Muntilan letter casting plant dies hard

By Ahmad Solikhan

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Muntilan, a small town in Central Java, is not only noted for its slondok (a kind of ring formed of casssava crackers) and stone handicraft but is also known as a historical town that participated in boosting the nation's intellectual life: it indirectly pioneered the development of the press in Indonesia.

It is in this small town that the first letter casting plant was built and until now still exists, whereas similar plants in Jakarta, Cirebon and Bandung closed in the 1980s.

The letter casting plant initiated by the Pangudi Luhur Foundation enjoyed its heyday from 1968 to 1985, when many printing houses still used "handpress" equipment. But the advent of sophisticated technology like offset printing machinery, photocopiers and computers have made this plant obsolete.

The monthly sales turnover which once reached between two and three tons of letter casts has decreased to 300 kilograms only. Meanwhile 42 of the 49 workers had to be made redundant, and now there are only seven left.

The letter casting house directed by Brother Leonardus Paryoto faces a dilemma: it is about to crumble, but it is trying to survive in view of its historical interest.

According to Joseph Sumiyanto, a marketing member of staff, for the time being the plant continues production to use up the remaining stock of raw material because some printing houses in Jakarta, Surabaya, Madiun, Tasikmalaya, Denpasar, Medan, Solo and Semarang, as well as the daily Meranti, Samarinda, East Kalimantan, still need its products.

"I don't know precisely whether this plant will continue its production or not," said Sumiyanto, a graduate of a technical vocational high school, who has been employed at this house for 30 years.

Sumiyanto added that the plant's products, 20 types of cast letters are sold in kilograms. Interline letters (the cheapest) sell at Rp 18,500 per kg and palace script letters (the most expensive) at Rp 20,600 per kg. But don't be surprised if a purchase of 10 kilograms to 15 kilograms is only wrapped in paper and put in a bamboo basket. But for large purchases delivered to other towns or cities the products are packed in wooden cases.

Losing money

Five years ago the decline in sales started to be felt seriously, whiles the sales target is a minimum of one ton per month. "So, all this time the plant suffered from substantial losses," Sumiyanto explained.

In trying to keep on its existing workers to meet consumer demand, the plant has this year established an offset printing house and photocopy business. In addition, Pangudi Luhur also produces sengon wooden letter handicrafts for both domestic and overseas consumers in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Bali and Germany. Usually the 30 cm high letters are used for decorative inscriptions in cafes, pubs and discotheques. "I sell the wooden letters at Rp 8,000 apiece." said Sumiyanto.

It is understood that dozens of letter casting machines will be used as practical equipment for students of the Graphic Arts Vocational High School in Semarang, and also as exhibits at a museum of letter casting in Muntilan.

"But if the plant were no longer in production, our current consumers would encounter difficulty in obtaining cast letters. Pangudi Luhur Foundation must also think of its impact, particularly because its main goal is social, not only profit seeking," Sumiyanto, a father of 4 children, said.

The same concern was also voiced by A.Y. Harmanto, a letter casting technician; the plan to scrap the plant was due to its inability to compete with sophisticated technology that is more practical, faster and easier to utilize.

Actually, the mechanics of letter casting are not as complicated as many people imagine. To print a particular letter, you use a specific matrix machine that has the codes of the chosen letters.

A sheet of paper is typed on a monotype machine until it is perforated, after which it is put into the letter casting machine that functions as a sorter to choose the kinds of letters wanted. When the machine is active, the liquid tin already heated to 360 degrees Celsius will flow into the matres (letter casting container). It then progresses to the compocaster machine, and the block letters measuring less than 12 points (1 point = 0.148 inch) are there, complete and ready for use.

To print a line and logo, a measurement larger than 14 points must be applied on the supercaster machine. To obtain good results and hard cast letters you need a mixture consisting of 74% lead, 10% tin and 6% antimony. There are some 20 types of letter produced, but the most popular ones are times new roman (for publications), gillsans (for notes) and universe medium (for invitations). "So, the higher the percentage of antimony, the harder the tin will become," Harmanto explained.

The history of letter casting, according to the September 2000 edition of Aikon, dates back to Johanes Gutenberg of Germany. In 1428 he succeeded in improving a mixture of lead, antimony and tin, which is the basic material of letter casting for printing house purposes. Consequently, this letter technology was then taken to other parts of the world and eventually introduced to Indonesia in 1956 when Brother Baldewinus van Meltfoort, director of Kanisius printing house, saw the importance of the printing equipment.

The problem was at that time printing houses in Indonesia still imported individual letters at high production costs. Brother Baldewinus then had an initiative to set up a letter casting plant in Semarang, the products of which were then supplied to all printing houses throughout Indonesia. In 1963, to meet the considerable demand from various printing houses, the letter casting house was moved to Muntilan with an additional new machine from Monotype Co., London, UK. Apart from that, they established a laboratory for research into the raw material for letters in order to discover which were durable.

It would be quite dramatic indeed if this letter casting plant were to be closed without any record being made. To continue in production it had to bear substantial losses, and eventually had to succumb to economic reality. Perhaps the plan for closing the letter casting plant needs a rethink to enable it to continue.