HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1974-06-13, Page 65rj
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an Industry
drew Dairy, directly behind the
office at 37 West Street. A new
press room (25 feet by 50 feet)
was built on Lighthouse Street
and . ' O. 1 Miehle, press with
an aut uratic feeder was in-
stalled 'n it.
This press had capabilities of
producing four newspaper
pages at one time at speeds in
excessuof 1,400 impressions per
hour. It was purcha ,ed from a
firm., in Chatham. The' new •
press was so large that it took
two- tractor -trailer floats to
bring ib• . from Chatham to
Goderich and the end of the
building and part of the roof
were left unfinished until the
equipment was put in lace on
an 1$ -inch thick pad of reinfor- •
ced concrete.
Shipping bills on this press
'showed a weight in excess of 18
'tons. Several days work was in-
volved to install the .press and
to get it. operational.
The Signal -Star by this time
had grown to a bulky 14-16
pages per week, and the
newsprint consumption was ap-
proximately 20-25 tons per
, year. Arriving by truck, it was
packaged` in bundles of two
reams .or 1,000,, sheets,
equivalent in size to four pages
of . paper laid flat out.
During this period, th6 late
1950's and the early 1960's, ,the
Signal -Star as many will recall,
began using rhany more pic-
tures. This was made possible
by the purchase of a machine
called, A . Scan -a -graver which
transferred the pictures from
print to plastic plate in one
easy operation. Before 'that, it
had ,been necessary to send pic-
tures to' the city for costly
engravings..
Also acquired during this
same period was a piece of
equipment called a Ludlow, an
automatic line casting machine
for large Advertising, Type
Faces and headings. This
machine operated on m&ch the
same principle as linotypes and ,
greatly streamlined the setting'
of ads and headings, up tothen
set by hand. ,
The Signal -Star continued
publication with this .equip-
ment until' 1966 when under
the present publisher, R.G.
Shrier a whole new concept in
printing was introduced in the
`weekly newspaper, field in
FGoderich.and the surrounding
,,° rga.
After a thorough study of the
market and the potential
'market, Mr. Shrier decided
that a central printing plant
such as was being established
in • some of the larger cities,
'Could be successful in Goderich.
With °this idea came the.
.;district's first offset press.
In October of 1966, the end
-Was once more .remove'd (l -o
• p.he Lighthouse St eet
'pressroom; A large era was
used_ to remove—the - - Miehle
press which had ser •d so well.
It fell under the ap dealer's
hammer.
Simultaneo sly,a more room
was require in the West Street
basement and the tremendous
0,„ -task q: removing the old
ilithitleek press .from its 30 -year
ti Mootings was undertaken. It
Carne out as it had gore in - in
.pieces - only this time lit was in
the form •of scrap cast iron. The
aptique preAs was broken into
. actions small enough for two
.O't, good husky men to
'Carry up the stairs and discar- ,
Ad •
,. For two weeks, the Signal -
Star left-Goderich to be printed
on a wall offset press in the city
of London. During that fort-
night, a new Fairchild News
King three -unit web offset 'press
was installed in the Lighthouse
Street pressroom, and a Kenro
Graphics camera and, an.
aluminium plate maker
replaced the Whitlock in the
basement.
By the spring of 1967 - Cen-
tennial • Year after ' many,
rough editions of the Signal -
Star, the press crew had finally,
mastered the green giant as it
was so lovingly dubbed.
This press weighing ap-
proximately nine tons, could.
produce 16,000 12 -page papers
completly folded and ready for
mailing in one hour!' Now
Signal -Star Publishing Limited
was in the,position to find more
,work, for the monster which
had taxed the abilities of the
pressroom crew for many
weeks.
A solicitation of all local"
weeklies in the area was begun.
The move was ori in the t.
newspaper business toward off-
set printing and slowly but .
surely, newspapers in Huron,
Bruce, Perth and Wellington
began to swing over to the new
methods and become regti lar
customers at the Goderich •prin-
ting plant.
Now, typesetting at the
Signal-S,tar was outdated
again, so by the late spring of
1967 a new system of strike on .
cold type setting was in-
troducecl. The linotypes and the
• Ludlow fell by the wayside: -
Business continued to in=
crease. . The Signal -Star nov►;'
boasted upwards of 20 pages
per week. •
In 1969; typesetting was once
more updated and IBM com-
puterized strike on setting was,
installed'. This equipment
produced the material from
three typists. -
In 1971, the typesetting
equipment was modernized
° again. This time it was photo
typesetting equipment in place
of IBM which in two short
years had become too slow for
Signal -Star needs. The new
equipment set type in -excess of
25 lines per minute! '
In 1972, a fourth .unit was
added to the press, increasing
capacity to 16 pages' at 16,000
completed papers per hour!
Now the company felt a new
pressure the pinch for space,
As busiiess had increased, so
had /the staff. The Clinton
N Jvs-Record had been ,puny
teased in 1967 and' The Kin-
cardine News in 1969. Signal-
Star Publishing .now owned
• three weekly newspapers and a
monthly shopper and) was the
printer for . more ihan 20
weeklies and several monthly
pubjications. More room was
absolutely, essential,
In the .spring of 1973, the
decision to build a new plant
was made and in•• November of
19743-, the company moved to
the new location in Goderich's
Industrial Park on Highway
South.
For the .last time, t end
was removed -fro fro the
Lighthouse Street •ressroom
and without mis-" g a single
issue or disapp . nting a single
customer, the ove - was effec-
ted into t, e ultra Modern
10,000 's are foot facilities
where S' nal.Star Publishing°ia
now oudly located.
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It was the end of an era. The Miehle press which had been installed only four years earlier was
on ,its way 'out. It was scrapped to make way- for progress and a new concept.
John Buchanan (centre) oversees the arrival of the big Fairchild News King press in 1966. Part
of the wall of the pressroom on Lighthouse Street had to be removed to permit the press units
to be moved inside the• building. It weighed nine tons in total and could produce 16,000 12 -
page _papers completely folded and ready for mailing in one hour.
cb
A young and enterprising R.G. Shrier (centre) watched as the Fairchild News King was moved
into. place •in the Lighthouse Street plant in 1966. Recently taking over as publisher of the
'SignalStarrMr. Shripr's hopes were pinned on his belief that offset newspapers were the
coming thing in the area. The press represented a major expenditure - and the means 'for,
growth.
Supplgment to the Goderich Signal`+ tar & Clinton News Record June 13, 1974
Supplement -,to the Kincardine News June 12, 1974
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