The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-01-31

900 pounds of metal and cost an
enormous amount for express, but
still it could be done that way. Then
they went to casting thin plate and
mailing 1t ON q wood block to save
metal and make 1t lighter for ex-
pressing. Sometimes the wood
blocks were too thick or to thin or
shrunk In transit and the average
country newspaper office did not
possess the machines or tools for tx
ing the defect Sometimes the plate
would fly on while the press was
operating, and spoil few pieces OF
type or perhaps $50 worth. We are
now in the period of transition from
the Chicago-made cuts to the home
made cuts. The way it Is done Is to
prepare one perfect form in Chicago,
the way 1t should print, and then
lay q sheet of very fine tissue paper
over 1t and take fine brush and
beat the dampened paper down into
all the spaces between the letters,
and into all the fine lines on the cut.
even tho they are inner than can be
seen by the naked eye. Then an
other sheet of the very fine damp
ened paper is spread over the first
one and 1t Is beaten down solid.
Then the process goes on rapidly un-
til the tissue paper is perhaps twenty
or thirty sheets deep, l am little
hazy on this part of the process, and
then some felt blankets are spread
over the paper and 1t Is placed under
tremendous pressure and baked dry.
When the shell of paper is lifted on
of the type form 1t is called a
matrix (mat.) The composition of
the tissue paper is such that it is
not easily affected by fire, and If you
examined the mat you would say 1t
was asbestos or part asbestos, but 1t
is not. 1t is very light, and can be
placed between two pieces of straw
board and shipped by mail for
fraction of what it would cost to
send the old metal block or the plate
nailed to the wood block. If the
country newspaper has an outfit for
casting plates from the mat, and
getting them perfect so they print
right, and if it has milling ma
chine for saving the edges and drill
ing out the little valleys so the cut
will not smut" while printing, then
that newspaper should get its name
into the national newspaper director
les and be indicated as one that "can
handle mats" Then the advertising
agencies will give it trial and see
if it can If it cannot do it salts
factorily, as most of them cannot in
the first years of their efforts, the
paper gets blacklisted until such time
as it can redeem it's name, and many
are the publishers who sweat
over their moulding machines and
routing machines" trying to get
back into the coveted place in the
national directories.
II you are an elderly person you |
may remember how the notorious !
lightning rod peddlers feeced the |
people of all the great prairie states |
to the tune of millions of dollars. 1T |
you are not so old you may recall |
how all the western gravelly regions
were fieeced about fifteen years ago
by men selling cement-blOck ma
it being their contention that
everybody ought to build house of
blocks, using the native ma
terials right out of the excavations
for the cellar, ETC., ETC., and save
fortunes without end. People who
bought the machines were noisy
about it for a brief period, but they
soon subsidized The machines have
long been rusting on the dump.
Now that is the way it has been
for some twenty years with ambi-
.ious editors in this valley; they
bought wonderful labor-saving out
its for increasing their volume of
business, and we may have been
loisy about 1t for brief period, but
We all subsibed, some of us many
lines before we got done being
ieeced and got something that would
10 the work well enough to keep us
If of the black list We got our
holding outfit to working soon after
he war and then got the milling
machinery to give it the finish about T
our years ago. If you look us up 9
n the national directories you will 7
ind that we are there with the
star that we laid claim to and lost,
nd then thru long sweating we won ;.
gain and still hold.
The plate used to print the Ford :.
d on the front page of this issue il j
hipped from Chicago to BlackfOOt I
" express would cost about $3.50
or metal and $1.75 express, but the
lat for us to cast it from, comes by
lail for the few cents. The mats I.
re made cheaply in thousand-lots n
nd are thrown away after the cut is +,
asst.
The plate to print the new Essex p
d on page two would cost about c.
2.25 for metal and $3.50 for ex- fl
ress; the plate to print the Tuxedo t.
d on page five would cost about 5,
2.45 for metal and $2.65 for ex-
ress, while the mats come by mail n
)r a few cents. The thinner plates o
,stened to wood bases cost less for G
fetal and less for express and give T
ne printers more accidents and N
-ouble. The ability to do stereotyp- tt
II, that is, making these cuts, opens E
he door of national advertising to G
le country newspaper, and inability R
, do it, in this period, nearly closes p
le door. A discouraging feature
bout this service is that 1t costs S
early $1,000 and a great deal OF
,udy and practice to get stereotyp- B
lg outfit into successful operation, p