Tucked away in a cardboard box collecting dust in the basement of The Newtown Bee's office sat a few dozen rare antique typesetting pieces called cuts. These recently discovered items give a glimpse into what it was like printing the newspaper in its early incarnation. They are tangible evidence of The Newtown Bee's rich printing history and a testament to how far the industry has come.The Bee, hand type was used to make the printed newspaper pages. Each character was an individual piece and would be arranged manually in order to make a word.The Bee to began utilizing it for printing.The Newtown Bee's 100th Anniversary Edition, included in the June 24, 1977 edition, it described the impact the machine had on the printing process, saying, "The linotype was a great advancement for it would cast many characters into a single line of type, all in one piece, from liquid metal and deliver it, still very hot, into a tray attached to the side of the machine. The lines would fall in order, ready to be sent to the proof press and then on to the final make-up of a page."The Bee prints today. Newtown Bee Publisher R. Scudder Smith said, "When I first started coming up here, which was probably 75 years ago, we were all hot metal. It wasn't easy... it was a long process."The Bee would grow to have five linotypes working in the back shop and require an addition onto the 5 Church Hill Road building. Eventually, there would even be a unit added to the machine that would eliminate the need for an operator and feed the machine a punched paper type.

In the early days at

The creation of the linotype in the late 19th Century was a game-changing improvement in technology for newspapers. It was a hot metal typesetting system, known as hot type, and it did not take long for

In

Still, it was a difficult process compared to the way

According the 100th Anniversary Edition, photos were incorporated through the mat process where "zinc was poured against a piece of cardboard, which had been impressed with a pattern similar to the original photograph. It was a series of little bumps, so to speak, which prevented the ink from filling in the pictures as the rollers passed back and forth."

These metal cuts would have a specific image or piece of text composed for the newspaper's advertisements or news copy. The pieces ranged in various sizes and some had a wood backing attached.

Creating Cuts

Originally,

The Bee used cuts made in Bridgeport, but would later use the same hot metal process to manufacture its own cuts for advertisers.

Mr Smith said, "We had this one machine that made these cuts. It was a flatbed and you would put the mat down, then you would put two iron bars down to contain the lead. Then you would bring the top down on top of it and lock it, so the lead could not get out. Then you would stand it back up, take a ladle and dip it into the hot metal then pour it down into the thing. You'd pour it in there, let it sit for five or ten minutes, then it's all in reverse and you would take the piece out."

Working with liquid hot metal did come with its dangers. Extreme caution had to be used when handling and creating the cuts.

Mr Smith recalls one incident where a long-time employee was out making cuts when it sprung a leak. Hot metal wound up shooting out right into the man's shoe, adhering to his skin and causing him to have to be taken to the hospital.

Another aspect of the printing process was how the cuts were laid out.

The 100th Anniversary issued detailed that "back then the type was arranged in galleys, or trays, and 'packed' into a chase or steel frame. It was then locked up to prevent all of the individual pieces of metal from falling to the floor. Each chase weighed close to ninety pounds and was transported from the composing room to the press room on a push cart with a moveable table."

When moving the galleys, there was the constant nerve-racking possibility of it all crashing to the floor. Mr Smith explained, "You never wanted to drop a galley - they were tin trays at various lengths and various widths that always had one end opened. You had to hold it a certain way for stuff to stay in... " If you ever dropped it, Mr Smith said, you had "pied" it.

Thousands of cuts were made during that time period of

The Bee's printing history, but few still exist to this day. If they were not saved to be reused, then the metal would be recycled on Friday after the paper was printed. It would be thrown in a bucket to be melted down and later create more cuts.

Mr Smith said that the metal would be taken off the top of the wood to be melted. He explained, "The metal was used over and over, because metal was fairly expensive."

In August 1967, the paper went "offset," going from hot to cold type, according to the 100th Anniversary Edition of

The Newtown Bee. It was a major milestone in the production history, since the letter press method had been used since 1925.

Today, thanks to modern technology, the text and images seen in

The Newtown Bee are generated from computers, and the newly recovered typesetting cuts from the basement can respectfully retire to being proudly displayed in The Bee's office.