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Article: Idaho Man Provides Last Vestiges of Hot-Metal Printing Type.(Originated from The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- July 7, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Jul. 7--A century after Ottmar Mergenthaler invented the Linotype, it seems easy to relegate the machine to history's landfills.
Or to Coolin.
Stacked inside storage units in this village at Priest Lake, Idaho, Merle Langley has 10 million Linotype matrices -- small brass molds, each bearing an alphabetical letter. Used in the Linotypes and similar type-setting machines of different brands, these matrices formed strips of hot lead type once the benchmark of the printing industry.
Langley's business, 67-year-old Marlboro Mats Inc., offers perhaps the world's largest selection of used matrices. But in an age of computer typesetting, ...