Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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Graduation Essays The Daily Newspaper By Theodora Burbank I N the passing of the years during the history of the world man has seen much improvement. The mod- ern age with its rapid progress has brought us wonders that we little dreamed could ever exist. Yet in the hustle and bustle of every day life we hardly ever stop to consider the work behind these great won- ders of ours. Perhaps one of the greatest in- ventions of modern machinery was the linotype. This machine auto- matically produces and assembles, ready for the newpaper pages, type metal bars, each bearing properly a di usted the type characters to print an entire line. It was the in- vention of Ottmar Mergenthaler, a German clockmaker, who came to this country in 1872 and was em- ployed by the United States Gov- ernment as a mechanic in charge of clocks, bells, signal service, etc. He became connected later with an en- gineering firm in Baltimore. While engaged with that company, he be- gan experiments which resulted in the machine bearing his name, Mer- genthaler Linotype. There have been, naturally, many improve- ments in the operating of this ma- chine, but its basic principle has re- mained the same. It easily does the work of six men working bv the old hand method and does it in a more accurate manner, and resulted in completely revolutionizing the pro- duction of newspapers, making pos- sible the production of more pages to a newspaper and cutting down the time of production of a sixteen to twenty-four page paper more than one-half. The next invention which proved of great interest to the newspaper maker was the invention of the webb-perfecting press. This was in- vented by R. M. Hoe of New York in 1866. This caused another revo- lution in the art of producing a newspaper, making possible the production at that time of thirty to fifty thousand per hour of a sixteen to twenty-four page newspaper, wheretofore it had been possible to print only eight nages at the rate of fifteen to eighteen hundred papers per hour. The webb press, the linotype, and the autoplate casting machine were the comple- tion of a triumvirate that made pos- sible the fifty to sixty page news- paper that you pick off the door step just before you sit down to breakfast every morning. The auto-plate caster automat- ically casts plates the size of a newspaper page at the rate of four per minute. They are cast in a half circle to fit on the cylinder of a per- fecting press from a matrix or flong made of blotting paper and tissue paper fastened together with a paste made for this purpose. This matrix or flong, as it is called, is placed over the form of type and rolled down on a moulding press which leaves an impression of the 19

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Dawn By Mary Bakula The world lies hushed in whiteness, Beneath glittering stars and a silver moon ; Trees stand stately, white and bare, Waiting for dawn to come soon. Trees and branches rustle softly; Far in the east faint lights quiver, Waiting to wake the sleeping sun, A restless wind waits by the river. A brave rooster crows in the stillness Waking the meadow larks in the lea ; A soft pink light floods the leaden skies As the sun pokes a sleepy head from the sea. Slowly he climbs up flushing skies. Sending his sunbeams to every nook, Watching the world blink from the brightness And birds singing by the silvery brook. Spring By Helen Saunders The buds from their beds will soon arise, The trees will stretch and open their eyes, And the birds in the meadows will begin to sing, It’s Spring! It’s Spring! Up will shoot flowers from beds in the snow, Come to enchant us, their beauty to show, And the children’s voices will gaily ring, It’s Spring! It’s Spring! Seasons By Sylvia Ferguson An angel spilled God’s paints — An Autumn day, A little child from Paradise — Purity of Winter ' s day, The overture to Life — Our Springtime, The joy of living — A Summer season. 18

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type page on the matrix. It is then dried in an electric oven and placed in the casting box of the auto-plate. When all the modern machinery was placed in operation, much fear was expressed by labor that it would displace many of the work- ers, but the reverse has been true in this case. There has been a sixty to seventy per cent increase in the number employed in the industry owing to the fact that newspapers have increased their size from eight and twelve pages to an average of forty to sixty pages daily, including the Sunday issue. This has required a great many more employees out- side of the setting of type and make- up of the pages, although this end has required a great increase in workers. Since the inventions of these rev- olutionary methods, there has come a great improvement in the produc- tion of books and magazines. Color work has been added by what is known as the offset process, which has greatly increased the value of the publications as advertising me- diums and has created a more skilled class of workers in the tech- nical parts of newspaper and maga- zine printing. The old-time worker has by no means lagged behind, but has kept pace with the modern methods and is looked upon as the real backbone of the industry. It is a very interesting thing to note the great number of profes- sional men who have been news- paper workers. Statesmen, doctors of the various branches of medicine, clergymen, politicians, and prac- tically any profession which you may name has had, and does have today, its quota of newspaper men. A story is first received in a newspaper office by the head of the news desk. To make the situation seem more real, we can use the sink- ing of the “Titanic” in 1912 as a specific example. This story was on the street forty minutes after it was received over the wire. The story is given out to re-write men who write it in its proper form for publication. It is then sent to the Composing Room where it is marked or keyed in the sequence of paragraphs. These men who do this work are called copy cutters. The copy cutters give it to the men who run the linotypes. Here it is set up in type and a proof taken of it. The proof is sent to the Proof Room where it is read and then re- turned to what is called a revise bank. This is a slanting desk on which the necessary corrections in the proof are made. The story is received next by the make-up men who make it up in columns. This department is con- nected with the editorial room, be- cause it is necessary for the head- ings and other such material to be written here. The page is then made on the molding press into a matrix which is dried in an electric oven. In the auto-plate machine the matrix makes four plates per minute in the circular form of .metal. This is the next to the last step, for the story is then locked on the presses and printed in the form of our daily newspaper. A story as human and pathetic as the sinking of the “Titanic” shows the co-operation of the news- paper men, for many had friends on that boat but did not allow their 20