Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

Turtle snippets -- for a slow news day

In the 1950s, before computer typesetting and page layout systems had been invented, the text to fill a designated column might wind up a few lines short as compositors placed lead slugs of type into rigid page forms. It was the job of the compositors -- not the editors -- to make up for the shortfall. They would insert short bits of information, such as from an almanac or a snippet of a wire service story, to fill the blank space as stand-alone items.

One notorious example in Journal history is one compositor who repeatedly used the line "Turtles have no teeth" until a colleague secretly switched the type to read "Turtles has no teeth."

A few more examples, culled from the first week of June 1955:

"One cubic mile of sea water contains more than 12 billion pounds of magnesium."

"Enough tubing to equip the heating and water systems of five six-room houses is used in a modern jet fighter plane."

"Alfalfa, like most other legumes, grows best in a neutral to slightly alkaline soil."

"The Norwegian Red Cross was chartered in 1865."

"Eggs were consumed in the U.S. last year at a rate of about 410 per person."

"Before 1883 the railroads of the United States operated on 68 local times."

And, one of the shortest wire stories ever published in The Journal:

"Tripoli, Libya -- (AP) -- Libya is battling a plague of locusts."