Linotype Photo Lifted from Flickr

linotype, a photo by yukali on Flickr.

This is a test post. I'm browsing Flickr photos and found this beauty. I wanted to see how the photo displays if I "share" through Blogger... Pretty easy to do, and looks pretty good, eh? A few clicks in Flickr and I've got blog content. I don't even know the photographer. Watch out! Flickr thief on the loose. Seriously, there are some fantastic photos of linecasters and related material from all around the world, past & present. A good place to start is to check out the Linotype / Intertype Lincasters group moderated by Michael Babcock of Linotypesetting.com

Celebrating the 125th Anniversary

July 3rd, 2011 marked the 125th anniversary of the invention of the Linotype machine. On this day in 1886 the machine was successfully tested after being installed in a production environment at the New York Tribune.

To celebrate, some fellow Stumptown Printers and fellow volunteers of the C.C. Stern Type Foundry fired up the 31 with the mission to cast some slugs and have a bit of fun.

Connie from C.C. Stern Type Foundry and
Buzzworm Studios casting a “tweet”

After exchanging tweets with Doug Wilson (director of Linotype the film) earlier that proceeding week, we cobbled together an idea to cast "tweets", and do it in a semi "real time" manner. The idea was that people would tweet Linotype-relevant quotes, ideas, anniversary greetings etc., and use the hash tag #lino125 as a thread to keep the tweets together. We'd cast the tweet in metal, pull a proof of it, photograph the printed proof with corresponding metal slugs and re-tweet with a link to the photo(s). We received a bunch of tweets, too many for us to cast in the small window of time allotted for the project. Several tweets arrived well after the machine was cool and we had started on the beer drinking part of the celebration. Some good anniversary greetings didn't make it to metal this time. There was a lot of enthusiasm for this project, so we'll probably do something like this again. If your tweet didn't make it in this last time, there will be another opportunity.

The above video clip is of casting part of a tweet from the guys at Linotype the film the complete tweet is pictured below:

The typeface we used was 8 pt Linotype Paragon (8^464) designed by C.H. Griffith in 1935. This periodical roman was the fourth to be introduced into Linotype's "Legibility Group" and designed to appear clean and crisp in high-speed newspaper production environment that often requires heavy ink coverage on absorbent low quality newsprint. I'm a sucker for this era of linotype periodical faces, to me they represent the poetry of industry, a perfect marriage between the tools and the craft. We were lucky to have the following universal sorts at 8pt that would be required to cast tweets: "@", "#" & "/" , though one of our "#" went missing during the run, it must have found its way into another magazine channel.

tweet from @jessheugel. Way to go, Jess. We agree with this.
 It would be nice to know that folks could lay their eyeballs on
the first Linotype Machine, even if it is
only a recent photograph of it. 

To see additional photos of the “tweets to metal” project, check out the Stumptown Printers Flickr photo stream. The crew of Linotype the film have offered to send the slugs of 5 tweets to their tweeter. So if you participated, perhaps you'll receive your tweet in metal. Speaking of Linotype the film, we are all excited about their project. The crew have been doing an excellent job capturing footage of today's Linotype operators, experts and enthusiasts and as a result of their research and filming have brought us together to help keep these machines running and this technology alive. So if you aren't familiar with the project, please check it out.

Prost! After the tweet-casting session,
we made a toast to Ottmar,  and enjoyed some German lagers.
Pictured on the right is Jeff
from the C.C. Stern Type Foundry and Buzzworm Studios

C-4 Galley, Signed, Sealed & Delivered.

Here’s a cool photo taken by Abra. Thanks to John Finch of Colorado for suppling the galley and slide. Abra delivered the galley to the museum in person, and it now lives with this handsome C-4 Intertype at the East Iceland Technical Museum. Sounds like a fun adventure. I didn’t think to ask Abra about the keyboard layout. I believe letters such as the “eth” and “thorn” are unique to the Icelandic alphabet, how would these letters be arranged / positioned? Also, which typefaces would have been supplied with these letters? Hmmph. Well, seems like a trip to Iceland is in order…

Wanted: C4 galley

Abra Ancliffe, local letterpress printer and Pacific Northwest College of Art instructor is looking for an Intertype C4 galley for her friends at the Technical Museum of East Iceland in Sedisfjordur, Iceland.

