July 29 Tuesday – In New York City Sam wrote to Joe Goodman comparing the New York Tribune’s Mergenthaler, the Rogers, and the Thorne typesetters to that of the Paige — two to four thousand ems per hour compared to seven or eight. Things were coming to a head, what with competitors working in the field from New York to Chicago:

Now that our machine is finished, we are required to move out of the factory. So we are doing that, & shall move into the new place as soon as it is ready — say by the middle of August; if the delay is no greater we shall be setting type again in the first days of September. We shall run the machine 24 hours a day, there; during 60 consecutive days, & maybe longer. My idea is that by the first of December we shall be at work in a New York newspaper office, & prepared to prove to the satisfaction of everybody that no one can afford to take another machine as a gift if he can get ours for $12,000 [MTP]. Note: prospective prices of competitors were far less, from two to six thousand.

Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore approving a bank draft drawn on a Fresno, Calif. bank in the name of Joe Goodman, who he said would be there “about ten days from now.”

Honor the draft & keep the matter secret — make no reference to it in any piece of writing, directed to anybody. I’ll explain the reasons when I see you [MTP].

Sam’s notebook:

John W. Mackay, July 29/90, deposited $5,000 to my credit in above Bank [Nevada Bank of San Francisco]. When Co is formed, I shall give him its equivalent in stock.

Also, Jno. P. Jones deposited $5000 in above bank to my credit on the same terms [3: 565].

Note: before this entry Sam lined out as completed the task of putting 50 royalties in the Webster & Co. safe on this date.