Article from The American Typecasting Fellowship Newsletter #47
The Hot Type Network connects individuals and organizations dedicated to the use, preservation, and revival of hot metal typesetting and -casting technologies — Linotype, Intertype, Monotype, Ludlow, and more. A European network open for global collaboration, we are practitioners that share knowledge, do research, and help sustain the practical skills and tools needed to keep hot type alive. By maintaining machines, teaching others, or traveling to offer hands-on support, we’re securing the future of this living heritage.
Last year, three non-profit northern European museums came together to launch the Hot Type Network (HTN), a long-term training initiative. Jan Erik Øvergård from the Association of Friends of the Press Museum Fjeld-Ljom, Charlotte Biszewski from TYPA Printing and Paper Arts Center in Tartu, Estonia, and me, Franz Hennies, at the Printing Museum in Helsingborg, Sweden, are the organizers of HTN. We will initially focus on organising Linotype and Intertype training. We soon hope to include Monotype composition and type casting, as well as everything that is ‘hot’ about the type we are all devoted to.
Jan Erik had recently concluded a successful Linotype training project. The Association of Friends of the Press Museum Fjeld-Ljom organised three one-week sessions: two at the Press Museum Fjeld-Ljom in Røros, Norway, in July and October 2023, and one in collaboration with the Museum of the Printing Arts in Leipzig in March 2024. With the support of a €10,000 grant from the European Union’s cultural heritage programme, they were able to provide travel support to a total of nineteen participants from ten different European countries. Eight people from Røros and Leipzig led the workshops, mostly on a voluntary basis. The training sessions were publicised through various channels, including the Association of European Printing Museums (AEPM), and the sessions were open to anyone interested. Participants came from research and artistic backgrounds and were either active volunteers in different museums or had a personal interest in the subject. Training activities varied according to the participants’ backgrounds and ranged from basic operation to maintenance tasks. The training sessions were very well received, with several participants attending multiple sessions.
Building on this success, Tartu and Helsingborg joined the Norwegians for the next stage of the training programme. We were successful in applying for a short-term network grant of €20,000 from Nordic Culture Point, a foundation that supports Nordic and Baltic cooperation through culture. The funding will cover travel and accommodation for participants of three one-week training sessions, as well as providing some administrative support and materials. The three training sessions are taking place in 2025: May in Norway, June in Estonia, and October in Sweden. The Swedish training is planned for the autumn school break because one of the participants is still in education.
Through various channels and the AEPM, we invited individuals to register their interest. We were overwhelmed by the response, which came from all over Europe. From Iceland in the north to Sicily in the south, and from Ireland in the west to Estonia in the east, we heard from people who wanted to get involved in preserving linecasters and learning how to operate them. In total, more than sixty people have interacted with the HTN so far. We were able to offer eighteen of them a place on one of the on-site training courses with the funds we obtained. Due to the Nordic focus of the grant, participants from Nordic and Baltic countries were given priority.
As I write this, the first two meetings have taken place in Røros and Tartu. Here in Sweden, summer is in the air, while Røros had snow in May. Carl P Løken and Jens Hystad, two professionally trained Linotype operators, were ready to pass on their knowledge. Knut Ketil Oftedahl, a technician, artist, and collector of printing equipment, was the third instructor. His collection includes one of the two known remaining Linographs worldwide, an early and unsuccessful Linotype knock-off. Judging from the overwhelmingly positive responses from the participants, the training was a resounding success. The participants had widely varying prior experience. Diana, the librarian responsible for the printing exhibition at the Latvian National Library, had never seen a Linotype before and enjoyed getting into the rhythm of the machine. Antoine and Cecille, on the other hand, run Europe’s last newspaper still printed letterpress with hot metal type. Being largely self-taught, they miss contact with others who are more experienced. The week in Røros allowed them to take a break from production pressure and to enjoy discussing technical problems and improving their maintenance skills. Then there were Danila, Imi, Ævar, and Arina. Danila is responsible for the collections at TYPA. After his third training, he feels confident in operating a Linotype independently. Imi is the museum printer at the IDDIS museum for printing and canning in Stavanger, Norway. Her responsibilities include taking care of a Linotype, with which she is still not very familiar. Also a beginner is Arina, artist and educator who researches typography and politics in communist Romania. Ævar is from Iceland, the northernmost participant. A printer from the beginning, he is engaged in a project to build the first printing museum inon Iceland. He hopes to restore the last Linotypes in Iceland, which are stored in a container somewhere. There is a video documentary of this first training week available on the HTN website.
