Flypaper

“ Visitors to the Printing Office today may not see counterparts of the postriders who brought mail to Parks’s printing shop and post office, but nearly everything else is there. As in colonial days, the central figure is still the printer, bending over his press and producing in a day’s work what one modern, mechanized press can turn out in a few minutes. ”

“ This copper reproduction of the woodcut is filled in at the back with metal, mounted on wood, and is then ready for the printer, who has his ‘overlays’ all ready, and the business of printing begins.
There is nothing more wonderful in the history of printing than the rapid development of the printing machine and the extraordinary increase of its productive power. The ordinary press, though greatly improved, was found quite inadequate to the demands made upon it; and, the attention of practical men being directed to some more rapid means of production, the steam printing machine was invented. ”

“ The matted pulp, now having sufficient body, passes on between two rolls covered with felt, which deliver the web of damp paper upon an endless belt of moist felt, while the “wire” passes under and back to continue a fresh supply. The paper is as yet too fragile to travel alone, and the web felt carries it between two metal rolls called the first press-rolls. These squeeze out more water, give a greater degree of compactness to the fibers, smooth the upper surface, and finally deliver the web of paper to a second felt apron, which carries it under and to the back of the second press-rolls. ”

“ The paper, too, hand-made, rough-surfaced, and tough, is in equally strong contrast to the shiny hot-pressed machine-made paper, hitherto so much in vogue for the finer kinds of printing, and by which it alone became possible. The two kinds—the two ideals of printing—are as far apart as the poles. Those who like the smooth and thin, will not like the bold and rough; but it looks as if the Kelmscott standard had marked the turn of the tide, and that, judging from the signs of its influence upon printers and publishers generally, the feeling is running strongly in that direction. ”

“ Once the printer or his apprentices had set the type, pulled a proof, “made up” the type into pages with the proper spacing and ornaments, and then locked it into forms by means of furniture and quoins, he placed his form on the press and adjusted it to get the most even impression. Then he was ready to begin the actual process of printing. Whereas printing is commonly done today by automatic presses, fed with paper either mechanically or by hand, it had to be done one sheet at a time in the eighteenth century. ”

“ The new Walter Press does not in the least resemble any existing printing machine, unless it be the calendering machine which furnished its type. At the printing end it looks like a collection of small cylinders or rollers. The first thing to be observed is the continuous roll of paper four miles long, tightly mounted on a reel, which, when the machine is going, flies round with immense rapidity. The web of paper taken up by the first roller is led into a series of small hollow cylinders filled with water and steam, perforated with thousands of minute holes. ”

“ The printing is effected by steam-worked presses. The ink is blue, and its composition known only to a few of the authorities. An inspector goes his rounds during the continuance of the operations, watching every press, every workman, every process. A beautiful machine, distinct from the press, is employed to print the variable numbers on the note; fed with sheets of paper, it will number a thousand of them in succession, changing the digits each time, and scarcely requiring to be touched meanwhile; even the removal of one note and the placing of another are effected by automatic agency. ”

“ There is considerable variety in printing papers, as regards fibre, sizing, and surface. As generally understood, printings are papers of good colour, not too hard-sized, of good surface, even in texture, fairly opaque, showing a clear look-through, free from specks and spots. The fibrous composition will depend largely upon the price. An all-rag paper is a splendid white paper, soft to print upon, pleasant to handle, very durable, and a type of moderate colour printed with a good black ink gives a very rich appearance on such paper. ”

“ The rotary machines, with endless paper, take thirty-five thousand impressions an hour. In the newspaper machines of Marinoni, the great inventor, the paper is unrolled, printed, cut, and folded without leaving the machine, and falls into a place from which it is taken ready for the subscriber. The latest perfection of the printing press is the Walter press and the rotary machine of R. Hoe and Co., of New York, extensively used throughout the world. ”

“ Formerly, the Inking process was performed with two large Balls, filled with wool, and covered with a sort of parchment. The Roller is a great improvement, diffusing the Ink more equally and producing a much greater uniformity of colour (as it is called) in the Printing.
10-* The Newspaper Press affords a remarkable instance of the surprising effect of combined and persevering effort. Few persons, perhaps, among those who are accustomed to receive the Daily Papers, are aware of the vast amount of cost and labour constantly employed in their production. ”

“ Papers which are loose in texture are usually soft-sized, and thus, having comparatively little size to hold the fibres together, will give off fluff or dust, consisting of small fibres, as soon as the paper is subjected to friction, even of the lightest description. Such paper in its passage through the printing machine gradually deposits its fibrous dust upon the printing surface, the rollers take it from there to the ink distributing surface, and the whole of the inking and printing becomes foul. ”

“ Jimmie, then an experienced newspaper man, watched the four sets of folders pouring out thirty-two-page papers at the rate of 75,000 an hour, until he turned away, saying, "Can it be possible that printing will ever be easier? How I wish Benjamin Franklin could see this press! How he would glory in its possibilities! It is perfectly true that the printing press is to literature what the steam engine is to the industries, and what the locomotive is to traffic." ”

“ It is essential that all the water should be dried out of the paper, and the paper is sometimes reeled almost bone-dry, but if the paper is to be super-calendered it is damped before reeling, and left until the paper mellows before calendering. Many papers are cut and packed without much opportunity for maturing, that is, as regards paper, attaining a degree of stability which should be maintained during its manipulation by the printer, and, it is hoped, during the remainder of its career. ”

