Ref 'Now wash your hands' 3March2021
Hello John,
As a one time printing 'techy' I could not refrain from commenting on 'Now Wash your Hands' (which I thought was going to be a jibe at the Covid rules!). Black hands from newsprint or any other sort of print is should be a thing of the past. There was the time when Fleet Street (and that's a thing of the past too!) and the rest of the newspaper industry did use a mixture of Carbon Black (aka soot) and oils for printing onto very absorbent paper. The oil was absorbed but did not dry completely in the true sense hence the black fingers experienced by readers.
I would doubt that any newspaper was now using this process. The advent of heat-set and UV curing inks which was going on when I was at Norprint (RIP!) brought about many changes in the whole printing industry and allowed the introduction of better processes that give the relatively high quality of today's newspaper, magazine and general print. We so easily forget that newspapers were at one time Black & White -- no colour pics and often pretty miserable print quality.
I can remember visiting the factory, in South London I think, that made black ink; I expected a pretty grimy work place but amazingly it was clean -very clean. This was attributed to the small team of workers who took great pride in keeping it that way. I also visited the factory where they obtained the pigment for the black ink which is basically soot. This was situated in an old coal mine in the disused Somerset coalfield not very far from where I live today. I suppose they chose this place as it could not be made any dirtier - -and it was very dirty. In recent years I have passed by the place where the factory was but could see no sign of it.
Thankyou again for all your fascinating insights to so many different aspects of life today -- and with the historical background of course!
Regards, Martin