The printing of a few thousand copies of one of the great American
magazines would not be a difficult feat for any large first-class
printing plant. The putting of the pages into type and running them
through the modern job presses could easily be accomplished. But when,
instead of a few thousand copies, millions of copies of the magazine are
printed, and these millions are produced unfailingly, week after week,
month after month, in a quality of printing rivaling the production of
but a few thousand copies, then, indeed, is it marvelous how results are
attained.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE SCORES OF PRESSES ON WHICH THE INSIDE PAGES OF
“THE SATURDAY EVENING POST” ARE PRINTED]
Obviously, one of the first necessities towards such quantity production
is extra speed. This is secured to a certain degree by feeding the paper
into the presses from rolls instead of sheet by sheet. But as the
quality of the print must be retained, there is a limit in this speeding
beyond which it is not safe to go. Some other method of increasing the
production without lowering the quality of the printed sheet must be
resorted to--and this is duplication. By the process of electrotyping,
plates of metal duplicating exactly the printing surface of the type and
engravings in the original page, can be made. By providing as many
presses as may be needed, and by supplying each press with duplicates,
or electrotype plates as they are called, the problem of vast quantity
requirements has been solved, so far as the actual printing is
concerned.
But there are other factors to be considered. For example, the printed
sheets, as they come from the press, must be folded to the size of the
magazine. This is done in two ways. Machines which take the sheets, one
by one, from the completed pile, and fold them to the required size, are
used on some publications, while on others a folding machine and a
binding attachment are included as integral parts of the press itself.
The paper, as it comes from the printing section of the press, is
mechanically folded, cut apart, the previously-printed cover sheet
wrapped around it, and the whole stapled together with wire stitches.
Thus the white paper, which enters the press from the roll in one long
ribbon, is delivered at the other end of the press printed, folded and
bound up into complete magazines at the rate of sixty each minute.
Issues of a magazine of thirty-two, forty-eight, or even more pages, are
produced in this manner.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE SEVERAL BATTERIES OF PRESSES NECESSARY TO
PRINT “THE LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL”]
Many magazines, however, have more pages than this. Then it is necessary
to print on separate presses the various sections, or signatures as they
are called, which, when combined, will make up a complete magazine. If
only a few thousand were printed, these signatures could be collected
together by hand, and then fed into the wire-stitching machine, also by
hand. This method of collecting the sections and binding them together
was the one used until editions became so large that mechanical methods
became necessary.
Now, however, the various sections which go to make up the magazine are
piled in certain troughs of a binding machine, which, with seeming human
intelligence, clasps one copy of each section in turn, and combining
them with a copy of the cover sheet, conducts them all, properly
collated, into the wire-stitching device, from which they are ejected
into orderly piles. Some magazines are bound together in a different
manner, however, and are not stitched with wire, but have the inside
pages and the cover glued together, and an ingenious binding machine has
been perfected which does this automatically.
[Illustration: A GROUP OF FOLDING MACHINES WHICH AUTOMATICALLY GRASP THE
FLAT SHEET AND FOLD IT UP TO THE SIZE OF THE MAGAZINE]
Another marvel of the periodical of our day is the printing of some of
the pages in the full colors of the original paintings. To get this
result, it is necessary to print the sheet in four colors and to have
each printing in exactly the correct spot on the sheet (a variation of
only a hundredth of an inch being detrimental). The process would
normally be quite slow--too slow, in fact, for the tremendous quantities
necessary for the large editions of the modern magazine. Both of these
objections have been overcome, however, by arranging four small
cylinders, each printing its designated color--yellow, red, blue or
black--so that as the sheet of paper travels around a larger cylinder it
is brought into contact with the four printing cylinders in rapid
succession.
Many magazines print two colors for covers and inside pages, instead of
full four-color printings. Presses of a nature somewhat similar to those
explained above are used.
So much for the principal mechanical problems and their solutions, in
producing millions of magazines of a high quality each week. But there
must be some force that keeps this maze of machinery constantly at work,
so that all the parts properly co-ordinate. A slip-up at one spot might
cause such a delay as would result if, for instance, hundreds of
thousands of the inside pages were printed and ready for binding, but
lacked the printed covers. To prevent any such calamity in the work
rooms, there is usually prepared a daily schedule which plots out what
operation, on each issue of the magazine, is to be completed that day;
and if by chance any operation is not up to the schedule, immediate
steps are taken to speed up the work until the production has been
brought back to where it should be.
And this schedule reaches out into the shipping and mailing departments,
so arranging it that the first copies off the press are speeded to the
far sections of the country. In this way all the copies as they come
from the presses are dispatched, so that the man in San Francisco and
the man in Philadelphia find the magazine on the news-stand on the same
day.
* * * * *
How did the Ringing of the Curfew Originate?
The word “curfew” is derived from the French “couvre-feu,” meaning
“cover fire.”
The ringing of the curfew originated in England by William the
Conqueror, who directed that at the ringing of the bell at eight o’clock
all fires and lights should be extinguished. The law was repealed by
Henry I in 1100, but the bell continued to be rung in many districts to
modern times and probably may still be heard.
The name was also given formerly to a domestic utensil for covering up a
fire.
In the United States an ordinance establishing a curfew, with the
purpose of keeping young people off the streets, has existed in Salem,
Mass., since Puritan days.
Similar ordinances have of late been adopted in other cities, in general
providing that children under fifteen shall not frequent the streets
after nine o’clock in summer and eight in winter.