رئيس التحرير في مواجهة الآلية التلقائية ٤_a .. كتاب صحافة الغد

The savings achieved in wages amounted to 6,020 pounds per year.

The saving in capital, which is the price of the machines, has reached 60 thousand pounds.

The idea of ​​perforated tape is not as new as one might think, as it was discovered in 1932 and remained neglected and not widely used until the beginning of the fifties. This idea did not spread until they discovered the extent of the facilities that could be provided to the assembly halls. Especially after the increase in printed copies and the difficulty of distributing them, which forced most major institutions to establish several printing presses to print the same newspaper in two different places at the same time, as did The Guardian newspaper (1961), which was printed in London and Manchester at the same time.

Their need for the tape came when they found that when they put the tape into the collecting machine in London, the other machine in Manchester could, via a telephone or wireless line, collect the same lines at the same speed, and at the same time, without them having to wait for the materials to arrive.

There are many other advantages they found in the tape. There was difficulty in storing the lead lines due to the large space it occupied and its heavy weight. It has now become easier to store the tape due to its lightness and small size. After the invention of photocopying machines, the tape became of great benefit. Because it is known that hot lead collecting machines have limited mechanical capacity, Linotype Company reached a speed of 900 lines per hour on the new Elektron collecting machine, and Intertype Company also achieved the same speed on its machines (Monarch). When using pictorial summation machines - after dispensing with the idea of ​​summation using bullets - it became possible to achieve summation directly on a transparent film at tremendous speeds of up to more than a million characters per hour, thanks to the electronic mind, which we will talk about in a future chapter.

As for the third step (in 1968) that Al-Ahram Foundation took after introducing the perforated tape, it was a device for engraving color images (Vario-Klishograph).

This device complemented the first device - the clichograph - and could separate the four colors from the color image in a period not exceeding 120 minutes. This process used to take several days. The colored image was sent to the photography department, and 4 negative films were taken from it. These films were exposed with chemical acids at a certain temperature, then they were fixed and dried, and the technicians began retouching each film separately. Then each copy of the film is printed on a sensitive zinc plate and the etching process begins. This process was carried out by 8 workers (semi-specialized) and they did not finish it until after two or three days. Now, one specialized worker performs all these operations, which have been reduced to two operations: The first operation is placing the color image in the Vario device, adjusting the keys, and placing the filter designated for each color. The process of engraving the first color, let it be red, begins, and this process ends after approximately 25 minutes (for the larger picture). Thus, the worker continues to place the nolar (or zinc) plate after completing each color until he engraves the four colors. About two hours. The second process is making some retouches on the zinc or nylon plate.

The fourth step taken by (Al-Ahram) was to purchase modern photographic equipment (Rotadon) and rapid engraving devices (Powderless Etching Machine) for the engraving workshop, and the Rotadon photographic machine is small in size and does not require a large place, as was the case with the large machines that occupied two large rooms. This machine is in the form of a desk with a frame in the middle in which the image to be photographed is placed. This device can enlarge the image several times in two minutes. In the new engraving device, the zinc plate to be engraved (the size of an entire page) is placed in it once, then the device is closed over it and a certain key is pressed, so the machine rotates, and after a specific period it stops on its own; This device can engrave an image in 90 seconds, and draw in 12 minutes. In the past, this process took from 45 to 90 minutes. (In the Japanese newspaper Ma Yinichi, they were able to shorten this period - for photos - to 40 seconds.)

It is observed in all modern systems that the time factor has the most important role in every process. By shortening it (i.e. by shortening the stages of the process), the reader gains a longer period of time for the last news he sees in the newspaper.

As for the major step that Al-Ahram took in 1968, it was the electronic brain operation in the editorial hall of the new Al-Ahram newspaper building, which is considered one of the most modern newspaper houses in the world.

