Scientific American Supplement, No. 795, March 28, 1891 | Page 6

figure of speech, do think and speak. Inspiration was not wholly a
thing of long-gone ages, for if ever men received into brain and worked
out through hand the divine touch, then were Hoe, and Scott, and
Campbell taught of God.
Under existing conditions newspapers of any importance, in the smaller
cities, use one and sometimes two presses, capable of producing from
7,000 to 9,000 complete eight page papers each hour, each machine
costing from $10,000 to $15,000. Papers of the second class in the
large cities use treble or quadruple this press capacity, while the great
papers, in the four or five leading cities, have machinery plants of from
four to ten presses of greatest capacity, costing from $32,000 to
$50,000 each, and able to produce papers of the different numbers of
pages required, at a speed of from 24,000 to 90,000 four page sheets, or
of from 24,000 to 48,000 eight, ten, or twelve page sheets per hour,
each paper complete as you receive it at your breakfast table--printed,
pasted, cut and folded, and the entire product for the day accurately
counted in lots of tens, fifties, hundreds or thousands, as may be
required for instantaneous delivery, while, as if to illustrate and
emphasize the ever upward trend of public demand for the day's news,
quick and inclusive, Hoe & Co. are now building machines capable of
producing in all completeness 150,000 four page papers each hour.
All this tremendous combination of brain, nerve, muscle, material,
machinery and capital depends for its movement and remuneration
upon but two sources of income--circulation and advertisements--the
unit measurements of which are infinitesimal--for the most part
represented by wholesale prices; from one-half a cent to two cents per
copy for the daily newspaper, and in like proportion for the weeklies
and monthlies; and by from one-tenth of a cent to one cent per line per

thousand of circulation for advertising space. Verily, in a certain and
large sense, the vast publishing interests rest upon drops of water and
grains of sand. Under right conditions no kind of business or property
is more valuable, and yet no basis of values is more intangible. Nothing
in all trade or commerce is so difficult to establish or more environed
by competitions, and yet, once established, almost nothing save interior
dry rot can pull it down. It depends upon the judgment and favor of the
million, yet instances are few where any external force has seriously
and permanently impaired it.
About two hundred years have gone since the publication of the first
number of the first American newspaper. It was a monthly, called
_Publick Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestic_, first printed
September 25, 1690, by Richard Pierce, and founded by Benjamin
Harris. At that time public favor did seem to control newspaper
interests, for that first paper aroused antagonism, and it was almost
immediately suppressed by the authorities. Only one copy of it is now
in existence, and that is in London. The first newspaper to live, in this
country, was the Boston _News Letter_, first issued in 1704 and
continued until 1776. New York's first newspaper, the New York
_Gazette_, appeared October 16, 1725. At the outbreak of the
revolution there were 37 newspapers, and in 1800 there were 200, of
which several were dailies. In 1890 there were 17,760, of which there
were 13,164 weeklies, 2,191 monthlies, 1,626 dailies, 280
semi-monthlies, 217 semi-weeklies, 126 quarterlies, 82 bi-weeklies, 38
bi-monthlies, and 36 tri-weeklies.
The circulations belong largely to the weeklies, monthlies and dailies,
the weeklies having 23,228,750, the monthlies 9,245,750, the dailies
6,653,250, leaving only 2,400,000 for all the others.
The largest definitely ascertainable daily average circulation for one
year, in this country, has been 222,745. Only one other daily paper in
the world has had more--_Le Petit Journal_, in Paris, which really, as
we understand it, is not a newspaper, but which regularly prints and
sells for one sou more than 750,000 copies. The largest American
weekly is the _Youth's Companion,_ Boston, 461,470. The largest
monthly is the _Ladies' Home Journal_, Philadelphia, 542,000. The
largest among the better known magazines is the _Century_, 200,000.
Of the daily papers which directly interest us--those of the city of New

York--the actual or approximate daily averages of the morning papers
are given by "Dauchy's Newspaper Catalogue" for 1891, as follows:
_Tribune_, daily, 80,000; Sunday, 85,000. _Times_, daily, 40,000;
Sunday, 55,000. _Herald_, daily, 100,000; Sunday, 120,000. _Morning
Journal_, 200,000. _Press_, daily, 85,000; Sunday, 45,000. _Sun_,
daily, 90,000; Sunday, 120,000. _World_, daily, 182,000; Sunday,
275,000. Of the afternoon papers, _Commercial Advertiser_, 15,000;
_Evening Post_, 18,000; _Telegram_, 25,000; Graphic (not the old, but
a new one), 10,000; _Mail and Express_, 40,000; _News_, 173,000;
_Evening Sun_, 50,000; _Evening World_, 168,000. The entire
circulation of New York dailies, including with those named others of