Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph

Issues of the old 'Los Gatos Times' shoot from the 'fly' of a rotary press and into the hands of a junior pressman.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Printing process advances from flatbed to web press

In this century, the printing of newspapers has advanced from hand-picked type and flatbed presses to rotary presses, computers and a photographic form of plates coming in contact with paper.

In today's photograph, giant rolls of newsprint sit to the right, while a circulation man at the rear door prepares papers for carrier boys and for mailing at the local post office, which was located at 216 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Its rear loading dock was about 60 feet from the newspaper's loading dock.

The newspaper was published five days a week for several years. Circulation manager Mal Held, a veteran of the San Francisco newspaper circulation scene, had carrier boys on a "little merchant" plan, delivering papers, collecting monthly and soliciting new subscribers on their routes.

The late Lloyd Smith, publisher and founder of the Los Gatos Times, built the offices at 114 Royce St., with his residence on the top floor--a location that still stands--making it easy for him to get to work but also difficult to get away from work. George Kane, now living in Santa Cruz, succeeded Smith. This was a mid-century era when newspapers maintained a print shop to supplement income.

Early in this century, newspapers were printed one sheet at a time--actually four pages on one side of the sheet--and then turned over for another "run." That product was then folded via machine. A single pressman performed both operations.

These days, the Los Gatos Weekly-Times and the other newspapers in the Metro Newspapers organization are printed on a web press, with newsprint coming in contact with metal plates burned from negatives of the pages.

It was German goldsmith Johann Gutenberg who got this printing thing started. He perfected movable type and a process for casting it. His first book was a vulgate Latin Bible printed in 1456. Thus the common man would be able to read Bibles. Previously, all books were handwritten by scribes.

Near the end of the past century, Ottmar Merganthaler invented the Linotype--an invention said to have caused the inventor to go insane. Be that as it may, describing this ingenious machine might also tax the mind of this writer.

In brief, the operator of a linotype sat at a keyboard similar to that of a typewriter. Matrixes fell into a line and were automatically pressed against molten lead, and a "line of type" was dropped into a tray. The brass matrixes were raised mechanically to a bar and were popped into their proper slots for reuse.

Merganthaler's linotype, the product of many minds, was first installed in the New York Tribune in 1886, and soon the linotype machine was used worldwide. A fast linotype operator was known as a "swift."

Publisher William Randolph Hearst, owner of the Hearst chain of newspapers, hand-wrote his editorials for his flagship newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner. Fortunately, there was one printer there who could read Hearst's handwriting. In his chain of newspapers, only he and the president of the United States rated the title of "Mr."

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