There were sold of _The Times_ of Tuesday, Feb. 10th, 1840, containing
an account of the Royal nuptials, 30,000 copies, and the following
curious calculations were afterwards made respecting this publication.
The length of a column of _The Times_ is twenty-two inches. If every
copy of _The Times_ then printed could be cut into forty-eight single
columns, and if those forty-eight columns were tacked to each other,
they would extend 494 miles and 1,593 yards. To give some idea of the
extent of that distance, it may be sufficient to say that one of the
wheels of the mail which runs from Falmouth to London, and again from
London to Easingwold, a small town twelve miles beyond York, might run
all the way on the letter-press so printed, except the last 167 yards.
The same extent of letter-press would reach from London to Paris, and
back again from Paris to Canterbury, and a little further. The 30,000
papers, if opened out and joined together, would cover a length of
twenty-two miles and 1,280 yards; or, in other words, would reach from
_The Times_ office, in Printing-house Square, to the entrance hall in
Windsor Castle, leaving a few yards for stair carpets. It is recorded
that 20,000 copies were in the hands of the newsmen at eight o'clock in
the morning. Since 1840, the circulation of _The Times_ has greatly
increased; and what was then deemed wonderful on an extraordinary
occasion, is now exceeded daily by 8,000 copies--the present daily
circulation being about 38,000 copies, which are worked by greatly
improved machinery at the rate of between 8,000 to 10,000 per hour. On
the 2nd of last May, _The Times_ containing an account of the opening of
the Great Exhibition by the Queen, circulated to the enormous number of
52,000 copies, the largest number ever known of one daily newspaper
publication. Nothing can illustrate more forcibly than these statements
the great utility of the machinery employed in multiplying with so
miraculous a rapidity such an immense number of copies. When we look at
the great talent--the extensive arrangement--the vast amount of
information on a variety of topics--the immense circulation--the
rapidity with which it is thrown off, and the correctness of the details
of _The Times_ paper--we are constrained to pronounce it the most
marvellous political journal the world has ever seen. What would our
forefathers have said to this wonderful broadsheet, which conveys
information of the world's movements to the teeming population of the
United Kingdom, and also to the people of other and distant climes.