How is work being done in this hall, which accommodates about 150 editors, delegates, and technicians? The hall was designed according to the latest editorial system, and in its organization it resembles the large editorial hall in the Daily Mirror newspaper in London (the most modern press house built in Europe), and it also resembles the editorial hall in the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers (the most modern press house built in Japan). It was provided with internal and external telephone machines. With direct lines to Alexandria and the regions. All of these phones can be contacted directly without an intermediary (the telephone operator) by dialing the extension number immediately after managing the Al-Ahram number. The editor responds directly. This method saves a lot of time for the student who is required in a hall containing about 150 telephone sets. A large plaque with 32 page numbers hangs from the ceiling in the middle of the hall. This board has similar branches in the editor-in-chief’s office, in the packing hall of the printing press, in the presses hall, and in the distribution hall. This panel begins to be illuminated in the morning after the number of pages that will be published the next day has been decided. Let us assume that the number is 16 pages. The first row of the painting is illuminated and written on it:

Number of pages today: 16 pages

At the same time, the board is lit in all the other branches, so everyone knows the pages and is preparing for them in the printing press and in the distribution. The work begins to bring out the pages, and whenever a page is finished, its number is illuminated on the plate in white until all 16 numbers are illuminated, and then all the pages will have gone down to the printing press for execution. Whenever a page finishes being packed in the printing press and enters the press, its number lights up in red, until all 16 numbers light up in red. Then the whole panel turns off and lights up again: Second edition: 6 pages
Only the six page numbers are illuminated in white, and it goes through the same first stages until it turns off completely at dawn.

Now, how are these pages implemented in the editing room? The hall was divided into close sections: the sports section and accidents next to it, then the women's section, then the local section, then the foreign section, then the diplomatic section, then the economic section. . Etc., approximately in the middle of the hall, a rectangular table was placed at which the editor-in-chief, the editor-in-chief, and the central secretariat sat, and behind them sat the editor-in-chief and technicians, including painters, calligraphers, and map and graph designers. Then the recording and listening section, the perforator machines, the electronic mind, the electronic distributor, and the ticker machines.

All of these are contained in one large hall with a rubber floor and air conditioning. Department heads sit at the head of each department, and an electric conveyor passes near their office, eliminating the need for messengers and couriers, on which they place their written materials after reviewing them in their final form. The endless conveyor moves with it until it reaches the head of the news department, who reviews it and makes sure it is correct, then places it again on the electrical conveyor and it moves to the central secretarial department to review it again and put the appropriate titles. Then the conveyor moves with it again until it reaches the technical secretarial department to bring it out in its proper form. They specify the appropriate font type and size in which the article will be compiled. Then the material is sent directly to the printing press via a small electric elevator connected to the printing press, editorial, archive and advertisement floors. From the printing press, the materials are sent via pneumatic tubes to the mechanical collection machines, then the white proofs of what is collected via the air suction tubes are also sent to the correction department, which also works in the same way as the endless electrical conveyor. Then the materials return to him on red proofs for review and correction, and the bullets go out on carts, each subject to its own page, arranged in rows, each row containing 6 pages. When the page is finished being packed, the worker presses an electrical switch and the row number is displayed on a small board in the press hall. They send the trolley to transport the page to them. After pressing it, the carton is sent in a small elevator to the lower floor where the printing press is located. The stages that written material goes through to be collected on mechanical machines. This is printed material.

As for the materials that are decided to be sent to electronic work, what happens to them? These materials are sent on an electrical conveyor belt to the Perforator Department (for shorthand perforated writing) after specifying the required font and size. What is the benefit of having this department between the Editing Department and the Collection Department? The research carried out by Al-Ahram, in collaboration with the Linotype Company in Britain and America, gave impressive results in shortening the letters of the Arabic language. We saw above that. . The letters of the perforator machine were exactly identical to the number of letters of the adding machine (90 letters). However, some letters were not present in the two revelations. The perforator writer would press the stop key, then write with a pen on the tape (for example) (an exclamation mark is placed here), then press the action key again. When the tape went to the printing press and went through the T.T.S. machine, it would also stop in the same place where the editor had stopped it. The worker would approach the machine, read what was written on the tape, put an exclamation mark in his hand, and then the machine would go back to running.

This method undoubtedly disrupted production. Especially since these missing letters were in dire need of the work.

The idea for the first modification made by Al-Ahram had become necessary three years ago (1964), so he agreed with Intertype Company to carry it out. It was necessary