etaoin shrdlu

February 24, 2023

When typesetting on a Linotype, the operator often made a mistake that was easier to reset the line versus correct the mats (individual character matrices). They would often drag their finger down. the leftmost 2 columns on the keyboard to type “etaoin shrdlu.” This told the person locking up the page to PULL that line (shown in red above) out of the text and close the lines. The line was accidentally not pulled, resulting in the mistake printed above.

Looking at the problem lines, you can see that the characters at the start of both lines are correct. They are just in the wrong order.

You can see by the image below how easy it is to simply drag your finger down those left two rows of keys.

Creative gathering of the membership

The .918 Club held its March membership meeting with a hands-on letterpress challenge. Choose from a variety of recently received options of wood type and copperplate cuts and turn them into a broadside.

Here are a few of the results.

The918Club APHA calendar page

The918Club’s contribution to the American Printing History Associations annual calendar for 2023. Click here to see all of the calendar pages.

Seven Fun Facts about the Linotype

⬆Ottmar Mergenthaler (May 11, 1854 – October 28, 1899). Click here for his Wikipedia article or here for the “Linotype Machine” article.

1. As a youth in Germany, Ottmar Mergenthaler was apprenticed to his uncle, a watchmaker. “Above all, watchmaking taught me precision he later wrote. The Linotype has been described as similar to a watch. Every piece perfectly harmonizes with the other components to form an intricate whole — like clockwork.

2. The first Linotype operator was a woman. Julia Camp, a speedy typist, operated the keyboard when Ottmar Mergenthaler demonstrated his prototype machine to investors at his Baltimore shop in 1884.

3. The Friedenwald Company of Baltimore was the first book printer in the world to install a Linotype. Mergenthaler had consulted with its manager while building his machine.

4. Local printers funded the Ottmar Mergenthaler School of Printing in 1923. It became part of the Baltimore public school system and combined with two other schools in 1953 to form Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School, known as MERVO. It still exists today.

5. Newspaper composing rooms filled with Linotypes were extremely loud and fast-paced. It was common for deaf people to be employed as Linotype operators because they weren’t bothered by all the commotion.

6. The Linotype starred in a Twilight Zone episode, “Printer’s Devil.” A failing newspaper publisher sells his soul to the devil, who goes to work for the paper as a Linotype operator and reporter. He types stories on the Linotype, then later in the day, the events in the stories occur, allowing the newspaper to scoop the competition. One day, the publisher reads off the Linotype that his girlfriend (who spurned the devil’s advances) was gravely injured in a car accident. Can he use the Linotype to type a scenario to save her life?

7. End of the Line(otype): Phototypesetting, or “cold type,” first appeared in the 1960s. It used a photographic process to generate columns of type on scrolls of photo paper. Phototypesetting machines, which fit more easily in offices, were soon enhanced by computers and replaced the Linotype by the 1980s. But their reign was short. By the end of the 20th century, computer-aided phototypesetting was replaced by fully digital systems that produced entire pages. How long will it be before this technology, too, is replaced?