more fluid than for book-printing is made use of. It is pressed
into the cavities of the plate by smearing it over the surface;
and by subsequent careful wiping the redundant colour is cleared
away. In this state, if soaked paper, for which purpose the most
spongy texture is the best, be strongly pressed against the
plate, by passing both together between two cylinders of metal or
hard wood, properly defended by woollen cloth, the greatest part
of the colour adheres to the paper, and forms what is called a
print.
“In all these processes, it is easily seen, that in the
successive applications of colour, the accurate filling of the
form or original with the material intended to receive the
impression, and in various other parts of the manipulation,
there is much room for the display of skill, or for injury from
the want of it. It may moreover be collected, that the motions
attendant on the various steps of manufacture, are in many
instances difficult to be performed with rapidity and ease,
until by long continued habit the workman himself is converted
as it were into a machine. A very slight degree of attention to
this subject must also shew that, if the originals were of a
cylindric form, with a contrivance for regularly applying the
colour and performing the subsequent operations, it would be easy
to print books and piece goods with a degree of rapidity and
uniformity, of which the usual method of successive applications
seems scarcely capable without uncommon care and skill. This
obvious conclusion has no doubt led to numerous experiments; none
of which, so far as I can gather, whatever may have been their
particular utility, have given much promise to supersede the
ordinary methods. But as the increased demand for the manufacture
of printed goods has rendered such an improvement an interesting
object to manufacturers, as well as to those indefatigable
artists who have directed their efforts towards improvements;
and as the latter generally take up a new object under a strong
persuasion that it has not before been pursued by others, it will
certainly be of advantage to these deserving classes of men, to
relate a few of the difficulties of this new art.
“The difficulties attendant on any improvement in the arts may
be considered either as moral or physical. Under the moral,
I would class every thing that relates to the prejudices of
men in favour of the old methods, and their fears of risk,
together with the œconomical and commercial inconveniencies
attending the new processes. The physical difficulties are
such as attend the actual performance of any project after the
same has been carefully arranged in the mind of the inventor.
It happens unfortunately here also that the inventor is seldom
aware of the moral impediments; but almost always concludes,
that if he can succeed in accomplishing the purpose that he has
in view, his cares and labour will then be at an end; and that
the manufacturer, in particular, instead of pointing out new
impediments discernible only from long continued experience,
will more readily embrace and approve of the new processes, in
consequence of his superior knowledge of their intrinsic value.
“Every good invention appears simple in the prospect, but it
scarcely ever happens in the execution that the most direct
road is taken; and in every case there will infallibly be many
things unknown or unforeseen, which practice only can point out
as necessary to be done for the complete accomplishment of the
object in view. Hence, and likewise because few men possessed of
independent fortune are likely to engage or persevere in a labour
of this kind, it almost invariably happens that the expences
exceed the ability of the inventor himself. For these and other
reasons, new undertakings are generally brought forward by the
inventor, a man strongly prejudiced in favour of his leading
pursuit, together with a moneyed friend, who hopes speedily to
increase his capital from the abilities of the other. It is not
necessary in this place to describe the usual consequences of a
partnership, where the minds, the views, and the circumstances of
both individuals are so very different, and which may be modified
still more essentially if either of the parties be deficient
in the common principles required to bind men to each other.
It is certainly of the highest importance to both, that the
circumstances of such connections should be very maturely weighed
before they are entered into.
“The commercial difficulties or facilities attending any
invention, are also of great consequence. Every inventor ought
to enquire not only what has been done before, but likewise into
the present state of the manufacture he means to improve. In
this way it is ascertained how small a part the mere press-work
constitutes in the price of a book. He will find that twelve
yards of paper-hangings are printed for one penny, in a single
colour, by hand, which afterwards, by the accumulation of price,
in paper, colour, duty, and ordinary profit, are sold for three
shillings; none of which the inventor can pretend to diminish;
and if he could annihilate the whole labour, his advantage would
therefore be less than three per cent. without reckoning the cost
and operation of his machinery. In the callico-printing, with a
more expensive material, dyeing and field-processes, duty and
profits of manufacture and vender, the price of laying the block
will turn out to be an object still less considerable. Again:
it will be seen that small flat blocks cost but little money in
comparison with cylinders of sufficient diameter to retain their
figure, and long enough to apply to the whole breadth of the
cloth.
“Under these and other similar points of view, the inventor,
who may consider the subject in a superficial manner, would be
ready to abandon his undertaking. But this again ought not to be
rashly done. It is true, that where the great force of capital
is employed on objects not comprehended within his project, the
saving, however large in its absolute amount, or desirable to a
manufacturer, will scarcely come within the reach of the inventor
by any bargain he can make short of an actual partnership.
