Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-16

Half a century!
What marvellous changes have been
wrought in the process of getting out
great daily newspaper within that time!
Typesetting by hand, the old "man-kller'
hand press-these and many other things
that were utilized by the newspapers of
fifty years ago-have been relegated. They
werr time-honored devices. They cid their
work well for the day. but fell by the way
side. victims Of the relentless and unsenti-
mental hand of progress.
The steady growth of population, with the
attendant increased demand for reading,
was a stimulus to the inventive minds of
the country. From time to time improved
machinery has been brought into requisi-
tion, until today 1t would seem that the
acme had been reached. Yet who can tell
what the future may bring forth?
From its inception The Evening Star has
kept abreast of the times. Its management,
ever broad minded, has aimed to adopt the
latest and most improved machinery.
Before the introduction of machine COM
position, which has become general only
during the last decade. all typesetting was
done by hand. A larger number of employees
was necessary, as the work was slower and
more laborious Up to the time that the
first Mergenthaler linotype was placed in
use by newspaper. it was universally con-
ceded that nothing in the way of invention
could ever supplant hand composition. The
compositor and every one else who gave
the question thought were of the firm be-
lief that human hands. directed by the
mind, must for all time to come place on
end the ''leaden messengers of thought"
and that the reading public would ever be
dependent upon the hand compositor
Came as an Innovation.
The linotype came as an innovation. Many
OF the leading publishers of the country
were skeptical to the ACCESSIBILITY or eX-
pedieEcy OF depending on machine for daily
composition. Not few publishers de-
clared that it was impracticabe. But
progress-that had given to the world the
telegraph. the telephone, electric light and
other equally marvellous inventions-cold.
unsentimental progress had declared that
hand composition was obsolete; the world
must recognize il as such.
There were few newspaper publishers in
the country who foresaw the possibilities
Of the Mergenthaler linotype. The manage
ment of The Evening Star among the
first TO install machines in it's composing
room. The first issue of The Evening Star
by machine composition was in June. 1898.
Fourteen linotypes were utilized in the
beginning and later, when it became nee
essary 10 print sixteen to twenty pages
day. because OF the demand for space by
advertisers, the battery of machines was
increased TO twenty. These machines are
in constant daily use and they produce all
the reading matter and much of the plain
reading in the advertisements that appear
In the pages Of The Evening Star.
The Old Method.
The object Of this article is to show In a
concise way the development of compost
ton and printing during the half century
of the existence OF The Evening Star and
10 do this 1t will be necessary-not uninter-
esting perhaps-to describe briefly the old
method of setting type Each compositor
had to himself a stand. on top of which
were two pairs of cases. A pair consisted
OF an upper and lower case. In the upper
case were the capital letters of the type
used for reading matter. Small capitals,
dlphthongs, printing signs and fractions
also had respective representation in the
upper case. The lower case contained the
smaller letters Technically called lower
case" letters in epnsequence). figures. COM
mas and points. spaces to put between the
words. "quads," etc. The cases were real
ly wooden trays divided into boxes.
The lower case was arranged not alpha
betically, but so that the letters most used
would be nearest the compositor's hand
and have the largest compartments, an m
genious arrangement for saving labor. With
his copy before him, and provided with
metal instrument. called q stick the
compositor picked up the necessary letters
to form words and sentences. Each line
was carefully spaced out TO fit accurately
into the stick before proceeding to the next