August 25th ~ Palouse, Washington
Roy M. Chatters Newspaper & Printing Museum
*When we walked the small town the day before, we had noticed the small newspaper printing museum. Posted hours were only open on Saturday from 10-2. Since we had a short drive to our next stopover, we were not in any hurry to break camp.
We decided to get all packed and hooked up, ready to pull out and then walked the two short blocks from our site. The museum was open as we approached.
“Roy M. Chatters, a retired nuclear researcher at W.S.U., opened this museum in 1976 to preserve and share the process of letterpress printing. His friend J. B West donated the building.” ~ Museum handout
In 1996 a flood filled the museum and the wooden floors fell apart from the weight of the heavy equipment. The building remained closed until 2003 when it was reopened thanks to a grant from the Washington State Historical Society.
Admission is free, donations happily accepted.
Tony Sittner warmly greeted us and asked if we would like a tour. He teaches printing classes and was full of knowledge of both the history and workings of each machine.
Johannes Gutenberg
Movable Type:
“In the mid-1400s, Johannes Gutenberg was instrumental in developing “movable” or “handset” type. Each letter was locked into place in a metal frame (the chase), inked, and pressed on to paper. Once assembled, multiple copies could be produced, and literacy began to boom.” – Museum handout
The individual letters were stored in wooden cases. Each drawer contained a single font. The drawer was called a “case”. Initially, there was a case for capital letters, and another case for non-capital letters. The capital letters were typically stored on top of the non-capital letters – hence the names “upper case” and “lower case”.
All of the letters were later combined into just one case.
Another tidbit or information we received related to setting the individual letters. Both the letter “p” and the letter”q” are shaped the same, just oriented differently. Since making errors in typesetting was costly as well as time-consuming to correct, the typesetter was reminded to “watch you p’s and q’s”.
Linotype:
Our guide Tony in front of the Linotype machine
A huge step in printing came about with the invention of the linotype machine. Invented in the late 1800’s, the operator could type out the message, and this complex machine would then quickly move the selected letters into place, creating one whole line (“slug”) at a time.
No longer was it necessary to clean, sort and put each individual letter pack into the wooden case, as the linotype would automatically sort and return each letter to their proper place in the machine.
After the lines of type were printed, they were melted and the lead reused again.
Storage drawers for different fonts
The tour continued with information regarding “The Stone”, “Casting Machine”, “Platen Press”, “Flat-bed Press” and “Off-set Printing”.
I got a kick out of a sign in the front window:
1888 Ordinances
More rules and a fly 🙂
COMING NEXT: Coeur D’Alene, Idaho
GRATITUDE MOMENT: I love learning where names and saying originate! How fun to learn about Upper Case and Lower Case and why we watch our p’s and q’s.
A Note From Abroad 
I don’t know if you enjoy bicycling, but if you do you might want to check out the Hiawatha scenic bike trail. It’s a “rail to trail” (railway turned into a bike path) that begins just on the Montana side of the border and travels 15 miles (all downhill!) through tunnels and over trestles into Idaho. We did it last year and had a wonderful time. The views were amazing and the company that we arranged our trip with (they provide the bikes, helmets, headlamps for the tunnels, and transportation from the bottom of the trail back to your car at the top) was great. Not for anyone afraid of the dark (the tunnels are long and dark) or heights (the trestles are high), but I highly recommend the adventure. If that sounds like fun, you can get more info at ridethehiawatha.com. Happy trails!
LikeLike
Thank you so much for this recommendation. I’ll certainly share it with the group to see if it is something they want to do. Two of us have a fear of heights, so not sure if I can sell it 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Origins | Mitigating Chaos
Appreciated and re-blogged at https://mitigatingchaos.wordpress.com/2018/08/28/origins/
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing 💕
LikeLike
Wonderful – beautifully written. Thank you. I love the detail you put into your articles and I throughly enjoyed the photos you thoughtfully added.
Petrina
New York
LikeLike
Thank you Petrina. We certainly appreciate your kind words and encouragement.
LikeLike
I also enjoyed learning about upper and lower case and minding your p’s and q’s. If there were a $50 fine for vulgar language on public streets these days, we could get rid of all the taxes!!
janet
LikeLiked by 1 person
HaHa Janet, sadly, isn’t that the truth. How things have changed. I’m all in favor of progress, but sometimes I think a return to a kinder, more polite society would be a blessing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That part would indeed be a blessing and does not need to progress.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful! I can’t believe how similar this printing shop is to the one in Tombstone we visited. It is fascinating. My husbands grandfather taught typesetting at Reader’s Digest in NY and there’s nothing worse than playing scrabble with someone who knows typeset terms. This family requires you define any word you put down and you don’t dare challenge them because you will lose a turn. LOL
LikeLike
Wow, those would be some formidable scrabble foes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They certainly are. I’m getting better since my blogging friends are quite articulate in their own right.
LikeLiked by 1 person