--- "Ph.D." <phil@...> wrote:

> Nicholas Bodley skribis:
> >
> > The press was one of the time-tested and honorable
> designs
> > -- Round ink plate[n?] on top, spring-loaded ink
> rollers moving
> > up and down on a pair of long arms; tilting bed
> accepted
> > hand-fed sheets, and the Jaws of Potential Huge
> Lawsuits
> > (USA) closed unless you moved the throwout lever.
> Big fly-
> > wheel, variable-speed motor. Teacher had one
> shorter finger;
> > helpful reminder. <sociopolitics?> These days,
> parents would
> > try to bankupt the school district for having
> something so
> > hazardous. </sociopolitics?>
>
> Sounds like the Chandler and Price line of presses.
> These were
> once ubiquitous in high schools across North America
> as well
> as small print shops. They were powered presses with
> auto-
> matic inking, although the paper was handfed. (A
> couple of
> companies made automatic paper feeders which
> attached to
> these presses.)
>
> These have almost completely disappeared from high
> schools
> for three reasons. 1. they're obsolescent
> technology. 2. the
> mechanism is considered dangerous. 3. The type is
> 60-80%
> lead, which is now considered a hazardous substance.
>
> --Ph. D.

I did my apprenticeship as a printing machinist in the
1980s in Australia. At trade school we started on
Heidelberg machines which match the description given
above. The mechanism is rightly considered dangerous.
I only did a few weeks of trade school per year and
each time I was there at least one apprentice managed
to injure himself on such a machine, sometimes quite
seriously.

Andrew Dunbar


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