Cut-Cost Printing Plant Equipments
AN AMERICAN CUT-COST TYPE-SETTING UNIT
"THE SMALLER THE UNIT, THE GREATER THE EFFICIENCY"
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Concentration and Efficiency are Inseparable
Fig.7-An actual six-alley unit in a Cut-Cost composing room,which has five
similar units, with thirty-six employees in all. Reproduced from a photograph.

Concentration is the chief merit of the
Cut-Cost System. In each piece of equipment
all materials of a kind that are used together
are concentrated; consequently fewer pieces are
required than has heretofore been possible,
with the further result that any given number
of men may work in much less floor space than
has hitherto been possible. It is obvious that if
a composing room has only onework bench and
only one general lead and slug supply and only
one reserve supply of spaces and quads or quo-
tation quads or metal furniture, its production
efficiency decreases in ratio with the number
of workmen employed, because the average
distance between man and materials is length-
ened. A compositor uses such a variety of ma-
terials that he must move about to get them.
The Cut- Cost System reduces his pedal move-
ments to the minimum by concentrating the
materials as near as possible to him.
A Cut-Cost Unit of Production. The dif-
ficulty referred to in the preceding paragraph is
overcome in the Cut- Cost System by arranging
the largercomposing rooms in production units,
one of which is shown in fig. 7, above. When a
composing room has more than eight active
single alleys, considerations of economy make
it desirable to create another unit, which is

done at no great expense by adding another
Cut-Cost Justifying Materials Cabinet (10 in
above picture), another Cut-Cost Work Bench
and Auxiliary Cabinet (9) and one or more of
the small Cut-Cost Brass Rule, Quotation and
Metal Furniture Cabinets (7 or 8).
Efficiency of the Cut-Cost Unit. A little
study of the above picture shows that in each
alley there are concentrated in the Cut-Cost
Type Cabinets (1-6 in picture) ample alley sup-
plies of spaces, quads, leads, slugs, and 1/2 and
1 pt. spaces; while in the small cabinets (7 and
8) workmen reach in a minimum of steps brass
rules, quotations and metal furniture.The re-
serve supplies of spaces, quads, brass rules,
leads, slugs, leaders and all other auxiliary
materials (borders, ornaments, initials, signs,
special figures, etc.) are concentrated in Cut-
Cost Justifying Materials Cabinet (10) and a
Cut-Cost Work Bench and Auxiliary Cabinet
(9). Thus, in five kinds of cabinets the men in
a unit of eight single active alleys have ample
quantities of every sort of materials needed in
assembling any kind of type composition from
the handing out of the copy until the job or
page reaches the proof press and it is stored
under a Cut-Cost Imposing Table (11 in pic-
ture) awaiting return of the proof.

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