New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-10
THE PRINTING DEPARTMENT.
STEREOTYPING.

sTEREOTYPING.
Tho type having been set and made up into pages
in the Composing ROOM is lowered BY steam lift to
the cellar at the rear Of tho Spruce street side,
and stereotype plates are there cast from II. THn
TRIBUNE, more than Is years ago, was the hfst 70
attempt the adaptation Of the stereotype process 70
the wants of daily newspaper, and the INST to
make use of this beautiful contrivance, without
which it may safely be said that the Developments
of modern journalism would have been i'm
possible. Some years before the war, M
Thomas N. Rocker, foreman OF our Composing
Room, foresaw that the time was close at hand
when no one press ever constructed would suffice
to print the daily edition Of great and growing
metropolitan newspaper like The TRIBUNE; and
after consultation with Mr. Greeley, who entered
heartily into his scheme he proposed 10 all the Princ
pal book stere0typers in the city to devise modihca
ton of their process-then somewhat cumbrous and
tediOusso that plates could be cast rapidly enough
for a newspaper, and duplicated for any required
number of presses. Before the discovery was made
in New-York, two Swiss inventors, brothers, hit
upon what was wanted, and applied it to The Londo"
Times THE TRIBUNE Immediately entered into
correspondence with them, and was on the point OF
concluding contract with them when Mr.. Charles
Craske of this city solved the problem Independently
and offered his invention first to The Herald which
refused it, and then to THE TRIBUNE, which imme-
dately made an agreement with him for year.
That was in 1861 and Mr. Craske has cast plates for
us ever since. Other papers soon initiated our enter
prise and the result an immediate increase o.
circnlations and consequent improvement in all th
chief features of good journalism.
THE PRESSES.
The application of stereotype plates to newspaper
printing was appropriate complement TO Col
Richard NJ. Hoes invention of the lightning cylinder
press which was for quarter OF century the best
fast printing machine in the world, and Is even now
surpassed perhaps by no one except Col hoe hin-
self 1t seems to that revolution IN printing
quite as remarkable that which the cylinder press
and stereotype plate created many years ago, 10
likely soon to follow the introduction OF the Hoo
Web Machine of which the first made for any New
York establishment has just been put up IN IHH
TRIBUNE vaults. The inventor has spent many
years in bringing it to perfection. and has succeeded
at last in producing press which for speed economy,
neat workmanship, compactness simplicity and
beauty is certainly unrivaled. While some unwiso
American journals have been importing presses from
London, English newspaper prOprietors, better ap-
preciating both our mechancians and their own,
have been buying improved presses OF Hoe 1m
London Tclegraph is using Of Hoes new web ma
Chimes and The London Standard q. The cut which
we publish this morning will give a general idea OF
the appearance of the which occupies less than
half as much the old slX-cyllnder
machine and weighs between - and IA tons.
1t prints from web continuous roll OF paper,
and makes the impressions on both sides almost
simultaneously delivering the papers complete
at the rate of 10000 or $4,000 an hour.
The massive iron frame supports two type cylin-
ders One carries the stereotype plates for tho
four outside and the other for the four inside pages
'ba oil of il he'll
press and is connected with a self-regulating brake
at one side which checks its momentum as soon as
the press is stopped. The paper first runs between
one of the type cylinders and its companion impress
sion cylinder by which operation one side OF IHE
TRIBUNE is printed and then passes on to the other
set, which completes the impression by printing the
second side. Running now between a pair OF cutting
cylinders it is perforated and nearly but not quite
divided the required place, and carried on tapes
to the accommodating cylinder, where the rollers
revolving rapidly, pull the copies apart at the
perforated line. When six copies have been received
the cylinder delivers them to the fly, which lays
them in pile upon the table. 1t will be seen that
the press has many points of resemblance to the
cylinder machines, of which, indeed, it is the
offspring, but it is vastly less complicated. It
requires only two men to manage 1t, while the old
eight-cylinder press doing just half as much work,
needs the labor of men and boys. 1t enables tho
editor to hold all his forms open until about o'clock
in the morning instead of locking up half the paper
at midnight rs he was formerly obliged TO DO We
shall not yet discard the old presses, however, which
have done such excellent service but still retain
the cylinder machines, in addition to the new
one. The capacity of our presS-room is now just
about doubled and we shall be relieved of the great
embarrassment that we have lately suffered in
sequence of inability to supply the increased and
IL; 81, md e. Ia, mama
THE ARCHITECT AND CONTRACTORS.