Interesting Meeting
Our local museum opened for the season this past Saturday and I dropped by to check on our printing display. There was an older fellow at the Model 8 Linotype explaining to his companion how a matrix was used and also how it was made—and he actually knew what he was talking about.
His name is Carlos A. Lafuente and it turns out that he actually worked for Linotype at the Brooklyn plant while he was going to college. He started with Linotype in Argentina and then came to the U.S. to attend college. He worked in the matrix department and ran a milling machine that finished off the punches used to make the matrices.
After graduating with an engineering degree, Carlos worked for the 3M company and retired as a U.S. and European manager for electronic products. He is the first person I have met who actually worked at the Ryerson St factory. It was great to see that he was still proud and excited about his work at Linotype. He retired to Briarcliff, Texas.
Our model 8 was moved last summer (see https://flic.kr/s/aHskZNmPzh ) from its last home at our local newspaper. Dave Seat has helped me find a few missing parts and it is now complete except for some magazines of mats and we have plenty to chose from. I have the model 31 that was at the same paper.
This is what our display looks like just before we added the Linotype last year: https://flic.kr/p/UuEVCo There is also a Peerless Gem paper cutter and 2 cabinets of type.