hours would be required for printing the complete edition; and the news conveyed to the purchasers of the latest portion of the impression, would be but of date before they could receive it. To obviate this difficulty, it was often necessary to set up the paper in duplicate, and sometimes, when late, in triplicate: but the improvements in the printing-machines have been so great, that four thousand copies are now printed on one side in an hour.
(332.) The establishment of "The Times" newspaper is an example, on a large scale, of a manufactory in which the division of labour, both mental and bodily, is admirably illustrated, and in which also the effect of domestic economy is well exemplified. It is scarcely imagined, by the thousands who read that paper in various quarters of the globe, what a scene of organized activity the factory presents during the whole night, or what a quantity of talent and mechanical skill is put in action for their amusement and information.[1] Nearly a hundred persons are
- ↑ The Author of these pages, with one of his friends, was recently induced to visit this most interesting establishment, after midnight, during the progress of a very important debate. The place was illuminated with gas, and was light as the day:—there was neither noise nor bustle;—and the visitors were received with such calm and polite attention, that they did not, until afterwards, become sensible of the inconvenience which such intruders, at a moment of the greatest pressure, must occasion, nor reflect that the tranquillity which they admired, was the result of intense and regulated occupation. But the effect of such checks in the current of business will appear on recollecting that, as four thousand newspapers are printed off on one side within the hour, every minute is attended with a loss of sixty-six impressions. The quarter of an hour, therefore,
