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A Print Devil can be any age.
I happened to be a 9 year old who knew nothing about printing,
walked down a dirt road, stopped at a print shop, sat on the
doorstep and watched. I finally asked if they need help sweepin’
floors or anything else?
The answer comes back — SURE we do.
‘mon’ in. Have a “coke” and we’ll talk about it.
One guy recognized me . . . walked over and said “u work at the milk barn rite?”
Yup. I just got done sweepin’ alleys (area behind where cows stand when milked).
How are u at spelling?
We do 10 new words each school day. I get 80 or 90 for a grade.
No 100’s?
Yup. One, maybe two.
Someone ‘tole’ me U wash them there glass bottles on that spinning steam brush?
Yup. ‘bout 20 cases (240 bottles) each day. 3 sizes. Quarts, Pints & 1/2 Pints.
Why ua’ wanna’ work here?
After a year i’m tired of washin’ bottles & feedin’ cows.
Does Farmer Phil know ur’ tired of doin’ that all the time?
Yup. He tole’ me to stop by this printin’ place.
OK. ‘comon. I’ll show u where the broom is - and don’t get near those printin’ machines.
• • • • and life went on . . . at the print shop . . . ‘till we moved.
Printers don’t talk everyday words like 9 year olds speak
No S-I-R R E E E E E E E E . . .
I used words like hay bales, corn cobs, oats, glass milk bottles, halters, reins, tugs, double tree, hitch pin, clevis, horse shoes, ice corks, milk pails, saddle, cinch ring, milk crates along with a steam spinning milk bottle brush that spit steam inside the bottle while being cleaned.
The printers used words like picas, points, didots,
cicero, line rule, leads, slugs, hell box, type notch, reglets,
quoins, leaders, galleys, gutters, turtles, quoin key, space
bands, vice jaws, hot metal, matrices, distributor box, metal
pot, 1st elevator, 2nd elevator, clutch leathers, hell box,
quadders, distributor box, mixers and on and on.
I was
telling my mother about all these words and mentioned the word
“hell box” which caused her, while pealing potatoes, to turn
around and point a knife at me and said their ain’t no such thing
as a “hell box.” You better get back to milk bottles, oats and
horses. Next day my dad stopped at this print shop and did in
fact find out that there was a “hell box.”
[U never threw a broken part or bent
matrix away. Those things went into the hell box. Never know when
u’ might need a bent or broken part to get a hot metal
linecasting machine or press running again.]
For a kid who knew “gee” and “haa” to get
horses to turn left or right and how horse apples got from stalls
to the pile in the farm yard, this Print Devil thing was a whole
new world!
. . . from Print Devil to ? ? ?
His first exposure to graphics and printing was hand setting newspaper headlines for a
North Eastern Wisconsin Newspaper. It was different than sweepin.
This time I got to assemble “type characters” onto a galley
that became column heading in the newspaper. The next day I got
to put those letters back into the wood box (california job case)
so they could be used another time. I’m still called a "printer's devil" just doing different stuff.
What are Leads and Slugs?
All Foundry Type had a NICK on the front edge of each character.
After setting the first line and before inserting any lead
(space between lines) the compositor would make a quick check to
see that all characters in the line were set correctly. If one
character showed up with no nick - it’s time to turn the
character around so the nick shows before inserting a “lead”
space
strip of lead material – thickness of 1, 2, 3 points thick which are precut in many different lengths.
Also used for spacing between lines of type are “slugs”
– that are cast in long strips then precut to lengths desired for
line spacing. Thickness = 6, 12, 18 & 24 pt. thick.
‘bout this time, 1948, let’s see . . . I
delivered milk bottles from a horse drawn cart to customers door
steps, raised “squab” for sale, sold fresh eggs from my two
chickens, learned how to swim in
Menominee River (Michigan/Wisconsin border), delivered 98 papers to homes - tossin’ ‘em from my bicycle, made ice cream at a dairy, worked as helper in a Mobil Gas- 2 bay - Station, learned a lot of mechanical stuff about cars, worked at Radio WMAM, Marinette, wi., helped with installation of WMBV-TV, ch. 11, Marinette, Wi. (now in Green Bay, next to Lambeau Field. FOX broadcasting owns station.) and all of a sudden it was 1955. Out the High School door in June and onto one of those iron boats that picked up ore in Duluth, Mn. and hauled it to Inland Steel, Indiana. Then back to Duluth for another load. July, Aug. & Sept. E’nuf of that. Back to the Mobil station. . . then into U. S. Navy – Nov. of ‘55. My Navy days building another TV station on Adak, Ak, commercial Albacore fishing, Winnecone Wi. newspaper/print shop and a whole bunch of other wanderings will be filled in — later.... much later.
‘Bout 1960 I got back to basics of printing at Milwaukee Vocational School.
