Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-03-16
FROM GAS TO GASOLINE
me story Of Sudden Chance in the
journal Office.

MahE people passing the Journal
"hice curing the past two DAYS have
See" i'ystiIied by the appearance of a
io-s"ioh tank placed outside the front
vi inc building, opposite the third story
WINDOWS and securely held in place bv
braces. Connected with the annaar.
ance of this tank is an interesting
story of the inside workings IF :. news
paper plant which may be of SONS. in
terest to the general public. on the
tnird story OF the Journal block is 10
Gated the news composing ROOM and
mere are placed six linotype machines
| whlt II set as much type as % persons
could under the old conditions. Con-
hected with each one of these machines
| Is gas burner to melt and keen hot
the metal from which the slugs are
cast.
Monday afternoon there was a seri-
Gus accident at the gas works and COR
sternation was spread among gas con-
suners throughout the city by a tele-
phone message stating that the reserve
gas tank would supply customers only
ABOUT "A hours more. and that it would
probably be sometime after that before
Il new supply could be made. This
meant that sometime during Tuesday
afternoon there would be no heat mn
DER the metal pots in the Journals
linotype machines. and that unless
some new source of heat was quickly
found the machines could not be ono
rated.
Upon the work of these machines
depends not only the appearance of
the paper each morning, but also
large amount of Legislative work
which is now pressing in increasing
volume. and SO the shortage of gas was
very serious thing to this office The
headquarters of the Mergenthaler Lin
otype Co, in Brooklyn. y. Y. was
promptly communicated with. both by
telegraph and by telephone. and their
promise was secured to ship gasolene
burners for the six machines at
once. Telephone communication at
such distance were not wholly Salts
factory and directions for attaching the
heaters to the machines could not be
heard distinctly. but it was learned
that tank must be supplied here
Accordingly tank was constructed
and placed outside the building and
connected by pipes with each of the
six machines. This work was done
Tuesday. and four machinists and
plumbers were kept busy upon it. On
the $50 train the burners arrived by
express from Brooklyn. n. Y. thanks
10 the Mergenthaler people i'm filling
the order promptly. and having had
good luck in making all the connec-
tons without any delay. Exactly at
the same time that the burners arrived
1T the Journal building the gas supply
gave out. The work of CONNECTING
them with the machines and gettin.
them in operation was completed be-
tween g and o'clock. in spite of the
fact that the plumbers and machinists
bad never had any acquaintance with
4 similar job before.
Before I o'clock the linotype ma
chimes We're III operation again. having
been idle only between three and four
hours, and so it came about that the
journal greeted its readers as usual.
Wednesday morning. and nobody knew
how narrow an escape the office had
had from having to go back to hand
composition and consequently getting
out Il very meagre paper. Under the
old conditions. with hand compost
ton. there were only from $4,000 TO
$1,000 ems i'll the Journal daily while
at the present time. with the linotypes.
between 200. 900 and 300. 600 ems are
used daily. With this auxiliary appa-
ratus installed. the Office will be more
Independent of the gas supply in the
future. and there will be no serious de-
lay when the gas supply is shut off
for d time as occasionally happens. or
when there is DIN accident at the works.
rs happened last Monday afternoon.