Page 50 - Print21 November-December 2021

Print History
settled in and became familiar with three-colour printing, which was the common full-colour technique of the time. The days passed filled with usual pressroom alarms and satisfactions – busted rollers due to the increasing heat, spoiled jobs due to someone’s negligence, breaking and fraying belts.
His mate Ed reappears and they enjoy Chicago, spending summer weekends swimming in Lake Michigan, going to church and generally enjoying the town. ‘Had three-colour process work on both presses today so had my hands full. Was glad to knock off at 12.30 (Saturday). Had dinner in town and saw an aviation man looping the loop and flying upside down, also a man with a boat attached to his machine and going along the water equally as well as in the air.’
Clouds of war
The original idea was for a round
the world trip, travelling to Britain after the USA, but in this 1914, the clouds of war were gathering to curtail that ambition. After being
let go from Poole Bros, he was now working 11-hour night shifts for $25 a week at W.F. Hall printery, where they laid off someone to give him
the job. He stayed there, although not relishing the night work, while making plans to go to England via New York. He got laid off two weeks before departure and filled in the time by working as a machinist for Miehle, servicing and manufacturing presses, the first time he broke from his printing trade.
‘Have turned machinist down at Miehle and have had a pretty heavy
Above
Postcards provided
swift and easy communication in the early 20th century.
day. Sweat a treat and came back with sore hands. ... Am looking forward very much to packing my grips.’
With the outbreak of war travel
to Britain was now out of the question, so reluctantly the pair altered their plans and shipped out of New York to San Francisco via Galveston, Texas and rail across the southern continent. They missed the scheduled departure of their ship, so for one last time Wal went to work as a printer at Schmidt Litho in Frisco. He turned in another 20 days at the trade before leaving on the SS Ventura, on which he and his mate worked their passage home. They arrived in Sydney, 19 October, after some 324 days, more than ten months, travelling the waves and railways of the Pacific Ocean
and the USA. 21
50 Print21 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021