But it may be possible to separate the respective departments
of a manufactory. A spinner is not necessarily a weaver; nor
a printer a linen-draper or a dealer in paper-hangings. The
several departments of manufacture and commerce are, generally
speaking, in the hands of acute men, who seldom reason ill with
regard to the advancement of their peculiar interests; and these
departments are continually fluctuating in their arrangement,
as convenience, profit, or the accumulation of capital may
lead. Experiments are for ever on foot, from day-work to
piece-work, and from piece-work to the employ of master-workmen
with others under them, all supported by the capital of the
large manufacturer, who himself in many instances is the mere
instrument maintained by the advances or acceptances of the
warehouseman, the factor, or the merchant. An inventor, who has
not capital, may seek for employ on the goods or the capital of
others; and if he has skill to maintain his ground against the
numerous enterprises which the activity of opposite interests
will raise against him, he will find that the old order of things
will readily alter, as soon as an evident interest in favour of
the new is shewn by actual and continued proofs in the market.
“Most of the physical difficulties attendant on any new process
are such as experience only can shew. Thus, in the forging of
iron by the pressure of rollers instead of hammers, a scheme
upon which many thousands of pounds have been expended in this
country, it was apprehended that the more impure parts, which
are also the most fluid, might be pressed out by the action of
cylinders, with equal or perhaps more advantage than by that of
hammers; at the same time that the determinate figure of bars of
any required size might be given without skill in the operator.
Experience nevertheless has shewn, that the more fluid part is
driven out much more effectually by the sudden action of a blow,
than by the slower compression of a cylinder, which allows time
for much of the fluid matter to extend itself within the mass.
Various similar effects present themselves when cylinders for
printing are substituted instead of planes. Instead of the action
of dabbing, the colour is usually applied by simple and gradual
contact, to much less effect; and the impression, though not
essentially different from that of the block, is performed by a
gradual action, which affords time for the cloth or paper to fold
itself in a minute degree into the cavities of the sculpture.
Hence it is found that the length of paper or cloth printed from
a cylinder by a definite number of revolutions, will be greater
or less than another piece manufactured precisely in the same
way, but with a less or greater degree of pressure. In a block
this defect is much less, not only from the considerable hold
it takes upon the surface of the material, but also because the
error is rectified at every successive application. One of the
chief difficulties of cylinder printing consists, therefore, in
the difficulty of laying one colour after another; and this would
continue to be so even if the materials were not susceptible
of change, the contrary to which is the fact. There are two
projects for obviating this. The one consists in confining the
whole piece to a long table, or to the circumference of a large
cylinder; and causing the printing cylinder to move, not by the
successive apposition of its carved surface, but of a bearing
face regulated by a toothed wheel. The other method consists
in the use of a frame to confine two or more cylinders, each
provided with its own toothed wheel, and revolving against a
large clothed cylinder provided with a suitable wheel to drive
the others. The piece is caused to pass between the large
cylinder and the others, in order to receive the impression. With
regard to the first of these methods, it does not appear easy to
confine paper, and still less cloth, in such a manner that its
parts may continue without shift or wrinkle during the action of
a cylinder, which not being allowed to roll without the check of
a wheel, must draw the surface either the one way or the other.
The difficulty of confinement will be very much increased by the
indispensable requisite that the paper should be afterwards hung
up to dry, and the callico be carried to the dye-house and the
bleach-field, between the successive impressions, by which means
the dimensions of both will be greatly altered. In the second
method, it is observable that no colours can be printed but such
as fall clear of each other. In this way, moreover, the gathering
action of the cylinders may prove very mischievous. For, if we
suppose the paper or cloth to pass between the great cylinder
and the first printing roller by an action of the latter which
tends to make it slip forward on the face of the great cylinder,
and that when it arrives at the second printing roller it there
experiences an action of a contrary nature, the consequence will
be, that the material will become slack between the two rollers,
and the fittings will be false. Not to dwell on that experience
which brings forward this obstacle among others, its great
probability may be deduced from the allowable supposition, that
the circumference of the first printing cylinder should be one
thousandth part of an inch too large, and that of the second the
same quantity too small. For, in this case, the material will
be shifted one-twentieth of an inch in fifty turns by the first
cylinder, and the same quantity in the contrary direction by the
second; a quantity upon the whole quite sufficient to destroy the
effect of the colours in the progress of one single piece. Such
minute differences can hardly be avoided in the first instance;
in addition to which, we may place the varying dimensions of
the printing cylinder, if not made of metal; and of the great
clothed cylinder, which in effect has a larger or smaller
diameter in proportion to the pressure which operates to render
its elastic covering either thicker or thinner. The only method
of diminishing these evils seems to be, that all the printing
cylinders should, by dimension or pressure, or both, be made
to draw the same way, the outer cylinder most, and the others
gradually less and less, so that the material should have a
tendency to apply itself more tightly during its passage through
the apparatus.
