My grandpa went to Linotype school in the early 20th century, in Colorado. He maintained and serviced his own 2 Linotype machines. He'd be typing away, and suddenly spring up and run around to the back of the machine, jump up onto the step in the back and fiddle, or adjust, or tweak or whatever it needed, and then run back around and start typing again. He had a small-town weekly newspaper and printing shop. I can still see him there, chomping on a Roi-Tan cigar, typing like a maniac! Such amazing machines...so intricate. Truly poetry in motion.

I'm now 85. I worked as a linotype operator from 1958 to 1980. My company started phasing in computers and I taught myself to type so that I could keep my job. I loved the smell and sounds and challenges of setting type. I had plenty of trips to the back to the elevator unjamming stuck mats. I got burned from the squirts over the years, but I wouldn't ever regret being a part of this history.

I sold the Red Bluff daily news on the street in red Bluff California for a nickel a copy. I was eight years old, and we met in the back room where we folded the papers. That’s where the line of types were and the presses were. They were mesmerizing machines. Way beyond my young mind to understand how they operated. My father owned the newspaper, but he had died when I was three. My mother took over the Dailey New for a year or two. My mother always reminded me about Ottmar Merganthaler. Occasionally someone gave me a quarter for the paper. When we returned to the pressroom, everyone was so excited because one of us had cleared $.20 which we could keep. Thank you for this movie, I loved it. It was a better time.

I started working with a Linotype in 1964 and worked until the early 2000s. When main thing that NO one talks about is having a great machinist that kept the machines working correctly. I miss them, but yes the sound of a good working Linotype is great.

I enjoyed this so much. I worked in a print shop in the 70s and became a Linotype operator.

My grandmother, Anna Mae O'Toole, was one of the first female Linotype operators in the country back in the 1930's I think. Her paper was The Palladium Times in Oswego New York. She began working at the paper when she was 13 sweeping up and doing general cleaning. She worked at the paper until she retired at 65. She joined the union and that allowed her to work 40 hours a week. She also raised five children , one of them was my mother. I am looking forward to the Documentary!

Fantastic! That mechanical noise was the sound of my youth. Dad was a printer. He had both a Linotype and an Intertype. I grew up in a San Jose CA print shop that my family owned from 1965 to 2000. I worked in the shop from ages 5 to 26. As a kid, I used the lead pigs as paper weights when I made scratch pads with padding compound and a paint brush. I remember my father composing in the swivel chair at the keyboard with the hot lamp on (don't touch it), wearing his apron with the special metal rule with points and pica. He was stoic, full-blooded German. I could hear that tick-tick-tick-a-tickety from anywhere in the shop, even over the noise of several letterpresses. So I always watched when dad composed on the Linotype. It was my favorite thing to watch that big tall arm swing down and pick up all those little brass mats then suddenly wisk them up and slide them into the ticker. Wow! Everybody admit it. It's a wildly spectacular machine. He sold them rather than scrapping them. I really love Linotype, so amazing, and am proud to be a big fan and, perhaps, a very small part of its legacy.

I appreciate that this valuable documentary has been uploaded to KZfaq. It is not only a didactic document, it is perhaps the most complete that enhances the value of the linotype. Thank you again!

My first job at 16 years old was sorting pied type and melting Linotype slugs back down to ingots for the machines back in 1968. I spent 35+ years printing, almost always wishing I had been born 100 years earlier when the craft and artistry were more important than how many million could you do in a week. Now everybody with a computer is a printer and what you can't print at home...you can order from your desk. Goodbye quoins, furniture, leads and slugs, stones, ligatures, em quads, composing sticks, pica poles, and galleys. My love of printing endures....but only as a memory.

When I was very young, I used to monkey around with my dad's Linotype. When the pot was on, I used to squirt graphite dust into the crucible and then stir it around with the hanging bobber to make swirling designs. I'd toss old slugs in there and watch how the molten lead would splash and make a shiny silvery spot on the surface where it went in. It splashed just like water. I liked mixing it up so the whole surface of molten lead became shiny. I couldn't do it with just the bobber, since it didn't reach the edges. So I dipped all kinds of objects into the lead. After they cooled off, I could easily peel the lead coating off and recycle the lead. Under the age of 10. I never told my dad I did it. When the Linotype was powered down, the molten lead solidified and looked dull and bumpy, so that was no fun. So I would crank that handle on the right side which changes the magazines up top. I remember the sound of the mats jingling around in the magazines when I shifted them. The distinctive crashing sound the magazine made when it landed in the next position was unique, like glass shattering, but more metallic, or like hail on a tin roof. If you know Linotype machines, you remember, too. Thank God your kids didn't have one to play with.

