Tour Stop 6: The Heidelbergs
The work horses of Coach House Press are these twin German offset printing presses, both built in the 1960s. We print black-and-white on the north press, colour on the south one. Both are sheet-fed, one-colour presses that can go through six miles of paper a day, 5,000 sheets an hour. These presses are ideal for short print runs; the typical run for a book printed on them is 1000. Running a Heidelberg is both a craft and an art, comparable, in its careful mixing of ink and water, to tuning a carburetor. (Nonetheless, our pressmen are always encouraged to read on the job.) One colour (magenta, yellow, cyan, black) is printed at a time, in order, and the press is thoroughly cleaned between each application. Accuracy is of obvious and vital importance; the sheets must be in perfect registration to ensure that the colours blend properly, and the density of each colour is measured with an electronic device called, unsurprisingly, a Densitometer. In addition to books, Coach House has printed everything from flags to acid blotters on these trusty machines.
Our press operators, Renaissance men both, are Tony Glenesk and Orlan Barnett-Jang. Tony, a CHP printer for nearly three decades, is our resident repair specialist, fixing and improving machinery progress has left behind. He’s also a trivia buff, birder and budding tennis star (on the senior circuit). Orlan likes going to the gym, riding his bike and, though he doesn’t show it, eating.