I believe that the machine is in working order, or close to it. Abra is hoping to track down a galley before she visits Iceland next month so that she can deliver it to the museum.

If anyone has a galley that will fit, please let me know. Otherwise, we may be able to dig up another galley in the Portland area. If someone can let me know if galleys for other models are interchangeable with the C4, and/or if a Linotype galley can be easily adapted to fit I’d appreciate the info.

Here are some photos that Abra forwarded of the galley-less Intertype in Iceland:

Keyboard Cam Roller Friction Spring.

Here’s a simple fix that made a big difference. The slightest amount of resistance caused the keyboard rollers to stop. Even the normal action of depressing a key could cause drag, and it was necessary to give the rubber roll shaft gear a bit of a push to keep things rolling.

After tapping out the collar pin, I gave the friction spring and shaft pulley a splash of white gas and a good scrubbing. Then I carefully bent the spring to give it a bit more tension against the pulley. Much better.

Short Keyboard Rods

Pictured here is the keyboard swung open with the keyboard cam yoke frames removed and various keyboard shields removed. It is important to make sure that no key rods are engaged before the keyboard is swiveled into this position.  If a short keyboard rod is raised when the keyboard is rotated, it *will* bend and it will cause problems. This keyboard had been opened in this manner, and was in need of repair. When swinging out the keyboard, It seems like it is really easy to overlook this detail, especially when all of the shields are in place. I suppose it’s one those things that you learns as Linotype operator: you make the mistake once and you probably won’t do it again. It was a simple fix, but like anything else on this machine it took a little patience and some time.

Here’s a view of the backside of the keyboard. On this machine, the keybars can be removed as a unit. However, the lower key rods cannot.

Sign of trouble. After running my finger along the bottom of the short keyboard rods, most fell back into place as they should. These stuck.

Removing the short keyboard rods was a bit fussy. As soon as I loosened the guide bar, the rods wanted to fall through. Could have been a big mess. It was my goal to keep them in the proper order. If anyone has a trick for this, please let me know. I ended up hand scoring a piece of 18pt board to the dimensions of the bars, and cupped it around the bottom while removing the rod guide. This kept the rods in position so I could clean and straighten them in order.    

Here you can spot the bent rods. If you look closely, you may also be able to see that the brass guides that space the bars have also been damaged. Some are pinching the rods so they cannot move freely. Here I took a small flat-blade screw driver and very gently tapped them back into place. Apparently, I was lucky. Bill Spurling told me that he has seen machines with paper clips or little pieces of wire that replace the brass teeth that have been broken off. This one was in relatively good shape.

Here is a profile view of a bent rod. I used a mallet to straighten it.

More cleaning. Wow. These were really gummed up. But with straightened guides and straightened rods and a bath of white gas, they were as good as new.

Bill Spurling & Linotype.org

Brian Donnell seated. Bill Spurling standing.
At Bill Spurling’s Place. 

Bill Spurling is a great resource for linotype operators and enthusiasts in this region and beyond. He and his son Tristan have managed to save many machines from the scrap yard including these:

1912 Model 5, 1922 Model 8, 1923 Model 8, 1924 Model 14, 1938 Model 29, 1946 Model 31, 1949 Model 31, 1949 Model 30, 1962 Model 30, 1960 Model 29

Many of the above listed machines have been stripped down and rebuilt by Bill, so it’s been great to pick his brain while learning tricks and general maintenance on our 31. He has been generous with his time and spare parts when needed. Also, one of his 31s is a cousin of our machine. It shipped in the same year and is only 302 machines younger than ours, so it has been helpful to study a nice clean runner for comparison.

Bill is the man behind the website Linotype.org which is full of useful information including a chart of machine serial numbers, downloadable .pdf manuals, regional linotype history, etc. From his site: “This site is dedicated to the unsung heros that made it all work, the Linotype Machinists and Machinist-Operators everywhere, past, present and future.” Hear, hear.