Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-03-24

taking the long Washington dispatches
over the EHquirer's special and exclu'
sive wire from that place. He also takes
"Gsth" over
The New York Wire.
Another man heads up Washington,
New York and the most important
specials. while another prepares the
minor dispatches for the printer.
The great composition room is aglow
with hundreds OF gas jets. The
in hand, the silence only broken by
metallic clicks, as they swiftly transfer
the scattered, unmeaning type into in
telligent, iegible sentences. In the
proof room there is hum OF voices
from the readers, and the long, narrow
proof slips are being gone through with
a rapidity which seems almost miracu.
lous. AS soon as galley OF type is cor.
rected it is laid on a table to await the
labor OF making up. making up" Il
form, it may be said for the benefit OF
non-professionals, consists in lifting the
columns OF type from the stone tables
and placing them as they appear in the
printed sheet. This work is one reouir-
ing much mechanical skill and good
| Judgment. The various items ef news
| and other articles are scattered through
a half hundred columns OF type; and
these must be carefully picked out so
that each item OF intelligence will come
| in its appropriate group. AS soon as q
page is made up and locked within the
"chase"-a square iron frame little
larger than the page-it is placed on a
small table with wheels and run into
the
Stereotyping Room.
Here things have resemblance to a
great machine shop. Overhead are in
Vulnerable shafts and pulleys- Scat.
tered about the room are numerous
strange-looking machines, which are
being operated by shafting
from the pulleys above. The atmos-
phere is frightfully hot, and men, grimy,
stripped almost to the skin, with naked
arms and perspiring faces, are moving
in and out among the machines, engag-
cd in the various processes OF casting
and finishing the plates. The air is full
Of steam, through which the gaslight
CLEANS with dull yellow. The floor is
Uttered with fragments Of metal that
have the dull CLEAN OF silver ore. There
are the clatter OF revolving chisels cut.
ting through metallic plates, the swift
paneling of a steam engine in a corner;
and a hot glesm from the open doors OF
a furnace. Formerly the page OF type
was printed from; but now it is only
used for taking cast. The material
used for the latter is simply a square
piece of thick paper, which has pasted
on it several thickness OF tissue paper.
The form with the paper laid on it is
wheeled to a steam table where it is
pressed. After remaining there about
six minutes the form is taken out and
the paper is
Lifted of Without Difficulty.
1t is about an eighth of an inch thick and
on Its inner surface is an exact impress
sion OF the type Of the page. In other
words, it is mould, or matrix, and,
OF course, presents every thing IN
an inverse position. 1t is now
placed in concave iron machine called
casting box. Two operatives, seizing
large ladle, dip up the molten meta
from the furnace and pour il into the
casting box between the matrix and the
concave piece above. This ls done in
moment, and the box is opened reveal
ing within a solid metal plate, an exact
facsimile OF the page OF type upon
which the matriN was formed. From
the time that form enters the stereo.
hA lat 10 MI asl ha
elevator to be lowered to the press room
an average OF about fifteen minutes is
consumed. There are three presses,
and there must be form cast for each
press of every page OF the paper.
The reader may now, il he pleases,
follow the forms from the fifth floor to
the basement, in which is located the
press room. The press room at first
view, il visited at the time OF operating,
is wilderness of sound and motion.
The great central cylinders the presses
are revolving. with the speed OF light.
and about them the smaller ones are
turning with swiftness which almost
Forbids the Bye
TO distinguish that they are in motion.
Each press seems, in the multiplicity of
its details, TO be vas, inComprehensble
mystery. \ huge roll Of endless paper is
being unwound from roller at one
end of each press, and is being drawn
through the interior OF the complicated
system of wheels, and appear at the
other end cut and folded ready for de-
livery. Just as the paper fairly enters
the press cutter falls at the proper
moment and separates the endless sheet
into pieces, each one Of which is the
size OF four pages of the Enquirer when
they are spread out. When the pages
have gone through the cylinders and
are printed upon they enter the folding
apparatus and come out in the shape in
when it is delivered by carriers and
nevsboys. The presses in use are Bul.
locks improved, each one OF which
prints and folds from 1900 to 10000 an
hour.
The Night Wears On.
The history OF the hours after the
forms are made up has been told in the
sketch Of the operations OF the stereo-
typing and press rooms. At A. N the
night editor leaves, and is soon after fol-
lowed By the reportorial and CONNER
cial writers. At A. N. the managing
editor "shuts up shop and almost i'm.
mediately after the proof readers and
telegraph editors follow his exam
pie. At 8 or 3:l5 the last form
is made up, and the great com
position room closes except in the
ease OF small number OF men who are
held over for an hour in case OF import
ant matter which may come and neces-
state postscript. At3:l5 tn $3.50 the
first press is started, and some ten
minutes later all are in operation. The
whole building save the press-room Is
now buried in profound repOse.
In and outside this department there
is suddenly developed wonderful ac-
tivity. There are the soft, swift clang.
ing OF the presses, the almost noiseless
putting of the engine, and the clamors
outside OF great army oi newsboya, the
rattle OF express wagons and the conyer
sation OF the carriers. A hall hundred
meuare in the mailing-room, pasting on
wrappers and directions, filling great
bags with bundles of papers or counting
them and delivering them
By Thousands
to the porters OF news agencies. BY 6