Vintage work crew photos

[cmarlow]

(clipped) We don't actually metabolize elemmental lead or mercury very well. (still does' mean I'll breathe in molten lead fumes or drink elemental mercury
:-)
..... ....
And of us older than 26 (leaded gasoline was banned in '96) have been exposed to enough teratethyl lead to demonstrably affect our cognitive functions to some extent. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...tudy-rcna19028

And yes, that includes me. It's a sobering through. Generation Lead is a real thing, and it'a not just poor kids in ghettos.

Unfortunately all metals "rust" so a block of lead will always have some oxides on it, and mercury metal converts to the more toxic form in nature by the action of bacteria.

[the harmonious blacksmith]

Font is also used for Linotype/Intertype, Ludlow and other matrices used in linecasting or type casting equipment as well. Still, the fixed quantity of a particular typeface, weight and size pretty much applies.

[the harmonious blacksmith]

Yes, it's interesting because the house I grew up in still is fed with a lead water pipe from the street mains and we suffered no ill effects from that. When the city came around and installed water meters on old houses that had been on a flat rate, I thought they would have a fit when they ran across that lead line. Nope, they had adapters to fit and never said a word. Recently the city has begun a program to replace all those old lead lines and apparently there are a lot of them still in use, more than I had imagined.

As I previously said about my daily exposure to Linotype, Ludlow and lead based type didn't show any lead in my system, but my father had elevated levels of lead from his jewelry store being on a main business avenue during the leaded gasoline era. Lead eventually "chelates", I believe is the term, out of the body unlike asbestos and some other toxins.

[Toolmaker51]

And of us older than 26 (leaded gasoline was banned in '96) have been exposed to enough teratethyl lead to demonstrably affect our cognitive functions to some extent https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...tudy-rcna19028[/QOUTE]

Followed the science. Thought I discovered source of feeble politicians!

............snip........ Lead eventually "chelates", I believe is the term, out of the body unlike asbestos and some other toxins.

Darn it all, there goes hypothesis.

[Frank S]

And of us older than 26 (leaded gasoline was banned in '96) have been exposed to enough teratethyl lead to demonstrably affect our cognitive functions to some extent https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...tudy-rcna19028[/QOUTE]

Followed the science. Thought I discovered source of feeble politicians!



Darn it all, there goes hypothesis.

The line of thinking that feeble Politian's were at one time exposed to excessive amounts of teratethyl lead as to the root cause of their failing cognitive abilities
Would be to suggest at one time they may have been gearheads. Being somewhat of an older gearhead myself I know quite a few who are much older than I am, and like me most will profoundly acknowledge using leaded gasoline as their go to cleanser for all their mechanic work back in the day. So far as I know not very many career Politian's even know the difference between a screw driver and a pair of plier

[Jon]

Workers lower a lifting device onto a 100-inch telescope mirror. Mount Wilson Observatory. California, 1935.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...s_fullsize.jpg

[techcollect]

There are a few places (museums) that have kept various lead typesetters functional for demonstration purposes.
I was recently in a up-cycle store that had an actual full type font storage cabinet (no type) the ones in large newspapers like this would have been had to be serviced with a rolling ladder.

Over the past 5 decades, many font job case drawers where scrapped and many of the 2" deep drawers were turned into wall mounted what-not displays.

The cases holding the drawers are categorized by font, size and upper and lower case letters. (upper case was on top, lower case on bottom.)
You might imagine how many pieces were needed for a large edition newspaper.
Linotype machines were extremely complex machines and had an enormous network of parts once described
to me by a former newspaper typesetter as "a manual typewriter met a concert organ".

One of the downsides was working long-term with molten lead and it's fumes.

The dreaded fail of a typesetter was 'pieing'.
The machine had a metal framed 'chase' which the metal mirror reversed type was placed in to have molten lead form the casting to mount in the printing press. Once the type was in place, it was locked into the chase with quoin locks which placed lateral pressure to the chase sides.
There is no bottom. After the chase was full, it was locked and removed from the machine.
If the type is not locked well or if one piece is askew, the entire set can be lost due to 'Pieing'. All of the metal hits the floor in thousands of pieces which have to be swept up, dusted off and re-cased into the correct font drawers and the typesetter starting over at the first letter.

The were a few makers of equipment, Merganthaler being the maker of 'Lino-Type' equipment and was market dominant.
Another was Monotype. Monotype is still in business and largely produces intellectual property licensed as computer type fonts.
Monotype bought out the Linotype catalog of fonts.
Merganthaler proceeded into the early computer typesetting era and saw the transformation of most new typesetters were women.
Merganthaler was purchased by and became a division of Heidelberg (printing press manufacturer.

Another common, smaller machine was made by Ludlow. They made smaller units that cast lead into type set by hand.
These were single type line machines known as 'Headliners' and typically used for very large font sizes above 24 point type.

There are still shops turning out work on Ludlow machines for custom work. (expensive work)

[Jon]

Mesta Machine Company foundry workers.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...s_fullsize.jpg

[bruce.desertrat]

That is a heck of a complex casting.

[marksbug]

Ive often wondered in old pics like this so disorginized everything juts how many relatively new guys are walking around wondering wft am I supposed to be doing??