Article June 24, 1933 Issue

Item of Interest

More than two thousand six hundred visitors were conducted through the new Publishing House from June 1 to June 10, and in order to conduct on a similar tour the many others who follow these Items, the observer participated in a personally conducted tour. We entered from Norway Street at the junction of Sections "A" and "B" and most of our attention was given to the latter section because that is in a more advanced state of completion. As we entered, we passed a watchman's station, looking in three directions, wherein during office hours will be available a man who will assist visitors in various ways. It was remarked by our guide that the building is six hundred and thirty-six feet long and the tower one hundred and fifty-two feet high. As we turned down the corridor through Section "B," at our right was a large room for the storage of empty mail sacks. Those not familiar with the circulation of the Monitor, to say nothing of that of the other periodicals, perhaps gained here a more adequate impression of the volume of business done by our Publishing Society. Daily considerably more than one hundred thousand copies of the Monitor are wrapped, sealed, and sacked according to destination, for shipment in Monitor trucks to the trains and are there entrusted to the care of the United States Postal Service.

We saw on the first floor one of the three types of acoustical tile used in the building to absorb sound. This is made of wood in a form like excelsior pressed with some binding material in sections so that it looks somewhat like our breakfast dish of shredded wheat. This tile is fastened to the concrete ceiling with a special cement developed for the purpose. The guide pointed out that the weight of Section "B" rests not on its outside walls, but within on circular columns having mushroom heads and at the sides on square columns. We entered the iron balcony prepared for visitors looking into the Monitor Press Room and saw the papers being run off. One of the men inspected them from time to time as they slid from the press, the sheets placed together as a multiple press arranges, all ready for the folding and wrapping and mailing. It was explained that because the Monitor mail trucks have detachable bodies the trucks can be dispatched with loads of mail sacks expeditiously, losing very little time in loading and unloading. We saw the metal wall compartments opening into the Mailing Room and also the Newsboys' Room, into which the copies of the paper just off the press are placed for the boys. Each newsboy has a key to his compartment and receives his papers there.

Upstairs in the Composing Room men were at work sanding with machines the laminated floor which has previously been described in this column. In this room the copy from the News Room is set by the compositors into type, from which the Monitor is printed. The intricacies of providing the necessary humidified air in rooms where newsprint is handled were explained to us. As they have been described here, we shall only mention that the equipment allows of any degree of required humidity that may possibly be needed.

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