MODERN NEWSPAPER EQUIPMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 33, 8 February 1935, Page 15 (Supplement)

MODERN NEWSPAPER EQUIPMENT

A DAILY newspaper claims attention and respect in proportion to its readers'

opinions of its merits as purveyor of news and opinions. But it isseldom recognised for what it is—the.product of a great and high-ly-organised industrial unit, directly employing hundreds of: people. Indirectly it has at its service hundreds, even thousands, of others, engaged in collecting news throughout the world and iorwarding it for publication. The actual production, of the paper requires a large and costly mechanical plant; which includes machines of the utmost ingenuity and precision. The capital and running costs of modern newspaper premises, and. plant run into startling figures; yet the'daily newspaper as a retail commodity is, .in comparison with its intrinsic worth, the cheapest article that one can buy.

A survey, of the history of a newspaper would be lacking if it did not. sketch, however lightly, the technical as well as the personal and political aspect of its career. A newspaper has to .be.-directed^ with, great intellectual ability, but as: a material product it is a mechanical job, and it;is not perhaps generally recognised that the administrative and literary staffs are far outnumbered by the expert tradesmen who convert their efforts into print. The art of printing is very ancient, but the use, of loose type which could be set up instead of engraving a whole page dates from the fifteenth century, when it was used for printing books. The step from books,, of permanent value, to newspapers, which are ephemeral, was almost as revolutionary as that from fixed to. loose. type, but, it has been succeeded by others-no. less .powerful in • their influence. Printing released recorded ideas for the use of many instead of few. Newspapers placed current history; before the eyes of people who had hitherto known nothing of events outside their immediate surroundings except by casual hearsay and wild rumour.

But the newspaper could not flourish except by the.help of machinery, and round it there has grown up a group of machines which express inventiveness in the highest degree, and are most impressive in their efficiency and reliability. ;

In the . beginning, newspapers were set by hand, a type for each letter being picked up and placed carefully in position, and the page being assembled piece by piece. The whole page was then inked over and a sheet of paper pressed down, an a simple machine, upon the type, giving a'printed page. By elaborating the machine, the inking and printing processes were made purely mechanical, but'type-setting long remained a purely manual process—as, indeed, for.some-.classes of composition, it still is. Then mechanical setting was invented. Almost universally, composing machines do not start with type at-all, but assemble moulds, in which, the type ar.e cast as they are required, usually a line at a time. . The rate : p£ composition is much higher-than, by hand, but still more important in .a business where speed is. essential, the matter which has • been set can be handled easily, whereas .the handling of loose type is an art

in itself. The operator of a composing machine sits before a keyboard, and while he has to be as skilled as his manual predecessor in securing the correct appearance of his work, he is no longer compelled to ensure, by delicacy of touch, that his : type are-right end up and right way round. - ROTARY PRINTING. The.type when set is collected into pages, known as "formes," and it is no small part of the work of the composing room so to organise the operations that through the day these formes are completed in proper sequence and in accordance with a time-table. It is no longer the practice to print newspapers sheet by sheet from pages of type. The page of type is now used as a pattern from which a mould in plastic composition (mainly soft paper) is made, and in. this mould a new page, in one piece, is cast, or several may be made for use in multiple presses. These "stereotype" castings are not made flat, but are curved to fit upon large cylinders. It is thus possible to print upon a continuous strip of paper; and these "strips of. paper"" are frequently to be seen in huge rolls being delivered to the "Evening Post" office. They weigh up to three-quarters of a ton, and. contain about four miles of paper. Printing flat pages is a process that cannot be greatly speeded up, because'V massive piece of machinery; must be moved back and forth for each impression. Printing from revolving cylinders upon a continuous .web of paper has no such limitations, and the speed of production possible w.ith rotary presses is astonishing. All the sheets required for.'a single issue are. printed simultaneously,, and are assembled in the press. The composing.room of the "Evening ;Post"

