RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
We have a working Linotype at the System Source Computer Museum in Hunt Valley Maryland. Open now only by appointment with a maximum of two masked visitors due to COVID https://museum.syssrc.com Bob Roswell -Original Message- From: cctalk On Behalf Of Alan Perry via cctalk Sent: Friday, June 19, 2020 1:41 PM To: cctalk@classiccmp.org Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu On 6/17/20 1:27 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > > >> On Jun 17, 2020, at 3:25 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk >> wrote: >> >> https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu >> >> 28min documentary on the last ever edition of the NY Times to be >> printed using hot metal -- before they switched to what are now a >> quite choice assortment of late-'70s minicomputers. I think I spotted >> a PDP, a Data General and some IBM device, but I am no expert in this >> era. >> >> As a veteran reader of Fredric Brown, especially "the Enchanted >> Linotype", I have been using ETAOIN SHRDLU to win at Hangman for many >> years... but I'd never seen one working before. It all still seems >> like magic to me. > > They should be fairly easy to find in printing musea. > A friend of mine who was in Seattle collected this stuff. He had a couple Linotype/Intertype machines, a press, and lots and lots of magazines of type. It was set up in his garage and he would give demos of it in action. It was interesting how it worked. Unfortunately, he had to move out of the area for work and moving that stuff to another state was not feasible, so another local collector got it all. There was another documentary on them, Linotype: The Film (https://linotypefilm.com). alan
Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
On 6/17/20 1:27 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: On Jun 17, 2020, at 3:25 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu 28min documentary on the last ever edition of the NY Times to be printed using hot metal -- before they switched to what are now a quite choice assortment of late-'70s minicomputers. I think I spotted a PDP, a Data General and some IBM device, but I am no expert in this era. As a veteran reader of Fredric Brown, especially "the Enchanted Linotype", I have been using ETAOIN SHRDLU to win at Hangman for many years... but I'd never seen one working before. It all still seems like magic to me. They should be fairly easy to find in printing musea. A friend of mine who was in Seattle collected this stuff. He had a couple Linotype/Intertype machines, a press, and lots and lots of magazines of type. It was set up in his garage and he would give demos of it in action. It was interesting how it worked. Unfortunately, he had to move out of the area for work and moving that stuff to another state was not feasible, so another local collector got it all. There was another documentary on them, Linotype: The Film (https://linotypefilm.com). alan
Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
And Lincoln had MN license plate “ETAOIN” on his rusted out Ford van and one of
the other guys in our “wiz kid” bunch had “SHRDLU” on his plates.
We later learned that the Eta were some kind of Spanish terrorist group and so
Neil liked that story better— we were going to terrorize the supercomputer
world with this ETA-10.
cje
--
Chris Elmquist
> On Jun 17, 2020, at 3:28 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk
> wrote:
>
> On 6/17/20 12:25 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:
>> https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu
>>
>> 28min documentary on the last ever edition of the NY Times to be
>> printed using hot metal -- before they switched to what are now a
>> quite choice assortment of late-'70s minicomputers. I think I spotted
>> a PDP, a Data General and some IBM device, but I am no expert in this
>> era.
>>
>
> When I was in college, I went on a weekend trip with a friend to see
> where he worked during the summer. It was a print-shop, complete with
> both letterpress and offset--and a Linotype ("pot" heated with natural
> gas). The local advertising circular was still set with hot type and I
> witnessed the operation of that contraption. Noisy and wonderful.
>
> See the Twilight Zone episode "Printer's Devil" for another sample.
>
> I was told that most newspaper pressmen were alcoholics, as it blunted
> the effect of the then-toxic inks used in printing.
>
> Anent ETAOIN: Early on in the formation of the CDC spinoff, ETA
> Systems, I asked Neil Lincoln what "ETA" stood for. He related the
> story of his son and ETAOIN SHRDLU. Back then, the name of the
> supercomputer was referred to as the GF-10; later changed to the ETA-10.
>
> (GF standing for GigaFLOP).
>
> --Chuck
>
Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
Kind of OT:
I recall reading on some health forum that in a certain Japanese paint
factory, workers would put dried paint flakes under their tongues and then
spit them out, a-la homeopathically, to make them impervious to the
chemicals. It is believed to work by sending a signal to the gut "to
prepare for this chemical". Not sure if it would have worked on inks but it
may have.
Justin Goldberg
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinpaulgoldberg
On Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:27 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk
wrote:
> On 6/17/20 12:25 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:
> > https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu
> >
> > 28min documentary on the last ever edition of the NY Times to be
> > printed using hot metal -- before they switched to what are now a
> > quite choice assortment of late-'70s minicomputers. I think I spotted
> > a PDP, a Data General and some IBM device, but I am no expert in this
> > era.
