About the year 1450, Gutenberg was engaged in printing his first book
from movable types. No method of taking the impressions simpler than
that employed by him can be imagined, unless it be with a “buffer,”
or by means of a brush rubbed over the paper laid upon the “form”
of type, after the manner of the Chinese in printing from engraved
blocks. His printing press consisted of two upright timbers, with
cross pieces of wood to stay them together at the top and bottom.
There were also intermediate cross timbers, one of which supported
the flat “bed” upon which the type was placed, and through another
a wooden screw passed, its lower point resting on the centre of a
wooden “platen,” which was thus screwed down upon the type. After
inking the form with a ball of leather stuffed with wool, the printer
spread the paper over it, laying a piece of blanket upon the paper to
soften the impression of the platen and remove inequalities. This was
the machine which Gutenberg used. The mechanical principle embodied
in it was found in the old cheese and linen presses ordinarily seen
in the houses of medieval times.
[Illustration: THE EARLIEST FORM OF PRINTING PRESS]
Were Gutenberg called upon to print his Bible to-day he would find
virtually the same type ready for his purpose as that made by
him, no change having taken place in its general conformation; but
he would be bewildered in the maze of printing machinery of the
beginning of the twentieth century.
The simple form of wooden press, worked with a screw by means of a
movable bar, continued in use for about one hundred and fifty years,
or until the early part of the seventeenth century, without any
material change. The forms of type were placed upon the same wooden
and sometimes stone beds, incased in frames called “coffins,” moved
in and out laboriously by hand, and after each impression the platen
had to be screwed up with the bar so that the paper which had been
printed upon it might be removed and hung up to dry.
[Illustration: THE BLAEW PRESS]
The first recorded improvements in this press were made by William
Jensen Blaew, a printer of Amsterdam, some time about 1620. They
consisted in passing the spindle of the screw through a square block
which was guided in the wooden frame, and from this block the platen
was suspended by wires or cords; the block, or box, preventing any
twist in the platen, and insuring a more equal motion to the screw.
He also placed a device upon the press for rolling in and out the
bed, and added a new form of iron hand lever for turning the screw.
Blaew’s press was introduced into England, and used there as well
as on the continent, being substantially the same as that Benjamin
Franklin worked upon as a journeyman in London, early in the last
century.
[Illustration: STANHOPE PRESS]
Little further improvement was made in the printing press before
the year 1798, when the Earl of Stanhope caused one to be made,
the frame of which, instead of being of wood, was one piece of
cast-iron. A necessity had arisen for greater power in giving the
impression, especially in the printing of woodcuts, and the tendency
was naturally toward larger forms of type, requiring greater exertion
on the part of the printer; the labor in working one of the old
screw presses was about equal to that of the plowman in the field.
The Earl of Stanhope reserved the screw, but caused to be added a
combination of levers to assist the pressman in gaining greater
power, when giving the impression, with less expenditure of energy.
These machines were very heavy and extremely cumbersome. They were
the first iron printing presses ever constructed, and came into
use to some extent. The printers, seizing upon this new idea of a
combination of levers to increase the power, were induced to place
them upon their wooden presses, the improvement resulting generally
in the destruction of the latter, which were not adapted to stand
the strain. The iron platen employed by the Earl of Stanhope had,
however, previously been used upon the wooden presses.
[Illustration: CLYMER’S COLUMBIAN PRESS]
The next practical improvement was made by George Clymer of
Philadelphia, who, about 1816, devised an iron machine, entirely
dispensing with a screw. A long, heavy cast-iron lever was placed
over the platen, one end attached to one of the uprights of the
cast-iron frame, and the other susceptible of being raised and
lowered by a combination of smaller levers, worked by the pressman
after the manner of the ordinary hand press. The impression was given
and the platen raised and lowered by a spindle, or pin, attached to
the centre of the large cross lever at the top, this being properly
balanced to facilitate its being raised with greater ease. Mr. Clymer
carried his invention to England, where it was introduced to some
extent and was known as the “Columbian” press.
[Illustration: PETER SMITH HAND PRESS]
In England there were iron hand presses made by Rutheven, by Brown
and by others, all, more or less, improvements upon the Stanhope.
In 1822 Peter Smith, an American, connected with the firm of R. Hoe
& Co. in New York, devised a machine which was in many respects
superior to any up to that time. The frame was of cast-iron, and in
place of the screw with levers, he substituted a toggle joint, at
once simple and effective.
