Linotype for a Line-O-Type
This entry was posted on Jan 12 2008
In the atrium of Weimer Hall on the University of Florida campus sits a dusty relic whose purpose has been overtaken by today’s modern printing methods.
No, it’s not Walter Cronkite. It’s a machine called a Linotype.
The Linotype was not a printing press, but the machine used to create type bars that created the monolithic plates for (thanks Craig!) that went into the printing press. Each line was crafted in the Linotype via molds and molten lead. The finished product was a lead line of characters which was then positioned on the plate which would do the printing.
The UF College of Journalism website has an informative story on the Linotype and the acquisition of this particular piece. Here’s a quote from the article, Historical Type, by Dean Emeritus Ralph Lowenstein:
“For about 100 years prior to the 1970s, reporters and editors from the high school newspaper to the largest metropolitan daily had memories that included the clatter of Linotypes as printers translated newsroom copy into lines of solid lead. We all had the thrill of carrying home our first byline in the reverse lettering of a line of type, or of becoming the butt of the Linotype operators’ perennial joke – handing a new reporter a line of hot type and watching the greenhorn gasp in pained surprise.”
Today, Linotype (the company) is one of the leading font foundries in existence today, boasting over 10,000 fonts, two of which are used on this website – Palatino and Helvetica.
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Image credit: Nancy
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17 Responses
to “Linotype for a Line-O-Type”
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The machines must have been relatively expensive, as the letter sets were still in use decades later, continuing even into the computer age. No doubt newspapers were probably largely switched over to Linotype or similar machines, but small papers and printers may still have been using the individual type letters and using them.
I have a set or two of letter type that may date back to the 1960’s. I can only estimate that as they came with a machine that dates to the 1960’s. The type is still available today, so it could have been purchased back in the 1960’s with the machine, or replaced at some point later on.
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I knew you would be the first to post. Can you photograph and post the letter type you have?
Wow, looks complicated.
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I couldn’t tell you what any of those keys do.
Really makes all things to do with printing from this point fwd. simple. While all this work went into just preparing newspapers on a daily basis, I guess that means a lot of people are now out of work with modern Graphics, by the way I gave you four stars because I am just in awe of all those keys. Thanks for furthering your cause of photography and education. take care!
Actually, the lead bars containing the “lines of type” did not go directly into the printing press. They went into a full-size flat layout of the page from which the monolithic printing plate was made. My father worked with these wonderful machines at The Miami Herald until they gave way to the onward march of technology in the 1970s. You won’t find a whole lot of former linotype operators walking around today. I know of only one, and he’s around age 70. Many of them dropped dead of cancer at a young age, no doubt from working in an environment laced with airborne molten lead (a story you won’t find in any newspaper).
Craig: Thanks for the additional information. Now that you say it, I don’t know why I didn’t catch this. The plates can’t be made of lead – the soft metal wouldn’t stand up to the rigors of pressing. Making a plate for the press – now that makes more sense. I came into the industry in 1995, so the old school methods are foreign to me, but I’m intrigued by them. Even paste-up was before my time, though I believe it’s still practiced.
BTW, I was raised in Miami, Kendall area.
Leatherboots: Thanks as usual. What’s amazing is that printing has undergone very few (relatively) major changes since it began. Sort of like the lightbulb.
Can you photograph and post the letter type you have?
Some day. It’s not easily accessible right now. And will my pictures even count, since I don’t have a GPS Camera Phone?
I came into the industry in 1995, so the old school methods are foreign to me, but I’m intrigued by them. Even paste-up was before my time, though I believe it’s still practiced.
Yeah, paste-up was still practiced in 1995. Stripping too.
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I love this image. I really like the colours and the…well, the grunginess of it
It looks abstract at first glance but the detail in the enlarged version is wonderful.
