Volume 31 • Issue 2/3 • Fall 2010 Message from the President In This Issue Museum information .....................2 The photo below says lot about the Museum of Printing. Ted Leigh and Dan Abugov are under a Vandercook SP-25. The proofi ng press was a donation from Printing Arts Fair ...........................3 the Wall Street Journal, which once had its major production site in Chicopee, The Metal Press ..............................4 MA. Somewhere along the line, the roller mechanism was mis-wired and would QWERTY ........................................5 move in one direction but not in the other. The malfunction was traced to an Type Specimens ..............................6 ancient capacitor on an ancient printed circuit board. Boxcar Base ...................................7 A lot of help came from a visitor one day. As he entered, we asked if he was an Fall Programs .................................8 electrical engineer. “Yes, how did you know?” he said and we promptly put him Fall Programs .................................9 to work. Interrobang ..................................10 Ted fi rst called other SP-25 sites and then found a supplier of ancient electrical Garamond .................................... 11 parts. He replaced the capacitor and the press was back in business. Because Donnelley Building ......................12 of the large press bed, the Vandercook will be used to proof our growing wood Louis Moyroud .............................13 type collection. Glenn LeDoux has been sorting and classifying wood type and The Daye Press .............................14 will now be able to proof it. Museum Visitors ..........................15 This is what our volunteers do. They work tirelessly to preserve and protect the Membership Form........................ 16 craft of printing. They bring ancient machines back to life. On-going Exhibits Freedom of the Press and the Colonial Print Shop Gary Gregory and the Museum staff have created an exhibi- tion of a wooden common press (replica) and a wooden intaglio press (genuine). Art of Anna Hogan Exhibit A selection of Anna Hogan’s wood engravings are on display. Botanical Prints Botanical prints from plates donated by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University have been printed in meticulous detail. Board of Directors OFFICERS Frank Romano President Bill Whitley Vice President Brian Frykenberg Secretary Theodore Leigh Treasurer and Acting Executive Director DIRECTORS Sally Abugov, Creative Director John Adams, Attorney John Barrett, Appraisals & collections Sandy Fuhs, Professor and Editor Cliff Garber, Webmaster Gary Gregory, Historical Portrayer Howard Hansen, Curator Norman Hansen, Founder Rebecca Krzyzaniak, Professor Glenn LeDoux, Media Bill Livolsi, Retired Educator Larry Oppenberg, Type Designer Kim Pickard, Founder John Rogers, Acquisition Specialist Louis Rosenblum, Historian Nancy Trottier, Archivist William E. Bonser, Director Emeritus CONTACT The Museum of Printing 800 Massachusetts Avenue North Andover, MA 01845 Telephone: 978-686-0450 [email protected] www.museumofprinting.org HOURS The Museum is open Friday and Saturday (until Dec. 24) 10:00 am to 4:00 pm General Admission: $5.00 Students and Seniors: $3.00 Children 6 and under: Free 2 THE GALLEY They came to the fair The 7th Annual Printing Arts Fair took place at the Museum of Printing on a sunny Father’s Day. Many families were counted among the 400-plus attendees, who saw demonstrations of papermaking, stone lithography, intaglio printing, Ludlow and Linotype linecasting, and other book arts. Over 30 exhibitors offered note books, cards, rare books, antique equipment, ephemera, and other articles. Children could print wood type and pictorial cuts as well as Father’s Day cards. The centerpiece of the event was the second year we printed with a steamroller. Sally Abugov and her band of 28 linoleum block carvers created a wonderful set of alphabetic designs with fl oral/ fauna themes. The individual blocks were printed in differ- ent colors and sold at the Fair. Letter art created by: A Trina Abbott P Karen Shaner, B Leslie Evans Katrina Swartz, C Carolyn Muskat Anjali Pala D Joan Ellis Q Laura Mauriello E Fran McCormick R Jennie Cline F Emily Trespas S Rebecca Saraceno G Sarah Smith T Sandy Fuhs H Diane Bigda U Jessie Marsolais I Kelly Jarasitis V Alex Abugov J Deb Bastien W Dan Abugov K Katey Corrigan X Bridget Fitzgerald L John Wendler Y Nancy Conlan M Julia Talcott Z Nancy Trottier N Sarah Bardo (center art too) O Deb Putnoi FALL 2010 3 The fi rst metal press fi nely produced books at reasonable prices but also to smaller-sized books which were easy to fi t in a pocket. Charles Mahon, Third Earl Stanhope, found that Chiswick Press specialized in the production of small wooden printing presses were not strong enough for volumes, noted for their woodcut engravings. The books newspaper long runs. He invented the first cast-iron were printed by hand