True to Type: Running America's Last Linotype Newspaper

[@MendItAussie]

My husband was the last Linotype [intertype] apprentice mechanic at The Age newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. His mechanical skills are amazing, and can be transferred to motor vehicles, sewing machines etc. He is currently a locomotive train driver [railway engineer] He would love to volunteer and maintain an Intertype C4 for a weekly broadsheet like The Saguache Crescent but alas it will be in his dreams..

[@MendItAussie]

@Adam Gross yes thankful for sure! Understanding the concept of transferrable skills is essential at this time when there is a huge skill shortage in Australia. We have found in our volunteering work for community repair cafes, that bureaucrats struggle with the concept the most.

[@GotYourWallet]

The machines are beautiful. They fill the entire room yet everything works in sync.

[@NorthwoodsBob]

I operated Linotypes and Intertypes since I was in high school and then until I had my last job on my own Intertype which was donated to me by the publisher of the Waukegan Sun (Illinois) This machine was housed at a Boy Scout camp in Northern Wisconsin. I used it for several years to publish promotional literature for the camp. After leaving the Camp which I was Administrator and Ranger (winter months) I put the machine in storage, along with other "hot type" machines and materials. After several years of absence, my wife decided that she needed the space for her operation of the bakery and gave away all the printing equipment FOR SCRAP!!!! including the Intertype! GONE TO BE SEEN NO MORE! I could have cried!!!

[@pawell7771]

shame on your wife!

[@garyvenable6134]

Robert Grant King I would have been looking for a new wife

[@MendItAussie]

Come and join us on Lino Lovers on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/linolove/

[@Ice_Karma]

Oh my god, I can't even begin to imagine... Did you stay married?!

[@Mister_Clipster]

I can't imagine staying married with her after that

[@foolish_carpenter3147]

I like how a lot of their stories are about people who are the last of their craft and keep it up despite the times.

[@SimonPetrikovy]

TOO SHORT

[@CAepicreviews]

THATS WHAT SHE SAID ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵐᵉ

[@MetalTeamster]

Well this is very cool. My dad just passed yesterday. The world is one less linotype operator. He did this for 20+ years , in Canada then for 15 so me years at the Chronicle - Examiner in San Francisco. I remember visiting the newspaper in the late 1960s as a 8-9 year old kid. It was a noisy, hot , scary place with gruff older men. I know he toiled away on graveyard shift night after night after night. I wish I could have taken him to see this little newspaper before he passed.... Thanks for posting...

[@philmuskett265]

Keep on keeping on, mate. I'm an old Lino/Intertype operator who started his apprenticeship in 1965 and loved every minute of it.

[@dontheshark]

As a teenager, I set type on a composing stick and ran job presses. I was a lino operator from 1958 to 1980, when my company switched to computers. I learned the typewriter keyboard, and did page make-up on the computer, but it was never the same as getting my hands dirty

[@johntapley8101]

This old newspaper man is happy to know this is still out there.

[@surrealducks]

It's a beautiful machine. The man looks a little sad... poor guy. If he needs, I could take over. If he hires people who are basically still toddlers

[@scotonfire1]

I worked along side my father who operated a linotype machine for the Toronto Star before they went computerized.

[@thruthelens2011]

Just in case anyone still looks at this, I worked at the Globe and Mail in the composing room.

[@thruthelens2011]

Would love to hear from VIRAL ESCAPE if he is still around and sees this. I worked at the Globe and Mail in Toronto, Canada over 50 years ago and again in from 1998 to 2000 on a contract long after the hot metal days were over.

[@RetroToons]

In the Calgary Heritage park they still print their newspaper on it!

[@alb639]

That linotype is almost 100 years old. It must have been nice when people cared about building things that could last more than 3-4 years before completely breaking down and becoming irreparable.

[@Ice_Karma]

People made cheap and shoddy products 100 and more years ago, it's just... unsurprisingly, they broke and were thrown away 98 or 99 years ago, and so don't survive until today! Only things that were decently built-by no means _everything_ built back then-survives the test of time. =3

[@beefchicken]

It turned 100 this year!

