Maybe you remember ETAOIN SHRDLU? Surely you remember the Linotype Machine? The letters on Linotype keyboards were arranged by letter frequency, so ETAOIN SHRDLU were the first two vertical columns on the left side of the keyboard. Run a finger down these keys and you create this nonsense phrase. The Linotype operator, who was a magical genius, could push another key and after much whirring and clanking of moving rods and hanging pieces, a metal "slug" imprinted with your name and ETAOIN SHRDLU would be pulled from the hot pot attached to the massive typesetting machine. The smiling, friendly man (no women in the typesetting union) who quickly handed you the molten slug had deep callouses on his hands. He would laugh as you dropped that incendiary hunk of lead. Way back when, I had to memorize the nine cam-functions of that damn machine for a Graphic Arts Management course. The Linotype Company is still supplying beautiful digitized typefaces for the computer, but if you want to see the Linotype in action, you'll have to visit a museum like Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Maybe you remember ETAOIN SHRDLU? Surely you remember the Linotype Machine? The letters on Linotype keyboards were arranged by letter frequency, so ETAOIN SHRDLU were the first two vertical columns on the left side of the keyboard. Run a finger down these keys and you create this nonsense phrase. The Linotype operator, who was a magical genius, could push another key and after much whirring and clanking of moving rods and hanging pieces, a metal "slug" imprinted with your name and ETAOIN SHRDLU would be pulled from the hot pot attached to the massive typesetting machine. The smiling, friendly man (no women in the typesetting union) who quickly handed you the molten slug had deep callouses on his hands. He would laugh as you dropped that incendiary hunk of lead. Way back when, I had to memorize the nine cam-functions of that damn machine for a Graphic Arts Management course. The Linotype Company is still supplying beautiful digitized typefaces for the computer, but if you want to see the Linotype in action, you'll have to visit a museum like Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.
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