Thank you. By creating this documentary you've done a great service to humanity. Kudos to all of you for a well done job.

I came to this film, via a documentary on the last linotype composed edition of the "New York Times". This is a wonderful film exploring the machine, and most importantly the people, who put the news in the hands of the masses. Terrific video, thank you.

I worked at a printers in the UK between 1968 and 1978. We had two of these amazing machines.

I remember watching a guy using an intertype machine about 25 years ago. I got it instantly. Considering the age of this thing the mechanics and design were awesome. He was setting type on the machine then pulling a repro proof which he then use as an original to make an offset printing plate

after more than a few indie produced documentaries i've watched on YT of dubious or worse quality, this one really stands out from the crowd. beautifully shot, edited and paced, with so many wonderful old timers reminiscing about operating and working with a marvel of engineering. it's also good to see at least a few of the younger generation willing and able to carry on the flame. i come now from the digital world but grew up towards the end of the analog one. i found this doc being curious how Linotype machines worked after Arthur C Clarke mentioned being amazed how easily computers could change typefaces as compared his memory of Linotype machines. my curiosity is now fully satiated and my knowledge enlightened. amazing, uplifting and tremendously informative. thanks for posting this!

Absolutely freaking brilliant documentary! I've never seen one of these machines up close. I hope to change that very soon.

This is a GREAT movie! I lived just a couple hundred feet from the largest print shop in my state, and inside was an entire Bank of Linotype machines. I often went in as a kid just to watch them work, and I've never seen anything in my 75 years that could match them. The first thing you would notice is the noise, and the second thing was the heat from those molten pots. I only wish I had been older so that I could have shot movie film of them (like I did of the Beatles). I'd give anything to see one operated in person again.

In the year 2001 and 2002 I did a photo essay in Hendersonville North carolina, at Flanagan's print shop I was there on other business, and while peeking into the back of the shop, smelled lead. Since then I've twice visited the MOP, and hope Frank's still holding forth next time. Most fun doc since California Typewiter.

A fantastic documentary, history that deserves to be remembered. Brings back many memories. I took print shop in high school hand set type and heidelburg windmill platen press. A former neighbor had a print shop downtown they had a couple of linotype machines. he gave us the nickle tour and a slug from the machine as a souvenir . And I have been to the Charles river museum of industry and have seen there Linotype machines. Oh for the days when a machine is in production for a hundred years and you can still order parts.

My knowledge of linotype was limited to awareness that it cast metal into type. Your documentary is well produced and comprehensive, a gem in the yt bin ;)

Ian -- Nice to hear from you. I also started in hand compositing, I also was a very good job press operator. Loved the trade. In 1980 my company started changing to computer typesetting. I had to teach myself how to type to keep my job. After learning the codes and such, I did page make-up, and enjoyed the challenge. Miss the smell and sounds.

I started work as an apprentice Compositor in 1954 in a Quality Print shop that only used Monotype Typesetting Machines. Beside the usual Jobbing work we specialized in Quality Book Work and Binding. I would like to see a story about the Monotype Typesetting Machine that was a completely different craft and skill to the Linotype, especially for the Compositor.

My husband was the best Linotype machinist at age 12 in printshop of the orphanage he was in.

What a great machine, and what a great film. Thanks!

Thank you for this fine documentry film about the LINOTYPE of Herrn Mergenthaler. I'm too a german born (north germany - Hannover) clock and watchmaker and before I dicided to become a watchmaker I wanted to become a printer and type setter. I drives me mad too see EVEN TODAY of 2024 silly people arguing about "better to scrap" a Linotype. Quite a typical approach in the states if money isn't generated anymore in a thing. As allways only people are doing that who are ONLY USERS. Me, as beeing part of the trade that are MAKING kind of these machines are going insane with stupid ONLY MONEY oriented folks.... Edison (he must have been scared by german watchmakers I think... xD 2nd time) was RIGHT about the miracle, because HE KNEW what it takes to MAKE such a machine in factory standards. NO Computer build that Linotype... They should have been all saved in stock houses for spare parts. Satanic world as always.

