"Pressed for Time" / CQ Productions

A Few Words About Words
Words are what printing is about, so it is no wonder that the printing trade, from its very beginnings, not only "produced" language, but created some of its own. Printers also have a way of viewing themselves and the world, which has also helped create an endless source of printing legends and lore. The following was compiled and written for "Pressed for Time" by former San Francisco Newspaper Agency printer Renaldo Batz.

Faster Than a Speeding Linotype

"Hang the elevator" refers to setting lines of type faster than the machine (Linotype/Intertype) can cast them. The elevator of the machine has to wait for the casting of each line at this speed, hence "hang the elevator." I believe the machines could do 5.5 lines a minute (memory dims), and someone who could hang the elevator was a hot operator.

How to Get Rid of Lice

Type lice refers to the little burrs that the saws on the typesetting machines left on the lines of type. When the type was proofed or sent to the stereotypers to be molded into mats, the burrs would show up as little curved lines on the type face. Scraping the edge of the lines with a makeup rule would get rid of most of the burrs/lice.

Those Pesky Black Lines

A "workup" is a black line that appears on a proof, or in the paper, that is the result of a thin strip of lead – called leads – rising above type height and then getting inked or molded, which would render it visible. These leads were used to "line space" the columns snuggly in the page form (called "the chase").

Heavy Timber Turtles

A "turtle" is the wheeled table with a page-sized surface made of machined iron for flatness. Flatness of working surfaces is crucial in hot metal. Turtles are heavy. Pages are made up on turtles, then wheeled to the "timber" ( a large proofpress) and the pages are slid on the timber to be proofed. They are then rolled to the stereotypers, where a press plate is made. I'm mixing my tenses, a telling slip.

The Best Pages Float

If you could lift an end of a page and "float" it without anything falling down, it was a well made up page.

Getting Hooked on Jobs

"Working the hook" refers to taking each take (job) off of the top of the job spike (OSHA would sue). "Playing the hook" refers to taking a job slip from under the top job slip in an effort to avoid the top job. This practice is frowned upon by co-workers.

Hell Boxes and Pigs

Hell box refers to the trough that runs between the aisles or the heavy metal carts into which used lead from dead pages was thrown. The old lead was the remelted into "pigs" to be hung on the typesetting machines.

The Last One Is the Starter

The starter is the last page to go to the stereotypers, or engraving, for an edition. It is the page that allows the presses to start. I've heard that in the old days the makeups would put 50 cents each into a pot and the person with the starter would get the pot. Somewhat hazardous because getting the starter was not a good thing – you were last.

Wood Floors Were Lively

All hot metal composing rooms I've seen had wood floors. The floors had character, worn in aisles, dark finished in untrod areas. Wood probably kept the noise down and didn't break or chip and was lively when you had to stand all day.

Sound Advice

Noise. Ah, the noise. The rows of typesetting machines emitted a mechanical cacophony of clanking, rattling and general metal-on-metal noises that added up to a roar. The roar of the machines got louder as the edition approached. The roar did not allow conversation, unless you yelled directly into someone's ear. Ear protection was unheard of. To this day, if I have a hearing deficit, it is because of those machines. There was less noise in the ad room or in makeup, except for the sound of the saws cutting lead or the piercing screech of a zinc plate being cut.

It Couldn't Happen Today

OSHA would not allow hot type to exist. You are aware of the fumes from the lead. There were exposed cams and wheels on the typesetting machines, metal-cutting saws were used by each make-up or adman dozens of times a shift with no goggles and minimal finger guards. Molten lead was everywhere, along with "thinner," a strong solvent used to wash the ink off the type after it was proofed for proofreading.

A Few Words About the International Typographical Union
The difference between an International Typographical Union (ITU) printer and someone who called themselves a printer is that a union printer did a six-year apprenticeship, learning all phases of work in the shop "he" (we weren't politically correct back then) apprenticed in.

An apprentice had to do monthly "Lessons in Printing" tests that were mailed to International headquarters for correcting and documentation. These lessons covered all phases of printing and typographical design. I think there was a separate set of lessons for job shop apprentices. Every other trade aprenticeship I've ever heard of has a four-year apprenticeship. The local Typographical Union had an apprentice committee that oversaw the training program and progress of the apprentices.

Local law, which the employer is bound to recognize, stated that "apprentices are to observe and learn; they are not for production purposes." These days, trainees are used as cheap labor because they are in a four-year training program and it takes only months to learn all phases of newspaper printing (computer-users excepted). Paste up, proofreading and ad-trafficking are semi-skilled tasks.

Apprentices were required to attend a minimum of three union meetings a year. You would see the democratic process in action, as the old-timers would shuffle up to take the microphone to make their point. Often one of them would stand, shout "Point of order" while waiving a copy of Robert's Rules of Order, and contest the process of the meeting. To have to attend these meeting for six years was a way of passing the torch to the younger guys. It was a goodidea. Current trainees are not required to attend union meetings and infrequently do.