NEW HOME FOR DAILY MAIL NOW COMPLETE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 25, 21 April 1927, Page 13

NEW HOME FOR DAILY MAIL NOW COMPLETE

A WONDERFUL ORGANISATION This week will see the opening of the most wonderful newspaper printing works in Great Britain. These are the new premises being prepared for the London ’Daily Mail,” of which the “Newspaper World” publishes some interesting particulars. In July, 191 S. Associated Newspapers Ltd. took steps to acquire, in addition to Carmelite House, the best available site for a building which would meet their evergrowing requirements. The site selected is at the angle of Tudor Street and Whitefriars Street, and on this the new Northcliffe House now stands. Construeted throughout of fireproof material, the building has an asphalted fiat roof that provides for the addition of more storeys if found necessary. The ventilation system embodies the latest discoveries in sanitary science. When the presses. comprising the largest newspaper printing plant in the country, begin to run. visitors standing on a railed balcony will be able to see forty-two printing machines turning out 756,000 copies of the “Daily Mail” an hour! In the basement is the boilerhouse. which is the source of supply for a most ingenious heating and cooling system. In all offices and business departments heating is secured by panels in the ceilings, which radiate their heat and eliminate stuffiness. One huge oil-tired boiler, weighing 14 tons and with a capacity of 9,0001 b. of steam per hour, is in position for handling the air-conditioning plant, and two smaller boilers supply hot water for panel heating' There is also a refrigerator capable of manufacturing 250 tons of ice every twenty-four hours, for providing coolness in hot weather. In the sub-basement directly under the presses may be seen an invention that has revolutionised the system of feeding paper to the presses. Hitherto heavy reels of paper have been manhandled on to the machines, a laborious process involving the stoppage of the machines. Now reels of paper will always be in running position directly underneath the printing machines, and by a touch of a button a reel will slide into its place much as a cartridge slides into the breech of a rifle. When one reel is almost run out and it is necessary to change to another, which has been prepared with a specially-glued edge, a button is pressed, bringing the press down to a predetermined speed. Another button is pressed, and the expiring sheets from the used reel come in contact with the glued edge of the full one and the press speeds up.

In the spacious white-tiled printing hall instead of several lofty doubledecker machines, there are three and ahalf lines of unitline presses, containing forty-two printing machines of seventeen pairs of folders. Each of the forty-two machines is capable of printing an eight-page paper at the rate of 36,000 an hour; and two eightpage machines will be employed to print a sixteen-page paper. On the same ratio larger papers can be printed at great speed, and with no loss of time. These presses will be driven by motors, the total capacity of which is 1,800 h.p. On a level with the printing room is the stereotyping department, where plates of type are cast, trimmed, and automatically conveyed to the machines, and where science safeguards the health of the worker as well as guarantees the efficiency of the work. When the time comes the printed papers will be folded and counted into quires automatically, automatically delivered into the publishing room on the ground floor, and, after being packed, automatically conveyed to the lorries. A complete roadway, regulated on the rotary system, passes through the building, giving swift and easy access to the arriving and departing vehicles. Electricity Is the power behind the machines. Should anything go wrong in one switch room control can be maintained in a duplicate room in another part of the building. Among many amenities designed for the benefit of the staff, baths, shower baths, and clothes lockers will be made for increased comfort and cleanliness, and there will be a supply of pure drinking water from a fountain. In case of accidents first aid will promptly be given in a scientificallyequipped “hospital.”