Printer


When I was a boy, I had a little rotary press (that utilized rubber type, hand set with tweezers into holders that each held one line of text and locked onto the drum). I also used the mimeograph at my mother's office and did hectographic printing as well. I spent quality time at the Courier Publishing Co. in my hometown, watching the old Linotype machine and presses being used and occasionally being permitted to try my hand at something. Later as a Sign Painter, I did some commercial silk-screen printing. I completed a college undergraduate course in Printmaking (etching and printing from a zinc plate for a class project) and a graduate course in History of the Book and Printing. I have written about the history and techniques of printing (for my Pen, Ink, and Evidence, 1990), and I was commissioned to write a short treatise, "The Techniques of Printed Illustration" (for Martin F. Schmidt's Kentucky Illustrated, 1992).

As a Historical Documents Consultant, I have often examined questioned printed as well as handwritten texts. I added to my studies by doing a little typesetting and printing of a broadside on an antique press at the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum, Queenston, Ontario, July 4, 2010 as shown in the accompanying photos.






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