newsstar

July 29, 1938

from National Library of Ireland on The Commons

• 7 older comments, and then…
• Howard33 said:

  As a college student in the 1950's, I worked for a publisher. The company had a daily newspaper, and printed all kinds of material for businesses. The shop included several printing presses and six Linotype machine. My wife of 55 years was a linotype operator when we met. I did routine maintenence on the Linotypes, served as a substitute proof reader, wrote news, and did just about anything else that was needed. I was the "fill in" guy. Linotypes always facinated me. They were very complex machines, but easy to operate. They had a charactistic sound, with lots of clicking and clattering. I sometimes found that I was proofing galleys, setting corrections on the Linotype, and inserting the new slugs into the galley. I worked in the shop, the casting room, the press room and the editorial office, always as the fill in. At times, I covered the "police beat" which included the firehouse, courthouse, police department, and city hall. Sometimes I wonder if I learned as much at the college as I did at the print shop. Between the two, I think I got a good education.

• AMTER said:

  fascinating Howard...

• National Library of Ireland on The Commons said:

  Certainly sounds like it, Howard! If you're ever in Dublin, visit the National Print Museum. They have a Linotype machine as well as gorgeous printing machines, including a Columbian Eagle Press AND this gorgeous Albion Press: www.nationalprintmuseum.ie/permanent.html

• Angela Orlando said:

  Having worked for a small local area newspaper writing travel articles and proof reading I find this so very interesting... this is an amazing image!!!

• Peter Denton said:

  I, too, remember Linotype machines from my early days as a reporter on local newspapers in the 1960s. As Howard says, the clatter they made was memorable - as was the smell of printers ink, which I loved. The industry was heavily unionised in those days, of course - I don't think they would have stood for the cramped workplace conditions recorded in this evocative image! Interesting that the man in the foreground (and, no doubt, the others) is wearing a waistcoat and tie. I suppose that kind of attire was de rigueur in those days.