El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-04-08
Printers Learn to Run Them.

Printers Learn to Run ITEM
The first machine Of the 1890 type
the modern and perfected linotype
was used in the office of the Brooklyn
Sta ndard-U Union, the next in the office
OF the New Orleans Transformers t.
The Brooklyn Standardization was the
first newspaper to use the linotyue
with union labor. The typographical
union at first was inclined TO oppose
the Introduction of the machines, but
its men soon bowed to the inevitable
and hustled out Of the dusty alleys
of the old hand-set composing rooms
TO learn to operate the machines.
With the introduction of the Hno-
type and the transfer of the newspaper
print shop from the realm of the hand
icrafts TO the dominion Of machinery,
1t was said that romance, would die
out of the printers trade. OF course.
IL wasn't the death of romance that
the printers union objected to; it was
the substitution of one machine with
one man for eight men But as the
newspapers, being assisted by the dis
covery Of cheap processes for making
spruce wood pulp paper, at once ex-
banded so that the composing room
now employs nearly as many men as
in the old hand-sef days, and at better
wages, the unions fears were soon at
rest
Adds to Dignity OF the Trade.
The printers know, and the editors
who work with them know, that the
Mergenthaler has added to. rather than
detracted from, the glory of their jobs.
The man who sits at the keyboard Of
a linotype is by compulsion OF necesz,
sity more steadfast, more sober aud
more industrious than his prototypeFat
the case in the hand-set days. # tAkes
a man to run linotype. Ther6 is
joy in the rattle and click of tue com
posing room, a delight in the odGr of
the hot metal. a thrill in the whir of
the motors that never had its counter
part in the good old days. No man
who has once known the spell IF the
linotype ever can escape rs influence.
The PROJECTIONS Of the Mergenthaler
have been lauded in a dozen tongues.
its shortcomings have been apologized
for in a thousand editorials, but no one
but the men who work with tais ma
chine have any notion OF how god
like are its virtues, how human its
faults. In the old days a tramp printer
occasionally would fall from tie water
wagon just when he was most needed.
but never was there man so perverse
as a linotype on spree. All over the
country I1eTe are 0OnQr01S or We'll
behaved hnotypes that never strayedV
from the narrow path of virtue, tuaE
are model machines, that never haEc
stayed out nights aud that don't know
the first rules Of poker-but thefe
isn't a one of them that isn't waiting
quietly and patiently for that time
when the whole shop depends upon it
to get out the paper and the ma
chinist is out to lunch When that
time comes, even the best and noblest
linotype will go on a spree They are
machines, but they are printers
The man in whose brain this ma
chine was conceived was Ottmar Mer-
genthaler. He was born in Wurttem-
berg in 1854, was brought up in the
clock making trade, and came to the
United States in 1872. His idea for the
linotype was originated in 1883, the
first machine was built and patented
in 1885, and the perfected principle
was applied. as has been said, in the
machine patented 81 years ago today.