Remember Burgess Meredith as the Printer's Devil in the Twilight Zone?

My Uncle Ernie owned a print shop in Allentown PA. I was there many times when I was a boy during the early 50's. He owned one of these Linotype beasts. I regarded it with a weird combination of wonderment and fear. Even back then I realized what it does and, watching him work it, I acquired a basic understanding of its workings. I can very clearly remember my respect for the dangers of the print shop with all of its moving things and the especially the molten lead.

Uncle Ernie gave up his business and went to Washington to work for the Government Printing Office. I became an engineer.

I hope you understand why I'll rate this 5 stars for technical content and nostalgia.

--- CHAS

I was born one year before this film was made. I find the intricacy and precision on display here to be a lost art compared to technology of today.

Utterly fascinating how-to film about what looks to be a now primitive and obsolete way to set and mold type. This machine that they used automatically selects the type, spaces, prepares the mold AND puts the letters back to be used again! The machine is explained, step by step, and doesnt really get too complicated for us so that dumdums (like me) can easily understand what happens. Sure its over a half hour, but it sure is entertaining.

Oh yeah, another neat thing about this, is that was an ITALIAN training film, its been dubbed into English. So, in short, youll get to see a 1960s Italian Industrial film! Neat! Highly recommended!

And I mean everything!

These two films won't be very interesting if you're not into print, but for those of you who are curious about how books, magazines and newspapers were made before desktop publishing, these shorts will how a linotype works.

In part one, we are given a general overview of the machine's process, and how Compositing (creating a slug) is done. Lots of nifty illustrations, and demonstrations of the mechanics of it.