New Laser Systems Arrive
SOMETHING is different about this morning. There are four 55-gallon barrels sitting in the street with a sign attached that says: “No parking—October 6.” And on the seventh floor of the Watchtower Society’s main office building there is an open space where a window once was. In addition, the prayer said during morning worship at the Watchtower headquarters at 7:15 includes a request for God’s blessing on the safety of workers and the machine that is to be installed by them today.
Shortly after eight o’clock, a red motorized behemoth with wheels as tall as a man arrives. Out from the sides of its front and back bumpers glide four rectangular beams with hydraulic feet at their ends. The crane squats solidly on its stubby legs. Upward rises the 135-foot (41-m) boom to the roar of its diesel engine.
Why all the special activity this morning? It is in preparation for the arrival of a new machine—Laserite-V—that will help speed the spreading of the “good news” worldwide by means of the printed page. (Matthew 24:14) But is this Laserite-V so heavy that it requires all this special rigging? “Not really. It weighs only 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) with rigging,” answers Don Underwood, overseer of Watchtower Construction. “Last Saturday we lifted a section of a printing press that weighed 36,000 pounds (16,300 kg).”
Where, then, is the challenge here? “It’s bulky, fragile and cannot be tilted,” continues Don. “A machine like this you normally install on the first floor, or use a freight elevator to lift it to higher floors, but it won’t fit into the elevators in this building. So we are going to swing it through that window opening with just four inches (10 cm) of clearance.” The machine has an outer shell of orange and beige fiberglass, and is in the shape of a chest about ten feet long by four feet wide by five and a half feet high (3 × 1.2 × 1.7 m). Housed inside is precision optical and electronic equipment.
Is there any danger of the crane’s dropping this sensitive machine? “There is always that danger,” Don answers. “You have human imperfection. A supporting wire could snap or the brake on the crane could slip. With every lift I always get a knot in my stomach until it is safely completed.”
Although about one hundred similar laser machines are in use, fewer than a half dozen of this particular model have been built. “This is the first one that I know of that’s being installed in the U.S. About four or five are slated for Europe,” states Jerry, the machine’s factory representative.
Dick, the crane operator, maneuvers the boom close to the seventh-floor gap on his first of two trial runs. Smooth is the response as he manipulates the crane with a feather touch on the two control levers, one for the right hand, the other for the left.
What does Dick think about swinging this machine through this high window opening? “The rigging and the proper signal man are the most important parts,” he says. “I’ve worked for Watchtower people quite a few times before and they are excellent riggers.” Dick is being modest; you need a good man operating the crane too. And Dick is good.
At 9:00 a.m. the truck carrying Laserite-V arrives. The millwright and riggers begin their work, carefully tying the steel ropes securely around the supporting pallet; adjusting and readjusting their length. This is done so that the end of the crane’s boom can get as close to the seventh-floor opening as possible.
By 10:30 a.m. Laserite-V is being lifted gently out of the bed of the truck and lowered toward the sidewalk for a final inspection. The “OK” is given. Slowly, deftly, the machine rises past the second floor, the third and on up to the seventh.
Next a difficult maneuver—similar to threading a needle—the gliding of the 3,000 pounds through the open space with only inches of clearance. The millwright loosens one side of the supporting ropes so that the machine glides through the seventh-floor opening and into the waiting “arms” of a specially adapted forklift truck.
Applause rings out spontaneously from spectators who have gathered at windows of the adjacent 30 Columbia Heights building, and with it a huge sigh of relief. The 30 years’ experience of the crane operator and the skill of the riggers will benefit over two million Jehovah’s Witnesses and eventually will help millions of others.
How will this machine do that? Werner Bohn, overseer of the Watchtower’s Graphics Department, explains: “Saved time and improved quality of print are two immediate benefits that this machine will bring to our readers.”
“They will be able to get new or reprinted publications faster than before,” continues Werner. “By using laser techniques we can bypass several working steps in preparing our offset printing plates. In effect, a page of literature that is put into Laserite-V can emerge as a printing plate ready to be handed to the pressman. So we are speeding up our production cycle. For example, producing plates for and printing the book Aid to Bible Understanding by the letterpress method would normally take up to a year, but by using this laser method and offset printing it can be done in one fourth of the time.”
Laserite-V is a precision copying system using laser beams. It can do two basic things: electronically “read” (scan) and “write” (reproduce). By means of its helium-neon laser beam it can “read” a page of copy that is scheduled to be printed. What it “reads” it then “writes” with its argon ion laser on photosensitive materials. Presently it is being used to reproduce documents on photographic film that is then used to make offset plates. Later Laserite-V will reproduce documents directly onto offset plates, bypassing use of film for some items. The printing materials produced by Laserite-V are used for the publishing of Bible literature.
An Electronic “Artist”
A few days after the excitement of safely placing the Laserite-V on the seventh floor in the Graphics Department a companion piece of equipment arrived, the Autokon 8400. It is another laser system, a tool that does many things conventional cameras do but in a faster, simpler, less costly and more flexible way. This machine produces many special effects that are difficult to achieve with conventional cameras. Autokon uses only helium-neon laser beams to reproduce artwork on film or in digital form for storage in a computer memory system for later use. Its laser scanning system “reads and records” photographs and different types of artwork, and then transforms what it sees into digital information. While Laserite-V reproduces complete pages for offset printing plates, Autokon speeds up the production of artwork that is included in pages scanned by Laserite-V.
Even as early Christians used the then new codex system of bookmaking for spreading the good news, so modern-day Christians are using the marvel of electronic printing tools. And for the identical purpose, namely, to give a “thorough witness to the good news of the undeserved kindness of God.”—Acts 20:24.
[Box on page 20]
How They Work
The simplified diagram on the opposite page will help you to understand how the Laserite and Autokon work. They operate in a similar way.
First, the “read,” or scan, laser sends a beam of coherent light (black dots on diagram) through a mirrored optical system to the moving mirrored deflector. This deflector bounces the “read” laser beam off its mirrored surface, through an optical system and scans across the surface of the original document. The “read” laser beam then reflects off the original document and into the converter, which changes the beam into electrical signals that travel to the modulator.
The “write,” or output, laser sends a continuous coherent light beam (colored dots on diagram) to the modulator. At this point the modulator turns the “write” laser beam “on and off” according to the electrical signals received from the converter. The “write” laser beam then passes through an optical system along the same path as the “read” beam to the moving mirrored deflector. And from there the beam is directed through a second optical system to the light-sensitive material, either film or plate, to reproduce the images (words or pictures) found on the original document.
The light-sensitive material, if film, is now ready for use in the process of making offset printing plates. By using light-sensitive plates instead of film, more time and money can be saved in printing our Bible literature. Yes, the laser was used in the preparation of this magazine.
[Diagram/Picture on page 21]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
New Laser Equipment Uses Light Beams to “Read” and “Write”
LASERITE
“READ” LASER
“WRITE” LASER
MODULATOR
MIRRORS AND OPTICS
MIRRORED DEFLECTOR
MIRRORS AND OPTICS
LIGHT SENSITIVE MATERIAL
ORIGINAL DOCUMENT
CONVERTER
AUTOKON