The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-03
HERALD MAN IS
WORLD BEATER
c. A. Nichols Breaks Linotype
Record on Regular Eight
Hour Shift Sunday Night.
SETS 10000 EMS N0NP.
FORMER RECORD, $4,000 EMS,
HAS HELD GOOD SINCE 1895.

/ All type-setting records were broken
Sunday night by c.. A. Nichols. "a Her
aid linotype man, who set 1O6, 800 ems
of nonpareil type in eight hours. The
former worlds record was $4,000 ems
nonpareii set by George A. Green of
Boston in Chicago in 1896 This record
was beaten by Mr. Nichols by lO, 300
ems.
The trial for new record COM
menced a Z o'clock Sunday evening.
when Mr.. Nichols went on his regular
shift. When he stopped at II o'clock
! for lunch he haG set 81, 300 ems. After
! spending thirty minutes for lunch he
/ returned TO mis- machine. Al 3:42 o'clock
Monday morning the last line of type
was cast aE2 worlds record i'm limo
| type composition had been established.
Mr.. Nicfeis had eight minutes of his
eight hours left to his credit when he
quit. The record made by Green, d
/ Boston Advertiser man, had stood good
| since 1896, but the Herald mans record
made 1t look like small potatoes i'm a,
big hill. Green set 1900 ems agate an
hour for seven hours in Boston. Had
he worked eight hours Green would
have set 100000 ems. Agate type is
smaller than nOnpareil and can be set
faster.
Besides setting this type The Her
AIDS wOrld-b eater corrected his PROOF
This work did not consume much time
as the matter was unusually free from
typographical errors, despite the terrific
speed.
There are 26 EN- spaces to a line and
6,4G0 ems for q Herald column Figur-
ing shows that the matter set measures
over $40 inches. This matter would fill
two pages of The Herald with three col
umns left for a third page. Figuring
heads. sub heads and slugs for the mat
ter, it will fill nearly three pages of The
Herald.
Work of Ten Men by Hand.
Mr.. Nichols feat will be a thing of his
tory in Typographical spheres. To break
by 1890 ems a record which has stood for
years cannot fail TO impress even the man
whose ignorance Of modern typesetting
does not permit him to realize fully the
magnitude Of the work done Those who
have watched the country printer setting
type by hard in what appears to be a
terrific speed may gain some mixing Of
this when ii is explained Mr.. Nichols set
as much matter as ten experts can set
by hand in eight hours. During the eight
hours of actual work The Herald man
st an average of 13.3S7 ems per hour. The
capacity of the linotype machine in finest
working order is 400 ems per hour. The
average first-class printer sets about 1850
ems in an hour, or $1,000 ems in the reg
ular shift of eight hours. In the contract
between the Typographical union and the
newspaper companies it is agreed that
$4,000 ems shall constitute fair day
work of eight hours.
Several weeks ago Mr.. Nichols set 1880
ems in seven hours with no trouble. This
feat too, was great because he worked
from the hook going to a hook for copy.
filled his metal pot, and set everything
and anything sent to the mechanical de-
paTtment from the editorial rooms. Con-
fident that he could lower the worlds
record Mr.. Nichols announced his inten-
tiOn of doing so.
William Balm. member of The Herald's
business force, Was put to work a week
ago traDscriblng special copy for the trial
Sunday matter was copied by typewriter
to give copy which could be read with
ease. Mr. Balm copied %. 100 words. Other
copy furnished was ordinary print, COM
paratiVely difficult TO set rapidly.
THAT will hold him week" said he,
when he had finished.
Mr. Nichols chose Sunday night for the
trial because a bigger and steadier volt
age is furnished by the electric power
companies Sunday night than on any
other night during the week Stores are
not open, thus furnishing power used
ordinarily about town for lighting pur-
poses.
Done in Regular Way.
There was no hurrah made during the
trial. The operator was not led forth
amid the cheering of multitudes and play
ing of bands. At O'Clock Mr.. Nichols
sat down at his machine and a few sec
Onds later the steady tick-tick of falling
matrices announced that the race was
on. Burt L. White machinist. and Ed
win A. JOhansOn, better known
"CoTkey, helper on the Herald's me-
chanical force, were on hand to per-
form their parts in the programme. Mr..
White kept the machine in running order.
'COrkey' was there TO take away the
type when the receiver was full and to
supply fresh metal for the metal pot.
Other machines were rafting and buzz
Zing on all sides of Mr.. Nichols, but his
mind was intent upon his own work. His
fingers flew over the keyboard and as
each key was pressed, matrix dropped
through its proper channel into position
in the assembling box. When the assem-
bling box. holding a line of matrices, was
full the operator lifted lever throwing
the line into the mould. When the lever
was released the assembler box returned
to receive another line of matrices, while
the machine automatically cast a brand
new line of type and elected ii into the
receiver or stick.
Too Fast for Machine.
This performance was repeated thou
sands of times during the eight hours
setting Line after line of type dropped
into place Column after column was car
ried away to galleys.
The ordinary printer finds his machine
fast enough, but Mr.. Nichols had a collar
placed on the motor or driving pulley to
increase the speed of the machine A pc
culiar and unusual indication of the speed
attained occurred several times during
the shift. When a cast has been made
the matrices are taken automatically to
the top of the machine where they are