Clinton News-Record, 1974-06-13, Page 18Oor the last time under Signal-Star ownership, the end of the chapter in the story of the Signal-Star had ended - but many
pressroom wall on Lighthouse Street in Goderich was more volumes are to be written with the installation Of the
knocked out and the Fairchild News King was on its way to the green giant in its new quarters.
new modern printing plant lh Industriai Park. Yet another
Page 25
Soon after installation of the Fairchild News King press in 1966, pressmen began the arduous
task of mastering the art of printing clear, clean newspapers on the three units. Signal-Star
Publisher R.G. Shrier was aiming at printing many newspapers which were at that time swit-
ching over to the off-set process and the responsibility was on the press crew to learn the ins
and outs of the big machine as quickly as possible.
It was a happy Signal-Star crew who welcomed the Miehle press from Chatham in 1962. The
press was moved into the new pressroom on Lighthouse Street, left unfinished to make in-
stallation simpler, and once more Signal-Star equipment was up-dated and ready to meet the
day's requirements.
Over the years
BY JOHN BUCHANAN
There have been many
historical articles written over
the years about the Signal-Star.
One of the most complete was
the ' story behind the fine
newspaper which is now in its
127th year of publication, writ-
ten by the late George L. Ellis,
former publisher of The
Goderich Signal-Star.
The purpose of this article is
to explain to you, the reading
public, not so much a history of
the newspaper ,business in
Goderich, but the changes in
equipment and production of
this newspaper over the past 40
years or so.
The story rightly begins with
the introduction of automatic
typesetting which was first in-
troduCed into Goderich around
1920. This form of typesetting
done on a cumbersome
machine known as a linotype,
was a tremendous inovation in
the production of Goderich's
eight-page weekly. It meant
that a line of newscopy such as
the one you are now reading,
could be cast on a lead slug all
in one piece and automatically
spaced, rather than set by
hand.
This time-consuming early
hand typesetting was an art in
itself. It entailed picking up
each individual letter from a
drawer, or type case as it is
professionally called, and
placing the characters one after
another in a column-width
tray, spacing them out perfectly
with metal spacers and card-
board so each line was just the
right length. It was a pain-
staking task.
Many of the old-timers who
have been reading newspapers
for years and years will recall
seeing black blotches appear in
lines of type. This was simply
the spacing that had worked
loose during the press run.
It is no wonder, then, that
linotypes were greeted with
much excitement. In fact,
linotypes continued to be the
source of typesetting for many
years at many newspapers - un-
til 1967 for The Goderi
Signal-Star.
But more about that later
There have been man
dramatic changes in the way
which the local newspaper h
actually been printed over .th
years. At one time Goderic
supported as many as thr
newspapers. The Huron Sign
was established on February
1848. It was followed closely b
The Huron Gazette an
Goderich, Stratford, St. Marys
Mitchell and Bayfield Adver
tiser two weeks later o
February 18, 1848. Within th
year, however, the latter jour
nal had folded,
From 1850 to 1865 when Th
Goderich Star was founded, th
town saw three newspaper
come and go - The Times, Th
United Empire and jhe Huro
Loyalist.
From 1865 until 1937,
Goderich had only two
newspapers. The Huron Signal
was the Liberal newspaper and
The Goderich Star was the
Conservative journal. They
published entirely independen-
tly of each other and it is
believed it was the depression
in the Thirties which finally
brought the rivals together.
In 1937 they were
amalgamated to form the
newspaper so familiar to
Goderich citizens today - The
Goderich Signal-Star..
The Huron Signal at the time
of amalgamation was located
on North Street in what is now
Eaton's order office (before
that for many years, the
Canadian Tire Store).
The Signal had in its
possession a Whitlock flat bed
cylinder press with capabilities
of running four newspaper
pages, printed one side at one
time, at a speed of 1,000 im-
pressions per hour. This
Whitlock press, originally pur-
chased by the Huron Signal
from Globe Envelopes in
Toronto, was moved from its
North Street ground floor
location to the basement of the
Goderich Star office at 37 West
Street.
The press was completely
dismantled by two workmen
from Manton Bros. Equipment
in Toronto and drawn in pieces
on a steel-wheeled wagon by a
team of horses owned by Ran-
dall Marriott of Goderich. Con-
sisting of approximately 16 tons
of cast iron, the press was
lowered, after the removal of
the steps, through the floor of
the Goderich Star office by
means of Gantry, much hard
work and the persistence of the
publishers to update their
equipment to keep abreast of
the times.
The Goderich Star, located in
the same building then as was
vacated by the present com-
pany only last November, had
up to that time been printed on
a Hoe press which was sold to a
small community in the Owen
Sound area,
Thus began the first issues of
The Goderich Signal-Star.
The Signal-Star was
published on this same
Whitlock press and set on the
same two linotypes until 1962
when publisher George Ellis,
after much consideration,
decided it was time the Signal-
Star once more updated its
printing equipment.
He purchased a parcel of
land from Amos Andrew of An-
The Growt