Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-05-12

have now been spent OH experiments Ohoulu
the Keely motor prove to be q genuine dis.
covery, then no one will dispute the possibili'
ty of a railroad to the moon or the discovery
of the elixir of life.
MARVELS OF RAPID PRINTING.
Among the devices for quick printing
which it is said will be used in bringing out
the American edition Of the revised New Tes.
lament are the type setting machines now in
several printing offices. Inventors have been
working for forty years at type setter, and
eighty patents have been issued upon such ma
chimes since 1S4l, when the first patent was
obtained. 1t is only within the last few
years that they have become of practical val
ue The operator sits in front of keyboard,
similar to that of type writer and touches
key for every letter wanted. The types are
contained in metal cases divided into long
channels, each kind of letter having its sep
arate channel. When key is touched the
lower letter in the channel, the opening OF
which is controlled by that key, is allowed to
drop and is conducted by converging chan
nes into "race' where all the types meet
The man who plays upon the keyboard pays
no attention to dividing the types into lines
that being done by another man who sits at
the other end of the machine and cuts up and
justi6es the line of type into the right lengths
for the page Such machine attended by
two men will set up seventy thousand ems a
day, days work for good hand compostor
not being more than ten thousand ems. The
distributing machines are far more won
derful than the type-setters. These machines
are entirely automatic and distribute seventy
thousand ems day with absolute accuracy
and require nothing but the feeding of"dead
matter" by boy, who from time to time
places block Of type on the machine. 1t
takes line after line from its table and puts
each letter into an endless chain Of travelling
carriers, which move along step by step,
resting at quick intervals. While at rest the
whole row of the eighty-four types then on
carriers is subjected to series Of automatic
feelers Each letter is nicked or notched in a
different manner, and if the feeler cores
ponds to the hicks the type drops into chan
mel which conducts it to its place ready for the
machine When a type is brought in front
of feeler whose projections do not match
the hicks cut in it, it passes on. A good
workman can distribute by hand from thirty
to forty thousand ems in day of ten hours,
or about half the work machine will do.
Most printers speak highly of the ingenuity
Of these machines, and admit that when in
perfect order they do rapid work. When
they get out of order, however, it is not an easy
matter to discover the trouble.
Another invention which will be used for
getting stereotype plates Of the New !esta-
ment within day, which will be absolutely
similar to the copies, will be the phototype
process, by which many English books have
recently been duplicated in this country at
astonishipgly low prices. A dozen pages OF
the book to be reproduced are put i'll frame
and photographed. The negative is placed
face down upon bed Of gelatiDe and potash
and exposed to the SUM-. Where the rays Of
the sun penetrate chemical action takes place
which makes such parts soluble in water. A
gelatine mould is thus obtained with each
letter raised above the surface. Plaster is
next run iuto this and from the plaster cast
an ordinary stereotype plate is made. This
process is, by no means, new, however, but
since 1868 great improvements have been
made in the process, and some Of the works
recently duplicated in this way can scarcely
he distinguished from the English edition.
When it was first announced that "Young's
Concordance" work in fine type, anu con-
tanning about as much matter as an una.
bridged dictionary, had been reproduced in this
country, the English agents for the book,
thinking of course, that the book had been
printed from type, issued card saying that
| from the size and nature of the book, full OF
Greek and Hebrew references as it was, the
American reprint must be full of errors.
The Messrs. Scribners had several confer.
ences with the English publishers of the re
vsed Testament with view to reprinting in
this country from duplicate plates. 1t was
found, however, that no protection could be
had against cheap reprints, and the scheme
was abandoned. 1t has been suggested that
some publishers would put the Testament in
to type in advance and have only the altera-
tions to make, but this will be scarcely posi-
BILE in the opinion of most printers, on ac-
count of the vast number of changes, one in
almost every verse, and the altered para
graphs, the division into verses being done
away with. 1t is not very great work to
''set' up" the New Testament in day, quln.
tuple sheet of the Herald containing nearly
as many words, or about two hundred and
fifty thousand.-Neau York Erening Post
THE MAGNETIC PoLEs.-The reason why
the needle points in the northerly direction is
that the earth in itself is magnet, attracting
the magnetic needle as ordinary magnets do,
and the earth is q magnet as the result of cer-