As with the other training sessions, the training in Røros combined people with different levels of experience. The second week in Estonia included a few more experienced individuals. Later in the autumn, in Sweden, we will focus mainly on beginners. There, we will welcome our youngest participant, 16-year-old Smilla. She and her mother, Mia, want to learn how to operate a Linotype in order to be able to operate one in the Rosenlöfs Museum in Sweden. We are fortunate to have two original tradesmen available for the Røros training, and another will join the Helsingborg training.
No one with vocational training on Linotypes was present during the week in TYPA. Passing down the trade requires cooperation and combining everyone’s knowledge. TYPA has an operating Neotype of Soviet production and two non-operational Linotypes. Collectively, we managed to revive a Linotype Model 10a from 1923, which was moved from Finland to Estonia a few years back and has not been operated for decades. This model is the tallest Linotype ever produced and has a beautiful 4-way-mixer. Look for the videos on the HTN website if you haven’t seen one in action. We removed the distributor, adjusted most of the transfers as well as the clutch, and disassembled and cleaned the front. aWe also bathed the magazines, mats, and ourselves in white spirit. At times, seven people were working simultaneously at the machine: Maarten Renckens from Belgium, who operates the linotype.wiki, Knut Ketil Oftedal and Marit Brandsnes, volunteers at the Fjeld-Ljom museum, Katarina Kilgus, volunteer at the Alpirsbach Officin museum in Germany, Achilles Tzallas, who specializes in Greek metal type, Mark Jordan, trustee of the St Bride Foundation in London, Jörgen Loot from TYPA, and me.
We couldn’t offer a spot to everyone in our first training sessions, so we decided to start a series of online meetups. We plan to hold four of these every year. Since they only require a time commitment, our goal is to continue holding online meetups regardless of available funding. The first two have already taken place, and recordings are available on the website. Each 2-hour meetup includes a combination of short talks on technical and historical aspects, presentations on museums and workshops, and open discussions. We plan to schedule future meetups in advance and publicize them more broadly, inviting anyone interested to participate. They are scheduled for the evenings in Europe, and can easily be attended from the Americas as well.
So far our activities focussed on linecasters: there are more of them, they are easier to operate, and more people know of them. However, several of the people and places involved in HTN already have Monotypes – in storage and operational, and have some experience operating them.
HTN will be a non-exclusive platform for cross-border cooperation to preserve hot metal typesetting and casting. We hope many smaller and larger initiatives will develop from the network. While preserving the intangible cultural heritage of hot metal is the primary objective, projects including other aspects of printing, wood type, history, typography, audience engagement, and more are also welcome, as long as they build our community.
We believe that we need to educate people on many levels. Imagine a pyramid – or a funnel, if you prefer. First, we need a broad base of people with a basic understanding of and experience operating these machines. A smaller group will operate the machines regularly. Some of these people will have the motivation and opportunity to develop the skills necessary to service and repair the machines. Each group is important, and the more people who have the opportunity to experience hot metal, the brighter the future of these machines will be.
(For HTN: Franz Hennies – franz@officina-tinea.de – https://www.instagram.com/franzhennies/
Further Reading
Hot Type Network: https://hot-type-network.eu/
Pressemuseet Fjeld-Ljoms venner: https://fjeld-ljom.no/
Typa On Trüki- Ja Paberikunstikeskus: https://typa.ee/en/
Grafiska Museets Vänner https://www.grafiskamuseet.se/