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In some old paper's of my Grandad [he'd be in his 100's if still with us] one shows his trade as a 'Printer's Devil' Come QM what did that entail, would it refer to any form of printers or was it specific to the Newspaper industry? With new tech, and the presses no longer involving 'hot metal' has the job [assed into history?
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As long ago as the 1600s, a printer's devil was the errand-boy in any printing office, usually the youngest apprentice. Because they became daubed with ink as they removed sheets from the presses, they were black by the end of the day. That's why the journeymen printers called them 'devils' or sometimes 'flies'. Nowadays, given electronic publishing,there is little in the way of inky youngsters in such places!
QM weren't we both zippy! I was convinced it was someithing like that, tho' a matestill maintains [after an MSN search] that it was some kind of evil gremlin who during the night re-arranged all the individual letters of type to misspeill evriothang [kind on anti-Spellmaster!]. Incidentally on the print theme, why were/are the first proofs of an article/book referred to as Galley Proofs? ta
Paul, A 'galley', from the French word 'gal�e', was a tray made of brass, zinc or wood. Type set up on a composing-stick was transferred to the tray, where corrections could be made to it. Once that was done, it was returned to the printer/setter to be made into an actual page-proof for final reading/correction.
QM thanks again, I remember as a 10 year old having to help one of the youth club leaders by sorting [having cleaned all the ink off] the type back into the case trays, I suppose I was more of a printer's imp as I didn't get that dirty. Boy what a boring job it was & how easy it all is now! [still it is nearly 40 years later!]
That's where 'upper' and 'lower' case originates from. When I was serving my apprenticeship in the early 80s, one of the extra 'O' levels I did was letterpress and I loved it. When one of the students dropped a whole case of type and it scattered everywhere, our tutor said he had to stay behind and sort every last letter and replace them. Of course he was joking, because apart from how long it would have taken, the type would have been damaged in the fall, so it was just melted down and new type produced! Those were the days!
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