Meanwhile, however, in one important department of the work, the newspapers had made no advance whatever.

The newspapers of New York in the year 1885, and later, set up their type by the same method that Benjamin Franklin used to set up the type for The Pennsylvania Gazette.

The compositor stood or sat at his "case," with his "copy" before him, and picked the type up letter by letter until he had filled and correctly spaced a line.

Then he would set another line, and so on, all with his hands.
After the job was completed, the type had to be distributed again, letter by letter.

Typesetting was slow and expensive.
This labor of typesetting was at last generally done away with by the invention of two intricate and ingenious machines.