Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-04
Getting Up ssEndymion."
The Rapfdtty with Which a Book Can
 be Published.
From the New York Times.

From the New York Tmes.l
 It would seem to be almost the widest in sanity to be prophetic as to what might be done in 19SO in regard to the printing of can be fancied. The author of a book will improvise his work, and as he repeats chap ter after chapter telephone will carryhis intonations to 8 machine, where type, in f1uenced by exact vibrations, will start from their cases and fall into appropriate syllables words, lines, sentences and pages. Now, here is the Earl of Beaconsfeld's ''Endy- mion," which is typical of the great speed with which book can be printed and issu- ed by the thousands ''Edymion" is by no means, ho%eS CT, to be considered as ffAsG book. By ''fast'' no reference, of course, is directed toward MT. Disraeli, for the Mes SITS. Harper published 'fEndymion'' in a leisurely, humdrum way, having had it in hand for two weeks. But suppose it had happened that the steamer which brought the copy had been belated by adverse winds, why three days would have been amply suf- ficient for the Franklin-Square Library to have added ''Endymion" by tens of thou sands of copies to their already extensive catalogue.
 s'Endymion," as it presents itself for 15 cents, is book of not quite 84 pages, but with outside cover and advertisements has 88 pages. According to the printers me- thod of counting 1t consists of 497, AIS ems,
 
 without interfering with any other work. Celerity in setting up type arrives at its apo gee ln daily newspaper, for in The It1nSs during the week the usual number of ems is COG, GOO, all of which are, of course, set up within the 24 hours. From the composing room ''Endymion" would go to the electro typers, where all the S8 pages would be cast in wax, dusted with plumbago, subjected to the electro-dynamic machines in the metallic bath, and the copper plates would be finished and ready for the press in 12 hours To the printing machines, after the adjustment of the plates, little time would elapse before the whole work would be print ed About 15 hours would suffice for the printing of the first 20, 600 after that 'Endy- mion'' would be rattled off much more rapid ly. Now would come the drying folding, gathering, stitching and trimming of the 20,- coo copies, which would all be accomplished within six hours So, adding together the hours of work, we have 20 hours for compo- sition, 12 hours for electrotyping, 15 hours for printing and hours for binding All to- gether, then, from the beginning to the end, to turn out 10000 copies of '.Endymion," the time requisite would be B hours, so that in days and hours ''Endymion'' could, if it had been necessary, have been published, and would not have interfered in the least with the other business of the house. A marvel of speed in old times was that of a man who once wore at dinner coat the cloth or WHICH WdS d WOO1 Ou SuSSp , DdCh zf hours before. When one remembers the in finite number of handlings the tender sheet of paper goes through, the wonderful accura- cy, delicacy and rapidity of the printing ma chinery of to-day can be understood The actual weight of paper used in cheap edi- tion of ''Endymion" of 10000 copies is 1864 pounds Public curiosity being awakened, the first edition of 10000 "Endymions, 7" of the Franklin-Square Library was taken up on the day of publication, 10000 the day after ward, and it looks as if Endymion, Farrars, Myra, Lady Beauman's Lady Montfort and the whole of Kings, Emperors, Queens, and general mob of Dukes, Marquises, Earls, with Stars and Garters, will be widely distributed over the United States within the next ten days
 In 100 years to come should a Prime Min ister of England write a novel, though we may be fast enough to-day, what will be done in the future will be so much more rapid that in the second generation from this one the present method of printing will be considered as slow as to-day our machine processes would appear rapid to the publishers of 178o