Frank Sees Little Justification in Early Newspaper Typesetting

Frank uses the retirement of a former Linotype operator at the New York Times as a jumping off point to trace the evolution of newspaper typesetting, from the advent of paper tape, to computerized hyphenation and justification (H&J)—and to the great New York City newspaper strike.

Published on February 5, 2021

Discussion

By Bryan Gordon on Feb 05, 2021

Frank, great story on the history of the Linotype machine. Keep up the history of printing series at the stories are great.

I was running a Lino model 5 and a Ludlow in 1971 at a flexo shop near Detroit. I could fly with that Lino as it had an automatic quader and consistently would hang the elevator. I was starting working in printing during the demise of hot metal. My previous job out of high school I was a Gutenberg hand typesetter at another shop that used rubber plates to print envelopes and letterheads.

I am still working for a large printing company and have not retired yet. But I have a mini-museum in my garage which includes Lino slugs, Ludlow slugs, hand composing sticks, some old wood type, and other hand tools used in typesetting. I have several California job cases and one Kelsey two-thirds case. I am restoring an 1892 C & P press in my garage. Still looking for parts. Yeah, my wife's car sits outside in the driveway.

Keep those good stories coming.

By Karl Loatman on Feb 05, 2021

Frank the Sunday NY Times printed when the strike ended weighed 9 pounds each & I had to keep going back home to get another batch to deliver on my bicycle to deliver all 450 pounds of them on my route. The tips were good though.
Karl Loatman

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