Linotypes, Intertypes, Ludlows and more.
What’s a point?
What’s set width?
What’s % of ink color reduction?
The U.S. uses a measurement system based on inches, feet, yards etc.
For typesetting, 72 points = 1 inch. 1 point = .01387 thousandths of 1 inch
rounded up to .014 thousandths of 1 inch.
Aril & Arial Narrow typeface used in examples below.
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6 pt. type = ..084 thousandths of an inch.
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Sample left is
6 pt. type = .084 thousandths of an inch. It’s used in advertisements, usually at the bottom, items that advertisers don’t want you to read nor understand. Also used in legal forms requiring signatures and Credit Card Co. rules about the use/payments etc. that You agree to before using the service.
Technology for type composition
using computers, 1973 era. allowed
composition of text to “squeeze” the
set width of characters - by
selecting a “Narrow” typeface.
Around 2009, technology offered commands to auto-squeeze
any type face to desired width.
Some states have a minimum point size
for classified and legal documents
type, however, no state has
established a minimum set width that
this author is aware of.
“squeeze” the set width of characters. to make sure –
/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\
you can’t read
certain type – 100 % black ink – 60 %
= 40 % for black. If still readable –
reduce it another 10% or 20%.
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8 pt. type = .112 thousandths of an inch.
10 pt. type = .140 thousandths of an inch.
12 pt. type = .168 thousandths of an inch.
14 pt. type = .196 thousandths of an inch.
Composing (composition) Stick
Usually held in left hand allowing right hand to pick type characters from the type drawer (down page)
one character at a time. I’ve seen a good typesetter pick two or three characters at a time. Note: in
between the word “Art and” is a space, then after the word “and” a word space is being held with the
left thumb. Possibly this line will get blank spaces inserted to fill out to upper edge (above thumb) top
end of composing stick. Typesetter will then choose a “lead” or “slug” of desired thickness and length
and inserts next to the type and spaces. The next line will start next to the adjustable measure guide.
(under the Cap letter “A”
Adjustable line length clamp is adjustable to desired length of line required.
Lifting a lever allows movement to longer measure, then re clamping lever down again.
Adjustable Composing Stick
This shows how adjustable guide is operated plus “hand stick” is held.
Note spaces between each word plus a “lead” between the bottom of top line and second
line (typesetter’s thumb). This process continues until “stick” is full. Type will be
transferred onto metal galley tray – typesetter will continue with more typesetting
from type case below. With completion of typesetting accomplished a proof of type
in galley will be created on proof press. (down page) Proof read for errors. Correction
performed right on galley and then type can be placed into square iron frame known
as a “chase” – type will be held in “chase” by block of wood “furniture” then “quoins”
inserted between the furniture and “chase” frame - “keys” will be expanded with
“quoin key” – then chase placed onto platen press.
Each letter in the headline was an individual character molded from lead, more commonly known as
foundry type. The process was called "hand stickin’ type." You set the characters of foundry type, side
by side, upside down for the headline in a long metal tray referred to as a stick or type galley. (metal
tray made of heavy steel with 1//4” sides on 3 sides – leaving the end of the tray open so type could be
slid off of galley tray into a form. If the line of characters were too long for the space intended in the
newspaper you would distribute those characters back into the type drawer and go to the next smaller
size type face and reset the line again.
After a couple days of this, you got to know which type would fit into a given space.
The makeup person would determine the length of line and typeface that should fit. He would place a
white chalk mark on the metal galley where the line should end.
The foundry type (above) came in many different sizes – from 5 pt. (like classifieds ads in newspapers)
to 148 pt (like 2” high headlines in newspapers.)
The average size of text in news stories appearing in a newspaper is 8 pt type – 8 pt type.
§ § § § § § § § § §
The next lesson to learn is were all these characters were stored in the below drawer. Capital letters
were easy BUT lower case, ligatures, punctuation were a total mess.
(see California Job Case below:)
I never got a real explanation on why they were all mixed up.
I did find out that the “e”, being the most used vowel, required a larger space for storage.
California Job Case Type drawer(below) has 89 separate spaces for storage of characters
Some spaces for lower case letters were larger — used more often in
composition.
Larger type sizes were divided into two drawers — with larger spaces.
When selecting a drawer of type, you always pulled the drawer directly below your selected type drawer 1/2 way out. Then if you had to get to numbers in the top row of your type drawer and pull the drawer out too far – it would fall to the next drawer – not all the way to the floor, creating one hell of a
mess – which was called “pied type.” Those who pied a drawer got the opportunity to clean
(redistribute) the characters to the correct square storage area within the drawer
On Their OWN Time!
