Just before the publication of the first number of “The New Albany” in 1891, Brandow Printing Company’s plant was consumed by fire. Type was made of lead then, and lead melts at a pretty low temperature, so when a printing plant burned, there wouldn’t be much left. But the sufficiently insured Brandow turned lemons into lemonade and took the opportunity to establish “as modern and progressive a printing office as the ingenuity of man can devise.” Every press, new! Every font of type, new! Just imagine.
This fire also led to a great piano fire sale, about which more anon.