When a twenty-four-page paper is being printed it passes over the longitudinal folder in six-ply thickness and passes under the knife in twelve thicknesses. All this is attained without the use of guiding tapes. In fact, the speed could not be attained with them.
As the papers are folded and delivered from the four outlets, with a speed too great for the eye to follow, the machine itself counts them in total and in bundles, as is done on the sextuple press. This monster octuple machine has a perfected system of ink distribution with which no other presses are equipped. Under the system results are obtained by decreasing the size and increasing the number of ink-rollers around each cylinder of plates.
The arrangement of the type cylinders is such as to make the press one that can be handled with great ease and rapidity. Along the right hand of the machine, between the two rows of cylinders, is an open passageway. It is large enough for men to pass through either from the ground or from the gallery near the latitudinal centre of the press.
From this open passageway the pressmen are able to watch every movement of the machine’s interior working, and from it they are able to make quick changes on the plate cylinders. The change in position of only two ink-rollers is necessary to change a plate on any cylinder. This is a matter of great importance to a paper which prints many editions, for it is necessary to change plates so often and to economize every minute of time in order to catch the fast mails which carry the paper to all quarters of the earth.
On the octuple presses each roll of paper is guarded against breakage. There is a device in the shape of a short endless belt of rubber which passes over two pulleys and rests on top of the roll of paper. The paper is then pulled from the roll as gently as the thread is pulled from the spool of a sewing machine. The belt pushes the roll along at a speed equal to and sometimes a little greater than that of the stereotype cylinders. Hence, all tension is removed from the paper.
From the stereotyper’s department, where they have been made in a few minutes, come the plates of curved, bright metal. Passed to the pressmen, they are locked on the cylinders as fast as they can be handled. The rolls of paper have been placed in their proper positions.
This accomplished, the men step back from the machine, the brakeman pulls the lever, and the giant press begins its work. Slowly its cylinders revolve at first, but as headway is gained the rumble that accompanied the start increases into a shrill shriek as the limit of speed is reached.
LITHOGRAPHIC PRESS.
The paper rushes from its continuous rolls, is printed, folded, cut, and thrown out from the four outlets at a speed that would be over twice greater than that of any express train if it were confined to one roll. Every paper is just like every other one, perfect in every detail.