Type (fonts) characters were stored in large drawers called California Job cases. These drawers were 32" wide x 17"
deep x 1.5" high which were divided into many different
size spaces. Larger spaces for vowels and spacing
materials. Smaller spaces for consonants, numbers,
ligatures, punctuation and special characters. Most
drawers of type had 89 separate spaces. The larger type
was divided between 2 drawers. Caps in one drawer and
lower case, the other. You would stick all caps required for
the headline, close that drawer and select all lower-case to
complete the headline. As many as 60 drawers were in a
type cabinet.
Above the 2 columns of type drawers are vertical stacks of
1 and 2 pt. leads use as space between lines of hand set
type. Many different lengths - from 6 to 24 picas. Above
them, the angle storage squares held different brass
spaces used for spacing between characters within the
words - to justify the lines of type in a composing stick when required
This print devil had to stand on a stack 
of three CoCa-Cola cases to reach the top 4 drawers.
(That's when a short bottle of Coke cost 5¢.
The cooler for the Coke was a large square tin box w/ folding covers.
¼ chunk of ice was delivered, via horse drawn wagon,
every other day for 10¢.
(Print Devil got elected to empty pail of water from cooler every 2 days)
“Hand set” type is composed up-side-down on a type galley. (picture right)
Place the galley onto a proof press, roll ink on face of
characters with brayer (roller), place sheet of paper
on type then move (large roller) impression roller across paper.
Large roller in Proof Press picture (below)
Type will read correctly – (upper half of picture - right) > > >
Proof press (left) was invented around 1810
Type shops in the country used them until photo composition
arrived in the 1960’s
Present day hot metal type shops still use them
(believe it or not– hot metal typesetting is alive and well)
The trade is taught at
Linotype University
located in Denmark, Ia.
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What the hell is a “HELL BOX” ?
The Hell Box keeps track of lost type and broken parts.
Never know what you’ll find in there!
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 Cold Beer Here!
Another print devil daily duties was take two empty pails to the corner pub,
(Ye' Olde’ Oak Tavern on square – Marinette, WI.) and have them filled with beer.
A ritual performed each day when the newspaper was "put to bed." (Placed onto the press)
All comp room personnel would locate their mug, gather around this huge flat stone table (below)
where pages were "made up" (imposed/assembled) and partake in “swilling” of beer.
The barkeep traded 2 pails of beer for 2 FREE newspapers —
compliments of the newspaper publisher.
Printers, Typesetters, Proof Readers etc. that were waitin’ for the
Print Devil to return from Ye’ Olde’ Oak Tavern.
The “makeup” flat stone tables are in foreground
1875 Hand Cranked Flat Bed Press
Tramp Printer — Ever hear of them?
How about Drifters?
 Read on to learn more
Tramp Printers would traverse the country from East to West Coast and North to South, depending on where the best weather was. One could show up at any newspaper or commercial type shop and request work. It was difficult to find
good people who could hand stick type and be a good speller.
They were never turned away. Always showed up with no
money. Most of the shops had a Chapel Chairman. Like a Union
steward today. The worker would converse with the Chair who
in turn went to the owner or publisher and cut a deal for the
Drifter to work. If the pub/owner refused, then another
permanent worker would take a day off and have this worker
take his place. The problem with a permanent worker taking a
day off, he would visit the other shops in the area and possibly
take employ at a different location. Then when the Tramp left
town – his former employer would be short of GOOD help.
People who could hand stick type were always in demand.
Owners would hire a housewife before a male. Women had
smaller fingers and could hand stick type faster than most
males. However in those days the rules were different for women. If they had children, they stayed at
home tending to them.
The tramp drifter wouldn’t stay for long. Maybe a week or so.
The local saloon always had food for them and a place to sleep. The tramp drifters never left town
without settling their tabs at the local saloon.
They might be back in 6 months.
 Long before Gutenberg's invention entered the scene, Germany was already a center of European book culture. Books were hand-made
by monks in monasteries, who toiled for weeks over a single
manuscript and were primarily responsible for copying religious
documents. Illuminated with gold and beautifully illustrated with
colorful drawings and designs, these books remain some of the most
important medieval cultural artifacts in Germany.
Guttenberg
and one of his assistants
page still under construction
Forward to 1955 —
This print devil joined the U.S. Navy. Started as a Seaman
Apprentice (same as printers devil — do the crappy work) and
was whisked away to Adak, Alaska to operate a TV station for the
entertainment of troops. (the devil worked at WLUK-TV 11
Marinette, WI. while in high school) Air Force, Marines and Navy
plus some dependents were stationed there.. Television, small
12" screens that produce black/white pictures on a glass tube
along with speakers that blurt out sound and have more snow on
the screen than picture.
Adak is so far out of touch with the real world that map makers
created a westward jog in the International Date Line so the last
island on the Aleutian Chain, Attu, would be included within the
continent of North America. Adak Island is 5 or 6 from the end of the chain.
Wow... April 2010. Still workin’ on things to place on this page.
Haven’t forgot.
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