Robert Sinclair
1999/154 Robert Sinclair interviewed at his home by Dr Heather Holmes on 21 October 1999
000 Starting work in Nelsons; interview; reasons for wanting to become a compositor; exam; starting work
062 Date of start of apprenticeship; first jobs as a message boy
072 Wages in front hall; wage rate
085 Length of working week
101 Length of apprenticeship; scope of apprenticeship
110 Evening classes; place of evening classes in apprenticeship; continuation of evening classes after end of apprenticeship; subsequent moves in industry
151 Work in R & R Clark; estimation work and outline of work
171 Estimating work; hierarchy of factory floor and office work
188 Career advancement; work at other Edinburgh firms; work at print buying
241 Movement of people in printing industry; ambitious people and movement; movement of composing staff
256 French reader
266 Nationalities of workers in composing department; nicknames; personal stories; Indians employed
307 Swiss and Germans; personal stories; Swiss army
334 Work of foreign men; length of work
345 Character of composing staff; number of staff in composing room; types of work
370 Attitude of composing work in other firms and Nelsons
380 Train books; range; relations with publishing side
400 Editors of Nelsons; characters; Robin Lorrimer
423 Technological standing of Nelsons’ composing room; physical layout; origin of workers
499 Emptying and destroying woodcuts; wood engravings
456 Point system; pica system and interchange of systems
479 Nature of compositors; social life
483 Pranks
486 Initiation rites; putting an apprentice under the floorboards
502 Initiation rites; working on the stone; tying an apprentice onto the stone; games on stone
531 Size of stones; working at stone in summer and winter
539 Clothing
547 Number of stones
550 Names of typefaces; range of typefaces
588 Comparison of Nelson typefaces to those in other firms in Edinburgh; special typefaces; casting of type; range of selection
596 Typefaces for specific works; popular typefaces
605 Composing during apprenticeship; training methods; dissatisfaction at training
639 Complaints at standards of training; work during composing
657 Clerk of Chapel; roles; union – Scottish Typographical Association; level of fee; benefits
653 Differences in benefits between unions; strike in 1959; apprentices on strike; weather; money during strike
709 Impact of strike in 1959; social activities during strike; bowling
744 Impact of strike; increased overtime; apprentice attitudes towards night classes; impact of overtime on social activities
760 Wage slips and length of wage slips for calculating overtime; working out overtime and income tax rates
789 Reasons for 1959 strike
800 Picket duty during 1959 strike; expectation of picket duty
811 1959 strike and activities of publishing staff
813 Relationship between work and private life: work with Falkirk Council as a printing manager; attitudes to composition and typefaces with computer generation
854 Typefaces and relation to paper and job
861 Membership of Young Master Printers; relationship between printing and publishing for jobs
895 Instructions for printing; notification of jobs
905 Differences of opinion over jobs
910 Monotype; extent of use; linotype; extent of use; places where linotype used; detection methods for linotype
924 Distinguishing features of linotype compared to monotype
941 Use of typefaces on PCs; introduction of paperbacks and difficulties of glue technology; PC composing technology
END