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Hey Hunny, remember dreeder60? St.Petersburg Times, going on 28 year now? He answers the phone to this day, the same way as when us old farts were pasting up… and running copy on mat runs across town to the press guys…it goes like this: “ring” [only one ring, ever] … “Lay out, Dave…” maybe it is time to send that guy a link to your site? [and let him know about the up coming b-day party]
Thanks for the kudos on the photo, it took a few tries and I had to steal two anonymous freshman from their birds, and have them hold folders I gave them to shade the glare from the ceiling lights; boy were they tooled! Looking happy with their wings flapping while standing on tip toe with me saying stuff like, “no… a bit more to the right… hey!! You’re left handed, why don’t your two handsome fellows switch places, please… perfect! I got it! You dudes ROCK! My husband will be thrilled to see this dinosaur, thank you both so much! You are my Heroes!” Boy Oh Man-O-War! Were they ever blushing!!! Meanwhile, I was gushing the praise maze on those two kids; all the while, a good 5 to 7 minutes, their girlfriends looked on in shock and awe… of why they could not get their beaus to hold a door open for them much less, stand on tippy toes, barring overhead light glare, like a couple of giant, wobbly, orange and blue umbrellas, for an old hag like me…hovering around the old Lynotype, like a crime scene investigator, with a camera phone in my hand no less! Both of those boys were dutifully following my commands like new nurses in a war-torn M*A*S*H triage tent! Nice one, nanc! Of course, …both of ‘em were sporting a pink plastic folder in one hand and a purple one in the the other hand! [yes, I am a girley-mom afterall!] …they didn’t bat an eyelid at that – they were focused! [pun intended, of course]
That was the most fun I’ve had since running a cleaning party in female birthing on the USS La Salle!
I may paint that scene someday, or at least put it in my “ode to Kerouac sing-songy, rhythm-laden, stream-OH!-consciousness- novel” or at the very lest, write and entire book of Haiku on that one moment in time, taking charge of getting the Lynotype up on the ‘global positioning site-llite.’
BTW, hunny, Great research! Reading it made me feel like I was back in the old Largo, sweatshop bindery, stacking freshly printed auto-trader mags in the staple monster… ah, those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end, until we were at The Barn, bellying up to the bar for last call, after our 3-11…
Hey! Do you hear that whistle blowing? I’m heading back to Florida, to get some sand in my shoes… toodle-loooo, Whoooo-Whoooo! xxn Have a happy day my love!
[Whew! If that doesn't get me a response... I will cry!]
Well done, Nancy. I wish I could have seen that! Quite a bit of work can go into a photo — even a camera shot, eh?
Anyway…
I was just going to ask if it also did Comic Sans (but I’m guessing no…)
Fascinating, interesting (and educational!) post. Thanks, you two!!
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Sadly, I have no clue what the hell that is. Even after the explanation. What I do know is that is one hella good photo of some dinosaur implement used by reporters from like 10,000 years ago.
Hey Pete, no letter type yet, but I did post a photo an old printing press, the Kelsey Excelsior. It was a small press, largely used for postcards and invitations and that sort of thing, as its size is 5″ x 8″. Plus, I’ve got a great link to a site where you can see more old printing equipment.
It’s on my other blog–the one that hasn’t been updated in six months, until now.
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dcr: Stripping!? Man, that must have been some job!
I don’t know which site you’re referring to, can you send a link? I tried digging, but no luck.
Diane: The neat thing about this image is that the lighting was bad and the colors were dark – terrible photo conditions. Yet the image came out looking like it was run through Photoshop. Totally cool.
nanc: Super Dave would probably not comment. If he did, it would be so cool that I would have to close comments forever. Nobody, not even Joeprah, could follow Dave’s act. Thanks for getting this photo, I wasn’t lucky enough to be able to look at this when I was running around Weimer Hall, since it was still locked up in the Gainesville Sun’s storage warehouse. All I got to look at was that dumb sculpture thing made out of fiberglass.
bmgmom: Comic Sans? Those are bad words in these parts.
Joe: No, they used chisels and hammers 10,000 years ago. They used the Linotype 5,000 years ago. Get your facts straight. I used to look up to you…
No, I know, silly. That’s why I said it! Comic Sans = evil
Got that.
I’m just really lousing at telling jokes (even one liner quips). Always have been.
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Thanks to the article, well thought out. I searched for a while to find the right answer to my questions!
linotype operators were Union members and only the Union members typed.
This was called a slug I think and then it went to the casting machine now you know why it is HOT off the press It was a craft job I believe —- uppercase type was in the upper part of the case and if the type was set by hand it was placed in a chase upside down and backwards and locked in a turtle, that is for a letter press then there is off set printing rotogravure and now how newspapers are set you young wippersnappers have it so easy so easy to get it first then you have to run a correction oh good grief