Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!
Deep in the countryside of Wiltshire, in the UK, lies the disused World War Two Airbase RAF Wroughton. In six huge, decaying hangars named in typical military style: L1, L2, etc. lie thousands of the modern world’s greatest treasures, guarded round-the-clock by British Army veterans.
The Airbase acts as a storage facility for the Science Museum. The Museum’s public face in South Kensington can only show eight per cent of their massive collection.
George Finn, an Australian Linotype mechanic, sent in this photograph and details of the restoration project.
This is the oldest machine I have ever worked on. Checking the serial number (22971) against shipping dates, I find that it was shipped in the first half of 1918.
“Stop the presses! Make over the front page!” Typewriters swing into action, Linotype machines click, compositors’ fingers fly, and cold metal quickly becomes hot news!
Type metals of “Wilkes” brand, produced solely by the Glidden-owned Metals Refining Company, are used in the make-up of typical American newspapers. They are used in printing magazines distributed to millions. Many of the printed pieces you receive … the books you read … are printed with “Wilkes” type metal, the accepted national standard of fine quality.
Many thanks to Ian Cottom, from York, who sent in this photograph which he bought from the Gazette and Herald newspaper in 1946!
There are six pages of Yorkshire Evening Press photos on Metal Type. Check the “Related Pages” menu to see the rest.
I FOUND this C4 Intertype abandoned at an Historical Preservation Society in Pimpama, just 10 km (6 miles) from where I live.
I asked the Publicity Officer what he could tell me about the machine. He said it was before his time, but that they had owned a number of machines but the rest had been given away, along with all the spare parts.
Andy Taylor sent in these pictures of his “brand new” Model F Elrod strip-casting machine. He’s hoping to send in some video of the machine in operation in the near future. He also has a Model K.
Many thanks to Bill Nairn, from New Zealand, for sending in these photographs — they show a Linotype Comet 300, complete with a Fairchild operating unit attached to the linecaster’s keyboard and the perforating keyboard. The whole set-up is in full operational condition.
Says Bill: “In New Zealand, we had the opportunity to restore a Linotype Comet 300, complete with Fairchild Operating Unit (attached to the Linotype keyboard) and the perforating keyboard.
This article, taken from a Mergenthaler Printing Company publication, dated 1890 describes the “New Linotype” to newspaper proprietors, etc. It also compares the machine to the earlier “Blower” machine and the un-named “most prominent typesetting machine.”
The document compares “The most prominent typesetting machine” and the old “Blower” Linotype to the new model:
Luis Garcia sent in these photographs, along with details of his 40-year career in the print industry. He describes the pictures in his own words.
This first old picture was salvaged from a house fire in 2001; in first term appears my father (Vicente Garcia), and my uncle (Gonzalo) behind him.
