| Show UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION Hoe had made it possible when he conceivedway to put type onrevolving cylinder in 1846 His press was capable of as many as 20 000 reproductions per hour an astounding speed for its day And Bullockimprovement doubled then trebled that output The needed new development was offset presses that would work in the same manner Suburban Chicago-based Goss was one of the earliest to buildweb offset press The company hadlong history of manufacturing letterpresses ranging in size from those used by major dailies to others utilized by larger weeklies The Suburban its first offset waswell-built machine that weathered the test of time Many put into service in the early 1960s are still producing excellent work Vanguard Thatcher and News King presses were all pioneers in the market Not far behind was the second Goss innovation called the Community The other key ingredient in the offset revolt was cold type Ottmar MergenthalerLinotype and later machines that emulated it produced type from molten lead There had been no other way to set type with any appreciable speed for some three-quarters ofcentury Then came photographicallyproduced type At first it was very simplistic and slow But adding to it the speed and versatility of the computer soon changed it fromnovelty totime and labor-saving device that would playmajor part in altering newspaper production Some plants still paying off the debt on huge expensive letterpress presses used such methods as flexographic plates in an attempt to take advantage of cold type while retaining the relief printing process Among them were Salt Lake Citytwo major dailies the Tribune and the Deseret News They were only moderately successful and the publishers were never satisfied with the product Others -particularly smaller community newspapers -had long since depreciated their older less expensive presses and could economically justify adopting both cold type and web offset And it must be remembered while offset offered far greater speed of printing production than most less-than-daily 226 Digital image 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah Al rights reserved |
