The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-06-17
TYPESETTING
EXTRAORDINARY
c. A. Nichols, Herald Linotype
Operator, Makes Record
on Regular Shift.
ACCOMPLISHES GREAT FEAT
SETS TYPE AT RATE OF 1871
EMS AN HOUR.

Charles A. Nichols. a Herald linotype
man" broke the worlds record for type
setting Friday night. In seven hours and
forty minutes Mr.. Nichols set $500 ems
There are 26 EN- spaces to a line Of nom
parcel type. A column Of The Herald
printed in this type contains 6,400 ems.
More figuring shows that Mr. Nichols set
over thirteen columns of matter. During
. the seven hours and forty minutes con-
sumed in this record breaking bread
earning feat Mr. Nichols lost at least
forty minutes i'm leaving his machine 70
get takes tpleces of copy Tor Settlng)-
filling his metal pot and correcting mis-
IA kes.
Starting all over again and figuring
seven hours as the time actually con-
sumed by the linotype man in setting
$500 ems, it is found he set at the rate
Of u,91 ems per hour BY maintaining
the same speed for eight hours Mr. Mich
OILS would have set S5,I6S ems
Faster Than Record Speed.
The worlds record. made in a type-set-
ting contest in Chicago in 1886. was $4,000
was made under different conditions from
those surrounding Mr. Nichols Friday
evening. The winning contestant sat
steadily at his machine His copy was
brought TO him. As his type came out
1t was taken away, read and corrected.
His metal-pOt was kept full by someone
else Mr.. Nichols had no one to bring
his material. He had no one to bring his
copy. He had no one to put his type onto
galleys. He worked from the hook. or in
words not so meaning to the outsider, he
secured takes Of copy from hook on
which the copy IS placed as it comes to
the mechanical rooms from the editorial
department. There was no special line
of copy furnished. Mr.. Nichols took the
sheets as he needed them. From fu-
neral notice TO a humorous sketch, from
a presidential message to a weather re
pOrt-the copy treated Of the days
events, and various indeed, are each
days events As one take, or piece of
copy was finished. Mr. Nichols left his
linotype machine. went to the copy hook
for more and returned TO his machine.
During that seven hours and forty min
Utes shift he made thiTty-One trips, losing
At least a minute on each trip as he
walked across a large sized room More
precious seconds which grew into minutes
before the shift was finished were lost
in carrying the lines of type to galleyS.
from which proofs were taken and read
for the detection Of bulls. Bulls in
newspaper veTnaCular are not fOur-fOOted
animals, but mistakes. But to allow the
reader some insight of what Mr. Nichols
accomplished more figures are needed
Some Statistics of Feat.
There are p ems in a line of nonpa-
rel type. a line is nearly pa inches
wide Dividing $500 Uhe number of ems
set by Mr.. Nichols by 36. it is seen he set
1924 lines Multiplying by 2lf the product
is 7.I5A the number of inches of running
type set by Mr.. Nichols. Reducing this
number 10 feet i'm dividing by = brings a
quotieut of COS in feet. a distance Of near
y an eighth of mile Imagine line of
type stretched from Main street along
Second South and across State street.
nearly to Second East II took los pounds
Of metal to make this amount of type
4 Herald column set in nOnpaTeil type
contains about 1.5Jo words. Multiplying
by Is. the number of columns Chalked UP
TO Mr.. Nichols credit when he quit work
yesterday morning. the product is 1880
This number Of words would make a
lengthy novel. When 1t IS considered that
this immense amount Of matter was
turned out by one of eight typesetters on
The Herald force some idea NAV be
gained Of the amount Of news matter