Yesterday’s Technology . . . Today!
These very evocative pictures of the Rhinebeck Gazette in Rhinebeck, New York State, USA were recently offered for sale on eBay after being purchased from an auction of the estate of a member of the Strong family who owned and edited the paper. They were taken by Harry Coutant circa 1930.
Steve Young sent in this pic and story of a charity event back in 1967.
WINCHESTER Chamber of Commerce organised a “Great Race” in the summer of 1967 as part of their Festival Week.
NICHOLAS KENNEDY of Trip Print Press, Toronto, Canada, sent in this short close-up film of his Little Giant #6 press in action.
Says Nicholas, “It is printing a monthly programme for a local venue.
Many thanks to the Provost News, Provost, Alberta, Canada, for allowing Metal Type to make use of this video.
https://youtu.be/s8-aYQFmCT0
Robert Griffith sent in this video of a Linotype Model 31.
The footage was shot in October 2005 at the Museum of Printing History, Houston, Texas, USA.
Thanks largely to John Nicholson of Hamilton, NZ, the Model K Elrod which had been in storage at the Taranaki Aviation Transport And Technology Museum (TATATM), New Plymouth, is now operational.
To the writer’s knowledge, the Model K had been in the lean-to store of the museum, on a heavy wooden plank base since its arrival at the museum and never used since de-commissioning at the donor’s premises (Taranaki Newspapers Ltd., New Plymouth) around 1985.
The fascinating story of how a new version of this old machine came to be manufactured in 1960.
Article taken from The History of the Printer by Dr. James Eckman, published in 1965 by North American Publishing Company, Philadelphia, USA.
Many thanks to Mike Wilson for sending in these two photos and details of his early career.
Driffield Times was once based in Exchange Street, Driffield, and the Linos were upstairs.
There are six pages of Yorkshire Evening Press photos on Metal Type. Check the “Related Pages” menu to see the rest.
During my time at the Yorkshire Evening Press it was a tradition that the Archbishop of York visited the works every Christmas Eve to press a green button to start the presses rolling.
Many thanks to the Rutgers University Libraries, John Depol Collection for permission to use this picture.
On July 3, 1886, seated at the keyboard of his new machine, Ottmar Mergenthaler handed to Whitelaw Reid a slug of metal. Reid exclaimed, “It’s a line-of-type!” Thus was christened the forerunner of today’s modern linecasting machine: the Linotype.