“The application of the colour to the surface of a cylinder
block, is attended with some difficulty. An ingenious mechanic
may contrive various means to produce the action of dabbing, if
required. When a stuffed cylinder covered with cloth is made
to revolve in the colour, and thence, after passing a scraper,
to apply itself to the block cylinder, it is found to be no
inconsiderable difficulty that its dimensions change, and its
covering becomes wrinkled by the action of the scraper as well
as that of the block. A better method, therefore, consists in a
revolving web of woollen cloth, like a jack towel, stretched over
three horizontal cylinders parallel to each other, two of which
support the elastic surface of the web, which in its revolution
accompanies the block cylinder; and the other serves to guide
the same web to the colour, or a cylinder revolving in it. This
method would be very easy and pleasant in its operation, if it
were not for a property common to all straps which revolve on the
surface of two or more wheels. These are observed always to seek
the highest place; so that if a cutler’s wheel were made with a
groove to carry a strap, instead of a round edge, the strap would
infallibly mount the ledge, instead of remaining in the groove.
On this principle, the web would very speedily shift itself to
one end of the cylinders, if it were not confined sideways, or
the lower roller were not made considerably thickest in the
middle, and gradually tapering towards its extremities. This last
simple expedient is not without its difficulties; but, as I have
not actually tried it, I shall defer entering into any discussion
on that head.
“The running of the paper or piece-goods towards one end of
the leading cylinder is also one of the greatest difficulties
attending this method of printing. It is not perfectly removed by
tapering the leading cylinders.
“The nature of the trade of paper-staining in this country, which
requires a large sum to be immediately vested in the payment
of the excise duty, and consequently prevents any considerable
stock from being manufactured until orders are actually received,
and the varying fashions in printed callicoes, which render the
expence of cutting the block by for the heaviest part of the
disbursement for printing, are probably the chief reasons why
manufacturers in this country have been less solicitous for the
construction of machines calculated to afford profit only in the
case of very numerous impressions. The physical difficulties
of this art have likewise conspired, in no small degree, to
prevent its having been applied in the large way to any but a
few simple designs of the sort called running patterns in one
colour.”--_Nicholson’s Journal_, vol. i. 1797.
The following is the statement respecting König’s machine, which was
the first that was made; it appeared in the Literary Gazette, with
an engraving; and as that Gazette was at the time printed by Mr.
Benjamin Bensley, at a machine, as well as from other circumstances,
I am led to believe that the information contained in it was supplied
by Mr. Bensley himself, and that, as far as it goes, it may be relied
upon.
“The cylindrical mode of printing, which, in contradistinction to
the old process by the press, is called _Machine Printing_, was
invented by the late Mr. Nicholson, well known in the scientific
and literary world, who took out a patent in the year 1790,
though it does not appear that his plans and experiments ended
in any actually practical result. Whether M. König, who at a
later period more successfully attempted to print by machinery,
was indebted to Mr. Nicholson for his elementary principles, or
whether almost the same ideas spontaneously occurred to each
individual, is a question that can only be satisfactorily solved
by the former. Thus much is certain, that M. König’s labours
were the first which produced any fruit:--and surely more is
due to him who, after years of persevering toil, succeeds in
the application of hitherto unapplied principles, than to one
of whom we can only say that he was simply the first to suggest
ideas--since no evidence is offered of their ever having been
acted upon.
“M. König, by birth a Saxon, and by occupation a printer, many
years ago conceived it possible to print by Steam, though he
then expected no more than to be able to give accelerated
speed to the common press, to which end his first efforts were
bent. As from the nature of such an undertaking, considering
the state of scientific pursuits in his native land, he could
calculate on little success unaided by others, and failing in his
application for encouragement and support at the hands of the
most eminent printers in several of the continental capitals,
he turned his eyes towards England. Arriving in London about
1804, he submitted his scheme to several printers of repute,
who, not being disposed to incur the risk of property which a
series of experiments was sure to entail, and perhaps placing
little confidence in a successful issue, received his overtures
very coolly: and it is probable his applications in this country
would have shared the fate of similar attempts abroad, had he not
finally been introduced to Mr. Bensley senior, who, attracted
by M. K.’s plans, speedily entered into an arrangement with
him. After a short course of experiments on the fabrication of
a press which should have accelerated motion, and at the same
time render the work of the man who _inks_ the type unnecessary,
the above gentlemen were joined by Mr. G. Woodfall and Mr. R.
