> On Sep 10, 2017, at 10:55 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > On 09/10/2017 06:25 PM, Tapley, Mark via cctalk wrote: > >> There was one of those machines in my Junior High School shop >> classroom. I saw it run once (not well enough to successfully set a >> line of type, but nearly). >> >> I endorse Mark’s assessment of its safety characteristics... > > I knew a fellow who had one of them in his barn--and he set the local > freebie weekly newspaper with it. Open gas flame, hot type metal > that's mostly lead, lots of open whirling parts--what's not to like?
They did offer a safer heater (electric) as an alternative. > Running one is definitely a real skill. ETAOIN SHRDLU CMFWYP... There are some nice training videos (Italian, mostly showing a Linotype clone (Intertype?)) on the web. > Neil Lincoln once told me that the name of ETA Systems back in the 80s > was suggested by his son. Neil knew about the Linotype order, but it > was unclear to me if his son got it from a literary work (there were > several) or from the actual machine. Chris Elmquist might know. > > FWIW, the "assembler" in a Linotype machine is where the type matrices > drop down in a row, ready for "kerning". Another non-computer use of > the word. No, not kerning. Justifying. Linotype machines can't kern; when that's done in metal typesetting, which is rare, it involves cutting bevels onto the sides of the type blocks to allow them to partly overlap. paul