The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-09-11
RAPID TYPEsETTING,.
AN INVENTION THAT WILL REVOLT
TIoNlzE NEWSPAPER WORK

Tho Important Place That the Typesetting
Machine Is Destined to Mako In All Big
Newspaper Ofices-one Writer Tries an
Experiment..
1t happens that have very decided ideas
about the future of mechanical typesetting.
Originality dsbeliever and scoffer have
become convert. The machine Is with us
to stay. 1t has come just as came the cot
ton gin. Any device that will reduce the
cost Of the production of manufactured
article 25 per cent cannot be ignored. The
newspaper is manufactured article. Type
setting by machinery does reduce the cost
of its production at least 33 per cent. There
fore the machine is the life preserver of the
modern newspaper.
With the perfection of the printing ma
chine came the invention Of the typewriter,
and while their relation is not obvious at
first there is no doubt that their interde-
pendence can be shown and that the sue
cess of the typewriter has hastened the per-
lection Of the typesettinG machine.
We can all remember how crude were
the first typewriting machines; how mac
curate their alignment and how slow their
production of copy. Today no well ap-
pointed newspaper or lawyers Office is COM
plete without them. Many successful cor
respondents and special writers do their
own work wholly by dictation directly to
the typewriter. So great is the speed of the
expert operator today that he or she can
readily keep pace with the average rate of
speaking The typewriter has become n
great source of comfort to the copy reader
and editor. Bad English is more readily
detected, proper names are more accurately
put in type from the printed page, and the
L. T., ,,f, L.xtI
the writer and the reader Of the paper.
The theory upon which the copy reading
desk exists in every newspaper Office is that
it is for the purpose of making matter in
tended for publication more readable and
more concise, but, above all, of purging it
of libelous and indicate matter and bad
English.
1t is n matter of sincere modification to
the experienced writer upon the newspaper
press 10 feel that the average copy reader
Is copy butcher. While not entirely to
blame for this, because he is instructed by
his superior to read for space" the haste
under which the work generally has to be
performed does not initiate in favor of nice
distinctions in the use of words, in the
turning of phrases or in the selection of
subheads Very much-ah, too often-the
Individuality of the writer is destroyed, and
the plan upon which he or she constructed
the account of a disaster, a murder or
town meeting is utterly eradicated.
! can remember to have heard in The
Tribune Office during the days of Horace
Greeley humiliating rebukes administered
to reporters upon its staff who ventured to
cleverly turn ii phrase or to be unduly ia
miliar with an adjective In those days of
the blue pencil the copy readers broke
hearts and slashed manuscript, never stop
ping to consider that they were destroying
instead Of creating capable newspaper re-
porters and correspondents
Looking back over an experience of near
ly a quarter of century in New York,
cannot recall single clever literary man
who endured that harsh schooling for three
or four years whose love of his work sur
vived. The blue pencil with a mere car
penter behind it, is the destroyer Of style,
the dissipator of ambition.
The typesetting machine already looms
up as valuable coadjutor of the working
newspaper man-whether he be reporter,
editor or special writer The compactness
of the typesetting machine of today; the
possibility of running it with small dyna-
mo and II jet of gas; the fact that one man
can do the work OF four and can produce
type in columns ready for use with nearly
the same rapidity that the expert typewrit-
Ut pltiCc NOIhS III u TO" upon
per, suggest that the writer talk directly to
the compositor
Before many years | confidently expect
to see the typesetting machine, with the ex-
pert compositor behind it, take a place at
the right hand of every writing editors
desk in every newspaper Office in this coun
try.
The manual drudgery of composition Is
already relieved by the introduction of the
stenographer and typewriter, but at crit
ical hours of the night when every minute
is worth saving, there is no reason why de
lay should be suffered by writer who de
sires to turn into copy ideas that are ready
to flow from his pen upon the white paper
Why longer submit to the tyranny of thu
copy readcri Why shall not each star
reporter hire his typesetting machine just
as he already employs his typewriter?
There are many arguments in favor o.
this idea.
The writer will be able to exactly fill the
space allotted to him for his article.
there be any "oyerset," he will know it be
fore the article goes into the hands of The
night editor. Again he will be able to re
tain all his peculiaritics of style, and the
proofreader will only revise for typograph
ical errors. In addition the writer will b.
able to produce three times MS much copy
EVER llEllt ~ IiC Still pOSoibiN phb ia hAllA
by the old system of writing out his ideas
AS an evidence that this system is thor
oughly practical l have undertaken t,
compose this article directly to the machine
The crudities of expression that may be ap
parent are due to the fact that what | hav'
said went into solid type. There is n ia
nous maxim, 'Littera scripta manet.
Here the spoken word is cast into hare
metal almost as soon as uttered, and iron
its silver face can be no appeal no altera
ton, no rctraction!
As an experiment it is interesting, and
| am sure that this is what we shall all con-
to eventually.
In time we may be better writers, NOR
| capable of accurate and regular dictation
| The saving of time in our brief and activ
| human existence is worth SO much to us al
| that we cannot afford to ignoie its possibi
| ities.-Julius Chambers in New York RI
| corder.
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