[GreenKeys] Some pictures of stuff in the newspaper biz

[dmm at lemur.com]

Jim Haynes wrote:

>http://tinyurl.com/moqoqo2
>Shows a Teletypsetter tape punch, among other things.

Thanks VERY much for posting this!  

Not to sound morbid, but to me the nicest thing about this presentation
was the confirmation that Romano is still alive.  He's noted for a book
that he wrote in 1986, "Machine Writing and Typesetting," on the
linked origins of the typewriter (Sholes, Remington) and the Linotype
(Moore, Clephane, Mergenthaler - Clephane invested in both).
It was a pioneering study, and is a good book still.  (It has its
flaws - in particular he misidentifies early Linotypes in a very
confusing way.  But in 1986 we'd already forgotten the history of
machine composition and the tools weren't yet in place to rediscover it,
so he can't be blamed.)


I tracked down the origin of this.  It's a presentation given by 
Frank Romano at a newspaper conference, "AmericaEast" in 2013.
The focus of the conference was on how to generate revenue from
digital media, so I'm glad they let him in the door :-)

<http://americaeast.panewsmedia.org/about-america-east/2013-recap>

<http://americaeast.panewsmedia.org/docs/default-source/2013-presentations/technical-jargon-through-the-years---frank-romano.pdf>


Just a couple of notes on Romano's slides...

2. "Hot Metal" - to a printer, this is upside-down,  Type is read
   right-to-left, upside-down, bottom-to-top.  Romano knows this,
   but he couldn't assume his audience would.

3. "Chase..."  The "Chase" is the metal frame around the "form" of
   composed type.  The "quoin" (pronounced "coin") is an expanding
   wedge to press things together tightly - several would be used.
   The photos don't actually show these things clearly.

4. The "Turtles" in slide 4 are the wheeled tables used to carry a form
   from one working surface to another.  Bear in mind that these forms are
   newspaper-sized sheets of (basically) lead, 0.918 inches thick.

5. Yes, the really did cast typemetal against paper.
   "Stereotyping" (meaning "solid type" - "stereo" does NOT mean "two")
   was the general name for the process.  The "flong" was a mold taken
   of a form of type, the plate, or "stereotype plate" (which could
   be either flat or cylindrical) was cast from it.
   The current meaning of "stereotype" comes *from* this newspaper 
   technology (as does the phrase "boilerplate").

8. The slug is upside-down :-)
   It is also interesting that it has a name cast on it.  The standard
   thing to do to show off your Linotype when someone visits is to cast
   their name.  Brings a smile every time.

9. What he's illustrating with the newspaper clipping was the practice
   of filling out a bad line by just running your finger down the
   column of keys (you send the line, cast it, discard it, and let the
   machine distribute the matrices) - but sometimes these bad lines
   slipped through.

   The "Quadder" (here a third-party device by Star Parts, Inc.)
   would automatically right-justify, center, or left-justify a line without
   you having to fill it out with "quads" (blanks).  If you left it
   off, you went back to ordinary justified lines using spacebands.

   The Star unit was a later one, electromechanical in its operation.
   Mergenthaler made a lovely fully hydraulic unit (the Hydraquadder);
   there were many other variations.  It's a really hand add-on.

12. The Perforator shown is a Multiface Perforator made by Fairchild
    after they purchased the Teletypesetter Corp.

13. The punches on the right are BRPE punches - but you guys knew that.
    I believe that these could be had for 5, 6, 7, or 8 level work.


Regards,
David M.
===
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