The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-06-17
alone published every morning in The
Herald.
A Previous Fast Performance.


A Previous Fast Performance.
While on the Denver News in 1896 Mr.
Nichols set 1880 ems. This feat won him
first place in a contest held by other
members Of the News typers. The next
highest man to Mr. Nichols fell 1890 ems
below the latter's measure. These records,
made during regular working hours dem
0nstrate that Mr- Nichols speed IS not
Slackening as the years roll by Despite
the terrific speed he maintains in his
manipulation Of the linotype keyboard
MS copy IS unusually clean or, in ev-
ery-day English. free from bulls While
at work Mr.. Nichols seems TO have no
difficulty in turning out line after line
Of type with amazing rapidity. Aside
from the constant tick-tick of the drop
ping letters as they fall into line for
moulding. there are no signs to announce
that world beating time is being made BY
the operator At times the matrices seem
to flow in a flood of pr into the as
sembling box of the machine, so rapidly
are the keys manipulated, but the proof
shows them properly arranged.
Touched Key $4,000 Times.
The average number of spaces and let
tiers in line of type is placed by old
printers at 80. Thus it will be seen it
takes forty touches to turn out a line of
type. In setting 1924 lines of type Mr..
Nichols touched the various keys on his
machine 12S,96O times. Although working
%
do not become sore or stiff
Another interesting feature secured by
fguring-and figures do not lie-iS the re-
suit obtained by multiplying 1924 the
number of lines set by ;. the number of
times the letter "e'' will appear on an
average in each line. The product thus
obtained is 1920, the number Of ''e's''
used in the matter set by Mr. Nichols
In the early '90s, when type-settng was
performed by hand, the setting being done
from a wooden case 1900 ems in eight
hours was above the average figure for
one man to reach. Mr.. Nichols. then,
accomplished what ten good cOmpOSitOrs
could do working at the case. His record,
while phenomenal. is not considered the
limit by himself. He set. in the past sew
en- days. 4I4.000 ems As 1000 lines for
the individual Mr. Nichols performed
three mems work Friday evening in set
ting over 5000 lines
Printers in Salt Lake who have spent
years at their trade say Mr.. Nichols is
the most expert typesetter in the world.
and assert their willingness to lay wag-
erS that in a demonstration of speed he
can set 100000 ems in eight hours
Peculiarities of Method.
Mr. Nichols put in his first shift Of
printing on The Herald fifteen years ago
He studied drawing Of linotype key
board during the day and when through
his first nights work he had set y. COO
ems a popularity of Mr. Nichols man
ipulation Of the keyboard lies in his in
ability to use the index finger of his right
hand All other fingers come in for use
in his wonderful runs but the index fin
ger of the right hand remains straight
and idle Not knowing himself. how to
explain this curious feature. Mr.. Nichols
attributes it simply to habit. His left
hand remains stationary the right NOV
uTeS. thus giving his work the appear
anCe Of great ease