The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1903-08-14
way, begins the task of making up into

work of illustration commences. Sometimes
artist and writer have worked together.
Oftener the editors turn over to the art de-
partment poem, story, or article of timely
interest. Experienced men decide what ar
list is best fitted for the demands of that
special case, and to him the copy is sent.
He makes the drawing on heavy cardboard,
many times larger than it will appear in the
magazine. The conversion of this drawing
into the half-tone plate of to-day is a Won
derful process, too long to describe here;
but the plates are now ready to take their
place.
No little skill and knowledge are 'neces-
sary to fit together, so as to satisfy every
demand, heads and illustrations and reading
matter often the working out of the prob
lem is as complicated as a game of chess.
Once accomplished, other proofs, page
proofs, are taken, type and cuts being
locked into a frame called a chase. These
proofs go again to the editors for examina-
ton and approval-or d%isapproval.
After all this work, the printing is not
done directly from the types. The best of
types could not be put on the big presses
and stand the strain and wear of running off
the thousands Of copies which are printed
every month. So each page of type and
cuts, each ''form," is electrotyped. The
electrotyping room is the most interesting
in the plant-and the dirtiest. The form
is first washed, then dhsted over with fine
black lead. Over this is laid a heavy
sheet of wax, not white soft beeswax, but a
black, tough, mineral wax. A heavy weight
comes down to make the mold, and produces
on the wax sheet a perfect impression of
the form-every letter and every line of type
and Illustration.
A strip of metal is fastened to the wax
sheet, and off it goes to be hung in a bath,
a vat of copper solution through which runs
a powerful electric current. The form is
then held in a rack, for resource in case of
accidents. The electric current, generated by
= busy little dynamo, carries the i..asH:.ss;zaa!
particles of copper in the solution through
the metal strip, which is connected with a
positive pole, down on the wax sheet. Lift
it after a few hours, and there is a coat Of
shining copper, reproducing beautifully
every detail of type and cut. When the
wax sheet has been melted off by hot water,
there is left a shining she'll of copper, thin
as writing paper. This shell, of course, is
not strong enough TO stand the thousands Of
impressions wanted; but after it has been
! strengthened by a backing of molten lead
poured over it by carerul worxmen, alters
has been cut and trimmed and otherwise
improved, it comes out a heavy, durable,
beautiful plate, perhaps a fifth Of an inch
thick. The cost of making this electrotype
is less than a dollar; and it can be handled
and packed and shipped at pleasure, and
will give a hundred thousand impressions
or more, the last as clear and good as the
FIRST, and then be ready for more work, .
= When the time comes for printing, down.
stairs to the press-rooms go these plates,
at least two hundred and fifty of them for
every issue of The Century. On some
presses they are fastened flat; on others
they are curved 10 fit big cylinders. Thirty
two, sixty-four sometimes, of these cleo
trotypes are fixed in place; the ink is tested
and adjusted to feed the rollers just right;
the paper is placed in position, either on
immense rolls for the unillustrated pages,
or piles of great sheets of coated paper
where there are fine half-tones to be printed.
In at one end of the magic presses goes the
paper. Out from the other end drop the
magazine pages, and a boy gathers them up
and carries them off to the bindery, up, up
again. The most of the work done now9
Yes and no. AT this stage The Century
Magazine is in the form of twenty-five or
more different sections of folded paper,
scattered in as many boxes. The next pro-
cess is to get them together in regular or
der. The magnitude of this task will be
better understood when it is known that the
sum total of these twenty-five or more pieces
of folded paper in an ordinary edition of the
magazine is never less than FIVE million, and
in a large edition is often six million pieces.
To put one piece out of its order is to spoil a
copy-perhaps two copies. 1t is Necessary
that the work be done with exactness, but
equally important that it be done with speed.
, A rotating table carries the sections rap
idly and easily to girls who gather and place
them deity together in the proper order.
Stitching-machines fasten the pages securely
together; and5tf,eil a clever machine picks
up each copy, covers its back with melted
glue, presses on the cover, and there is fhe
finished product. .
! * More to see? Well, even this bird's.eye
view has taken the better part of the visi-
tors day. Let him spend twenty years in
The Century Co.'S offices, and in the great
building where its printing and binding are
done, trying to fit harmoniously, helpfully
into the mechanism which makes possible
the smooth running Of all this complicated
business; and the intelligently directed