The rise and fall of Chandler & Price 

I am a fourth generation printer from a little city called Trivandrum in Kerala, South India. We still have a 10*14" Chandler and Price machine which my Great Grandfather imported it second hand in the early 1920s. It's still in working condition. Feeling elated to be a part of such heritage.

Dude, a network should offer you a job for a TV series. This kicks ass. I would watch a crap ton of this.

I recently parted with my last two Kluges, marking the end of an era in our Chicago-based shop. Initially, we operated with five of these letterpress machines, but the shifting demands of our customers led us to embrace digital printing. It's a transition that fills me with a mix of emotions, especially nostalgia, as I've spent a significant part of my life working alongside these letterpresses. The decision to make space in our compact shop was not easy, and it was particularly painful to see one of our beloved presses go to the scrappers. Witnessing the dismantling of a machine that held so many memories felt like watching a part of my history being erased. This loss is something I still mourn deeply, even though it's been a few years since that heart-wrenching day. Now, I often find myself wishing to reconnect with the world of letterpress printing, longing for a place in the Chicagoland area where I could simply spend time and absorb the atmosphere of a traditional letterpress shop.

I learned Letterpress printing in the 50s in High school in Modesto Cal. I spent 35 years as a press operator and loved every bit of it. this was a great presentation and nostalgia for Me. Thank you 😊

I did an Apprenticeship...6 years...as a Letterpress Printer...in the 1960s....fond memories

This was a great vid! Reminds me of Grandpa. He was a small-town old school newspaper publisher, with a little weekly paper. His shop was right out of 1910, with 2 Linotypes, and a huge newspaper press that was as big as a pickup truck! He could spot a typo reading backwards; he minded his p's and q's! LOL! I always think of him chomping on a Roi-Tan cigar, typing away furiously on his Linotype! He was very modern, though...all his presses were electric. There were electric motors that turned those big flywheels using belts. These machines were fascinating for a kid to watch in operation; gears and cams, and wheels, all moving together in a complex dance. The sounds of the presses running is etched forever into my memory.

Yesssss!!!!! I just took 2 color letterpress class over the weekend. There is something ridiculously satisfying about setting type.

Awesome video! Very informative and I dig the humour. Very cool that all those famous expressions came from this old technology and are still used today.

I know it's only 1 day old, but 268 views is absolutely criminal. Best of luck to you

Fantastic! I hope you make more videos in this style. I never knew the origin of "jobber" back when I used to print out invoices. You have an awesome channel. Keep bringing the ai generated metal head (non OSHA approved long hair around rotating assemblies mind you) type-setters! Hell, the industrial rhythm of a printing house back in the day would make a nice backing track. Also, kudos to the beard edit.

This was a joy to watch. We spent some time hand setting and proof printing type in my first year at art college in 1979. Even then it was on it's way out. There is. I believe, something meditative about engaging in processes that just take time.

Simqly one of the finest videos I've ever seen, the puality of your work is outstanding

Thanks! Good background. I have an 8x12Jones Gordon and a 11x17 Chandler & Price new style along with a cute Kelsey.

Love this! So informative AND entertaining!

I learned on C&P presses in HS. I was a hit in the first "real" job I had because I had that knowledge. The addition of Kluge feeders was pretty cool, but we even used a C&P for printing the inside of gift box lids, hand fed. The smell of ink brings those memories right back, lol. This was cool, thanks!

Fun video to watch ! I was brought up in a "printing family" and was handfeeding C & Ps and Colts when I was 7 or 8 yrs old. Brings back old memories ! thanks for producing this !

This is an incredible video. The editing is top notch! I’m stoked for the next one 😊

My guy!! The attention to detail in this video is amazing. I had a blast and genuinely learned a lot. It was qerfect!

Very cool! Brings back memories. One of my first jobs was running a letterpress at a small print shop in the early 70's. We used it to die cut business cards that had one rounded corner. Tedious work.

I live for this content. Amazing stuff!

