The Pictorial Press: Its Origin and ProgressJackson, Mason
History
The Pictorial Press: Its Origin and Progress
Jackson, Mason
Illustration of books; Newspapers -- Illustrations
During the forty-two years that have elapsed since the first illustrated
newspaper was founded, there has never been any long interval of peace.
War of some kind, big or little, has broken out, like a volcano, on some
part of the earth's surface, and kept the Argus-eyed newspaper editor on
the alert. From Alma to Tel-el-Kebir and the desert warfare of the
Soudan, there has been a succession of conflicts, with only a short
interval of a few years between; so that the food on which picture
newspapers thrive best has been abundantly supplied, and this remarkable
offspring of the printing-press has consequently increased and
multiplied, and is now found in every corner of the earth, 'from China
to Peru.' The reader may form some idea of the magnitude of the
operations in connexion with illustrated journalism when I state that at
the marriage of the Prince of Wales the _Illustrated London News_ of
that week consisted of three sheets, and 930,000 sheets were printed of
that issue in one week. These sheets, if placed side by side, would
cover 660 miles, so that, as they were printed on both sides, they
represent a printed surface of, after deductions for margin, more than
1115 miles in length. Nearly eighty tons of paper and twenty-three
hundredweight of printing-ink were used in the production of that
number. Larger quantities have been printed of some issues, but the
production was spread over a longer period of time. 930,000 sheets is
the largest quantity ever printed _in one week_. It will thus be seen
what an amount of business this represents to the paper-maker, the
ink-maker, the wood-draughtsman, the engravers, the electrotypers, the
compositors, printers, machine-men, roller-makers, warehousemen, and the
numerous other workers in a newspaper printing-office.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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