In 1827, however, Samuel Rust of New York, perfected an invention
which was a great improvement on the Smith press. The frame, instead
of being all of cast-iron, had the uprights at the sides hollowed
for the admission of wrought-iron bars, which were securely
riveted at the top and bottom of the casting. This gave not only
additional strength, but greatly diminished the amount of metal used
in construction. This patent was purchased by R. Hoe & Co., who
improved upon it, and proceeded with the manufacture of the presses,
although the “Smith” continued to be used to some extent. The new
invention was known as the “Washington” press, and in principle
and construction has never been surpassed by any hand printing
machine. They were manufactured in great numbers, and continue to be
manufactured and sold at the present time for taking fine proofs,
although the universal adoption of the cylinder press has almost
entirely superseded them for other printing. The number made and sold
by Hoe & Co. alone, a majority of which are now in use, is over six
thousand. They have been sent all over the world. This style of press
is made in seven sizes.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON HAND PRESS]
The following is a description of this press: The bed slides on a
track and is run in and out from under the platen by turning a crank
which has belts attached to a pulley upon its shaft. The impression
of the platen is given by means of a curved lever acting on a toggle
joint, and the platen is lifted by springs on either side. Attached
to the bed is a “tympan” frame covered with cloth, and standing
inclined, to receive the sheet to be printed. Another frame, called
the “frisket,” is attached to the tympan, and covered with a sheet
of paper, having the parts which otherwise would be printed upon cut
away, so as to prevent the “chase” and “furniture” from blacking
or soiling the sheet. The frisket is turned down over the sheet
and tympan and all are folded down when the impression is taken.
Automatic inking rollers were attached to this machine, operated by a
weight raised by the pull of the pressman, the descent of the weight
drawing the rollers over the type and returning them to the inking
cylinder while the pressman placed another sheet upon the tympan.
Still further improvements in this inking apparatus were made and
patented by Hoe & Co., in which the distribution of the ink on the
rollers was effected by means of an apparatus driven by steam power
and which also caused the inking rollers to move forward over the
type at the will of the pressman.
[Illustration: TREADWELL’S WOODEN-FRAME BED AND PLATEN POWER PRESS]
The bed and platen system of printing was, up to the middle of the
nineteenth century, the favorite method of printing fine books and
cuts. The first “power” or steam press upon this principle was made
by Daniel Treadwell, of Boston, in 1822. The frames were of wood, and
it does not appear that more than three or four of these were ever
constructed. The best machines of this description were those devised
and patented by Isaac Adams, of Boston, in 1830 and 1836, and by Otis
Tufts, of the same place, in 1834. They were first made with wooden
and afterward with iron frames. In 1858 Adams’s business became the
property of Hoe & Co., who continued to manufacture the machines with
added improvements. In all more than a thousand, in no less than
fifty-seven sizes, were sold for use in the United States, some being
sent to other countries. In these machines, the type is placed upon
an iron bed, after the usual manner of the hand press, and this bed
is raised and lowered by straightening and bending a toggle joint
by means of a cam, thus giving the impression upon the iron platen
fixed above it, and firmly held in position by upright iron rods
secured to the bottom bar, a strong cross-piece, at the base of the
machine. The ink fountain is at one end of the press; the inking
rollers travel twice over the form, in a movable frisket frame, while
the bed is down; the paper is taken in by grippers on the frisket
and carried over the form, when the bed rises and the impression is
given; and finally the sheets pass forward from the frisket by tapes
to a sheet flier, which delivers them on the fly board. One thousand
sheets per hour is the maximum speed of the larger sizes of the Adams
press. Although many of these machines were made and great numbers
are still used, and notwithstanding the fact that it was thought by
many experienced printers that fine book and cut work could be done
in no other way than by flat pressure, this system of printing has
given place to that of the cylinder press.
[Illustration: ISAAC ADAMS’S BED AND PLATEN PRESS]
The idea of printing from plates or forms carried upon a flat
bed beneath a cylinder was not a new one, having been employed
by printers of copper-plate engravings in the fifteenth century.
