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Lead and Printing
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HE DESERET NEWS of Salt Lake City was founded on June 15, 1850; It Is now
T the oldest Journal west of the Mississippi River. At that time there were 11,000
people In "Deseret" known officially as the Upper California BasIn. Ox teams
brought type, ink and paper from Winter Quarters, (Florence) Nebraska.
The first Issue of the Deseret News was produced on a Ramage Hand Press, and
the Size of the pages was 8 x 10 Inches. The site of the first home of the News was
Immediately east of the Hotel Utah. The staff consisted of WlIlard Richards as editor,
Horace K. WhItney as printer, Brigham H. Young as pressman, and Thomas Bullock
as proof reader.
The press was capable of producing 128 copies per hour. The paper used today by
the DeseretNews In a slnglellssoo wonld have been sufficient to run the first ISllue for
seven years with Its 1850 anticipated circulation of 800 copies. Less than 500 pounds
of type was sufflclent In those days.
Later the News faced a paper famine and for purposes of reUef the DeseretNews
Company built a paper mill which was the first one west of the Mississippi River.
The mlU stood near the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, cost ,100,000.00, was finish­
ed In 1882, and made paper until 189S, when it was destroyed by fire.
One linotype slug from which most newspapers are printed directly or Indirectly
today weighs about one ounce. The smaller papers are printed on flat-bed presses
directly from linotype slugs or In some cases from type which Is set. Type for the
three larger papers In Salt Lake City Is first set with linotype machlnes, the ''pages''
are assembled and impressions made In tough, heat resisting paper. Seml-clrcnlar
"lead" roDs are cast, weighing about fifty pounds each. These castlnp are then placed
on cyllndrleal presses ready for the dally run. The best news press In Salt Lake City
today can print a sixty-four page paper at the rate of forty-e1ght thousand an hour,
or at a speed of eight hundred a minute which Is about the extreme strength limit of
the best news print paper. For the Sunday edition of the three Salt Lake papers, about
twenty-four tons of type metal are reqnlred. The amount used dally In the United
.tates runs Into thousands of tons.
IJnotype metal Is made by alloying lead, whl~h shonld be as pure as possible, with
antimony and tin In the relative proportions of 85, 11 and 4. Lead alone Is too soft.
Antimony lends both hardness and finldlty to lead (hardness when cold, and finldlty
when molten) and fiUs out the monlds by expanding while the alloy Is SOlidifying. Tin
18 used to combine lead and antimony, and gives a smooth face to the type.
Prbitlng plants have their dross problems Just the same as smelters. Printers
say that the hotter the metal becomes, and the longer It remains molton, the more
dross resnlts.
Printers have a number of short cuts. Instead of a thermometer, many of them
use white uncoated paper for testing temperatures. If a pleee of this paper Is stuck
In the metal and shows chestnut brown when withdrawn, the temperature Is "Just
right". If the color of the paper Is lighter after the test, the temperature Is too low,
and If the paper Is scorched the temperature Is too high. To purify the metal, the
master mechanic at one of the big plants In Salt Lake City, where a lIS-ton kettle Is In
use, throws a soup bone In the bottom of the kettle oecasionally. He states that this
causes the kettle to boD for an hour or two "raising" the impurities to the top where
they may be skimmed off.
One time only use of lead In printing newspapers, books, periodicals and Jobs
In Utah wonld require the dally output of one of the three lead smelters In the State.
If lead conld be used only once, and no substitute could be found, a large part of the
people In the United States would go without modern automobDes" the best paint,
newspapers, printing and a lot of other things and lead would be as high as sliver.
There's the rub. Lead can be used over and over for many purposes with a loss of only
two to twenty pereent a year.
-E. M. L.