The 1969 service year has been the finest year of production to date at the Society’s Brooklyn printing plant. We were able to use the new eleven-story factory building to the full. In the 1967 service year, before we had the new building, we were able to produce around 8 million Bibles and books in the Brooklyn plant. In 1968 we were able to move into the new building and use it part of the year and we made slightly more than 12 million Bibles and Bible textbooks. During the 1969 service year we have had the full use of the new factory along with the other three factory buildings, and we were able to operate a night shift for six months of the year in order to meet the demand for publications. It is wonderful to be able to report that we reached a total of 24,038,531 bound books and Bibles completed and sent to the shipping department.

It is because of the great demand for literature on the part of the branches throughout the world and in the United States that it became necessary to turn out such a tremendous amount of literature. In fact, we had to transfer some of the printing orders from Brooklyn to the German printing plant located in Wiesbaden, Germany; and the branch office there also arranged to run a second shift to produce more literature.

There are many new publications going through the factory all of the time. For example, right now in the Brooklyn plant there are ninety-eight new books in fifty-two languages that are being set on the linotype and being made into pages. Mats and plates are being prepared for the presses. It will take us some time to complete all of these publications, and there will be more to follow. Looking ahead to the orders that we will receive for these publications, plus those on hand, it appears that we will have about 17 million Bibles and Bible-study aids to print within the next six to eight months. By comparison, last year we were behind about 13 million books, as far as meeting the needs for the field was concerned.

Due to this backlog of orders we plan to start running a second shift again on September 29, 1969. Our factory will be in full operation during the day, and then during the night shift we plan to run about three lines of bookbinding machinery out of the eight we have. We will also operate about eight of the large rotary presses on the second shift. We would like to catch up with the backlog of orders, or get closer to the needs of the branches and get much of this literature shipped out to them during the winter months. It therefore may be necessary to run this night shift for three months, October, November and December. By that time we may be in a much better position to meet the needs of the field.

It is interesting to observe, too, that during the past year there was a tremendous call for Bibles, and we had one of our best years of Bible production. We produced 1,819,023 Bibles in English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and Italian. We hope that sometime during 1970 we will get started on the French and German editions of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.

During the past year we have expanded our bookbinding equipment from five lines of production to eight complete lines, and now we are capable​—if all goes well—​of producing around 100,000 Bibles and Bible textbooks each normal day of 8³⁄₄ hours’ work in the Brooklyn printing plant.

The German printing plant on a normal day is able to produce between 10,000 and 12,000 bound books with their new equipment.

We also have a printing plant in Finland, which produces only Finnish literature. They are able to take care of all of Finland’s needs. They print magazines, bound books and booklets.

The book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life has had a phenomenal distribution. As you recall, it was released in July 1968. By September 1969, 18,500,000 copies of this book had been produced in fifteen languages. Right now we are processing this publication through the factory in twenty-seven additional languages, and we hope to get all of these out this year, along with many other new publications.

In addition to the tremendous book production, the Watchtower and Awake! magazines have continued to climb steadily upward. In the Brooklyn printing plant alone it was necessary to print 196,726,240 Watchtower and Awake! magazines. This is an increase of 27,576,890 magazines over the previous year. The report that follows gives you an overall picture of what was printed in the four printing plants situated on four square blocks in Brooklyn, about one-quarter mile from the Bethel home.

BROOKLYN FACTORY PRODUCTION REPORT

1967 1968 1969

Bibles 1,086,875 1,004,598 1,819,023

Books 7,165,985 11,126,398 22,219,508

Booklets 12,710,633 17,170,289 11,059,434

The Watchtower 79,753,610 88,074,200 100,275,490

Awake! 74,928,100 81,075,150 96,450,750

Convention Reports ​——​ ​——​ 2,591,000

Total 175,645,203 198,450,635 234,415,205

Advertising leaflets 110,994,600 120,583,807 102,287,901

Calendars 622,255 677,693 838,842

Miscellaneous printing 95,489,281 95,301,797 146,853,747

Tracts 4,485,250 18,331,800 18,343,650

Total misc. printing 211,591,386 234,895,097 268,324,140

The accomplishing of the above production required the use of 15,800 tons of paper, an increase of 3,291 tons over the previous year.

For many years the Society has found it advisable to produce many of its own raw materials, such as ink and adhesives. This in itself involves a considerable undertaking in that this past year we produced 238 tons of ink, an increase of 71 tons over the year before. Adhesives are necessary for our publishing plant. Our production required a total of 405,000 pounds, all of which was made in our Brooklyn factory.

There are many other things that go into the manufacture of books, such as cloth, board, thread, bogus, crash, and packing cartons, probably words that not too many persons immediately understand. Many of these items are ordered by the train carload. The incoming material and outgoing material runs into tens of thousands of tons every year. The handling of all this material and putting it into a beautiful printed Bible or Bible publication brings great delight to the Bethel family. Members of all the Bethel families around the world consider it a great honor and privilege to be serving the interests of the Kingdom and their brothers everywhere. They are providing their brothers and sisters with the equipment they need to preach the good news of the Kingdom. It can be said at this time that the Bethel family is looking forward to the coming year. They are cognizant of the fact that it will be a bigger year, require more work, more energy and a greater effort. Whatever they do will be done having in mind the honor and glory of Jehovah’s name, and the happiness the Word of truth will bring to those who love righteousness.

[Picture on page 82]

Completed in 1956

Purchased in 1958

Dedicated in 1968

Built in 1927; enlarged in 1937 and 1949

Watchtower factories in Brooklyn cover four city blocks