# 1960s line printer or scam?



## ehkoto (Nov 12, 2012)

I could use your expert opinions...  I recently bought a photo from 1962 photo on ebay.  The seller claimed it was an original AP photo print from a newspaper's archives. This seemed plausible, I would guess in the 60's the AP did send around physical prints to newspapers to use in their publications.  The print arrived and it is on photo paper.

Here's a link to the original ebay listing
Here's a link to an image of the back side of the photo

Here's my problem.....   I scanned the photo at a fairly high resolution (1,200 DPI) and it clearly looks like like it was digitally scanned and printed on a line printer.  There is no film grain and very distinct horizontal lines.

Here's a detail of the scan:  




Judging by the size of the lines, I would say it's about 150 lines per inch.  Was there any such thing as a 150 dpi line printer in 1962?  I've never seen anything like this before.  Is this an authentic 1962 print or a digital reprint?

Here's an image of the ebay listing:


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## 2WheelPhoto (Nov 12, 2012)

Interesting, I'm not expert but look forward to the responses.


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## compur (Nov 12, 2012)

Sounds like a wirephoto.  These have been around since the 1930s and often used by news services. Search "wirephoto" for more info.


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## ehkoto (Nov 12, 2012)

Thanks compur, this seems to explain it:  eBay Guides - What is a Wire Photo wirephoto


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## alexecho (Nov 12, 2012)

I've seen a couple of wirephotos in the past and they do have this very distinct digital graining effect on them, so in that way I'd be willing to accept it as genuine - unless it's on modern computer paper, which can only be told by touch, not scans.
Maybe being somewhat pedantic, but if I purchased something listed as an 'original press photo' which aren't 'reproductions or reprints' I'd want an actual photo from a negative, on real photo paper. In my mind a wirephoto, though genuine of the time, still isn't actually an 'original press photo'. Somewhere out there, there is/was a photographer with the actual original transparency which was used to send the wirephoto.
And, there is a market for wirephotos, so I've no idea why this wasn't listed as such...


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## SCraig (Nov 12, 2012)

compur said:


> Sounds like a wirephoto.  These have been around since the 1930s and often used by news services. Search "wirephoto" for more info.



Yep.  "Wirephotos" were the 60's version of fax machines.  There weren't many around because they were big and clunky and expensive.  As has been said they did have that characteristic line-printer appearance since that's basically what they were.

I well remember seeing "AP Wirephoto" given as credit in newspapers.


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## unpopular (Nov 12, 2012)

I've seen them. They are big and clunky, slow and unreliable. My father's newspaper used them into the 1980's.


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## panblue (Nov 12, 2012)

"...I'll send Mac out with the snapper!.."


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## unpopular (Nov 12, 2012)

Yes. The technology is old. I think developed by a German engineer named Hell at the turn of the 20th century, iirc he also invented the Linotype machine, a machine that set type into a solid lead cylinder. It spilled about as much lead onto the operator as it set into type. I knew an old typesetter who had the scars to prove it.

I think his company went on to develop the modern optical typesetter.

printing a newspaper used to be a lot more exciting. Before long it will be just a matter of pressing the "print" button on a digital press.


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