Talk:Stereotype (printing)

Comment
Do you mean when the punch hits molten metal? I'm pretty sure the matrix doesn't ever hit molten metal.

New Comment: I don't have firm opinion as to whether the article on "Flong" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flong  should be merged into the one on "stereotype (printing)"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_(printing); but the former has this sentence: "Invented in Lyon in 1829 by the French printer Claude Genoux, a flong was a papier-mâché mould..."; and the latter has (1) this sentence: "In printing, a stereotype, also known as a cliché, stereoplate or simply a stereo, was originally a 'solid plate of type metal, cast from a papier-mâché or plaster mould (called a flong) taken from the surface of a forme of type'[1]..."; and (2) this sentence: "Stereotyping was invented by William Ged in 1725..."; and also (3) this sentence: "Wide application of the technique, with improvements, is attributed to Charles Stanhope in the early 1800s....."

Since the flong is moulded from the surface of a forme of type and is then used to cast the stereotype, an exact copy of the forme, it is puzzling to try to conceive of how the flong could have been invented 104 years after the process it is used in, which is what combining the quoted sentences implies. Clearly, these two articles either have to be merged or, at least, brought into agreement with each other. Wikifan2744 (talk) 02:49, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Expansion of this stub
I am interested in expanding and correcting this article about which I know a considerable amount. However, I only joined yesterday, and am 'green' to say the least. Are there any friendly 'watchers' about who will help me to get it into proper form? Brideian 15:04, 18 August 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brideian (talk • contribs)
 * If Brideian or another knowledgable user could expand this, please BE BOLD! It would be good to have a section on methods for making flongs and casts, a comparison of the cost of resetting vs making a stereotype, etc. -- Quantum7 08:27, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

Temperature
"The matrix was applied to molten lead at the point of cooling to make the cast.[6]"

There is no such thing as a "point of cooling". I suspect that what they mean is the point of freezing, but again that is somewhat vague. Pure lead freezes at 600 K (327 C), which is a bit high for exposing dry papier mache to. For even moderately damp casting material ... well, I've got the scars on my forearm from learning "don't do that" - the boiling water spits molten metal at you.

Of course, there are plenty of metals you can alloy lead with - printing was one of the industries from which the science of metallurgy developed - but many of them have a distinct melting range, when crystals of some of the alloys (or inter-metallic compounds) crystallise out leaving a liquid phase of changeable composition. This is not the place for a discussion of phase diagrams, which I learned in the school of mineralogy. Shortly, defining the melting point is a more vague concept than the phrase makes it sound. I tried following the cited sources but I can only get a partial view of the book (#4) and can't make out the sense of it. The online available etymologies don't mention the temperature.

Does temperature matter? Well, if your metal is a crystal mush, the viscosity goes up and you won't get a high fidelity copy. So yes. Similarly metal composition - printers were picky about their type metal for good reasons.

Anyone got a better version of reference #4 (the 1925 apprentice printer's manual) - that sounds the sort of practical manual that would illuminate this.

AKarley (talk) 22:47, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

photolithography
There is an article describing the creation of forged Columbus letters used to replace the real ones in libraries, indicating that the forged ones were made using stereotyping. Presumably this would have to be photographic. But it seems to me that photolithography would be useful for non-forgery creation of stereotypes, too. Gah4 (talk) 08:54, 26 October 2019 (UTC)