news department contains sixteen linotype composing machines of the latest pattern; all the news matter^ including the large-type headings, is-set on these machines. Intertype composing machines, setting a large variety of styles of type, are. in the "jobbing" department for the special setting required in advertisements and other display matter. " ' STEREOTYPE PROCESS. The stereotype department,, in which the: flat pages of type are reproduced in the form of curved printing plates, is equipped with up-to-date, fast-working equipment of : thoroughly modern design. The first machine used- in - the process is a Winkler automatic press, in which the stereo mould is made. Working without any display of mechanical fuss, this compact machine jams the plastic sheet into the face of the type with a pressure approximately 400 tons. The stereo plates are cast in a Junior Autoplate caster. There are two of these, to provide against possible breakdown. Each has a pot containing five tons of m.olten type-metal. In one the furnace is oil-fired; the other is heated with gas, the burner being supplied with air at high pressure. In each case the temperature of the melt is automatically regulated. Each stereo plate is roughly trimmed by the autoplate, but it requires "Shaving" to its correct thickness, and this is done by an,"autoshaver," an ingenious device which trims, the edges,. pares : out the inner, side of the plate, brushes away the shavings, and gives the hot plate a cold bath. A "router," in expert hands, deals with such trimming as is needed on the printing side of the plate to ensure the cleanness of white spaces. . THE BIG PRESSES. ■'--..' .Last in the chain of machines, of course,'is the printing press. "The Post" has two, which are both in regular use. Both presses are of English make. One'is a Hoe "double o.ctuple," able to print papers up to: 32 pages at the rate of 60,000 copies an hour.; Each half of the machine 'is' then functioning independently of the other. By using the two! halves in conjunction, papers up to 64 pages can be printed at the rate of 30,000 copies an-'hour. This machine is driven through a steel chain by two Witton-James electric driving equipments each of 15 arid 90 horse-power. The second press, also made'by Hoe,; London, is a "decuple," arid is the latest available model. Its capacity is 40 pages: at the rate of 30,000 copies an hour, or 80 pages at the rate'of 15,000 copies an hour. It is driven by a Witton-James ' equipment of 150 horse-power. A feature of: this machine is an ingenious conveyor which carries the printed papers—round a corner^—to the publishing department.

These big presses are under very exact and convenient control. .They are fitted.at many points with push-button stations, and at any of these, by merely pressing the right button;the machine can be' started, stopped, and controlled in speed. A very elaborate electrical switchboard is required in conjunction with this con-

trol system. Power for the whole printing establishment is obtained from the city electric supply mains. On rare occasions this ' supply suffers, interruption, and to guard against a stoppage that may upset the production :of the paper, the office has a standby: power-plant consisting of a heavy oil (Diesel) engine and electric generator.-.This can be brought into operation in a few minutes to supply power arid light throughout the office, and can, if required, drive both.the presses at the same time, ' THE PUBLISHER'S WORK. , The. press delivers the papers, folded (and counted) in a steady stream to the publisher's department. Here,. mechanism has made' little headway except for transport,'purposes; -The publisher: arid his assistants work with '■; their heads and their.hands; and here, perhaps more than in any other department, organisation, .with time as the essential element, is continually evident. If a paper is to contain all the news available it .must "go to press" as..late, as" possible. But the publisher has to, watchthe clock. Because. his transport—grams', trains, servicecar,s, and steamers—run to time-tables that will tolerate, no ; interference. He must not,be 'late, ;arid-as tKelast link in the chain ■of operators 'within^ thevypffice, it may fall upon him. to ■.re'covef^aluablet minutes that seem lost. \The period, of peak activity in the publishing room isnoulprigj but the pressure is. very high while it lasts, attd there is no room for error; This is a case—-like most others, where much is done.in little time—when the apparent sudden bustie ; is only.die,execution of planning that . goes on through quieter hours, of careful bookkeeping, arid the application, of experience." The distribution of the published papers is necessarily work for many hands'. "The.Post" has.niany agents in the city arid suburbs; arid these'divide; among them a large: part .of -the. great ■ house-to-house delivery which the paper enjoys. Altogether there are 360' boys who are eihployed daily in delivering "The.Post" within the city arid suburban area bounded by Johnsoriville on the Manawtau line and Upper'Hutt on the Wairarapa line. . There are also 40 boys engaged in selling the papers in the city.streets. THE JOBBING EQUIPMENT. The "jobbing" department does all the printing that does not appear in newspaper form, and produces,all display matter that the riews composing room is not equipped to set up. This department is equipped with several examples of

