Iowa
Old Press
The Centerville Citizen
Centerville, Appanoose County, Iowa
Saturday, June 29, 1872
THE NEWSPAPER.—But few of our readers have
any idea of the labor required to present them each week with the
Citizen. Our columns are 26 inches in length and we give
an average of fourteen columns or 364 inches, nearly 32 feet or
two rods of reading matter each week, equivalent to an ordinary
book of 60 pages. In a year or 52 weeks this will amount 1,664
feet or nearly one-third of a mile, equivalent to 12 240 paged
volumes, at ordinary retail worth $2.00.— All this we give
for $1.50.
Every column of a newspaper contains from seven to twenty
thousand distinct pieces of metal according to the size of the
paper and type. The type in which this article is set is called
Long Primer, and there are about eight thousand separate pieces
in this column. Is it any wonder that errors occasionally appear
in a newspaper? In the large offices professional proof readers
are kept whose practiced eyes pass twice over each line, yet
mistakes notwithstanding all this are of frequent occurrence.
A compositor or type setter will set about 8,000 ems-a square of
any type—or about 24,000 letters and spaces in a day. The
distance traveled by the hand will average two feet for each
letter or 48,000 feet or nine miles a day. In the course of a
year of 300 working days the arm will travel about 8,000 miles.
The proportions of which the different letters are cast to a font
of type, and in which they occur in print are as follows: Letter
e, 1,500; t, 608; a, 850; o, s, i, 800; h, 640; r, 620; d, 440;
l, 400; u, 340; c, m, 300; f, 250; w, y, 200; g, p, 170; b, 160;
v, 120; k, 80; q, 53; j, x, 40; z, 20. Besides there are the
combined letters, fl, 50; ff, 40; fi, 20; ffi, 15; ffl, 10; ae,
10; oe, 5. The fi, ff and fl are cast together, as the single
letters i , f and l will not set close to the f without breaking
off the dot or curve at the top. The cases in which the font of
type is distributed contain exactly 150 boxes or apartments, 52
in the lower and 98 in the upper. The proportion for capitals and
small capitals differs from the small letters. In those I takes
the first place then T, then A and E, &c.
There are fourteen sizes of type: Diamond, Pearl, Agate,
Nonpareil, Minion, Brevier, Bourgeois, Long Primer, Small Pica,
Pica, English, Great Primer, Paragon and Canon. These are
increased to larger sizes by doubling—two line, three line,
four line and so on. The smallest type we have is Nonpareil, the
fourth size.
The various styles of type have distinctive titles, and we give a
few of those in common use: Antique, Arcadian, Boldface, Celtic,
Clarendon, Title, Doric, Egyptian, Gothic, Grotesque, Ionic,
Lightface, Madisonian, Medieval, Old Style, Tuscan, Text,
Teutonic, Runic, Saxon, Script, Venetian, &c. These styles
are varied by being condensed, extended or ornamented. Our
readers will have an idea of the immensity of the business when
we state that the type founders of the United States make from
50,000 to 60,000 kinds of type. The cost of type varies from
$1.80 a pound for Diamond to 48 cents for Canon.
In setting type the compositors use a small iron frame known as a
"stick" which holds from 15 to 30 lines according to
the size of type. After the "stick" is full the
"matter" is placed or "emptied" on a
"galley," and when full a "proof" is taken
and the proof reader proceeds to read for the purpose of
detecting errors, and if any be found the "proof" is
returned to the compositor for correction. After a sufficient
quantity of type is up it is made up into columns on an
"imposing stone," locked up in a "chase," by
the aid of "quoins," and the "forms" are then
ready for the press.
In preparing paper it is necessary, in order to get "good
print," to wet or dampen it. This is done by laying an old
paper or papers on a "pressing board," and then
sprinkle with water. Then a quire of paper "doubled
over," is laid down, then more water and so on until the
necessary number is "wet down." In a few hours the
quires are "turned" or opened out.—Each quire is
divided in the middle and the top turned so as to "break the
back," as the printers say—that is take out the crease
in the middle. It takes about three gallons of water to "wet
down" the Citizen's edition of 53 quires.
When the "forms" for the outside—first and fourth
pages—are ready, the first sheet is run through the press
and printed and so with each one until the entire issue is
"worked off." The pile is then laid away until the
inside forms—second and third pages are ready and the same
process—dampening and running through the press—is
repeated and the newspaper is made. The papers are then folded
into proper sizes for mailing, the names of subscribers are
placed upon the margin, then wrapped into packages for the
different postoffices, then taken to the postoffice in
Centerville where Uncle Sam's agent sends them to their
destination.
This imperfect description will serve to give readers a faint
idea of the work it takes to perform the mechanical—not to
speak of the mental—duties required in a newspaper office.
[transcribed by P.E., January 2007]