Home > Inside the Newsroom > Archives > 2007 > January > 26 > Entry
Anniversary reflection
The Daily Reflector hasn’t used lead type to put ink to paper for decade, but a few of us still have pieces of it inside the newsroom.
We use the letters to spell our names or words that we think are cool and display them on our desks. I missed the hot type era, starting my journalism career in the 1980s as computers were being introduced into newsrooms here and elsewhere.
We wonder today how much longer the print era will continue, as technology has moved more of our focus to the Internet, away from paper that rubs black stains onto our fingers.
I like how the ink smudges my skin when I’ve been handling stacks of The Reflector, how it dirties soapy water in the sink and swirls down the drain when I wash it off.
Years worth of ink still blacken the lead type I keep on my desk. The shape of petite boxcars with capital letters shining on the front end, the six of them fit in the palm of my hand.
Their corners catch in the creases and folds of my skin, and their heft surprises me each time I hold them.
As the Reflector marks 125 years today, it moves still farther from the day when molten lead poured into type forms.
But the heavy old type will remind me from where we came.
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