The principle behind Day Glo ink is both simple and mind-blowing. When we see a colour on a page, this is the natural light being transformed and reflected back off the colour to our eyes. Day Glo pigments not only reflect this light back, but the also pigments convert some of the unseen light –…… Continue reading Day Glo Ink
Category: Other Objects
John Bull Set
For many printers, this was the first time they got printed ink on the page, leading to a life-long passion for letterpress.
Gas Lighting
There’s evidence that gas has been used for lighting including in China in 500BC, with gas transported through bamboo pipes; but here we’re talking about the industrial age. Our hero in this article gets only a footnote mention in the Wikipedia article, hidden under the name of his employer, Sir James Lowther. Mr Carlisle Spedding…… Continue reading Gas Lighting
Mechanical Quoin
Faced with simple frame in which to set type, printers have always needed a device to fill space and hold the whole forme in one piece for printing.
Printers’ Royal Arms
Royal Arms have always conferred an air of authority on printed items and printers have sought to use this in their work.
Composing Stick
One of the smallest but most important tools in a letterpress printing works
Wayzgoose or Waygoose
Which other craft has it’s own word for a gathering? Come along and find out about the ‘wayzgoose’
Stationers’ Company
The one-time all-powerful Guild protecting the ‘mystery’ of printing in London
Dexion
Dexion is an example of Slotted Angle, described by the BFMP as “a post-war development on the principle of the Meccano unit construction but in sizes appropriate to industrial application. It is of inestimable value to industry in general and has wide actual and potential application in the printing industry.”
Times Mobile Printing Unit
How The Times planned to keep printing newspapers, even if their London base was destroyed in nuclear war.
British Letterpress in 100 Objects 