modern .printing equipment, including a Mi.ehle double royal.press, with a Cross feeder which serves it with one sheet at a time from a stack of paper; a Da wson,. Payne, and'Elliott doubleroyal press -with, a similar feeder; two of the latest type Kelly presses, with automatic feeders, in which the paper is lifted by an ingenious pneumatic (suction) device; and a number of smaller presses. A useful auxiliary to the department is a Monotype caster, by means of which any required quantity of type can be quickly manufactured. Ordinarily a "font" of large type occupies a large amount of space, yet it may be little used.' The matrix, or mould containing the type-face is, however, quite small; and the utmost variety is available because moulds not on hand can readily. be obtained. Several of the headings used in these pages have been set up from type cast by this machine. THE .PROCESS DEPARTMENT. An important adjunct of a modern newspaper office is the "process" department, where trie plates required for printing illustrations are made. The production of these plates is a happy combination of photography, chemical operations, and high skill. Printing, for newspaper purposes, must be in solidcolour, so/that if shading is required, as in a photograph, the effect must be got by mixing white and black in very/small elements, as. can be seen by. looking closely into a printed picture. This is done by photographing the picture through a glass screen ruled with two sets of parallel black lines crossing each other at right angles, so that the whole picture, as it reaches the negative, consists of tiny dots of light, large,and strong where the picture is bright and. small and weak where it is dark. By proper treatment of the negative these dots are developed • equally strongly, varying only in. size, and the. negative is then used to make a "positive" on a sensitised zinc plate. By etching this plate with acid, the original surface is left to represent ..the. dots, and the rest of the surface, is cut away, so that a practical printing "type" remains.

"The Post's". photographic . department is much more elaborate than is needed'merely for newspaper illustration. It can produce ■ plates for printing pictures:of the finest texture,, and the. combination of several plates/made by photographing through light-filters, enables the

printers to supply those admirable coloured reproductions which have in recent years widened the scope of■ coriimercial .printing far beyond the limitations of: flair, colour and mere black and white. ' ■ ;

Many readers find it difficult to understand how a daily newspaper is able day after day to publish photograph's appropriate to the current news. This is possible as the result of building up a library of photographs, classified and indexed, and continually added to by pictorial news services and from other sources. Vast numbers of photographs are received, and those which seem likely to have ■ a future use are stored, arid can'be'turned up in a few minutes. What often surprise's the reader is that he is shown■• a" portrait of a- man who has perhaps never appeared in news before. But it is rarely indeed that a man reaches importance enough to get into the cable news without having, in his own country, been prominent enough to figure in the local press photographs—and so he is in the "stockl" :

Similarly a vast amount of printed matterbooks and clippings—is kept in the' office library, available for reference, apart from the large store of Isuch. matter which each member of thp staff accumulates for his own use and information. .;■'■•■'■■• :- •■■■

TECHNIQUE;:SKILL,- AND CARE. Every.mechanical department of a newspaper has been, so 'far/ as is • possible, "mechanised." But : in no single branch has the.need for. skill and attention been, abolished. The day's jiews and pictures are"but .the raw material that must go through a.chain of operations, and upon the perfection with, which each is carried out the quality of the..'final' product 'depends." The compositors / and,' proof-readers, the "stonehands," who. assemble the formes, the process department,,have, to work with close attention. The stereotyper~ and his staff, receiving the, page, must •; see. that; the . mould -' and the stereotype castings.have no flaw—and they have no time; to waste.,. Then the press-room, staff, whose enormous machines .require as much attention as a liner's .engines, have to keep sharp eyes on a hundred details. All in all, the printers of1 seventy -years ago, using loose type, an elementary .press,; and cut sheets of paper, had not jiearly,so many.details to bother about, and did not have,-to work so fast. On the other hand, they did, not print so" many papers.