I'm more a typewriter guy. But when I first heard of the Linotype, I always wanted to know how it works. I know there is a Linotype somewhere here in Vienna/Austria, but for now this documentary suffices.

What a great mix of interesting history and engineering. Thanks for sharing.

Amazing machine and a great story. Now I have to go see the one in Nashville.

I grew up around Linotypes, Ludlows and Heidelberg windmills. The Linotype was a big part of the second coming of the information Revolution. Gutenberg made movable type that brought the printed book to the common man. The Linotype brought even more information to everyone. I'm glad this has been made to preserve the knowledge of the process

Amazing film. Thank you

I was once an apprentice Linotype setter in a large printers, but had to leave after a short period. Shortly after the UK went digital and the factory stood empty.

Excellent. Thank you.

Muy excelente documental, lo disfruté bastante

Thank you for this.

Don't cry, Linotype. There will be much less ever left of what succeeded after you, no one likes obsolete and less-capable than current generation electronics.

My dad and uncles shop had three of them running full time when I was growing up in the early 1960's. Used by seven various letterpresses and one hand fed. Very busy department. Our offset was also very advanced for the late 1950's. I never learned the linos but can hand set for the headliner. I was a straight pressman cause I was the biggest kid in our families. So I can run any windmill auto fed or verticle. Including many up numbering tickets I hated that. I'm 72 now and miss it

Amazing intricate machines, which I'm proud to have to have worked on. Used both Linotype and Intertype and had many a metal splash, but didn't put me off. Back then we were the skilled workers as no-one else could work them. Computerisation was good at the time but not as exciting as setting rows and rows of lead slugs. Then having to get up and hang on another lead ingot. Happy days 😅

Awesome movie! Thanks..

I recall a reduntant Linotype machine for sale for £1 without matrices. Wish I'd bought it.

I hope a second home was found. Had I found this video when first posted Zi would have been interested!

The Linotype was named that because their competitors in the market was the Monotype company who had been first to the market. Monotype cast single letters and was a much simpler machine with lower costs for typefaces. Monotype unfortunately had to pay the first mover price convincing printers to mechanize their typesetting. But Linotype was able to come in later and capitalize on the demand created by their earlier rival. The linotype continued until the 1960s for the more sophisticated card printers who preferred pressed/embossed lettering. BTW if you’re anywhere in the area the Museum of Printing is a great place to spend hours looking at those machines. I still have some bits of things they sold off back before they moved buildings, and a few lines of cast type.

لي كل الفخر ان أكون من أمهر العاملين على ماكنة اللاينوتايب

The only thing wrong with the hot metal process was the metal itself, because if you weren't careful, the metal could hurt you! And all people who have operated a Linotype know what I am talking about...

I wish we'd have a similar program on the history of mechanized printing, like koenig's machine etc...

🔥🔥🔥 super interesting

... ✨.. ALL HAIL THE LINOTYPE .. VERY INTERESTING DOC.. CHEERS ALOT ✨ ... 🖖😇🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

I usta run copy to the ad agencies in Manhattan in the seventies. I remember those monsters. I never gave them a second thought. Who nu they were so important historically.

I worked in 5 newspapers in NZ, Africa, and Australia, but got overtaken by new technology. Most of the documentaries I've seen on our dear linotypes show the operators in these types of documentaries are not good at stylish fast keyboard operating. A good operators hands do not move around much on the keyboard, except for numbers and capitals. They could work as fast or faster as the machine could take the work and even have to wait for the machine. That was on normal single column on 6 or 8pt.

Great documentary. Thanks for sharing Of course it had to be a German to develop such a mechanical system. German companies are still very good at machine production. (the machines used in production lines)

I used to set type on the first computerized machine 1983

e had a ad shop in the 50-70s, had 5 Linos and 2 more in the basement to strip for parts. Adcomp, Inc.

"Etaoin Shrdlu" is a nice name for a band 😀

640 views in one year. My God, we think we're so advanced these days, but the apparent lack of interest in learning about the genius of our collective past and the people who manifested that genius into what made our lives as easy and comfortable as it is today would suggest just the opposite. Shop class has been deemed passe', building with one's hands is considered a hobby or a pastime, and something as rudimentary as changing a flat tire is now something to be hired out. We are, I'm afraid, doomed.

I love machinery of all types, but I think bromide paper looks better

I worked in printing graphic designer under paid craft

Anyone in here from Altrincham or thereabouts?

So sad.

vee-hickle