> >
>
> When I was in college, I went on a weekend trip with a friend to see
> where he worked during the summer. It was a print-shop, complete with
> both letterpress and offset--and a Linotype ("pot" heated with natural
> gas). The local advertising circular was still set with hot type and I
> witnessed the operation of that contraption. Noisy and wonderful.
>
> See the Twilight Zone episode "Printer's Devil" for another sample.
>
> I was told that most newspaper pressmen were alcoholics, as it blunted
> the effect of the then-toxic inks used in printing.
>
> Anent ETAOIN: Early on in the formation of the CDC spinoff, ETA
> Systems, I asked Neil Lincoln what "ETA" stood for. He related the
> story of his son and ETAOIN SHRDLU. Back then, the name of the
> supercomputer was referred to as the GF-10; later changed to the ETA-10.
>
> (GF standing for GigaFLOP).
>
> --Chuck
>
>
>
Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
> On Jun 17, 2020, at 3:25 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk > wrote: > > https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu > > 28min documentary on the last ever edition of the NY Times to be > printed using hot metal -- before they switched to what are now a > quite choice assortment of late-'70s minicomputers. I think I spotted > a PDP, a Data General and some IBM device, but I am no expert in this > era. > > As a veteran reader of Fredric Brown, especially "the Enchanted > Linotype", I have been using ETAOIN SHRDLU to win at Hangman for many > years... but I'd never seen one working before. It all still seems > like magic to me. They should be fairly easy to find in printing musea. There is a pretty detailed description on Wikipedia, with a number of diagrams and photos from a Linotype handbook published by the company in the 1940s. It also has links to a pair of training movies that show, section by section, how one of these machines works. Actually, it shows the Intertype, but that's just a Linotype clone made by a lesser-known competitor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine#External_links Look for "Typesetting: Linotype vocational instruction film". paul
Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
On 6/17/20 12:25 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:
> https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu
>
> 28min documentary on the last ever edition of the NY Times to be
> printed using hot metal -- before they switched to what are now a
> quite choice assortment of late-'70s minicomputers. I think I spotted
> a PDP, a Data General and some IBM device, but I am no expert in this
> era.
>
When I was in college, I went on a weekend trip with a friend to see
where he worked during the summer. It was a print-shop, complete with
both letterpress and offset--and a Linotype ("pot" heated with natural
gas). The local advertising circular was still set with hot type and I
witnessed the operation of that contraption. Noisy and wonderful.
See the Twilight Zone episode "Printer's Devil" for another sample.
I was told that most newspaper pressmen were alcoholics, as it blunted
the effect of the then-toxic inks used in printing.
Anent ETAOIN: Early on in the formation of the CDC spinoff, ETA
Systems, I asked Neil Lincoln what "ETA" stood for. He related the
story of his son and ETAOIN SHRDLU. Back then, the name of the
supercomputer was referred to as the GF-10; later changed to the ETA-10.
(GF standing for GigaFLOP).
--Chuck
Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 at 21:59, Bill Degnan wrote: > > Liam, > I rescued a Linotype and gave it to Bob Roswell for his museum in Hunt > Valley, MD USA...should you ever be in the Washington/Baltimore area. > Syssrc.com is the URL and the museum is housed within their consulting and > training facility. Actually, I have a good friend in Baltimore whom I've never met F2G. We hope to visit each other one of these days. I will try. Thanks! BTW, I found the Fredric Brown short story: https://www.you-books.com/book/F-Brown/Etaoin-Shrdlu -- Liam Proven – Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk – gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven – Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 – ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
Re: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 3:26 PM Liam Proven via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu > > 28min documentary on the last ever edition of the NY Times to be > printed using hot metal -- before they switched to what are now a > quite choice assortment of late-'70s minicomputers. I think I spotted > a PDP, a Data General and some IBM device, but I am no expert in this > era. > > As a veteran reader of Fredric Brown, especially "the Enchanted > Linotype", I have been using ETAOIN SHRDLU to win at Hangman for many > years... but I'd never seen one working before. It all still seems > like magic to me. I've worked in the magazine industry so I should > know more about this stuff, but I never worked at the repro end of > things... > > > Liam, I rescued a Linotype and gave it to Bob Roswell for his museum in Hunt Valley, MD USA...should you ever be in the Washington/Baltimore area. Syssrc.com is the URL and the museum is housed within their consulting and training facility. Bill
Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu 28min documentary on the last ever edition of the NY Times to be printed using hot metal -- before they switched to what are now a quite choice assortment of late-'70s minicomputers. I think I spotted a PDP, a Data General and some IBM device, but I am no expert in this era. As a veteran reader of Fredric Brown, especially "the Enchanted Linotype", I have been using ETAOIN SHRDLU to win at Hangman for many years... but I'd never seen one working before. It all still seems like magic to me. I've worked in the magazine industry so I should know more about this stuff, but I never worked at the repro end of things... -- Liam Proven – Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk – gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven – Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 – ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
