deathmtn

From the LRB, how hot metal printing (popular until the ‘70s) worked:

In the Monotype system, the text to be printed is freshly machine—cast from molten lead. Instead of having to assemble
a book or newspaper line by line, letter by letter, the typesetter could type the text into a keyboard and a machine would issue forth its metal mirror.

Imagine typing a sentence and producing an intricately sculpted bar of metal.