The newspaper cartoons - daily and Sunday...

[railfancwb]

Who is the sexiest woman in the newspaper cartoons - daily and Sunday?

For me, based upon the few I read and follow, it is the mother in “The Family Circus”. Don’t recall having seen her given name mentioned. 

[Zonny]

Thelma. Bill & Thelma. 

[gwalchmai]

I always liked Alice Mitchell. And Blondie.

[Huaco Kid]

[gwalchmai]

[janice6]

8 hours ago, Huaco Kid said:

All the kids "loved" Daisy Mae".

[Huaco Kid]

[blueiron]

Susie Derkins - she is the edification of the post-modern American woman:



 

[blueiron]

My nominee for mother of the year:

 

[Ramjet38]

[blueiron]

"Daisy Mae" has a rather masculine face. 

[Maser]

What are these "newspapers" you speak of? 

[railfancwb]

2 hours ago, Maser said:

What are these "newspapers" you speak of? 

Sometimes known as bird cage liners. 

[janice6]

3 hours ago, blueiron said:

"Daisy Mae" has a rather masculine face. 

"Face?"

[Historian]

3 hours ago, Maser said:

What are these "newspapers" you speak of? 

In the old days you could have the "news" delivered to your door in the form of folded paper.  The paper contained national news, state and local news, as well as local interest stories.  Such as cat saved by cop...kid attempts to vote in national election, but declined, because you can't register as a Republican at age 10.

Back then men would by paper by thousand pound roles and ink by volume and giant machines would press the paper out.   In the truly old days you could buy worn out high quality lead from the local newspaper to melt and make int your own bullets.

They were good times.  But sadly that industry has changed.  As a result readership of the newspaper is now down every year since 1972.

 

[Historian]

23 hours ago, Ramjet38 said:

Oh, my Dagwood

just sayin. Someone looks like she has a hankerin for a spankerin.

Edited October 26, 2020 by Historian

[gwalchmai]

11 hours ago, Historian said:

In the truly old days you could buy worn out high quality lead from the local newspaper to melt and make int your own bullets.

I never really understood this. Most printers just ran the slugs back into the melting pot after printing. Lead never really "wore out". Irregardless, you used to could buy linotype ingots from print shops, and it was dang near perfect for casting boolets.

[Historian]

9 minutes ago, gwalchmai said:

I never really understood this. Most printers just ran the slugs back into the melting pot after printing. Lead never really "wore out". Irregardless, you used to could buy linotype ingots from print shops, and it was dang near perfect for casting boolets.

As time would go on they would hold the shape of the letters with less quality.  The lead was hard enough for bullets but a little soft for words.

I have some bits of it here as items from the past.  It was only about 30 years ago one of our small local newspapers stopped using hot lead.

 

[gwalchmai]

All our gun hobbies just don't hold a candle to Linotype. Enjoy.

 

[gwalchmai]

14 minutes ago, Historian said:

As time would go on they would hold the shape of the letters with less quality.  The lead was hard enough for bullets but a little soft for words.

The letters were recast each time they were used. They didn't need to hold their shape beyond one printing. The alloy that I saw for sale were usually from shops that got out of the Linotype business.

This used to be available on Amazon but now is rentable. It's fascinating: https://watch.linotypefilm.com/

Edited October 26, 2020 by gwalchmai

[Historian]

3 minutes ago, gwalchmai said:

The letters were recast each time they were used. They didn't need to hold their shape beyond one printing. The alloy that I saw for sale were usually from shops that got out of the Linotype business.

You are right, sir.  For the vast majority was recast after use.   The lead would be cast for one line of text from what i understand. 

I'm not an expert on this but as i understood it every once in a while the slug galley was remelted and impurities skimmed off and additional hardening material added (this was known as plus metal).   Every once in a while they would rotate new lead in and old lead would be sold off. 

The old guys would tell me the lead would get "soft" with time and wouldn't hold letters as well.  They would buy more lead at that point.

And that's all i remember from the hot lead days of news.   When i was entering journalism school it was on it's way out.  I remember a little from some lectures.

Now i'm working on memory from 30 plus years ago.   So maybe the "soft" was an industry term I'm not quiet understanding.  

Can you help me understand if that's the case Gwalch?

[gwalchmai]

15 minutes ago, Historian said:

You are right, sir.  For the vast majority was recast after use.   The lead would be cast for one line of text from what i understand. 

I'm not an expert on this but as i understood it every once in a while the slug galley was remelted and impurities skimmed off and additional hardening material added (this was known as plus metal).   Every once in a while they would rotate new lead in and old lead would be sold off. 

The old guys would tell me the lead would get "soft" with time and wouldn't hold letters as well.  They would buy more lead at that point.

And that's all i remember from the hot lead days of news.   When i was entering journalism school it was on it's way out.  I remember a little from some lectures.

Now i'm working on memory from 30 plus years ago.   So maybe the "soft" was an industry term I'm not quiet understanding.  

Can you help me understand if that's the case Gwalch?

I doubt they would just make that up, so there must be something to it.

I'm thinking the only impurities would come from the ink, which I was thinking would burn off at casting temp, but maybe it would have built up. Boolet casters  skim off such "dross" during the melt, but it may not have been worth it to the printers. I guess they'd have to sell off their entire lead inventory at once, since mixing in new lead would just dilute the impurities. Then again, I bet the old-timers had a procedure for keeping the alloy at the ratio they needed. Maybe they'd pour off a portion and replace it with new lead.

Somewhere in my vast collection I have a slug with my name on it, which I acquired at The Kingsport Press while on a tour there in the 80s. They had an old Linotype which they used for occasional work, and they kept it fired up to show visitors.

[Historian]

1 minute ago, gwalchmai said:

I doubt they would just make that up, so there must be something to it.

 

You're right.   They must have a had a reason to do it.   My guess is the impurities were things picked up in the process of making text and printing.  Bit of dust, paper, ink, dirt. Stuff like that along with natural impurities that surfaced.

I have a slug with my wife's name on it.  She picked it up when she was about 18 at a similar type of place.

Sadly. i don't know anyone in the printing industry today that might know all the facts behind that lead.

But those sure were great machines.  I enjoyed that video.

 

[Zonny]

1 hour ago, gwalchmai said:

All our gun hobbies just don't hold a candle to Linotype. Enjoy.

 

That is absolutely fascinating. Makes me wonder what kind of minds were able to create such a complex piece of equipment in the 1800s. 

[Historian]

1 hour ago, Zonny said:

That is absolutely fascinating. Makes me wonder what kind of minds were able to create such a complex piece of equipment in the 1800s. 

Certainly speaks to the industrial revolution.   It was a major turning point in distributing information.