"Once conducted informally in the back rooms of printshops, typesetting races were now public spectacles."
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/twilight-of-the-velocipede/

Twilight of the Velocipede: Typesetting Races before the Age of Linotype
Before Linotype revolutionised typesetting in the 1880s, compositors set texts by hand — and they set them fast. Alex Wright rediscovers the thrilling world of typesetting races, which drew crowds in the thousands, offered huge cash prizes, and helped women "Swifts" fight for workplace equity.









