[HN Gopher] The Last Linotype Newspaper (2022)
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The Last Linotype Newspaper (2022)
Author : lqet
Score : 36 points
Date : 2024-02-13 10:17 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.koaa.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.koaa.com)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| (2022)
| dang wrote:
| Added. Thanks!
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Related piece from then:
|
| https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/small-town-newspap...
| octagonal wrote:
| Linotype machines are marvellous and I'd highly recommend seeing
| them in action should you ever get the chance. They are the
| perfect intersection between a rube goldberg machine and a
| mechanical marvel to excite a part of my brain that I can't even
| properly put into words.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| The fact that there's molten lead, and you run your fingers
| over the cast type, how unhealthy is that in the long run?
| Genuinely curious.
| upofadown wrote:
| The problem with leaded solders is from the corrosion that
| builds up on the outside surface of the solder wire. The pure
| lead is not that bad. Since the lead was recently melted in
| the Linotype case there might not be much of a health issue
| there.
|
| Generally, lead poisoning is less of an issue for adults.
| They can slowly work it out of their system (or at least to a
| place it is not as harmful). The huge problem is with
| children. Lead poisoning interferes with brain development.
|
| Anyway, wash your hands after touching lead before eating or
| smoking. They probably didn't know that they had to do that
| back in the days when Linotype machines were popular...
| dreamcompiler wrote:
| I hand-set a lot of lead type in a previous life, and I'm
| just fine now. As long as it's not aerosolized and you avoid
| eating or breathing it, lead is a non-problem. Just wash your
| hands. Of course, much lead _was_ aerosolized during the era
| of leaded gas and kids ate leaded paint chips and those are
| _huge_ problems.
|
| Molten lead in a linotype machine _might_ be an issue iff it
| creates lead vapor, but I 'm not familiar with the literature
| on that subject.
| upofadown wrote:
| There is a very nice documentary called "Linotype: The Film".
| It is currently on Tubi (in my part of the world at least):
|
| * https://tubitv.com/movies/569684/linotype-the-film-in-
| search...
| HansardExpert wrote:
| You can browse previous issues of the paper here (
|
| https://sag.stparchive.com/
|
| This is lovely article (albeit in a sad way). I worked in the
| print industry for many years; offset-litho than letter press but
| I learnt how to set leaded type at college and occasionally we
| out-sourced some work to letter-press printers as there are just
| some jobs that are better suited to the mechanics of letterpress
| than the rather aggressive processes of offset litho - putting
| the paper between many rollers, custom wedding invitations are a
| good example of when we would use letter press.
|
| There is just something wonderful, to me anyway, about the entire
| process of printing, letter-press more so.
|
| I see his set up also included a folding machine - we used to
| have to do a lot of hand-folding for some more delicate or low-
| run jobs that were not worth the time taken to setting up our
| folding machine to work on.
|
| I am glad people like Dean Combs exist. May he keep doing what he
| does for as long as he can and the good folk of Saguache realise
| what a gem they have here.
| anodari wrote:
| My father and my uncles owned a small printing company between
| 1970 and 1990. There were 3 linotypes at one time. I was always
| amazed by those complex machines. Back then, in my teens, I
| worked on the process of melting lead lines so that they became
| lead bars that feed the linotype. Imagine the safety when a
| teenager has to play with lead melted at 400degCelsius.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| a colleague in California was the son of a man who owned three
| Linotype machines. The son developed a hostile reaction in
| proportion to the care and attention given those machines. The
| son personally destroyed at least two of them, with hostility.
|
| The basis of the situation was some combination of unending
| penny-pinching by the Father, working the son very hard "to
| learn the business" including obviously cheating the son on
| wages and commissions, and then the powerful and accurate
| machines on such a scale.
|
| Personally the machines are a marvel, and it is an ugly twist
| of fate that the economics of printing fell through the floor
| with digital type and later all of digital communications. We
| have lost something important in the rush to something new.
| And, this particular Father and Son will never be friends
| again.
| pfarrell wrote:
| There's a neat documentary from the late 1970's, "Farewell etaoin
| shrdlu". It's about the final day the New York Times was printed
| using their linotype machines.
|
| https://youtu.be/1MGjFKs9bnU
| dang wrote:
| Related... others?
|
| _Digging through the New York Times morgue_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37426116 - Sept 2023 (17
| comments)
|
| _Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu (1978) [video]_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31312035 - May 2022 (49
| comments)
|
| _Etaoin Shrdlu_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29071164 - Nov 2021 (33
| comments)
|
| _Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu (1978) [video]_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23538028 - June 2020 (46
| comments)
|
| _1978 - 'Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu'_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16907778 - April 2018 (2
| comments)
|
| _Farewell - ETAOIN SHRDLU (1978)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15806072 - Nov 2017 (1
| comment)
|
| _Farewell - ETAOIN SHRDL: The Last Day of Hot Metal
| Typesetting at the NY Times_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13070183 - Nov 2016 (1
| comment)
| xattt wrote:
| Near the end of the documentary, there are operators shown
| working on digital typesetting terminals.
|
| What would these have been?
| eynsham wrote:
| I think the title is inaccurate; the _Democrate de l 'Aisne_ also
| uses a Linotype machine:
| https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/patrimoine/histoire/patr....
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| Yeah, it's the last one in the USA.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| The last issue of The Saguache Crescent appears to have been in
| March 2023, so there may in fact be no Linotype machines still in
| operation in the USA.
|
| https://sag.stparchive.com/archives.php
| WillAdams wrote:
| I know at least one person who had one set up for personal use,
| so I suspect that would only be correct if emended to "...still
| in _commercial_ operation..." and you'd probably have to add
| "for printing in house".
|
| For context, Linotype alloy is still listed/sold:
|
| https://www.rotometals.com/linotype-alloy-5-pounds-4-tin-12-...
|
| and there was a recent Kickstarter in Europe to preserve one
| for usage:
|
| https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1755997589/the-magic-of...
|
| and I'm pretty sure that R.I.T. still has one in operation (a
| student when my daughter was there did a card which was typeset
| in Trajanus, which was a Linotype font).
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