SCM Print Shop

The Print Shop

The Print Shop is both an exhibit and the home of Museum Press, which uses Victorian-era technology to produce posters and flyers for the museum. It houses several platen presses, all in working order. It also has many other artifacts from the old days, including a Ludlow typecaster, flatbed proof presses, paper cutters capable of slicing several hundred pages at a time, bookpresses, a full set of tools used by print compositors, and many precious fonts.

Steve Turck produces posters and flyers for the museum. The shop hosts workshops and tours for school classes, scout troops and other groups throughout the year.

Two of the many posters produced by SCM's Museum Press.

A few highlights ...
Click on photos to see them full size.

A prized possession of the museum's print shop is this 1930 Linotype. The Linotype was invented in 1884 by Ottmar Mergenthaler, a German immigrant, following many unsuccessful efforts by many people over many years.
It made possible, for the first time since the invention of movable type more than 400 years earlier, for more than one character at a time to be placed on a page form, thus making it possible to do in one day what formerly would take a week or more.
The Linotype contains more than a thousand moving parts and its operation involves 27 separate stages. Operators must be accurate typists, know how to spell and where words should break, and be able to make minor repairs.

The Ludlow was another important part of any print shop's arsenal. After many failed attempts by himself and others to mechanize the assembling, justifying and distributing of type characters (matrices), William Ludlow in 1912 decided to leave those tasks to people and have the machine only do the casting.The Ludlow can handle font sizes from 4 to 144 points. The Ludlow has outlasted virtually all of the other precomputer printing machines, thanks to the needs of manufacturers of rubber stamps and cardboard boxes.

Some font cabinets, like this one (left) for the Ludlow, were made with slanted drawers so that gravity would prevent the well-ordered characters from sloshing around and getting mixed up when the drawer was opened or closed.
Platen presses were workhorses of 19th-and early 20th-century printing. This is one of the most famous of the breed, a Golding Jobber. The Museum has several platen presses in perfect working condition.
A book press made in 1859.

This paper cutter can handle hundreds
of pages in one chop.
The Vandercook proof press is often called the
"Cadillac" of proof presses. Some 30,000 of
them were made between 1903 and 1975.

For further information:
Amalgamated Printers Association. An organization of letterpress enthusiasts, including printers, typecasters and collectors.
Briar Press History and development of printing, plus much other info
Garloo.com The "Five-Foot Shelf Press"
Melbourne Museum of Printing
Red Sun A history of typography and printing, plus guides to type classification and page layout and a large glossary.
Robert C. Williams American Institute of Papermaking
Snowdragon Press Includes info on history, type and machines.

© 2007 by South County Museum.