VICKSBURG, MI HISTORY
Vicksburg Commercial Print Shop Page 2
Property of the Vicksburg Historical Society
VICKSBURG, MI HISTORY
Vicksburg Commercial Print Shop Page 2
Property of the Vicksburg Historical Society
| Historic Village - VICKSBURG COMMERCIAL PRINT SHOP PAGE 2 |
| The Print Shop and Printing History |
| Historic Village - VICKSBURG COMMERCIAL PRINT SHOP PAGE 3 |
| Historic Village - VICKSBURG COMMERCIAL PRINT SHOP PAGE 4 |
| Historic Village - STRONG SCHOOL |
all contemporary photographs taken by Dick Branch
this page: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mivhs/vicksburgcommercialprintshopp2.htm
THE PRINT SHOP & PRINTING HISTORY - CONTINUED
INSIDE THE PRINT SHOP - Con't
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Unless otherwise indicated, the informational notes presented here were prepared by Mason Bishop. The printed materials illustrated here were printed on the print shop equipment: |
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Presented here for you is an old-time letterpress print shop. Practically gone from this earth, one can only find its like in museums or a private shop of someone who loves the old hand crafts. The machines here are old, many of them dating to pre-World war I times and a couple from before the turn of the century! Our Washington Hoe Hand Press, though refined, has changed very little since Gutenberg's time in the fifteenth century. |
The Master Printer, Mason Bishop
The oldest printing technology in the Print Shop:
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HAND SET TYPE Prior to the Linotype all type for books and magazines was set by tradesmen in newspaper and print shops. With their copy before them, and standing before a California and Cap case these skilled workmen produced the forms for letterpress printing. Some of them were so fast at setting that the exceptional ones were dubbed "swifts" and contests were held to determine the king "swift". Holding a composing stick, the setter plucked the type from cases into the stick, an en quad dividing the words. The line was justified - tight in the stick. Spacing material was inserted and another line set. When the stick was full, the type was transferred to a galley. And so on, until the the copy was finished. The complete form was then proof-read, corrected and given to the lock-up man. After printing the type was cleaned and distributed back into the cases. |
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Mason Bishop shown with the miniature printing press that he constructed for the museum
THE PLATEN PRESS
| Operating on the same principal of squeezing a sheet of paper against an inked form as the Washington Press, the Platen Press offers a vertical method whereby the platen is operated by a flywheel and gears to carry the paper against the form. The platen press employs rollers to ink the form on each revolution of the press. |
| The difference in copies per hour between the two presses is monumental: from about three a minute on the Washington Press to as many as fifty on the platen. |
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| Our smaller press is powered by a foot treadle: handy when there is no power source. |
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Steam power turned the first of these presses by use of a line shaft and belt. When Mason Bishop worked at the Commercial in 1946, a line shaft powered by a Babcock single revolution newspaper press and Universal platen. THE POWER PLATEN PRESS |
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VICKSBURG
COMMERCIAL PRINT SHOP PAGE 1
VICKSBURG COMMERCIAL PRINT SHOP PAGE 3
Kalamazoo
County USGenWeb Site
