Nov 18 2010
Kickstart Linotype
Doug Wilson has just opened a Kickstarter project to raise funding for Linotype, the movie. Here’s the new trailer:
You can help by donating big or small via Kickstarter.
Doug is also writing about the Linotype machine and his movie for issue one of Codex. All very exciting stuff.
— Stephen Coles
— Hochuli & Kinross
Joel Mielke
I used to set type on an old Intertype (modeled after the Linotype). It was a marvel to behold. My boss told me that it had more moving parts than any other machine ever invented. Following the matrices with one’s eyes on their journey from the magazine to the mold to the return arm to the sorting auger was a fantastic, dizzying experience. All of this simultaneous movement coming from one big flywheel through a series of drives and cams.
Nov 19, 2010
Mayda
Thank you for this post! I liked the trailer very much and I’m looking forward to watching the complete film. Beautiful job!.
Nov 22, 2010
Ryan
What an amazing piece of technology. I can’t believe people went around taking hammers to these things…!
Nov 23, 2010
Lance
Brought back memories of the time I used to hang out in the linotype room at the old Ballard Tribune in Seattle back in the late Sixties.
Nov 28, 2010
Sabin
Great,
I liked it.
Thanks
Sabin
Dec 3, 2010
James
Good trailer. Very cool machine… FINKMAG
Dec 11, 2010
Kipp
This looks great, never realized that’s why Linotype are called what are.
Dec 11, 2010
Ven Francis | Web Ninja Wannabe
This is great and i would love to watch it. I’m starting to do a personal study about typography design and it’s like a gift for today seeing another history of typography through linograph…thanks
another thing, are you also tackling asian types?
warm regards,
ven
Dec 26, 2010
Terry Tatham
Wow! Thank you. You have just taken me for a walk down memory lane. I served my apprenticeship as a Hand and Machine Compositor, way back in the early 1950s in Sydney, Australia. I became very proficient on Intertypes and Linotypes, being capable of 12,000 corrected ens per hour, and also Ludlows. As far as handset type was concerned I was an utter failure. Not only did I learn to be an “Operator”, but I was also trained in maintenance. I could dismantle a whole machine, repair and rebuild it. I served my apprenticeship in a trade house, but also moved around the magazine houses, printing shops, local newspapers, and finally one of the major Sydney dailies. Here I set “idiot tape” (six level tape) on a Linotype layout keyboard to feed into a large computer where it was justified and then sent to Lino machines run by a TTS set-up. All the Operator had to do was take the type off the machine and put it on the bulk for the compositors to access. I finally went into business using letterpress, offset and screen printing processes. I am now retired. If anyone would like it I have an old Early Gordon Hand Platen (circa. early 1800s). It still works but does need some repairs. I’d be happy to give it to a museum or the like, where it could be on display.
Dec 29, 2010