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Show Here Are Ten Versions Of "30" 10 VERSIONS OF 30 What was the origin Of the newspaper term "30"? Following arc ten versions from varied sources: 1. At one place the deadline for copy was 2:30 in the morning, lime is precious to a newspaperman news-paperman and 2:30 took some lime to say. To shorten it by a few seconds the term "30" was used and still is. 2. In the days before typewriters typewrit-ers XXX (Roman for 30) on manuscript copy indicated the end of a story. 3. ''Thirty" was used to label the last dispatch when the Associated Press was estab- - lished. 4. tarly telegraph operators developed a code in which various numbers stood for different phrases. "Thirty" meant "end of item." 5. The end of the "Thirty tyrants" ty-rants" appointed by the Spartans Spar-tans at the close of the Pelo-ponnesian Pelo-ponnesian War to rule Athens, finally overthrown by the "Athenians, was the occasion for a general rejoicing. When copywriters finish the end of a story, they supposedly rejoice re-joice similarly. 6. Before newspapers had direct ' telegraph wires the operator would vrite at the bottom of the last sheet "3 o'clock" which was shortened to "3 o'c" then to "30." 7. "Thirty" was the number of a telegraph operator who remained re-mained at his post sending messages during a major disaster. dis-aster. He met death. 8. Thirty pica cms was the maximum max-imum length line used in early typesetting machines. Thus ."30" was the end of a line. 9. "Eighty" means farewell in Bengali. An English officer used the figures at the end of a letter to the East India Co. in 1758. Adopting the figures for brevity in dealings, the company mistakenly made them "30." 10. The first message sent to the central press office during the Civil War,' totalled 30 words. The thirty, together with the words "good night" and the signature of the sender, send-er, were placecl at the bottom of the sheet by the telegrapher. telegra-pher. Reprinted by permission of The Canadian Weekly Editor |