The Silent Printer
Dublin Core
Title
The Silent Printer
Subject
An article from The Silent Printer by correspondant Ray F. Stallo discussing news information related to the printing trade.
Description
In this column, Ray F. Stallo publishes portions of a letter from A. W. Wright, dean of Silent Printers discussing young printers, the printing trade, and union membership.
Creator
Ray F. Stallo
Publisher
Gallaudet University Archives
Date
February 1955
Rights
This Item has been made available for educational and research purposes by the Drs. John S. and Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center at Gallaudet University. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You may need to obtain permission for your intended use if your use is otherwise not permitted by the copyright and applicable related rights legislation. For specific information about the copyright and reproduction rights for this Item, please contact the Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center: https://www.gallaudet.edu/drs-john-s-and-betty-j-schuchman-deaf-documentary-center
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
We are honored this month by a letter from that dean of Silent Printers, A. W. Wright. Brother Wright is now working on his 54th year of continuous employment at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, far and away the record for continuous employment of any Silent Printer. His letter contains some observations that should be of interest to any young printer.
“Why can’t the boys get into the Typographical Union after leaving school ? The answer is that the graduates of the state schools for the deaf do not realize that the four or five years they spend in the school shop hardly equals one full year of regular apprenticeship. And the Union requires six years of training as an apprentice. The large metropolitan papers, with five to eight editions daily, are operated on as rigid a schedule as a railroad and are unable to use deaf boys just starting out. The best plan for any deaf boy is to secure employment in a one-edition daily, a weekly or a job shop in order to build up sufficient experience to hold down a situation on a big city daily.
What does the future hold for the deaf hoy in the printing trade? This is a question difficult to answer, for, as most people who are in the trade realize, a revolution in typesetting methods is in the offing. Until very recently inventive genius was devoted to making bigger and better slug-casting machines. The most recent, and probably the ultimate, product in this trend is the Tele¬ typesetter. This device needs no description here; suffice it to say that it speeded up typesetting from the usual 200 lines an hour to 300 or more. It has yet to prove itself and the actual saving resulting from its use is problematical.
“A herald of the coming revolution in the printing industry is the new Intertype Photosetter. This machine looks and operates much like the familiar Linotype but there the similarity ends. The Photosetter’s product is not our well known lines of lead soldiers but a negative or a black and white photographic print of typelines. These lines are made up into pages or forms of type just as we make up our metal forms. The result is rephotographed or the negative is used directly in making an offset plate or, more rarely, a regular zinc etching for letterpress. Much experimentation is being done with magnesium and plastic materials as a medium for relief printing and indications are that a successful technique will be worked out. When that day dawns it will spell the end of metal types. Our work will be from copy to press plate via the photosetter. Operation of these ma¬ chines is not too different from that of our everyday linotypes. True, they re¬ quire a greater technical knowledge and perhaps more skill but no one will say that acquiring such knowledge and skill is beyond the deaf. Therefore the field of printing offers the deaf just as great as if not a greater opportunity for gainful employment than heretofore.”
To these observations, gained by a lifetime in the printing trade, the Silent Printer would like to add his two cents’ worth. We believe that the traditional trade of typesetting for the deaf will always offer splendid opportunities but that in view of the present trends in the Graphic Arts industry it would be wise for our schools for the deaf to place less emphasis on linotype operation and offer a more diversified training in the trade. That branch of the Graphic Arts known as offset lithography has grown by leaps and hounds and gives every indication of continuing to grow. It is a field in which the deaf can excel, as proved by those few deaf pioneers who have already entered this branch. It is likely that our schools can render the greatest service to the deaf vocationally by teaching this comparatively new trade.
“Why can’t the boys get into the Typographical Union after leaving school ? The answer is that the graduates of the state schools for the deaf do not realize that the four or five years they spend in the school shop hardly equals one full year of regular apprenticeship. And the Union requires six years of training as an apprentice. The large metropolitan papers, with five to eight editions daily, are operated on as rigid a schedule as a railroad and are unable to use deaf boys just starting out. The best plan for any deaf boy is to secure employment in a one-edition daily, a weekly or a job shop in order to build up sufficient experience to hold down a situation on a big city daily.
What does the future hold for the deaf hoy in the printing trade? This is a question difficult to answer, for, as most people who are in the trade realize, a revolution in typesetting methods is in the offing. Until very recently inventive genius was devoted to making bigger and better slug-casting machines. The most recent, and probably the ultimate, product in this trend is the Tele¬ typesetter. This device needs no description here; suffice it to say that it speeded up typesetting from the usual 200 lines an hour to 300 or more. It has yet to prove itself and the actual saving resulting from its use is problematical.
“A herald of the coming revolution in the printing industry is the new Intertype Photosetter. This machine looks and operates much like the familiar Linotype but there the similarity ends. The Photosetter’s product is not our well known lines of lead soldiers but a negative or a black and white photographic print of typelines. These lines are made up into pages or forms of type just as we make up our metal forms. The result is rephotographed or the negative is used directly in making an offset plate or, more rarely, a regular zinc etching for letterpress. Much experimentation is being done with magnesium and plastic materials as a medium for relief printing and indications are that a successful technique will be worked out. When that day dawns it will spell the end of metal types. Our work will be from copy to press plate via the photosetter. Operation of these ma¬ chines is not too different from that of our everyday linotypes. True, they re¬ quire a greater technical knowledge and perhaps more skill but no one will say that acquiring such knowledge and skill is beyond the deaf. Therefore the field of printing offers the deaf just as great as if not a greater opportunity for gainful employment than heretofore.”
To these observations, gained by a lifetime in the printing trade, the Silent Printer would like to add his two cents’ worth. We believe that the traditional trade of typesetting for the deaf will always offer splendid opportunities but that in view of the present trends in the Graphic Arts industry it would be wise for our schools for the deaf to place less emphasis on linotype operation and offer a more diversified training in the trade. That branch of the Graphic Arts known as offset lithography has grown by leaps and hounds and gives every indication of continuing to grow. It is a field in which the deaf can excel, as proved by those few deaf pioneers who have already entered this branch. It is likely that our schools can render the greatest service to the deaf vocationally by teaching this comparatively new trade.
Citation
Ray F. Stallo, “The Silent Printer,” DeafPrinters, accessed November 21, 2024, https://deafprinters.com/items/show/104.