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The magazine at
this time was typed out onto a "skin", the type cutting
out the shape of a letter, which explains why the centre of some
letters is missing - "O" for example. The pages were
then printed by means of a Gestetner machine. There were no PC's
with spell checkers in those early days and so any typing mistakes
on the skin had to be painted over with a kind of nail varnish
solution, allowed to set, then overtyped, having tried to realign
the type in the typewriter of course. There were no easily available
photocopiers and so the Gestetner was used. This comprised a
drum over which the skin had to be stretched and clamped and
the drum filled with a thick gooey ink from a metal tube. Paper
was loaded onto a tray and, as a handle was wound round, the
drum would rotate and miraculously collect a piece of paper and
print onto it by squeezing ink through the cut out letters on
the skin. Put the skin onto the drum the wrong way round and
the print came out in reverse and the page had to be typed again.
Each page had to be rescued as it came off the drum and allowed
to dry in isolation. Once the odd numbered pages had been printed
and allowed to fully dry they had to be fed through again to
print even numbered pages on the reverse - get the compilation
wrong and you start again. When everything had been allowed to
dry once again, the pages had to be compiled in the correct order
and stapled together. There are stories of young children being
forced into staying up until all hours of the night covered head
to toe in ink and, while weeping bitterly, collating and stapling
magazines together and then stuffing them into envelopes (addressed
by hand) in order to make the deadline. Those children today
may hate steam engines forever but they are probably now the
captains of industry and understanding deadlines to the full! |
