ABSTRACT
The displacement of the hand compositor by the composing machine is one of the classic case studies in the history of technology. The Executive advised members against imposing ‘unreasonable restrictions’ on the working of composing machines. The 1891 Delegate Meeting, the first for fourteen years, paid surprisingly little attention to the problem of machinery, and apart from resolving that hours should not exceed eight per day, or forty-eight per week, endorsed the policy of the February conference, leaving the details of working conditions to be settled by the Executive. The delegates converged on Sheffield, and assembled in the dreary conference hall: working men all—hand compositors and machine operators—elected by their fellows to deal with a problem that was growing swiftly into a crisis. In 1894 the Executive became seriously alarmed when it learned that the Linotype Company was advertising for youths with no experience of printing trade to enrol as learners in classes held at the Company’s school for operators.