“Stationery is not stationary” as we say in my line of work. Check your video at 4:29. It was a flash but, as a stationer, it caught my eye. Thanks for the video…I’m hoping to get my hands on a C&P, so I’ll watch it again.

Thank you brother for this! ❤

Great video as usual, thank you

7:34 me: “omg video of another craftsman with the feeder intact, who’s is that?” Then my eyes moved over to the credit. Lol.

Thank you so much. This was a delight. I just acquired an 8x12 C&P fabricated a few years after yours!

I used to run Verticals, Klugies and Gordens too. If I had a garage, I'd be tempted to do it again

You did an excellent job on this video. It should be shown in schools around the world!

Caps & Small Caps are stored in the Upper Case. Typewriter keyboards properly identified capital letters using the proper typographic term “Caps”, see “Caps Lock”.

Well done! Thankfully, letterpress is experiencing a comeback. Keep up the good work!

I have a ludlow type case on my wall housing a small coin collection, nice to have a bit more knowledge to go along with it.

Very interesting you should do more

Only noticed one error in the video: "Sorts". Sorts were what they called special figure matrices supplied with Linotype font matrices (like your "ffl" example, or fractions and the like). Some sorts matrices did not have assigned "channels" in the linotype magazine, so in operation, sorts would travel all the way across the distributor without dropping into the magazine... but would drop down a metal tube at the end of the distributor into the sorts tray, to be picked up by the operator and placed in a little case of their own. In an actual lead type font, those special figures (fi, fl, ffi, ffl and etc.) were called "ligatures". Not many fonts I ever saw had ligatures... mostly special, fancy type faces... Old English type faces, or some italic type faces. I'm surprised you knew about the wax on the pins on the tympan, lol. I would try using a "lumber crayon".. those big crayons (red, black, yellow) sold at the lumber yard/hardware store that are used to write on wood. They're harder than regular crayons. I loved printing and took it in school in 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades. Had an after school job in a newspaper/job printing shop in 11th and 12th grade... and 2 years after that. The machinery was so interesting, complicated and massive. Memorized the california job case... hell, I even memorized the Linotype keyboard. Still know the names of most of the type faces. It was all lead type in my 9th grade year, then that teacher retired. The new teacher insisted on transitioning to Offset... did away with the linotype and went to a "Compugraphic" and other photographic type setting. Nowhere near as interesting. I wanted to run that linotype soooooo, oooooo bad. But, he wouldn't hear of it.... "waste of time".

Loved this. My C + P Pilot is waiting for her rollers. Then on with printing.

Hope that the gods of the Algorithm will favor you, and this gets more traction. Awesome stuff, keep up the good work!

This is incredible 😂👏🏻

Nice job.

What a ride!

Have been running a small 5x8 Kelsey for 20 years now.

Hola yo tengo una máquina Chandler & price saludos tu video es sensacional muy bien elaborado

Great technical craftsman point on debossing.

Nice!

Today I learned a thing, actually, today I learned a few things. Cheers.

Great video. Any chance you know any thing about the Kelsey King Jobber platen press? I just picked on up and can't seem to find much information on it.

Unbelievable!!!

You spelled stationery incorrectly at 4:27 or so

the ai generated images are hilarious

Cut to the chase

Upper and lowercase! TIL.

I started working in a print shop at 17 in 1977. I ran an AB Dick 360 and they had a C&P for numbering and perforating. From there I ran Multilith, Davidson, Harris, Heidelberg Windmill, KORD and SORD, Goss Community web press and Roland 44" Ultra. I loved hand feeding the old C&P and I also loved the Heidelberg Windmill. I have printed everything from business cards to newspapers to cereal cartons. I loved printing but was offered a job at a software company one month before Windows 95 came out. I did that for 13 years then got some part time work running a 4 color Ryobi. This exactly like the 2-color Roland I ran. 32pt Clay Coated News Back was no problem for this beast. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_2NJ7agMNU4.html