Taylor, the former of whom however soon retired; the remaining
three, in nowise discouraged by the tediousness and expense
which all who are conversant with the progress of any invention
in machinery well know to be unavoidable, persevered amidst
unforeseen perplexities, which were doubtless not diminished by
the parties’ deficiency in practical mechanical knowledge. It
was at length discovered that the intended improvement of the
common press could not be brought to bear--and that much labour
and prodigious expence would be thrown away, unless more radical
alterations were invented. Cylindrical printing was now thought
of--and after some two or three years of renewed exertion, a
small machine was brought forth, the characteristic of which was,
that instead of the printing being produced by a flat impression
(similar to the press) the sheet passed between a large roller
and the types still flat; and in lieu of the old fashioned balls,
used by hand to beat over the types and so to communicate the
ink to their surface, skins were strained round smaller rollers,
on which it was contrived to spread the ink, and under which the
Form, _i. e._ the frame in which the types are fixed, passed in
its way to the printing cylinder. Considerable promise of success
attended this production; and after continued experiments, it was
deemed practicable to extend the general principles to a more
powerful machine. To print a newspaper was considered highly
desirable--and on exhibiting to Mr. Walters, proprietor of the
Times Newspaper, the Machine already erected, and shewing what
further improvements were contemplated, an agreement was entered
into with that gentleman for the erection of two large machines
for printing his Journal. So secret had been the operations
of the patentees, that the first public intimation of their
invention was given to the reader of _The Times_ on Monday the
28th of November, 1814, who was told that he then held in his
hand one of many thousand impressions thrown off by steam. At
this time but few persons knew of any attempt going on for the
attainment of the above object; whilst among those connected with
printing, it had often been talked of, but treated as chimerical.
“The machines at the Times Office, cumbrous and complicated as
subsequent improvements have made them appear, are yet in many
respects admirably adapted to the purpose for which they were
erected, and it is believed will outlast many contrivances for
printing which have been since brought out.
“The next advance in improvement was the manufacture of a machine
for Messrs. Bensley, distinguished from those before mentioned
by the mode of _perfecting_ (or printing on both sides)--so that
the sheet of white paper is placed in the feeder, and delivered
from the machine printed on both sides! In addition to the
essential difference between this machine and those previously
made, it came forth with many obvious improvements, though still
unquestionably complex:--and for the first attempt at effecting
register (causing the pages to fall precisely on the back of
one another) a greater degree of success than might have been
expected was attained, subsequent experience shewing the many
difficulties to be surmounted in the accomplishment of this
object. Deficiencies were now detected in the _inking_: the
strained skins were found uneven in their surface; and attempts
were made to clothe the rollers with an elastic preparation of
glue, treacle, &c. which has at length attained perfection.
“By this time the invention had attracted the attention of
various individuals, who thought the manufacture of printing
machines an easier task than they afterwards found it to be; and
far the greater number of attempts, we believe, failed almost as
soon as undertaken. A machine, however, similar in its capacities
to that last mentioned, but much more simple in its construction,
has been brought out--under the direction of some eminent
engineers. It was not long before these gentlemen were requested
to apply their _inking_ apparatus to Messrs. Bensley’s machine;
and at one stroke, as it were, _forty wheels_ were removed--so
great was the simplification: and at the same time the defects of
the former system, of communicating the ink to the types, were
most effectually remedied. Massive and complicated as it was,
yet as an immense expense had been incurred in its erection,
Messrs. Bensley went on using their machine until the destruction
of their establishment by fire in 1819. And even after the
rebuilding of the premises, the machinery, which had been only
partially damaged, was reinstated, and worked for some time:--it
has now, however, given place to two large and admirable machines
built on the improved plan, which when inspected by a judicious
eye can only create wonder at the heretofore circuitous manner
adopted to attain ends so apparently within easy reach. The
writer has no hesitation in stating that the original machine
contained upwards of _one hundred_ wheels; whereas the new
machine, with about _ten wheels_, accomplishes, in point of
_quantity_, exactly the same object, and with a marked advantage
in regard to the _quality_ of the printing. Another important
point respecting the new machine is, that it occupies scarcely
half the space of the original one.