"This is the death of a great machine"

February 12, 2021 10:37 PM

I recall hearing that when the New York Times stopped using Linotype machines in 1978, they made and handed out lead castings from the machine reading "This is the death of a great machine". Is this, or something like this true? What did the castings read?

I've googled around a bit, and haven't found any source that says anything like this. I could very easily be misremembering the exact quote. Does anyone know about this? I'd love a picture of one of these blocks if that's possible, but would settle for just knowing what the quote on them was.

posted by wesleyac to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

I don't know the answer, but somewhere I picked up a slug of Linotype that was just "The New York Times." So it's possible that at some stage they were handing out those. I wonder where I put that thing...
posted by rikschell at 7:07 AM on February 13, 2021

This MIGHT have been shown in Linotype: The Film. (Which is worth a watch either way!)
If you're on Twitter, you might put the question to @linotypefilm.
posted by D.Billy at 7:18 AM on February 13, 2021

The documentary Farewell shows (at 14 min.) a worker writing on a blackboard "The end of an era. It was good while it lasted. Crying won't help". Perhaps the story about making lead casts was an embellishment? It's strange that the movie does not talk about it if this were true.
posted by elgilito at 12:27 PM on February 13, 2021

Historian Frank Romano (author of History of the Linotype Company, other books, and many articles; Professor Emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology; co-founder, chairman, & exec director of the Museum of Printing) would know. Museum contact page & Twitter account; RIT email.
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:45 AM on February 14, 2021