The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-11-07
HOW MAGAZINES ARE MADE.
Recent LabOr.Snving Devices for
Getting Out Vast EditiOns..The
Automatic Feeder and Folder That
DO the Work of Many Men and
WOmcn..Why Low Prices Arc Pos.

siblc.
| From the New York Tribune.
To judge from the appearance of the
neWS-stands of the day one would be
| led to say that there was no limit to
the magazines published in the United
states. y few years ago the monthly
publications. could almost be count
| ed unon the fingers of one hand,
Wnlle at the present time the
| number of publications can be reck-
by the score. Five years ago so
| cents was charged and willingly paid
| for an illustrated monthly, Today
many are sold for 10 cents. Many a
person has exclaimed in surprise
| when going over the pages of such
publications, "How can they do il for
the price and make money!"
| Ihe answer may be found in the
words advertisements" and "labor-
| saving machinery" Such has been
the marvellous development in the pro-
| cesses used for producing a magazine
in the last five years, more especially
| IN the substitution OF mechanical de-
vices for hand labor. that one has not
long to puzzle over the problem of the
| cheap monthly, and it may safely he
mentioned that this problem has both
cred the minds OF not few persons
who buy and read this kind of ltera-
| ture.
1t is estimated that under present
! methods ii costs the publisher just
! about the price he charges to nut out
| his product. This nuts the advertis-
! ing into the velvet column; and
when it is known that the prices
charged page for a single issue aver
| age about $500, some idea may be oh
tanned of the profits made from the
business.
INSIDE DETAILS.
How are the great editions of mod
| ern magazines. in several cases as
much as iG0, 900 for each ISSUE gotten
| out? Passing over briefly the reading
| matter and illustrations, which are OBJ
| tained by means too well known to
| need description. and also passing over
| the setting up of the type, which is
| done partly by hand and partly by lin
otype machines, also the making-up of
the forms. which has no particular in
terest or novelty, the visitor in an up
to-date magazine plant will find his in
tereSt fire aroused by the presses used
in printing. These are of two kinds
the rotary perfectng press, in which
the paper is fed from roll similar to
the kind used in big newspaper offic-
es, and the tlat-feeder presses. As the
work required by magazine is some-
what different from that of a news
paper, the speed at which q rotary per-
fecting press Is run Is much less. The
advertising and plain text forms are
run through this press at the rate of
5000 sheets an hour, each sheet con-
tanning siXty-four pages.
The cuts and half-tones, which have
TO be printed on clay coated and cal
endered naner, and which require
great care and attention, are run
through on the flatbed presses. being
fed one sheet at time. The paper re-
CURED for this kind of work is of such
Il grade that it cannot be put up in
rolls. There is used at the present
time. in connection with these flatbed
presses, Il marvellous automatic me-
chanical device, known as a paper
feeder. which. by doing the work once
done by hand feeders, not only saves
their wages, but. bv increasing the
output of the machines to which they
are attached Gn many cases doubling
their capacity, enables the user to
make much larger profit on each ma
chine. Its speed is limited only hy
the capacity of the machine. and, as
is Well known. recent improvements
in cylinder presses enable them To be
run at greater rate of speed than
they can he fed by hand. The auto
matte feeder thus meets the demand
>
Recent improvements prevent abso-
lutely more than one sheet being fed
al IL time, and should 1t miss folding
sheet from any cause, 1t automatically
stops the press and informs the at
tendant by ringing Il bell. The auto
matte feeder is really wonder.
WONDERFUL. FOLDING MACHINE.
From the presses the paper is carried
I., g,,lx li,,.y Nj,
loaded in Lots of from 5000 to 5000
sheets at a time, on the platforms of
the automatic feeders attached there
to. These folding machines form the
second exhibit of wonderful labor
saving devices. Folding machines
with automatic feeders do today work
which would have required ten fold
in machines five years ago. and which,
ten years ago, was done almost entire
ly by hand. The feeders deliver the
\ printed sheets to the folding machines
at the rate of 5000 an hour. The fold
ing machines are of three or four diff
ferent makes and do their work in
different ways. One is known as
quadruplc folder, another as a double
sixteen folder, and another as four
eight folder. The quadruple folder
takes the sheets as delivered by the
feeder and folds the sixty-four pages.
cutting ana lit Sttilt III Itlll
separate sections of sixteen pages each.
The double-siXteen folder takes the
clay-coated sheets with the cuts, con-
sisting of thirty-two pages. cuts, folds
and delivers the same in two sections
of sixteen pages each: and so on with
the other STYLES of folders. This work
of folding and cutting is all done by
the machines. An attendant only is
necessary to see that the work Is go
ing on as it should be.
From the folding machines the sheets
are taken to hydraulic press. where
they are subjeoted to a pressure of
10000 pounds, and while under this
pressure they are tied up with ropes.
making bundles of uniform size and
thickness. This process takes out of
the paper any cmbossing impaired in
passing through the presses; it also
congresses the paper for convenience
in handling through the subsequent
stages of the work. These bundles are
made with referen nee to the number of
pages as they will appear in the maga-
zine, viz, one bundle will contain
pages from to 1G, another pages from
II to SO, and so on. Next they are
opened and laid upon large tables at
which girls are working, taking sec
tions from each bundle until the full
book is gathered together. This work
is all done by hand, the girls being paid
by the piece. From practice. they come
to work with great rapidity.
PUTTING ON THE COVERS.
After the sheets have been gathered
into a complete book they are stitched
by machines and passed on to the COW
er machine, which forms another i'm
portant, If not the most important. ex-
hi, oil hn nt1 n.1.;