Hot Metal

[BigGuy]

Probably not what you expected from the Subject line, but I think it's fascinating.
Mods, if this is too far from the purpose of this board, I apologize and understand if you remove it. However, I thought the beauty and precision of the mechanical engineering would appeal to "gun" people.

I'm doing some research about the technical history of printing newspapers for work. The hot metal Linotype machines were an amazing bit of technology. I'm talking about a three ton Swiss watch here. I can see why many papers were loath to give the process up.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzilaRwoMus[/video]

[WildBill]

Have you ever seen "Linotype, The Film"?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avDuKuBNuCk[/video]

[n5wd]

Both of those videos bring back memories... My first paying job, at age 14 one summer, was working for the newspaper printing company in Murfreesboro, TN, helping to put together the grocery store advertising inserts for the Thursday and Sunday editions of the daily edition. I was often working with the lino operators, especially close to our deadlines. I think I still have a couple of slugs, somewhere, that had my name and address on them. I still have a visible scar on my right wrist from coming into contact with a hot slug that got ejected by mistake.

That was a great summer - I learned a lot about the backroom operation of a newspaper, and I sill wonder how anyone working on or near a Lino ever kept their hearing -those machines were definitely loud!

[WildBill]

Another movie for typophiles and people interested in printing, "Helvetica, the Film"

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0qWvHWVxVY[/video]

[The Annoyed Man]

9 years in newspaper production. The linotype stuff was interesting as historical information, but getting to digital pagination and plate-making made things much easier.

[WildBill]

9 years in newspaper production. The linotype stuff was interesting as historical information, but getting to digital pagination and plate-making made things much easier.

I imagine most of the newspaper people thought the same thing when they moved from letterpress printing to Linotype.