The Portland daily press., 1881-10-27
A Great Journal.
How tine London Times Is Made and Pub
llshed.
Joseph Hatton in November Harper,1

daily JOurnalS prOuuctlOn. Apart from tn0
correspondence, the telegraphists, the railway
trains, that are engaged in its service abroad,
there are at home the editors, Underwriters,
critics, reviewers, reporters, messengers, null
titude of persons, men of TIE highest culture
and learning, down to the nimblest of tele-
graph clerks and messengers. These, formid-
able as is their power, simply supply the pabu-
lum the manuscript, the material for manu-
facture. How great and how little all this is
an outsider can hardly appreciate until he has
seen a leading newspaper establishment at
work. The Times office is a vast machine
shop and factory. Everything in the place.
except the paper, is made on the spot. The
Walter machines were made here, as were also
those which print the Daily News, the Scots
man, the Liverpool Post, the New York
Times and other papers. Indeed, tie whole of
the appliances in the printing of the paper and
lighting of the rooms (eyen the electric lamps)
are manufactured on the premises, which en-
brace machine-shops, type, stereotype and
electrotype foundries, electricians laborato-
ries, etc. The whole of the new buildings
were designed and built by Mr.. Walter and
Mr.. Macdonald, without the aid of architect or
contractor. The very bricks were made on
Mr.. Walters estate at Bearwood, and brought
to London by his own people. The interyen-
ton of third parties, snoh as contractors out
side the control of Mr.. Macdonald, would have
made the reconstruction of an establishment
like the Times during its business hours almos
an impossibility. The top floor Of the building
is devoted to the bound files Of the paper. De-
scending to the next you come to dining-rooms
and kitchens-one department for the clerks,
another for compositors and workmen general
ly, The service is conducted on canteen prin-
ciple, and as rule the employees are glad to
have the opportunity of taking their meals
here. The meats are not baked, all kinds Of
Joints together, in one oven, as is the case in
most English restaurants, to the utter destruc-
ton of their individual character and flavor;
tney are roasted before open fires. noticed
that there is a complere staff Of cooks, with a
chef, who appears to take special pride in
his art On this hoor there are also store
rooms and other apartments. AS you descend
you come next to broad and high composing
rooms lighted with electric lamps. Cloak
rooms are provided for the men, each article
being checked by an attendant after the man
uer of New York club-houseS. Here and there
are quiet offices, with telephone and other
machines in use and on trial. One room is de-
voted to the special Paris wire. By the side
of the telegraph, which reels off its message on
the now familiar roll of paper, is type-setter,
so that the Paris letter is put into type, hot as
it comes in, from the slips themselves. In an
other apartment are telephones connected with
the reporters rooms at the Houses Of Parlia-
ment. During last session all the night re-
ports were sent to the Office through this me-
dun. The stenographer writes out his notes
as heretofore, then the manuscript is read OF
through the telephone. The recipients of the
messages at the Times office dictate them to
the type-setters, and SO they are put into type.
The manuscript comes up from the Houses as
heretofore, and goes into the reading-room, SO
that the proofs are read by tile original copy,
thus checking the telephone dictation. The
type setting machine is made in the Times
office and is as perfection as it is likely TO
be in our time. In q corner OF the great COM
posing-rooms there are six or seven OF these
little machines They are capable OF com
posing" three parts of the news portion OF the
Daper each putting up five or SIX columns
night The editorial and 1riting-rooms occu-
py the next story below, and convenient to the
chiefs desk is a telegraph in direct communl-
cation with Mr.. Reuters office.
