The "Teaching The Art of Letterpress Printing" Story

It was an ordinary day.  The year was 1967 and I had just been hired by Manheim Township High School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (the school from which I had graduated 5 years before) to teach Industrial Arts to 11th and 12th grade boys and girls.  The courses I was to teach were Wood Shop and Graphic Arts.  At the time, graphic arts was a new course that was being offered.  Graphic Arts included wood and linoleum cuts as well as printing on the two platen presses and the one offset press that were in the Industrial Arts Department.  A platen press is a foot and hand operated press that uses metal type pieces to form the words and stories that are then placed in a metal frame known as a chase.

A hand-operated platen press

The hand-set individual type pieces are placed in a hand-held composing stick which in turn will be placed in the chase and held in place by using pieces of wood known as furniture.  Small metal quoins (clamping devices), are used to hold the metal type in the metal frame, also called a chase.  The metal frame (chase) is placed in the press bed and locked in place with a clamp.  When the press begins to run, the chase that holds the type will come in contact with rubber rollers that are covered with printer's ink. The rubber rollers obtain the ink from a round ink disc on the top of the press.  Lost Yet!!  The rollers put ink on the type which in turn comes in contact with the paper that the person running the press places on the platen of the running press.  The type, covered with ink, strikes the paper and "VIOLA!" words appear on the paper.  I'm sure that many of you reading this are having a tough time visualizing what I just wrote.  I found a photo in a recent newspaper article that may be of help to you.

The gentleman, Ken Kulakowsky, using the press is standing in front of a platen press.  His left hand is on a lever that when pulled down (right in pix) will engage the metal type letters with the paper that is placed on the platen which is the part of the press in the center and then travel down, across the type that is in the chase.  PS - remember...I had to teach this to children who were 15, 16 and 17 years old.  And I had to make sure they didn't put their hand in the press at the wrong time!!!  When the type struck the paper that was held on the platen (paper in the middle of the photo with the printing on it) it would print the letters that were held in a chase with wooden pieces known as "furniture".  In the photo, the two metal bars that point upward, are clamps that can be used to hold the paper in place.  There are very small metal pieces that hold the paper in place, but at times, the larger clamps are also needed to hold the paper from falling down through the press.  What I have just attempted to explain to you is known as letterpress printing and was used for many, many years to print books, newspapers, etc. before offset printing was invented.  Very time consuming process which was all done by hand for many years.  Each printed piece had to be touched by the printer in this method of printing known as letterpress printing.  I loved teaching this course to the junior and senior boys and girls that I had in my Graphic Arts classes.  After a year of letterpress, the students (usually always seniors) could take the course I taught in offset printing which is how most printing pieces are done today. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.