[@johnhartley9093]

I was a Linotype operator at the Yorkshire Evening Post newspaper in Leeds, UK for over 30 years. Sad day for us apprentice trained craftsmen when hot metal typesetting ended. We trained in computerised typesetting but eventually were replaced by unskilled women typists but we inevitably lost our jobs. Now it's cheap labour producing a shoddy product. Circulation has plummeted from over 200,000 to 11,000 copies a day which is common with newspapers today - internet has ruined traditional newsgathering. At least we had the well paid good old days!

[@Stuckin330]

They older than 100 years an ran way longer than years an if they broke they got fixed on the spot

[@oaklandtobangkok]

Bless you man. I grew up in a letterpress printing family. I miss that smell.

[@literallyshaking8019]

I still run a Heidelberg Windmill at my families printing business. One of the finest machines ever created.

[@jamesdavis5096]

I would buy this newspaper simply because of the effort that went into making it

[@rajvinder89]

That machine looks beautiful, kinda reminds me of the old school sewing machine my grandmother had with all the crank and wheels.

[@rajvinder89]

@Meme Memeson That makes sense, considering the time-period this is from.

[@poly_hexamethyl]

I wish you well. I hope it goes on forever!

[@robertocarbajal1749]

Hello from (Zamora, Castile and Leon, Spain). I worked in this marvelous machine! I'm lovin' it! And I miss it. Since 90s I use Mac at my workplace, but is not than romantic. Go! Greetings.

[@rafi5298]

A big salute to you...Sir

[@Grampa_Pete]

Merganthaler model 31 was my machine in high school. San Francisco 1973

[@pd4106]

Hi Grampa Pete, glad you had that experience in your high school. Did you stick with printing after that?I also had my first experiences with the Linotype (actually a C-3 Intertype in my high school, Huntington Park, CA. I fell in love with these machines and worked on and with them until they were replaced by the computers. Very Sad indeed.

[@dellakerr0]

touching and proud story

[@hoody123321]

Beautiful!

[@yeetman4953]

a very great story indeed

[@nathanhammack2964]

this is amazing

[@ovenscornyboy6666]

Amazing

[@JOAOPENICHE]

amazing

[@andrewdraper8336]

Incredible

[@alexz75515]

Amazing! I think he can make some kind of paid experience, where people can participate in this process, if he wants. I would definitely pay for such experience.

[@videonut11]

This proves that the old way, sometimes, is the better one.

[@fantasticania]

amazing!!!

[@RedRebel8]

How do I get a copy of this paper?

[@peetsnort]

Does the author have a lead in his blood problem from the melting lead

[@KaineCoombs]

Him and I might be related. We share the same surname.

[@sierragrey7910]

When printing involved that much work, what was printed became important. Had to say more with fewer words. And it needed to be something important. Digitization has polluted communication in many ways, as much as it has enabled easy communication.

[@sierragrey7910]

@Meme Memeson thank you for that informative reply! What an amazing machine.

[@sierragrey7910]

@Meme Memeson I’ve learned much. I wasn’t aware of the connection of printers to the labor workday movement, but it makes sense. Print was in high demand. I threw a few newspapers back in the 1960s when print still ruled media, though radio and television were big, as well. Newspapers were huge in size and people habitually started their day with the newspaper or read it upon coming home from work. We even delivered an evening edition, for the most avid news readers. Many people were so addicted to the daily newspaper as people are addicted to their smart phones, if for less time each day. My parents, for example, could not skip it for a day without becoming irritable. 🤣😂. I grew up on the heyday of magazines and journals, another big source of print. Little did I know that the people working behind the scenes were also responsible for my 8-hour work day.

[@Tedd755]

"Great Big Story" Should be called: Superficial, short vignettes.

[@heronmyer3780]

hipster lol

[@JaseyStudios]

this is literally the opposite of hipster