A pneumatic tube is used right through the
premises for the distribution of "copy," proofs
and messages. On the ground floor are the
machines, engines (the latter in pairs, IN case
of accident), founderies and publishing offices;
so that the last operation of production, the
printing of the FORMS is conducted with the
added facilities of approximation OF depart
ments. The forms come down; they are stere-
otyped; they pass to the machine; the paper Is
Drinted, ana goes IOfbn l4bO tuC publishing
Office, which opens its doors at about four each
morning to the carriers and porters OF Smith q
Sons. who are the chief distributors OF the
leading journal. In front of these busy rooms,
cut off from the heat of the machinery and
having an outlet upon Queen Victoria street,
are the advertising offices and the letter and
INQUIRY department. From the aspect OF a
manufactory and government bureau in one,
the establishment now assumes the appearance
of q bank The similarity is not without point
H. fha ma 0fvu - In this
department there is a telephone in communl-
cation with the Royal Exchange, which can be
switched off to the offices of all the leading ad-
yertising agents in the city.
The INQUIRY department is for the use OF per-
SONS who choose to have their letters addressed
to The Times office, for consulting the hles,
and other purposes-a convenience Wh1ch the
public evidently appreciates. The Times, with
all its ramifications and influences, reaches
from Printing house Square TO the uttermoSt
ends of the earth, and constitutes one OF the
modern wonders of the world; and nothing
ahout II is more remarkable than the fact that
| II NAV be said to have grown up in our day.
| The art of printing has been literally revoiu-
| tionized by the present Mr. Waiter ana MI
| Maco onald.
The Times was started in 1885, under the IT,
| tle of the Daily Universal Register, and adopt
| ed its present title three years later. IL was
originated BY Mr.. John Walter, gTandiasne9t N9. Oh
the present chief proprietor, Mr.. John Walter,
M. p for Berkshire, who earned for his paper
tue soubriouet of "The Thunderer" by his bold
anil fearless attacks upon national abuses, MS
defence of the Right, and his defiaI CO OF all
,obstr,,ctions that the Wrong might plant IN
his way.
IN the, 29th of November, 1914, the Times
was nrinted by steam-the first instance OF
stas,Yn being applied to printing. The BOOK Oh
Da Is. Mr. Grants Newspaper Press, and bris-
ish Manufacturing Industries contain details
of this notable change in the production Oh
nau,enanars and the reader who desires to in
vssti@ate # Is referred to these and kindred
works The III, oes is still higk-priced Jour
nal I'D. y is printef on superb paper, ana ~ its
staff includes some o. the aolsss sn ts lm
rope. 1t pays princely orDesro,dants ~ and
mental chiefs and foreign corIeSpoliuonss' enu
stands by its writers with a loyal teIaclty; ,.aHy
"The Walter Printing Pl ess; WHICH Is Ca
pable of printing $1,000 to d WV ~ 70
the invention of the present Mr. va io,,rmaI
supplements his scientific studies W9 lVuInai-
istie duties with the onerous labors eat oeiong
| to a seat in Parliament. The Walter 1aonine M .
was constructed under the superinten, renee OF OF
Mr. Macdonald, who is constantly enga eeu III
working out some new scheme Tor tne Aouuc,
tion of labor and the perfection OF the az. A. l u
printing. 1t were too great a tax upon tneso
pages to say in how many directions the Times
management is engaged; but the Walter sue
cession in Printing house Square is wonder
fully maintained.
When a stamp duty was enforced upon ad-
vertisements, the Times paid $4,000 in one
year (1830) to the government. III this exac-
tion had been continued, as well as the penny
stamp on each paper, the Times, on its present
sale and its present number of advertisements,
would have had TO pay the government over
a450,OO0 year. am not IN position to say
what the income of the Times is, but taking
Mr.. Grants figures for advertisements, and a
minimum sale of 10000 copies, its returns
amount to quite. 81 ,OS6, COO. Touching the
profits divided on the other journals, the fol-
lowing figures, while they are not authorita-
tive, are pretty generally accepted in Journal
istic circles as approximately correct; Daily
Telegraph, $4,000 year; Standard, e65,00O;
Daily News, ESQ, 600: Morning Post 9l0,OOO,
Thirty years ago the Times, which is not given
its pross income was equal to that of the most
fiourisning of the German principalities
Two Aspects of George Eliot.