The linotypes were amazing, as were the people who operated them. My first journalism job was at a small-town 5-day daily newspaper, printed with hot lead. If the operator was setting type for a column-width newspaper article he loaded the machine with thin brass plates, each one carrying an engraved letter or character on its edge. The operator typed on an ordinary keyboard (can't remember if it was querty or not), and each time he typed a letter the corresponding brass plate would fall into a composing tray/mold. As he finished typing enough letters (brass plates) to constitute a line of type, hitting the "Return" key would send that line to the hot metal pour, the result of which was a small ingot of lead about 1/8" inch thick and the length of the proposed column width. Each line of the news article had its own lead wafer, and all were put into a proofing tray (galley), inked and hand-rolled to produce a galley proof for editing. Headlines were usually set the same way on a separate machine.
Each page of the newspaper was made-up on a heavy metal rolling table (turtle) the size of a page. Metal frames/clamps held all the components of that page--headlines, columns, photos, captions--were filled with the lead type, along with column dividers, photo borders and various spacers. When complete, the page looked as the printed page would look, but mirror-image backward. A proof page was pulled, and corrections made, and the turtle was rolled over to a heavy press which produced a stiff fiber impression that was placed on the rollers of the printing press.
One day we were nearing deadline, and the backshop boys were rolling the turtle to the mat press, when something caused the turtle to tump over and dump hundreds/thousands of pieces of lead onto the casting-room floor, which was already littered with scrap metal. As soon as the screaming and cussing stopped the two layout guys began picking up the pieces and putting them back together. Mind you, they're reading everything backward and upside down. Incredibly, they had the page completely restored within an hour.
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