Shaun

This is what earns the money I spend on computer stuff ....
You've seen the hand-set type and wooden type cases - well here's the actual press and press-room ...

Shaun

Press-room ...
Very posh, of course. Comes complete with spiders (usually oil-covered), mice (complaining about the noise and nicking the paper to make nests in the type-cases) and the occasional swallow ...

Bacardi

What brand of press is it? Here one only sees Heidelbergs... Friends of mi,ne re-opened a papermill in central France, annex printing presses museum, and they have one that has to be set in motion with leg-force, 19th century. Imo, nothing ever surpassed the quality of typo: crispness, even a slight imprint, goldprint, even perforating and cutting half through adhesive papers, envelopes,...and fonts (mostly Italian) that have never been surpassed by puter fonts.

Aahhh...and each letter safely packed in cotton wool so as not to damage it...wedding fonts, even wooden blocks for posters,...the smell of ink, and the monoitonous noise of the press. No hurry, take it easy. Compare that with a four head heidelberg that is cleaned during the night by a specialist team because each minute of the printer costs money and has to be used for printing...Stress, stress and even more stress because of impossible investments.

Giime a Tee, gimme a Y, gimme a Pee, gimme a Ooo. What does that spell? TYPO!

Rantin Al

Shaun, Loses a bit of the atmosphere without the sound effects!

Clunka - clunka - whisha - whoosha - wham!!

Sing! All together now!

[bustagut] [bustagut] [bustagut]

Al.

wbiss

Fascinating Shaun!

What type of printing do you mostly do?

kiwi

Cheers for sharing Shaun [righton]



Al and Erik Stu does not do cheer leading [slick]

Shaun

British Thompson Auto-Platen. Made circa 1950 and still going strong!
Cotton wool? Nope, each letter sits in its compartment and all the blocks are laid out either in large trays or on the galley rack.
Here's an example of a type case (the empty compartments should hold spaces, but I haven't finished putting everything in):

Shaun

I was coming to that. Mostly what are called "Draw Tickets" or "Raffle Tickets". There's little or no call nowadays for letterheads, dance tickets and the like because everyone and their grannie can do them on the home computer. But the raffle ticket needs numbering and perforating and then stapled in books or five or ten - which is a bit beyond the home computer ... If you haven't come across the raffle ticket, it's a way of making money for schools, clubs and churches etc - several prizes offered and the winners chosen by drawing the ticket stubs.

And here's the second picture - just in case you didn't believe the comment about the mouse - all the type moved, by the mouse, to form a nest and bits of paper shredded to line it. Not just one case - there were nut shells in another and when we had to move the type cabinets we took the drawers out and the mouse nipped out and ran!

Bacardi

What I meant was that some of the very fragile leaden fonts (like some of the marriage "handwritings and some gothics) were kept in cotton wool to protect the as normal storage would damage them. Setting pressure was very delicate...

Shaun

Fragile fonts - yes, especially those with overhanging kerns. I have Palace Script, for example, but it's cast on a sloping body. With the others you just have to be careful how you place them back into the compartments - can't just chuck them in!
For the really delicate types I wouldn't use the big press - all the wedding jobs were done on the hand press (Adana 8"x5" table-top), with care!