[GreenKeys] Linotype in Orange County, CA:

[dmm at lemur.com]

John Nagle wrote:
>This Linotype is available in Orange County for only $500.
>http://www.briarpress.org/30564
>You have to move it.
>These are magnificent machines, but weigh about 3300 pounds, require 
>heavy power, use molten lead, and need a skilled mechanic. This is a 
>Model 8, the 1911 model.  Does anyone have the resources for this?

If anyone does decide to take the plunge into "hot metal,"
a) yes, it can be done (in fact, there are at least two members of this list
   other than myself who have acquired Linotypes)
b) yes, there are resources for their maintenance and operation
   within the letterpress printing community.
   (There are even a few people left who maintain them professionally.
   Also, the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA, is a good
   resource fairly close to this particular machine.)
It isn't necessarily easy, but it can be done.  

It is always sad to see another go.  They're like Teletypes in that
once they were everywhere (over 150,000 made in the US alone),
then they were "worthless junk" fit only for scrap, and pretty soon 
they will, all of a sudden, have vanished from the wild. 

Regards,
David M.
(Who has eight Linotypes, one of which is operational (and running
right now, as it happens.))
http://www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/cr-stuff/quicklook/index.html
===
Dr. David M. MacMillan  -  dmm at lemur.com

   The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
       - Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915); Aldo Leopold

www.CircuitousRoot.com   *  www.LemurType.com   *  www.Lemur.com