on iron presses. One of the presses press. His first design had straight sides but cracked. is now in Gunnersbury Park Museum, outside London. His second design had curved sides and was much stronger. A large number of these presses printed the The Stanhope press is London Times through half of the 1800s. the oldest surviving metal printing press The private press in the world, made by was a forerunner Robert Walker in 1804 (No. 5), can be seen in the Gun- of the private nersbury Museum. In red lettering, it says “Stanhope, presses started by William Morris and others later in the 19th century. Chiswick Press was founded by Charles Whittingham (1767-1840) who had acquired a patent for extracting tar from old ropes. The hemp was pulped to produce a Inventit, No. 5, and the date 1804.” The press is near the front door, behind glass, and diffi cult to photograph. The Museum is rather eclectic. Take the Piccadilly Underground to Acton Town. Turn left and walk about 10 minutes and turn into the park after Circular Road. paper with a strong and silky finish while the tar was used to produce printing ink. In 1810 Whittingham equipped a printing works with a paper mill next door. After Whittingham’s death his nephew, Charles Whittingham (1797-1876) took over the business and continued printing at Chiswick until 1852 when he moved the Chiswick Press to Tooks Court, Chancery Lane. The Whittinghams not only pioneered a movement towards 4 THE GALLEY The quirks in The QWERTY layout allows many counterparts. Remember when we more words to be keyed using only used the lowercase L as a one? The QWERTY the left hand. In fact, thousands of letter M is located at the end of the English words can be keyed using third row to the right of the letter L QWERTY describes the keyboard only the left hand, while only a few rather than on the fourth row to the layout of English-language keyboards, hundred words can be typed using right of the N, the letters C and X based on the 1874 typewriter. It takes only the right hand. This is helpful are reversed, and most punctuation its name from the fi rst six characters for left-handed people. I contend that marks are in different positions or are of the keyboard’s top row of letters. Sholes was left-handed and got even missing entirely. 0 and 1 were omitted The basic layout was designed by for every left-handed person who to simplify the design and reduce Christopher Latham Sholes for the would ever live. the manufacturing and maintenance Sholes-Glidden typewriter and sold costs; they were chosen specifi cally The QWERTY layout became popular to Remington. It was said to be because they were “redundant” and with the success of the Remington designed to minimize typebar clashes could be recreated using other keys. and remains in use on computer No. 2 of 1878, the fi rst typewriter to keyboards. It is illogical, random, include both upper and lowercase When Sholes built his fi rst model in and based on what I think was a left- letters, via a shift key. The original 1868, the keys were arranged alpha- handed ex-publisher-cum-inventor who model was all caps. betically in two rows, piano-like. The could not solve the jamming of keys. fi rst typewriter did jam and Sholes Because it was the fi rst successful rearranged the letters. Sholes took mechanical writing machine, its key the most common letter pairs such layout has become the standard. as “TH” and made sure their type- bars were at safe distances. Sholes was the 52nd person to invent the typewriter but the only one The fi rst machines typed only capital to call it that. He struggled for six letters. The Remington No. 2 offered years to perfect his invention, making both upper and lowercase by adding many trial-and-error re-arrangements the familiar shift key. It is called of the original machine’s alphabetical a shift because it caused the car- key arrangement to reduce typebar riage to shift in position for printing clashes. He used a study of letter-pair either of two letters on each typebar. frequency by educator Amos Dens- Electronic keyboards no longer shift more, brother of his fi nancial backer, mechanically, but its name remains. James Densmore. Several alternatives to QWERTY He arrived at a four-row, upper- have been developed over the years, case keyboard close to the modern claimed to be more effi cient, intuitive and ergonomic. Nevertheless, none QWERTY standard. In 1873 The keys are not on a standard grid has seen widespread adoption, due Sholes’ backer, James Densmore, and each column slants diagonally to the sheer dominance of available sold manufacturing rights for the due to the mechanical linkages. Each keyboards and training. Sholes-Glidden “Type Writer” to key being attached to a lever, and E. Remington and Sons, and the hence the offset prevents the levers When Ottmar Mergenthaler was keyboard layout was fi nalized by from running into each other and laying out the keys for the Linotype Remington’s mechanics.