The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-01-24

hand, the printer sets about half Of
the line with little pieces of meta
that occupy the space that does not
print, what we call the white space
1t takes him about as long to SET
them as if they were type that was
to do the printing. He then sets in
the type, in this case, the dollar sign
the figure /, the period and two
c1phers, puts in the last little pieces
to fill the line full and tight, and he
is done with that line. You thought
he would only have to set in the five
characters that actually print, but
they would not stay in place alone,
so he has to set a line full If he
were setting this Seeger-Bundlie. ad
! he would have to go on setting that
! one line thirty-three times, and each
would be just as tedious as the first,
and in the average well-equipped
shop he would run out of dollar
signs, figure ones and ciphers when
he got about One-third enough lines
set He would either have to give it
up and not set it as Mr.. Seeger
wanted it, or he would have to set
the rest of the lines in other sizes,
and 1t would look so bad that Mr..
Seeger and his salespeople would
feel Inundated when they saw it.
When we bought our typograph four
years ago we bought a machine that
enabled the printer to set one line of
type mOlds (mats is the technical
name) and he places the line of mats
in the machine and snaps on the
power, shOves the repeating lever
into place and the machine goes on
holding slugs of the same line of
type until he comes back and shuts
1t of. If it happens to cast too
many, he just dumps the surplus
lines back into the crucible and in
stantly they melt and the metal is
ready to be nodded into some other
line. BY setting one line and press
ing two buttons he made thirty-three
lines Of new type, and all exactly
alike, fresh new letters as clean as a
jewel. That is what l meant when
spoke of $500 per cent increased eff
ficiency on part of the work.
Now turn to the Brown-Hart ad on
page four and note that one line,
January Clearance Price" appears
in ten places just alike, all in italics.
What condition do you think your
nervous system would be in If you
had to pick those tiny letters out of
fourteen different little cubby holes
in type case, and then pick out and
wedge In enough shorter pieces of
metal to fill the line perfectly solid
and yet have the spacing perfect SO
the words would be in the right po-
sition in the line. 1t is a nerve
racking task, and it is no wonder
that printers drank when they could
get it. With the modern machine,
the linotype, the typograph, the in
tertype or the linograph, the operator |
sets one line of mats and |
shoves the repeating lever and let's
1t cast as many duplicates as he |
in this instance, and they
are all perfect. In the same ad the |
same words appear In o number of
places set in another style of type to |
save monotony and for artistic ef-
feet The line, Discounted rs per
cent appears a number of times,
and that was made as already de-
scribed.
Unless you are a very thoughtful
reader you have not yet realized
more than fraction Of the advan-
tage to the printer and to his GUS
toner, by having this done by the
machine. II it were set by hand type
every letter in all those lines would
have to be washed with I've to get
he ink Ut is about like tar OF of
It after it has done the printing, and
hen each one would have to be put
pack into the Identical cubby-hole 1t
vas picked out Of. When we have
lsed the machine-made type we just
lump 1t into large crucible, melt it,
kim on the dross and-it is ready for
lse again.
But even now have told you only
Continued on page four