Why did I find blank pages in the Afro-American - Washington newspaper?
The Afro-American - Washington is printed on presses fed by large rolls of newsprint which are changed during press runs. Blank pages occur during the paste cycle when a press pastes the end of one roll of newsprint to the beginning of a new roll, thereby producing a double thickness of newsprint. As the paster passes through the press, only the outer surfaces of the two pages are inked. When such a blank sheet appears in a newspaper, it separates correctly printed pages; none of the newspaper is missing. Occasionally, blank pages are caused by ink starvation to the anilox cylinder in a press, or, rarely, by running a press with a plate missing from a plate cylinder, or, very rarely, by a plate coming off a cylinder while a press is running. A working press is monitored continually. If a blank page is detected, the press is stopped immediately and newspapers with blank pages are called back from stackers and bundlers before they leave the printing plant. Once in a while a few newspapers get into circulation before a blank page is noticed.