Why was news paper printed on a metal sheet?

Found metal sheets nailed to the side of a barn, had news paper printed on it? What were these used for?Why was news paper printed on a metal sheet?
they are called blankets. when the paper rolled off the


old style litho presses, they used the metal sheets as a flat surface under the paper to press against when the roller went over it. when the press ran out of paper it was often still rolling therefore transferring ink to the metal.





another possibility is that if the print is backwards the metal was probably not a blanket put just covered with newspaper at some point and the ink fused to the metal over timeWhy was news paper printed on a metal sheet?
Was the newspaper ';printed'; on the metal, or, could it have been newspaper ';plates?'; Was it a negatively embossed image of the newspaper? If so, then what you saw was what the presses used to transfer the black and white image onto the paper. The plates were inked, with the ink sticking to the high spots and then, when they were pressed against the paper, the paper recieived the ink.