ECONOMICS OF TRANSLATION

I am going to talk both as a user and a perpetrator of translations, since, in the Patent Department of the Mond Nickel Company Limited, the Information Section has to abstract and translate patents and other legal documents as well as technical and scientific articles from, and occasionally into, foreign languages. A large part of this work is done within the department but the incessant pressure, due to the necessity of working to definite dates—a very common problem in patent work—forces us to send out some work to outside translators. We have thus acquired a considerable store of experience on the economic or L.s.d. side of translation work.