The first time was in 1964 when the 22-year-old pressman shifted from The Honolulu Advertiser's old 1930s-era Duplex press to the paper's brand new million-dollar Goss Mark II — a two-story letterpress touted as the finest system of its kind at the time.

Weatherwax had already been a pressman for four years when he made the switch. Compared to the Goss — each of two presses could print about 45,000 48-page black-and-white newspapers with full color on eight pages — the clanking 24-page Duplex seemed something from the Stone Age.

"That old Duplex was all muscle and sweat," recalled Weatherwax. "Oh yeah, we thought the Goss was hot stuff."

These days Weatherwax, 62, is moving from the old downtown Goss press to The Advertiser's new $82 million Kapolei facility, where robots do the heavy lifting, computers make the magic happen, and each of two German-made MAN Roland offset presses can spin out 70,000 48-page papers with full color on every page in about the time it takes to polish off lunch.

Easier, safer

To accomplish that feat, Kapolei pressmen such as Guy Bonenfant barely need to lift a finger. They've gone from manual operations to operating the computer system that operates every aspect of the press.

"There's no comparison at all between the Goss press and what we're working on here at Kapolei," said Bonenfant, 61, who started at The Advertiser in 1965. In contrast to Weatherwax, who became the paper's downtown pressroom manager, Bonenfant remained a pressman throughout his entire career.

The most startling change according to Bonenfant: printing towers. Unlike the traditional newspaper presses that roll out papers horizontally, the new high-speed facility shoots newsprint skyward through a dozen towers which apply four colors of ink to both sides of the page simultaneously. It's through this process that the MAN Roland offset press is able to print, fold and cut so many full color sections in such short order.

Once, Bonenfant was responsible for coaxing bulky 1,650-pound rolls of newsprint into the aging machinery.

"Before, we had to put the rolls of paper in manually," he explained. "You had to push these rolls into the reel stands. They weighed about a ton apiece. And you had to move them around on dollies that were on tracks."

Move too fast and the roll could rock itself off the dolly. It happened more than once, said Bonenfant. The only thing to do was get out of the way as the thing plowed through the press-room. If a worker didn't watch out, he could be injured.

"This is the state of the art, here," he said. "What I work with is called the Aurosys system — robots bring in the rolls of paper, and puts them into the reel stands. When we start the press run, the roll automatically loads up."

The robot units resemble miniature train locomotives, except that they cruise silently beside the reel stands, delivering one-ton-plus rolls of newsprint, each capable of producing around 30,000 papers. Should any worker accidentally get in a robot's way, automatic sensors halt its movement until the worker has passed.

Intimidating, at first

Noll Andrel

"The difference is manpower," he said. "We've got robots doing what the workers did downtown."

The primary task of Andrel and Bonenfant at Kapolei is to make sure the robots perform their job correctly.

"Everyday we're learning new stuff on the computer," said Bonenfant. "In 1965 the computer wasn't really much around. A personal computer didn't exist. So, if you'd have asked me back then if this new press was even possible, I would have said, 'You're crazy.'"

The hardest part was learning new computer skills, said Andrel, who's the lead man for the Aurosys system.

"It was tough, starting out," he said. "I was a little intimidated. Once you get it, though, it's actually a lot easier."

Quieter, calmer

Easier on the ears, too, according to pressman Guy Hatae. With 25 years at the paper under his belt, Hatae is a relative upstart compared to Weatherwax, Bonenfant and Andrel, who began in the days of hot type, 42-pound lead press plates, and ink-stained letter presses.

But Hatae has served his time with the 40-year-old Goss press and the similar 8-unit Hoe press that joined it in 1968.

Once fired up, those presses were like having a B-29 aircraft roaring through the building, said Hatae. Walls shook and windows rattled. Even a shouting match was out of the question. Pressmen resorted to earplugs and hand signals.

The new Kapolei presses are not only quieter, but the control room that houses the system's six operating consoles is designed to muffle the noise further still. Hatae calls it the quiet room.

"I would say the new press is 60 to 70 percent quieter," he said. "When you're in the quiet room, you can hear it but it's not loud at all."

Plus, you feel no vibrations, he said.

"The new MAN Roland press will do anything the old press could do," concluded Weatherwax, as he stood over one of six control room consoles, which, among a multitude of other things, can adjust color levels even as the presses roll. "And it does it easier, faster and better.