Daily AncestorLinotype operator
A linotype operator typed copy on the keyboard of a Linotype machine, which cast each line of newspaper or book text as one solid metal slug.
The Linotype, in use from the late 1800s, replaced setting type one letter at a time by hand. The operator typed on a 90-character keyboard; the machine assembled letter molds into a line and cast it in hot metal as a single piece called a slug.
Newspapers, magazines and job printers relied on it until phototypesetting took over in the 1970s and 1980s. In a census, the title marks a skilled printing tradesman, a mechanized successor to the hand compositor.
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Daily Ancestor. "Linotype operator." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/linotype-operator. Last checked 2026-10-10.