“ The rapid improvements which have taken place in the printing-press during the last twenty years, afford another instance of saving in the materials consumed, which has been well ascertained by measurement, and is interesting from its connexion with literature. In the old method of inking type, by large hemispherical balls stuffed and covered with leather, the printer, after taking a small portion of ink from the ink-block, was continually rolling the balls in various directions against each other, in order that a thin layer of ink might be uniformly spread over their surface. ”

“ Printers, or others, who accumulate large quantities of waste papers, will find that it pays to keep the various grades in separate receptacles, as a better price may be obtained for it in this way. Furthermore, by means of a baling press, the papers may be set aside in compact bales, which occupy less room and are not so great a fire risk as loose accumulations. The fact that 21.4 per cent of the paper-making fibers, according to United States Census Report, 1909, are derived from waste papers, indicates their importance as raw materials, while their use lessens the drain upon our forests. ”

“ The art of printing has attained to a marvelous degree of progress. Hoe's printing-press, moved by steam, seizes on the blank paper, severs it from the roll in sheets of the right size, prints it on both sides, and folds it in a convenient shape,—all with miraculous rapidity. ”

“ From the foregoing list and descriptions it can be seen that papermakers have a variety of fibres at their command, and it is by selecting, sometimes by blending, fibres of different characteristics, that the manufacture of the large variety of papers is possible. Some of the demands made by the world of paper users are for papers which are very strong or very soft, absorbent, resistant to grease or water, very light, very dense, and the selection of the fibres and their treatment call for special knowledge and skill on the part of the papermaker. ”

“ A negative possessing a very great range of tones cannot be correctly represented on one paper print—two printings are required, one for high-lights and one for shadows, but this difficulty is rarely to be faced in aerial views. The greatest demand for aerial printing papers has been for those of considerable contrast, because of the flat character of the negatives. ”

“ You can make a printing press out of wood but to do a good job you must have a press built of iron and properly machined, that is finished up, for to do good printing a good outfit is needed to begin with.
Small hand inked and self-inking presses are sold in the toy departments of nearly all stores at prices ranging from $1.50 to $5.00 and this will include a font of type. Many of these little presses are made which use type about half the length of regular type and if you get a press of this kind you will never know the real joy of printing. ”

“ Meanwhile, a sufficient quantity of paper has been taken from the public store-house to the wetting-room. There it has been dampened, quire by quire, turned and laid in piles under the crushing pressure of an hydraulic-pump, worked by steam-power. When taken out the paper is ready for the press.
The rollers are brought from the room in which they are cleaned and kept, and set in the press. The ink fountain is filled. Sheet on sheet of spotless paper is placed aloft. The young woman who is to “tend” mounts to her perch. The steam-power is applied, and the printing begins. ”

“ Long-fibre paper has been a common article of manufacture in the United States longer than I can remember. It has been known in the market as bank-note, bond-paper, cartridge-paper, drawing-paper, silk-paper, tissue, manillas, and tissue-paper.
'There is no essential difference in the process and means used to produce collar-paper, that I know of, and the process and means employed to produce other thick, strong, pliable long-fibre papers which I have enumerated. The same machinery answers for one as the other. ”

“ The expense of manufacturing paper in this way is very much greater than by machinery; but the gain in strength, partly owing to the time allowed to the fibres to knit together, and partly to the free expansion and contraction permitted them in drying, still maintains a steady demand for this class of paper.
The paper-machine (fig. 12) consists essentially of an endless mould of fine wire-cloth on which the pulp flows and on which a continuous sheet of paper is formed; the sheet then passes through a series of press rolls and over a number of steam-heated cylinders until it is dry. ”

“ A few moments’ consideration of the changes which the fibers undergo from their condition of isolation as they exist mixed in the vat, to their status as components of a sheet of paper, will help to make clear much that seems obscure about the behavior of a sheet of finished paper, as well as to explain the reason for the different processes executed on the paper-machine.
The fiber is a hollow, collapsed tube, the ends bruised and frayed by the treatment in the beating and refining engines. Absorptive in nature to a marked degree, it swells with the water it takes up and is limp and flaccid. ”

“ In a printing office where small quantities of paper are dealt with, the inconvenience of carrying paper in and out a few reams at a time may not be apparent, but considerable time is wasted and some loss in spoiled sheets results from such a method. Quantities of paper should be dealt with as expeditiously, and with as little handling, as possible. Transporter trucks require, perhaps, more room than is taken by a man or boy lifting reams, but it deals with thirty reams, instead of two at a time, and in up-to-date offices time is counted as valuable as currency. ”

“ Now the chief marvel of a modern combined printing press is its power of being used to print separately a large number of small sized papers or by leading the paper through the press in a slightly different way to print a mammoth paper folded all together and receiving contributions from all six reels at once. In the particular machine in question, which is used to print a comparatively small sized paper, any six of the separate machines can be run separately, if a small paper and a small output only is wanted. ”

“ Nearly eighty tons of paper and twenty-three hundredweight of printing-ink were used in the production of that number. Larger quantities have been printed of some issues, but the production was spread over a longer period of time. 930,000 sheets is the largest quantity ever printed in one week. It will thus be seen what an amount of business this represents to the paper-maker, the ink-maker, the wood-draughtsman, the engravers, the electrotypers, the compositors, printers, machine-men, roller-makers, warehousemen, and the numerous other workers in a newspaper printing-office. ”