I had spent fourty years with this machine as mono operator in govt of India press ring road New Delhi and retd. From this office. So I am very happy. Now I am pensioner due to this nice macine.
I worked with Monotype for 16 years. Operated both the keyboard and the caster. Loved it! Still missing the challenge of setting type, making tabular composition, etc., without seeing what was being produced until all come out in the caster. Those were times of learning graphic arts. The hard way, but learning right... Me, too, would love to get my hands on the keyboard, to feel the same way I always felt, through those 16 years: GREAT!
I spent a 4 year apprenticeship on Monotype keyboard and caster, 1979-1983. Even then letterpress was in its last gasp, though still strong in many small jobbing printers in the UK. To show how old ours was, it was a 15x15 model. Within 5 years, the whole lot was a relic of the dinosaur. age.
I did a 5-year apprenticeship as a hot metal compositor and spent the last 2 years of that as a Mono operator and then perhaps another 8 years before things started becoming computerised. I sometimes dream I approach a Monotype machine and I'm terrified that I may not remember how to operate it.
Vaughan, I thought that. But I have seen keyboards and casters in museums and whilst I've forgotten a lot of the nuances (say you forgot to pull out the knob for justified text so that the space was a fixed 6-unit for unjustified text, when you then had to convert the 4-unit spaces to 6-unit, for but one example), watching this video brings so much else back. They are not what I'd call happy days to be honest.
Um, killing the line didn't work like that on ours - perhaps it was our machine's age? Ours was a 15x15 monstrosity, no unit shift, no quad and repeat. Killing a line would take the pump out of action on ours, but the spool would continue to feed character by character until it reached the next justification punches, but no characters would be cast. So, if you made a mistake at the very end of the line it would waste so much time as the caster went through the motions of that line until it did reach the next justification punches. If the mistake was at the very beginning of the line it wouldn't make a great deal of difference. A caster operator though would be able to tell a line being killed and feed the spool manually by twisting a feed wheel, thereby skipping what would be 'dead' characters. Then he'd leave it and allow the justification punches to start the pump again.
I had spent fourty years with this machine as mono operator in govt of India press ring road New Delhi and retd. From this office. So I am very happy. Now I am pensioner due to this nice macine.
I spent five years learning this great machine and would love to get my hands on anther one just for old times.
I worked for the Monotype Corporation at their school in London as an instructor. Takes me back
Spent many years teaching the use of this keyboard and later computer aided typesetting at the Monotype School in London. Great days!!
I worked with Monotype for 16 years. Operated both the keyboard and the caster. Loved it! Still missing the challenge of setting type, making tabular composition, etc., without seeing what was being produced until all come out in the caster. Those were times of learning graphic arts. The hard way, but learning right... Me, too, would love to get my hands on the keyboard, to feel the same way I always felt, through those 16 years: GREAT!
I spent a 4 year apprenticeship on Monotype keyboard and caster, 1979-1983. Even then letterpress was in its last gasp, though still strong in many small jobbing printers in the UK. To show how old ours was, it was a 15x15 model.
Within 5 years, the whole lot was a relic of the dinosaur. age.
Thank you for conserving this tremendously important typing technique in video.
This is the way I learned printing. Was my career for 40 years.
I did a 5-year apprenticeship as a hot metal compositor and spent the last 2 years of that as a Mono operator and then perhaps another 8 years before things started becoming computerised. I sometimes dream I approach a Monotype machine and I'm terrified that I may not remember how to operate it.
Vaughan, I thought that. But I have seen keyboards and casters in museums and whilst I've forgotten a lot of the nuances (say you forgot to pull out the knob for justified text so that the space was a fixed 6-unit for unjustified text, when you then had to convert the 4-unit spaces to 6-unit, for but one example), watching this video brings so much else back. They are not what I'd call happy days to be honest.
Thank you for the interview!
One of these, at lest a part of one is sitting in the corner of a room in my place of employment.
I also repaired moulds for typecasting
Nostalgia después de haber trabajado treinta y cinco años de linotipista
Mooi beroep monotypekeybordbewerker
Um, killing the line didn't work like that on ours - perhaps it was our machine's age? Ours was a 15x15 monstrosity, no unit shift, no quad and repeat.
Killing a line would take the pump out of action on ours, but the spool would continue to feed character by character until it reached the next justification punches, but no characters would be cast. So, if you made a mistake at the very end of the line it would waste so much time as the caster went through the motions of that line until it did reach the next justification punches. If the mistake was at the very beginning of the line it wouldn't make a great deal of difference.
A caster operator though would be able to tell a line being killed and feed the spool manually by twisting a feed wheel, thereby skipping what would be 'dead' characters. Then he'd leave it and allow the justification punches to start the pump again.
I specialized in making pawl wheels
I have stumbled across a Monotype Keyboard and I've no idea what to do with it. Any suggestions?
how much/price of machine?