"Ed Huntress" wrote in
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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-)

He's trying to sell the whole business, and the Linotype machine is just
a part of the deal. Unless he can find a museum that wants it, it's
probably going to get scrapped. There's LOT of metal in one of those
things. Most of his gear is museum stuff anyway.

Doug White