Morrison Slug Stripper

The table top of the Morrison Slug Stripper
The table top of the Morrison Slug Stripper.

Taken from the book “Operation and Mechanism of the Linotype and Intertype” by J Ashworth, first published in 1955.

1, a display slug partially stripped; 2, the control knob of the slug-holding clamp; 3, a slug stripped ready for use; 4, the type metal gauge block; 5, the micrometer gauge, calibrated in thousandths of an inch. Read the Full Article . . .

Intertype Stick Attachment

Intertype stick
Using the Intertype stick attachment – setting large display lines from the matrix cabinet.

This article appeared in “Operation and Mechanism of the Linotype and Intertype, Volume II” by J Ashworth, published in 1955.

The Intertype composing stick attachment includes a special setting stick, similar to a composing stick, for easy hand assembling of lines of matrixes and spacebands, and a special hinged first elevator head for quick insertion and withdrawal of hand-set matrix and spaceband lines. Read the Full Article . . .

Willimantic Daily Chronicle, 1961

Willimantic Daily Chronicle
The newspaper was located in this building at 24-26 Church Street, Willimantic, Connecticut from 1877 until 1972. The building was demolished in 1976 after the newspaper had moved to the outskirts of town. The old location is now the Arthur W. Crosbie [memorial municipal] parking lot. My father, who died shortly before the parking lot was build, would have chuckled if he’d have known a parking lot was named after him.

Vin Crosbie allowed these excellent photographs to be used on Metal Type.

Vin said: “These photographs detail the production of a 10,000-circulation daily newspaper in Connecticut on Friday, March 17, 1961. I found these slides among those of my father, the paper’s general manager. The Chronicle has been owned by my family since 1877. I’m the fifth generation and the sixth is already working there. Read the Full Article . . .

The Graphotype

Graphotype
Graphotype (new model) composing and casting machine; view of right-hand side from the front

Many thanks to Robin Kenworthy for sending in this article, originally published in a book called “Typographical Printing Surfaces” shortly after 1907. The Graphotype was an early rival to the Monotype system, but had the keyboard and casting system in the one machine.

Robin has a museum-worthy collection of machines, type and matrices as well as an extensive library on the subject of letterpress. Read the Full Article . . .

Shaffstall Mat Detector

Everett G Shaffstall
Everett G Shaffstall photographed in 1972.

Tony Shaffstall from Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, got in touch with Metal Type to give us details of the Shaffstall Transistor Mat Detector that his father (Everett G Shaffstall) invented.

Tony sent in the patent application (10 pages with some nice illustrations) dating from 1960 and a 1965 copy of the Installation Instructions and Trouble Diagnosis (72 pages). Read the Full Article . . .

Express Gifts

Intertype Monarchs
An overview of the 3 Intertype Monarchs.

Chris Johnson contacted Metal Type in November 2007 saying that he was an engineer working for Express Gifts, part of Findel PLC and had been looking after 3 working Intertype Monarchs for the past 11 years. The company had recently acquired a refurbished Intertype C4 to bring the count of working linecasters up to 4! The machines are used to produce slugs of people’s names to manufacture personalised gift items.

The machines all have a Decitek Floppy Disk Drive operating a Fairchild Teletypesetting unit. Chris very kindly sent in the following photographs. Read the Full Article . . .