Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-05-27
The Old and The New
Some Thourhts by aMac. !"

THE BEE has a new BATTERY of linotypes. 1t
L has said goodbye to fifteen machines that are
veterans OF their kind They were the first to
operate in Omaha, and among the first to be
installed west OF Chicago. Since February 1874
those machines have produced the type from
which the Bee has been printed running sixteen
hours day six days week, and eight hours on
the seventh, double shift continually, making
fortyfour full years II rated on the single SHIFT
basis.
What agency aside from the files Of news
paper, can give the history recorded in that
time?
Out of the iron threats Of those machines
have poured the living lines that have told the
story OF the daily life of the world in all its
mutifarious ramificatons, sometimes with me-
TEDIOUS detail, again dismissing great tragedy
with few words The progress OF mankind Tor
nearly generation Of wonderful advance has
been set down in impershabe form through the
means Of those old machines.
First of all, they marked an epoch in the
making OF newspapers, revolution in the print
ing industry. From the day that Johannes
GeinsAeisch cast his first movable type, and
earned the right to have his patronymic altered
70 the more euphonious II less descriptive Gut
tenberg the art Of the typefounder had striyen
10 keep pace with the needs OF printing. THE
Art Preseryatve OF All Arts" made never sat-
isfied demand for new faces new combinations
for grace and beauty as we'll as for utility, and
this demand was responded to most nobly by
the cutter Of dies and the caster OF types. And
all the time someone was dreaming of day
when the slow and tedious process OF assembling
letter by letter and character by character the
words that made the lines, and the lines that
made the page, would be supplanted BY a
method more in keeping with the utility OF the
art and without destroying its nobility. In the
brain OF Ottmar Mergenthaler the idea OF the
linotype was born, and out Of it came the ma
chine that wrought so great change in print
ing.
So The Bee, then as always keeping abreast
OF the times adopted the Mergenthaler machine
as soon as il had reached a stage where it was
dependable for its purposes. When the iirst
battery Of typesetting machines was set up IN
Omaha constant stream Of visitors passed in
and out Of The Bee composing room, and some
one was always busy explaining the intricate
mechanism OF the new mechanical wonder. The
printers, startled at first by the sudden doom OF
the "hand-set type, quickly adapted themselves
10 the new conditions Every man regularly
employed in The Bee composing room was given
an opportunity to learn to work under the new
conditions, and while it was impossible that all
could be retained in their steady employment
all were permitted 10 stay until secure OF en-
ployment elsewhere. Not all cared to learn the
new way OF setting type, but most OF them did
and nearly all Of those living are actively
engaged at the trade in one department or an
other, while not few OF the present composing
room force OF The Bee were with the paper when
the first machines were set up.
Not only did time take its toll out Of those
steadily driven machines, but the Merganthaler
company has steadily been devising and per-
fecting improvements, until the machines OF to-
day are quite different things from those OF
quarter OF century ago II the first machines
were animated, those of today are inspired. New
type faces have been cut, new devices introduced,
and what was looked upon as impossible at the
beginning is now matter OF everyday opera
ton.
II was not without some touch Of sorrow
that the old "Mergs" we're hoisted out on their
way to the scrap-heap, for they had done their
work WELL but their day is over. New, ma
chimes take their places, and The Bee, bright
with new type, a new style of letter and conse-
quenty improved typography, easier to read and
more welcome to the eye, comes to you today
the product OF the latest and best OF typesettng
machines, earnestly striving to retain the staunch
support OF all its old friends, and hoping to win
many new ones.