Their machines, however, were rude in form, and made of wood, the
roller revolving in stationary bearings, while the bed, with the
plate upon it and carrying the paper, covered by a blanket, on its
surface, moved backward and forward under the roller. The inking was
done by hand with balls. With the inauguration of this system of
printing from type or forms placed upon a flat bed moved forwards
and backwards under a revolving cylinder, commenced an entirely new
era in the history of the printing press. It should be understood,
however, that the vast number of patents granted for printing
machines in which the cylinder is connected with the bed, or by
the operation of two cylinders together, one holding the form and
the other giving the impression, are almost all for improvements
and devices of detail, the radical principles upon which these are
founded remaining the same. Thus, Sir Rowland Hill, in the early
part of the nineteenth century, projected a machine for printing from
an endless roll, or “web” of paper; and in 1790 an Englishman named
William Nicholson (author, inventor, patent agent, editor and school
teacher) took out a patent covering the idea of cylinder presses in
which the forms should be placed upon either a flat bed or cylinder
at will and receive the impression from a cylinder covered with cloth
or some similar material. Between the bed and cylinder, or between
the two cylinders, the sheet was to be fed in and printed. The ink
was to be put on by a roller built up of cloth and covered with
leather. There is, however, a great difference between an actual
invention and a scheme. If the simple proposition advanced to make a
machine upon this principle, without its consummation, or without any
press being produced, can be considered an invention, then Nicholson
may (as a writer on the subject states) have been “so far ahead of
his time as to leap over three generations” by his invention. As a
matter of fact, however, his patents were mostly schemes, and little
more, as a moment’s reflection will convince. He did not know how
to curve the plates to be put upon the cylinders, nor how to secure
them properly for good work--in fact, he did not know how to make the
plates in any practicable manner. All these questions remained to be
solved in order that the printing press might be an invention. On
this account, therefore, I do not give descriptions of proposals to
make machines, but of presses that have been actually made, and used
sufficiently to entitle them to recognition as practical improvements
exemplifying the progressive evolution of the printing press.
The foundation and growth of newspapers first published periodically,
and finally each day, created a demand for machines which should
print with rapidity, and fine work was delegated for the time being
to the flat bed and platen press, most of it, as has been seen, being
turned out upon the hand press.
The credit of actually introducing into use a flat bed Cylinder
Press is due to a Saxon named Friederich Koenig, who visited England
in 1806, and through the assistance of Thomas Bensley, a printer
in London, devised a machine which in 1812-1813 was worked by him,
and printed, among other publications, a part of “Clarkson’s Life
of William Penn.” Koenig was assisted by a mechanic named Andrew
Bauer, a fellow-countryman. The form of type was placed on a flat
bed, the cylinder above it having a three-fold motion, or stopping
three times; the first third of the turn receiving the sheet upon
one of the tympans and securing it by the frisket; the second giving
the impression and allowing the sheet to be removed by hand, and the
third returning the tympan empty to receive another sheet.
These men also devised what has proved, even to this day, to be a
most efficient reciprocating motion of the type bed. It consists of
a pinion carried on the inner end of a long shaft which is turned by
gearing from the outside of the press frame and has in its length a
universal joint, allowing an up-and-down motion of the pinion as it
revolves. To the outer end of the shaft the wheel connecting with
the impression cylinder is attached. Underneath the bed and fastened
to it is a “rack,” or a row of teeth, with a crescent-shaped segment
of hard metal at each end. In this rack, in addition to the teeth,
are pins, or studs, at each end. The wheel before referred to, at
the outer end of the shaft, being set in motion revolves the pinion
and moves the bed by means of the teeth in this rack. At the proper
moment, calling for the reversal of the bed, the pinion turns around
over one of the pins or studs, against the segment on the rack, and
immediately re-engages its teeth in the opposite side of the rack, so
carrying the bed back again. This motion is repeated at the opposite
end of the rack, and the bed again stopped and returned by the pinion
revolving against the segment and again over the rack, thus giving a
reciprocating motion to the bed.
In 1814 Koenig patented a continuously revolving Cylinder Press.
The part of the periphery of the cylinder not used for giving the
impression is slightly reduced in diameter, so as to allow the form
to return under it freely after giving an impression. He showed
designs adapting it for use as a single Cylinder Press, and also a
two Cylinder Press, both for printing one side of the paper at a
time; likewise a two Cylinder Press for printing both sides of the
paper at one operation. In this later press, the two forms were
placed one at each end of a long bed, and the paper after being
printed on one side by one cylinder, was carried by tapes over a
registering roller to the other cylinder, where it was printed
upon the reverse side. This press, termed a “perfecting press,”
was afterwards improved by Applegath & Cowper so as to be a very
efficient machine.
Koenig erected in the office of the London “Times” in 1814 two of the
two Cylinder Presses mentioned above, which printed on one side of
the paper only, at the rate of 800 sheets per hour.
