Some printing videos I found

[steve B]

I was discussing printing with another member and decided to look for some videos of the overall process. I did find a few nice ones.

Here’s a nice video of stone lithography using a transfer at an art place. I've mentioned the process of making the transfers to lay out the stone before and this is probably the best video I've seen of the process as it's applied to art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E38B0swb4vo

And a nice overview of commercial offset lithography from 1996, towards the tail end of some of the technology shown, which wasn’t far removed from the state of the art in maybe 1910-20.
The plate developing our shop had was more like the water table and hose the art guy used than the machine in the video. And we made permanent masks from the negatives rather than blocking areas off with moveable pieces like the guy at the plate exposer. But all the rest is familiar to me.
The guy at about 6:19 taking the finished brochures off the folder? That could have been me fairly often. One of the more common jobs they let the Highschool kids do when we were busy. The only part I didn’t get to do was run the paper cutter. But I was around it plenty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMqHexdEj2Q

Pretty cool stuff.
Here’s a direct lithography press from 1860 in operation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g52EooaVlcI

And an 1886 press still in use 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zvKCbnyNoE

I've also learned a bit of timeline, the offset press was invented in 1904 and wasn't common right away. So I believe the cards we collect were produced by direct lithography, nearly identical to the presses shown in the two videos.

Steve B

[atx840]

So cool, thanks for posting Steve. Off to google I go

[t206blogcom]

Really cool videos Steve. Thanks for sharing.

[Jobu]

Thanks for posting these Steve. I am the board member who has been picking Steve's brain about the printing process and now I can say a public "thank you" for all of the awesome answers like this!

Another question after watching this: How long might it have taken to print a single card assuming it was business as usual? A one-day process or does the prep, inking, setting up the machine, drying, etc mean that it would have taken multiple days?

[t206hound]

Great information... there was a thread I started a few months ago with a couple of videos. One showed an offset printing method, but that video has subsequently been taken down. I wouldn't say that the T206s couldn't have been done on offset presses; it's certainly possible it could have with the process being invented a few years before the cards were produced. According to this British publication from June 1910:

"at the present time seven press manufacturing companies in the United States are building offset presses, in sizes ranging from 14 by 17 to 40 by 62 inches. Other American manufactures are preparing to build, and six plants in Europe are already building offset presses."

[steve B]

I think it's possible to say that T206s were printed primarily on flatbed presses. I can't entirely rule out offset presses or multi color offset presses, but there is actually solid evidence that some if not most were printed on this sort of flatbed press. It's something I just figured out, and really deserves its own thread.

Steve B

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Jobu

Thanks for posting these Steve. I am the board member who has been picking Steve's brain about the printing process and now I can say a public "thank you" for all of the awesome answers like this!

Another question after watching this: How long might it have taken to print a single card assuming it was business as usual? A one-day process or does the prep, inking, setting up the machine, drying, etc mean that it would have taken multiple days?

Any one card would have been part of an order for thousands. The whole order would have taken several days possibly longer.

I think the sheets per hour rate was around 800 for these presses. Maybe a bit more.

Each color would have the plate/stone mounted, press inked, samples run and adjustments made, then a certain number of sheets run. If ALC ran multiple shifts they'd probably hand off the operation to a new crew at the shift change. If not the press would have been shut down and cleaned before the crew went home. Unless they ran simultaneously on multiple presses figure around 6000-8000 sheets a day. With 6-8 colors, that's roughly a week for printing the fronts maybe longer if the sheets were large and they were printing from stones as a large stone could be 600 Lbs. Add another day for the backs and another for cutting and packing for shipment to the plants where they'd be inserted.
Using multiple presses and leaving the stones mounted would allow around 7-8000 sheets a day of constant production.

If the number of potential cards distributed that Scot Reader came up with is at all accurate - And I don't see any real reason to doubt them - They would have needed more than one set of presses dedicated to the ATC cards in general or the available time simply won't work. Bearing in mind they were also doing the non-sports, probably the T210s, and a few other card sets. Plus all the packaging, and normal commercial printing, and thousands of different cigar box labels. ALC was a HUGE company.


Steve B

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by steve B

I think it's possible to say that T206s were printed primarily on flatbed presses. I can't entirely rule out offset presses or multi color offset presses, but there is actually solid evidence that some if not most were printed on this sort of flatbed press. It's something I just figured out, and really deserves its own thread.

Steve B

Can't wait to read it... you always bring great stuff to the board...

[mrvster]

that the "men of history" set was being printed at the time.....one of my favorite scraps

thanks Erick for figuring it out! (please post the super imposed image for me my friend)

Steve...you are our resident guru printer...keep it up great job

[mrvster]

such a great card

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by mrvster

that the "men of history" set was being printed at the time.....one of my favorite scraps

thanks Erick for figuring it out! (please post the super imposed image for me my friend)

Steve...you are our resident guru printer...keep it up great job

[mrvster]

your skillz with this will pay the billz one day

thanks my friend!