Way back when I worked in the newspaper industry, I got to participate in the transition from laying out pages with x-acto knives and glue to desktop publishing. The old method was called “cold type” because it replaced something called “hot type” that I never got to see. This video shows what an amazing feat of mechanical engineering those hot type machines were! Anyone raised in the 21st century can hardly imagine operating such a device without computers, let alone designing one!

I’m not sure when this movie was produced but I’m guessing in the 1940s. At the end, you get a glimpse of the digital revolution yet to come, but with punched tape instead of electronics. You can also see why these “back shop” jobs were union. Don’t worry, that’s just a bucket of molten lead inches away from the keyboard!