The first copies of THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES were printed in an outside office. The second year of its publication an office was built in the form of a Greek cross, three stories in height, including attic, with a floor space of about 4,000 square feet. That building is now devoted to two clerical offices, the most of it for packing and storage rooms. In 1887 a new building was erected, of four stories, including basement, with a floor space of 40,000 square feet. The Pacific Press Publishing Company, the publisher of THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, now possesses the most complete printing plant west of the Rocky Mountains for all first-class periodical and book work. It includes typesetting, electrotyping and stereotyping departments, press-room, job-room, book-bindery, folding-room, art and editorial departments, a complete counter check-book plant, with all necessary business departments requisite to large publishing houses. It has branch offices in Kansas City, Mo., and New York City. Its present force consists of 150 employees, and its monthly pay-roll averages over $5,000.
The first press upon which THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES was printed in its own home was a four-roller drum cylinder, Cottrell & Babcock. It was disposed of the other day as a fairly good machine still, but insufficient for our needs. As new presses have been demanded, we have ever aimed to secure the press doing the best service, and our office is now equipped with eight first-class flat-bed presses, and all except one built by the Cottrell Company.
We found, however, that our ever-increasing subscription list demanded more than the fastest flat-bed presses could supply, and, after thorough investigation of the merits and demerits, the advantages and disadvantages, of perfecting presses for book work, we placed the order with the firm of C. B. Cottrell & Sons Co., of New York. This press was built on special order, to fulfil special and exacting conditions. A cut of this press appears on page 17, and well illustrates the advancement made in the printing art during the last two decades. As will be seen from the illustration, the paper printed is fed continuously from a roll at the rear. It is then printed on both sides, folded, pasted, and trimmed, and delivered all complete at the rate of 10,000 per hour, the grade of work and fineness of illustrations determining the rate of speed. Curved electrotype plates are used, and special machinery not shown in the engraving was built for making these plates. This is not a newspaper press, but was built for doing finer grades of book and periodical work. It is provided with Cottrell's patent "shifting tympan," a unique device for the purpose of preventing "offset." This "shifting tympan" is so arranged that a clean sheet can be made to cover the cylinder at the will of the operator, while the press is in motion. The machine is 18 feet 8¼ inches long, 11 feet 7½ inches wide, 7 feet 7½ inches high, and weighs 36,000 pounds, including the auxiliary machinery. It is the only press of the kind on the Pacific Coast. Presses similar to this are used on which to print some of the great illustrated journals and magazines of the East. This press has also an attachment for folding tracts and book signatures in 16-page forms. A sample of the work of the press is shown in this million-copy edition of THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.