This high-tech typesetting machine revolutionized an industry that hadn't changed much since German Johann Gutenberg invented movable type in 1440. A German immigrant clockmaker, Ottmar Mergenthaler, patented this amazing device in 1886 and it became the foundation for newspaper production worldwide. Before
Mergenthaler's invention of the Linotype, no newspaper anywhere had more than eight pages.
In 1964, as the sports editor of his high school paper, Stan proofread Linotype slugs set at the Lake Region Press in Alexandria, Minnesota.
The Chaska
Herald was founded in 1862 and eventually purchased and used a Linotype similar to this one until photo-typesetting rendered it obsolete just 50 years ago. The
Herald, the oldest business in Chaska and one of the oldest newspapers in Minnesota, will soon celebrate its 150th anniversary so its publisher
emeritus, above, went shopping with his pal, Bob Shaw, today to gather artifacts for a suitable exhibit to mark the occasion.
Bob has keys to the Pioneer Museum at the Minnesota State Fair so they rifled through the place this morning and came out with a spiffy exhibit that they could actually lift and transport in Stan's Rendezvous.
Before departing, Bob snapped the above picture of Stan, seated as close as he's ever come to this amazing masterpiece of engineering.
Then Bob and Stan, a couple of old newspaper relics themselves, sped out of the deserted fairgrounds with the goods.
If you want to learn more Herald history and leave a birthday wish for its continued prosperity, visit the public display at the
Chaska History Center, 112 West Fourth Street, after Christmas.
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Lead type slugs produced on the Mergenthaler and clamped into page forms
await printing on the nearby press. |
