In the period just leading up to World War II some of the leading printing trade publications were digest size (under 5 ½ by 8 ½ inches). Thumbing through these little publications can tell one quite a bit about the technology of the day, the printers themselves, and the era in which they printed.
Color was restricted to spot color on the cover. Paper samples were limited to one or two per issue. The full-page ads were for Linotype, Intertype, Vandercook, Rouse, Chandler & Price, Harris and Miller. Numerous smaller ads were for metal saws, wood reglets and furniture of both the type and office kind. The number of ads and articles for numbering machines seemed to indicate a lot of numbering was being printed. Here and there a familiar trade name pops up; Baum, Challenge, Champion, Nekoosa, and Franklin.
In common with trade publications of today are the columns on business practice, sales, marketing, and technology. There are articles addressing challenges in technology and the need for better-trained workers. There was even the odd column or cartoon on printing history! The forerunner of reader service cards were perforated gummed stamps, which could be torn out and affixed to a company letterhead requesting supplier information. Here are some additional observations.
- From the lead sentence in a 1936 article by H.A. Porter, Offset’s Challenge “There has been, in the past, among those who buy printing, as well as among some printers, some uncertainty concerning offset printing.” The article went on to cautiously advise on when to use offset over letterpress.
- A 1936 ad for “Fototype read.’” “Designed primarily after the age-old method employed by hand compositors, Fototype letters are set, one by one, into a specially-designed composing stick which aligns the letters as they are placed in the stick . . .letters are printed on two sides of a good weight cardboard, the letters on the reverse side being inverted. . .The letters may then be removed as a unit, and . . . the reverse side . . is ready for the camera.”
- Hotel advertisements from various cities were featured in most magazines. The Hotel Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois boasted “three hundred rooms, three hundred baths.” “Rates, two dollars and up.”
- From a 1937 News Notes, “The new Department of Publishing and Printing of the Rochester Anthenaeum and Mechanics Institute, Rochester, New York is carrying on an intensive study of the job duties of workers in the publishing and printing fields.
- In an article “Skin Diseases in Graphic Arts” Dr. Waldemar Schweisheimer lists primary suspects in “printing plant exzema,” “turpentine, benzol, petrol, strong lyes, chromate, etc..” Obviously pre-OSHA!
- The Rapid Roller Company of Chicago advertised, “ . . .Order Your Winter Rollers now.” In the days of composition rollers and before wide spread pressroom climate control, press operators used a harder roller in the summer and a softer roller in the winter.
- A Michigan ink company used a racial cartoon caricature as a mascot for its black ink.
- The Graphic Arts publishing Company advertised several printing books for sale including “Linotype Keyboard Operation” by R. Randolph Karch for $2.00.
- From the industry news section in 1940: A woman’s auxiliary of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Printing Industry and Allied Trades was formed for the wives who worked in their husbands printing plants. Frederic William Goudy was honored on his 75th birthday at a dinner given by the students of Vassar College. A poem by William Acker was featured in Commemoration of the Fifth Centennial of the Invention of Printing.
- As the rest of the world turned to war in June of 1941 a few advertisements used military themes. A lead article by Harold Waite, “A Printer in London” discussed the difficulties of printing during the Blitz.
- A short year later, with America in the war, the major advertisements all had a patriotic theme. The Northwest Paper Company advertised “Victory War Quality Papers.” A United States Envelope found affixed to a crate by a navy diver proved to be waterproof after being “Torpedoed and sent to the bottom!” That boy in the Airacobra appreciates you saving 15% in metal . . .” said an advertisement for Nu-Era Photo Engravers.
- A 1942 editorial declares, “Printing is a War Industry.” The supposition that printing should be drastically curtailed now as a patriotic gesture is ridiculous .. . Take away . . . .printing . . .and our way of life for which we now battle would fold like an accordion.
- Rising paper Company admonished “ It always has stopped raining and wars always have ended and scarcity always has been turned into abundance. So will normal, prosperous business return. But now . . .much production time is devoted to emergency needs.”
- It’s prudent and Patriotic to conserve you Bracket Machines- Don’t Hoard Parts – Order ONLY what you need WHEN you need it.” Bracket Stripping machine Company.
- In a two page two color ad of Navy gunners, Miehle Press announced “For the Duration of the Emergency” that they would manufacture ordnance for the United States Navy.
- From the April 1942 news column – The government ordered 918 tons of gummed paper for sugar ration books. The Galveston (Texas) News in April of 1842 headlined “Remember the Alamo” and they marked their 100th anniversary with another headline “Remember Pearl Harbor.” “To help conserve vitally needed materials” a roller company will send reminding post cards to press operators to clean their rollers. “There is at this time no curtailment by the War Production Board, on the use of color in printing, excepting metallic inks . . . “ The news column ended with the victory “V” and three dots and a dash.
Special thanks to Elspeth Pope of Washington state for information for this column.
Copyright © 2000 by Frank Granger
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