Mechanical printing presses have a distinct smell:  oil combined with ink and I would imagine a hint of paper.  Those who work around printing presses have probably built an olfactory immunity, but for anyone who’s walked into a press the smell is unique.  I would be willing to bet most people under thirty have never been into a press.

Last week I was interviewed by the Greenfield Recorder for the business section of that newspaper.  After the article was printed, I visited a print shop in Athol to have archival copies made for framing.  It gave me a chance to see some really neat equipment.

Something dawned on me while I was looking at turn of the century printing technology.  Finding employees who know how to run a press must be really difficult.  Fewer and fewer tradesmen are being taught the old methods and only new computerized techniques.

Heidelberg makes a four color press commonly used in the printing industry.  Long sheets of paper are woven through the machine and are imprinted with four colors which give the illusion of infinite transitions.  Understanding the technology and implementing it requires years of training.

Trade schools and colleges are focusing on digital print technologies, which creates the potential for immediate employment.  In big cities there’s a digitally based print shop on every corner.  Anyone with a basic knowledge of desktop publishing can work there and make little more than minimum wage.  A press like the one in Athol is few and far between.

It’s not just printing and publishing where there will be a lack of traditional skills.  Many technical jobs that once required a skill set may not be able to be filled.  Computers and technology being used more, combined with schools promoting technological based education will create a deficit in the traditional workforce.

Skills that were once crafts as much as jobs can be done faster and sometimes better using digital technology.  There is no argument that reducing labor means less expense and chance for human error.  However, there are still functions for big archaic machines that computers can’t reproduce.

My hobby is woodturning and luckily for my wallet wood lathes and related equipment don’t get used much anymore.  Most of the furniture legs that were once hand turned are now produced on a CNC mill.  A furniture designer creates a computerized print and inputs it into a CNC machine.

Ten years ago the same furniture leg would have been produced by a skilled wood turner using chisels and a pattern.  In a factory, the wood turner or lathe operator would have been trained how to use the machine and follow a pattern.  If you ask a CNC operator to manually turn a piece of wood he or she would probably not know the basics.

Technology and the importance technology placed on society has taken a toll on old skill sets.  Generations of future worker bees will be looking at old technology and won’t know how it operates.  Demand for the person who knows old technology will always be.

One would think demand is a good thing unless you’re the consumer purchasing the traditionally produced product.  Lack of qualified personnel will create demand which will drive income and the end price of the product.

Sometimes emphasizing technology too much isn’t good.  There’s a happy middle ground where old meets new.  I guess you could say technology’s very own yin and yang.  Without teaching the old, there could potentially be a time when once a generation ends so does its knowledge.  For the sake of this week’s article I’ve decided to type it on a Smith-Corona and distribute it on mimeograph.

(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner.  You can text him directly at (978) 413-2840 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)