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> “It is not that unusual to find pieces of type in the river,” Sandy said. “Particularly around Fleet Street, where newspaper typesetters would throw pieces in
by neilv 3y ago
> “It is not that unusual to find pieces of type in the river,” Sandy said. “Particularly around Fleet Street, where newspaper typesetters would throw pieces in the water when they couldn’t be bothered to put them back in their cases.
Some assistant being lazy, or rushing to "finish" a task?
Or sorts that broke, or were worn out, and it was normal to toss things into the river?
Or a ritual? (Say, toss a sort into the river for the first page an apprentice sets, or when there's a press failure, or for superstition after printing very bad news?)
- timeon 3y ago> it was normal to toss things into the river? It was normal. Rivers were used for dumping the garbage. In some places they still are. I know about instances in Europe where people dump their trash in streams behind the hamlet.
- Piskvorrr 3y agoSuch as...in the Danube river O_O https://phys.org/news/2020-09-brown-danube-belgrade-sewers-taint.html https://phys.org/news/2020-09-brown-danube-belgrade-sewers-t...
- lostlogin 3y agoSemi related - the UK pouring sewage into its waterways has been front page news of late. It’s up to 3.6 million hours of sewage discharge per year. https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-62631320 https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-62631320
- patmorgan23 3y agoFranch put a lot of effort into rerouting old swears that dumped into the seine ahead of the up coming Olympics so they could hold events in the river
- daedalus_f 3y agoWhen you say the UK, what you mean is a group of corrupt private companies that find it more convenient and cost friendly to dump raw sewage rather than correctly process it. I'm fairly sure the majority of people in the UK would be in favour of nationalising such companies and instead dumping their executives into the river instead [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V-Nwk9E1bs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V-Nwk9E1bs
- dhosek 3y agoOne notable instance was “Bubbly Creek” in Chicago where the slaughterhouses dumped so much refuse in a tributary to the Chicago River that the water bubbled from the decay of the trash. The riverbed there is still polluted with toxic chemicals.
- patmorgan23 3y agoIt's STILL normal for people to litter and toss junk in rivers and culverts
- bazoom42 3y agoA bit hard to belive they would toss types in the water out of laziness given these types would be relatively expensive and the typesetters would need them to keep their job. The particular case seem to be a deliberate act of sabotage which sound more believable. Throwing worn-out or broken types and other tools in the river would probably be common though.