Evening star., 1934-05-13


| tional recovery The Star. at a cost
in excess of $3.50 900, has completed
installation of a battery of the most
modern type new printing presses.
capable of transforming the news of
| the world into print with a speed and
an efficiency unexcelled in the history
of newspaper production.
1t is far cry from the crude, hand
operated press which. using hand-set
| type, printed the first copies of The
Evening Star 80 years ago. 10 the
fast, electrically driven. completely
automatic group of 12 printing units
on which today's edition of The Star
was produced.
In 1852. when The Star was born,
it appears from a study of old records
that the printing was done on small,
hand-powered platen presses, which
printed directly from manually set
type. The papers were cut with
knife and folded by hand.
Today the complete new equipment,
known as a Scott extra -high-speed.
straight unit" triple octuple press.
| achieves the magic of printing, fold
ing, cutting and counting at the rated
capacity of 10000 32-page Stars per
hour-60,000 per press-all by press
ing a button At the present time
each press runs at a speed of between
$4,000 and $4,000 papers per hour
which means more than $50 papers
per minute, or about II every second.
Contribution to Recovery.
Decision of The Star Co. to pro-
ceed with the installation at this time
was prompted by desire to con-
tribute as much as possible to the
program of industrial recovery, in
line with the Presidents plan for
keeping factory wheels turning and
putting more men to work.
Award of the press contract to
Walter Scott & Co. of Plainfield,
N. j., came at a time when that
manufacturer was employing only a
few machinists. The Star contract,
supplemented by several other orders
shortly thereafter, enabled the COM
pany to give work to about 400 men
on triple-shift basis for almost
year, the factory operating "a hours
day, five days week. Actual in
stallation of the units provided jobs
in Washington for many additional
men-from laborerS to mechanics and
electricians.
Some of the things done by the
new presses are little short of un-
canny The rambling assemblage of
gears and rollers and motors appears
to the stranger to be possessed Of
almost human intelligence-a monster
! automaton marking the latest stage
of evolution Of that chronicler OF
news, the printer.
Devours Tons of Paper.
The huge machine of polished steel
and FURNISHED brass-so ponderous
that new foundations had to be built
| to support it-devours tons of paper
and ink and disgorges them in the
form of completed newspapers
The press feeds itself just the right
! amount of paper at just the right
| speed to prevent blurring of the
printed matter or tearing OF the
paper. Once adjusted. it consumes
exactly the correct quantity of ink
and spreads it out over the whirling
plates so smoothly that the printed
page is neither glutted with ink nor
starved to the point of faintness. 1t
folds the web of printed paper longi-
tudinally, cuts off the paper into
page lengths, folds each page length
! across the middle and delivers a
constant stream of folded papers to
the circulation department overhead
accurately counted in lots of rs or so.
Replacement of The Stars press
equipment was accomplished without
| interfering in any way with the
daily publication of the newspaper.
| Working quickly and efficiently "be-
tween editions the old presses were
| dismantled and removed. foundations
| built and the massive units of the
| new presses installed with little stir
and no serious interruption of usual
routine in the busy press room In
The new presses were purchased
| in order that The Star might be
printed as speedily and perfectly as
| possible The best of materials is
used, to insure the ultimate in good
| printing. A constant watch is made
/ of the quality, color and surface OF
the newsprint The ink is analyzed
| frequently and it is treated with 2
per cent of blue toner to intensity
the black The tons of metal used
daily in the composing room and in
the stereotype department are an
alyzed frequently to insure mainte-
nance of the proper percentages of tin,
antimony and lead. The iron frames
in which the page Of type is locked.
known in the industry as "chases, "
we're renewed at the time the new
presses were placed in operation.
New Mat Machine.
A new machine was purchased for
| driving the mats under vacuum. A
new shaving machine that will shave
metal to a tolerance of .0005 of an
inch was installed Other new equip
ment includes a gas immersion fired
metal pot with pump and water
cooled casting box. for casting the
| fiat plates In short, nothing has
been spared in the way of facilities
to make The Star more legible and
attractive.
| Each of the new press units con-
sists of two printing couples" and
each of the latter includes a cylin-
der that carries the curved plates,
another cylinder carrying the "blan-
ket"-against which the stereotype