Fantasy fiction; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
The making of the form and printing of this great paper was explained
by Mr. McGregor, the manager.
The items of news and interest from all parts of the world were
received at the "World" building by the sympathetic telegraph, and then
transmitted by tube to the chief of copy at the office of the paper.
Here it was assorted and given to the type-writers. Type, as used in
the nineteenth century, had no place in the form of this paper.
Each compositor sat before a machine which appeared to Cobb very like a
Yost type-writer, and printed his copy on slips about as long and twice
as wide as the columns of an ordinary newspaper.
The paper was prepared, by immersion in certain chemicals, to undergo
a change of texture and composition upon the passage of an electric
current of 400 volts. The letter arms of the type-writers were
connected with the batteries, and whenever, in printing, a letter was
struck upon the paper, the current passed through to the metallic bed,
leaving a silver-gray print of the character on the paper.
These strips, or columns of the paper, as they proved to be, were set
together to form sheets or pages of the "Daily American."
A little instrument, having a pointer with 100 metallic hairs, each
about an inch in length, and each connected by an insulated wire to
a sympathetic instrument, was placed on the outer edge of the sheet
of paper, which lay flat and smooth upon a copper bed. The 100 little
points were so set that they just touched the paper, but not each
other; and their arrangement was such that, as the machine traveled
over the sheet from bottom to top, every part of the paper for a width
of two inches was touched by some one of these points.
Now, the current of electricity which passed through the slips of paper
when printed, had not left the letters in clear color, but had changed
the metallic composition in the paper into metallic letters.
Another, and one of the most important factors in this new process, was
that the letter was metallic clear through the paper, the reverse side
of the sheet showing a perfect type-form.
The "Daily American" was printed simultaneously in one hundred cities
of the country, and from these cities delivered by train as in former
days. Of course it was necessary that each city should have its own
type-form, but the size of the paper precluded the possibility of
sending such a vast amount of matter to each place and there putting it
in type-form.
The difficulty was overcome by each city having a little 100-pointed
instrument, similar to the one at the main office of the paper,
the wires of which were connected to mates to the 100 sympathetic
instruments in the home office; for the special work the needles had
been sympathized in 100 sets of 100 needles each.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account