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At a state-of-the-art printing plant in New York state, Willits residents Don and Teri Buchanan watch Jehovah's Witnesses turn out 120 deluxe Bibles each minute and 90,000 copies of The Watchtower each hour in 150 languages for worldwide distribution
By Fae Woodward/Staff Writer
Don and Teri Buchanan, and daughter April, returned from a fall trip to the East Coast overwhelmed by the technology and organization they observed at the Jehovah's Witnesses' printing plant in Wallkill, and audio/visual studios in Patterson, New York.
The printing presses at Wallkill are capable of producing hardcover books and deluxe Bibles at a rate of 120 a minute, or magazines at a rate of 90,000 an hour. The primary journal of Jehovah's Witnesses, The Watchtower, has an international circulation of 25,203,000 in 150 languages and is by far the world's most widely translated magazine. Translating the text into 150 languages is done simultaneously by a MEPS computer program designed by the church.
At the facilities in Patterson, the audio-visual studios produce Bible education aud-io and VHS tapes, as well as CDs, DVDs and now MP3s to stay current with the latest technology. Braille literature, as well as video and DVD for the hearing-impaired, also are produced there.
The time of the year chosen for their travels took the Buchanans to New England during the fall colors. They took photographs everywhere they traveled, including in the hospital clean pressroom at Wallkill, where computer-operated machines collected and packaged waste for recycling even as it was created.
They learned the new presses they saw replaced those sold by Jehovah's Witnesses to Rand and McNally publishers. Because the speed of the new presses proved damaging to the type of paper originally used, the manufacturer who supplied them had to redesign its paper-making process.
The latest in presses, located in Wallkill, New York, can print 90,000 signatures an hour. |
The family flew into Syracuse, New York, and traveled by rented car from the Adirondacks to Washington, D.C. A visit to Pennsylvania and Gettysburg was included.