 70s.
MY NAME is Thomas A. Berkheiser, from Paxinos, Pennsylvania.
The Green Card
Dean Nayes gives us an insight into what life was like for a travelling compositor in the USA in the 1960s.
BACK in 1968, after 13 years of “homesteading”, I decided I was going on the road again.
E for Exasperation
Dean Nayes sent in this amusing story about a very ingenious Linotype operator.
DURING my travels across the United States I came across a very ingenious Linotype operator.