"Doug White" wrote in message
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"Ed Huntress" wrote in
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"Pete C." wrote in message
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Steve Lusardi wrote:

Look for Linotype, it makes brilliant bullets. Check with
newspaper printers and ask them how they dispose of their waste,
you won't regret it. The bullets will typically cast about 8%
lighter than pure lead. They can be used to 1800FPS without gas
checks and not cause barrel leading. If I remember correctly,
lead is around 9 or 10 on the Brinnel scale and Linotype is
about 28/29, which is considerably harder. Linotype bullets are
much better penetrators and do not deflect off window glass like
lead bullets do. Don't ask how I know that.
Steve


I've been out of the printing biz for a decade or two, but does
anyone use Linotype anymore? Certainly no newspaper I knew of 20
years ago did,
they all use offset web presses with AL plates. The only place
using Linotype back then was a tiny shop that mostly did
numbering and other specialty stuff.

I doubt if there is a working Linotype machine in most states in
the country. I don't know of a single magazine that uses it for
anything; the last newspaper I knew of that used it was over 20
years ago.

The offset and rotogravure presses had plates that were burned
from hard-type originals for a long while, so Linotype was still
around, to make the "hot type" masters. But that's all been
converted to "cold type" -- computer-generated galleys. And now,
most volume printing is done without any galleys at all. It's
"direct to plate" computer imaging.

If someone still has a source of Linotype metal, I'd like to know
where it's coming from.

--
Ed Huntress


A couple of companies I worked with still used Linotype. Said it
was easier / cheaper and better for small changes in books they
printed each year. They printed tax guides as one part of their
product line and lots of pages rarely changed. Somewhere I still
have my name cast in a linotype machine there. But as to metal
work, they are the bomb.

Man, there's somebody who doesn't believe in new technology. g Are
they printing the books on letterpress? Or are they using the
Linotype to make galleys for offset printing?

If it's the latter, here's a secret you might pass on to them: Any
one of us can do exactly the same thing, and produce the same
results, with a home computer and a decent laser printer today. No
loss of quality. No loss of anything.

If, on the other hand, they're printing by letterpress, then holy
hell...I can't imagine how it's easier or cheaper. Letterpresses are
used today for things like fancy invitations and wedding
announcements. And a few hobbyists have them, but they set type by
hand, rather than use Linotype. A Linotype machine is about the size
of three refrigerators and looks like the giant insect from "Alien."

The fuzzy serifs do have a kind of nostalgic quality, though. g

--
Ed Huntress


No, they have banks of pages in linotype. So if there is only a 1 or
2 line change in a chapter, easy to change, and great print. But if
they have to change a whole chapter then they use other than the
Linotype. But the Linotype produces the same pages for years with
very good quality. And these are expensive books. They may have
changed now, but in 1990, they said it was much cheaper and better
with the linotype. The use offset printing.

Hmm. We're not communicating. d8-) However, it's a side issue, so I
won't belabor it.

My guess is that you're talking about hand-setting type, not Linotype.
Linotype machines are BIG, expensive suckers used for setting large
masses of type quickly -- pages and pages. It has a keyboard and it
mechanically drops type into slots, making a hell of a racket.

Hand-setting is done in "sticks," something I did in high school, when
I worked one summer for an old-fashioned printer called Princeton
Photoprocess. It produces the same end result as Linotype, but it's
more appropriate for smaller jobs, up to a few hundred words. No
equipment is needed -- it's all labor, but it's trivial for just a
line or two of type.

In any case, any Linotype metal that's available today must be from
someone's ancient hoard, or freshly alloyed to the old Linotype
standard alloy. That's more likely.

My cousin runs a one-man print shop on Cape Cod that specializes in odd
jobs that other printers won't (or can't) handle. Things like
sequentially numbered tickets. He still has a Linotype machine, but he
seldom has a job that makes it worth firing up. He's trying to retire,
but hasn't found any takers.

Doug White

Selling a Linotype machine today is about like trying to sell a numerically
controlled lathe that uses pneumatic logic. d8-)

--
Ed Huntress