Friden Flexowriter

From: Innfogra_at_aol.com <(Innfogra_at_aol.com)>
Date: Tue Nov 24 04:06:27 1998

Those Fridens are heavy. The logistics of getting it across country must have
been difficult. They were electo-mechanical monsters. I'm sure it will be fun.

When I was in High School I was the photographer for the local weekly
newspaper, the Columbia Press. While they had a Linotype (hot lead) the owners
were experimenting with using the Fridens to set justified type, i.e.,
newspaper columns.

First you would punch the type into the paper tape with no carriage returns.
This would generate a long strip of tape full of holes. This could be edited
with a razor blade, cut and tape, yes they make transparent tape with holes in
it.

You would then mount the tape in the reader. Set the line width and spacing by
adjusting the machine. Switch it over to "Justify" and run the tape. With luck
the Friden would generate a column of text, flush right and left. Usually it
took a fair amount of setup and several trials before you were ready to print
out the final text on a special coated paper.

Of course the biggest disadvantage was these machines only came with one font.
If you wanted type one point larger (say 9 Pt. instead of 8 Pt.) you had to
get another expensive machine in the larger point face. They worked for
justified boilerplate. The old machines the Columbia Press had were always
breaking down.

This was 1963. Cold type was in it's infancy. Most shops in Astoria were
setting type on a Linograph or Intertype with hot lead. You then took a galley
proof and pasted that up. Then the copy went to the process camera to have a
negative made, so you could burn a printing plate. Now it is computer direct
to printing plate. Process cameras are Dodos. As a printer I love it; as a
photographer I am sad to see the passing.

Fridens didn't last long, too expensive and too much down time. By the time I
laws in collage they had gotten an AM CompSet Typesetter that was much easier
to run, in large part because the CompSets were computerized.

Thanks for all your help.
Paxton

PS I am interested in all process cameras that are being surpluses out, the
larger the more interesting. Please email me at whoagiii_at_aol.com if you know
of any surplus Process Cameras.
Received on Tue Nov 24 1998 - 04:06:27 GMT