Koenig, however, was not alone in his efforts to perfect a Cylinder
Press. Various patents were gotten out by Bacon & Donkin in 1813; by
Cowper in 1816 and again in 1818; and by Applegath in 1818. But the
most ingenious and practical device in connection with the movements
of a flat bed and a cylinder for printing machines was patented by
Napier in 1828 and 1830. He was the first who introduced “grippers,”
or “fingers,” for the conveyance of the sheets around the cylinder
during the impression, and for delivering them after printing. Tapes
or strings had previously been employed for this purpose. He was also
the first to manufacture presses in which the impression cylinders
are of small size and make two or more revolutions to each sheet
printed, and he devised the toggles for bringing the cylinders down
to print on the form and for raising them to let the form run back
without touching.
[Illustration: SINGLE SMALL CYLINDER PRESS]
[Illustration: DOUBLE CYLINDER PRESS]
The news of these later inventions reached New York in due time,
and in 1832 Robert Hoe, who had been some time established in the
manufacture of printing presses, sent a young man, Sereno Newton
(whom he afterwards took in partnership with him), to England to
investigate the subject and see what improvements were worthy of
adoption. The result was the construction of the machines known as
the “Single Small Cylinder” and “Double Small Cylinder,” also the
large Cylinder “Perfecting” Press, which have continued, with many
alterations and improvements, to be manufactured up to the present
time.
[Illustration: SINGLE LARGE CYLINDER PRESS]
Hoe & Co. had previously made the first flat bed and cylinder press
ever used in the United States. It was the pattern known as the
“Single Large Cylinder,” the whole circumference of the cylinder
being equivalent to the entire travel of the bed forwards and
backwards, the cylinder making one revolution for each impression
in printing, without stopping. Only a portion of the cylinder was
employed to take the impression, the remainder of its circumference
being turned down small enough to allow the type on the bed to pass
back under it without touching. Hundreds of these machines were made
and are now in use, and they are still made at the present day, with
patented sheet fliers and other devices and improvements in the
methods of manufacture. Other similar presses were made later by
the press-makers A. B. Taylor, A. Campbell, C. B. Cottrell, and C.
Potter, Jr.
The patented sheet flier before referred to, and which was used on
the “Adams” bed and platen press, was greatly improved by Hoe & Co.
and placed upon all their cylinder presses.
Before proceeding further with an account of the faster newspaper
presses, it may be well to complete the history of machines employed
up to this time for book, job and woodcut printing. For this purpose
the “Single Large Cylinder,” already described, was first used. In
England there were the “Napier” presses, the “Wharfdale” and many
others, all involving the same general principle, and capable of
turning out more or less satisfactory work, in proportion to the
perfection of their construction and the skill of those operating
them. Most of the English machines, however, show defects in
mechanical construction. In fact, the supremacy of the American
printing press is maintained in a large measure by the simplicity,
accuracy and perfection of its mechanism. Foreign presses, made by
the cheap labor of Europe, have been repeatedly brought to this
country and introduced into printing offices. They have never,
however, lasted long, most of them having perished in the using or
been found unprofitable.
There have been various modifications of the principle underlying the
Napier movement for flat-bed presses, i. e., having the driving wheel
engage the rack at all times, reversing the movement by turning about
the ends of the rack and driving the bed alternately in opposite
directions.
As early as 1847 Hoe & Co. patented an entirely new bed driving
mechanism. To a hanger fixed on the lower side of the bed were
attached two racks facing each other, but not in the same vertical
plane, and separated by a distance equal to the diameter of the
driving wheel, which was on a horizontal shaft and movable sideways
so as to engage in either one or other of the racks. By this means, a
uniform movement was obtained in each direction.
The reversal of the bed was accomplished by a roller at either end
of the bed entering a recess in a disc on the driving shaft, which
in a half revolution brought the bed to a stop and started it in the
opposite direction.
This involved a new principle; a crank action operating directly
upon the bed from a shaft having a fixed centre, and within recent
years modifications of this patent have been successfully employed to
drive the type bed at a high velocity and reverse it without shock or
vibration.
The “Miehle” Press is a modified form of this movement; the crank pin
or roller is attached to the side of the bed wheel, and at the ends
of the uniform movement it is enclosed within the walls of a vertical
guideway formed at each end of the rack supporting frame, and passes
through the length of this guide as it performs its function of
reversing the bed.
An improvement in this class of bed motions has lately been made and
patented by Hoe & Co. In this machine the crank pin, which controls
the reversal of the motion of the type bed, moves in a rectilinear
instead of a circular pathway. As the motion of the crank is thus
directly in line with the travel of the bed, it is possible to lock
the journal box, enclosing the pin, securely to the bed, while the
bed is being controlled by the action of the crank, and thereby
avoids the friction and consequent wear of parts that occur when the
crank pin moves in a circular line. The movement of the crank is
obtained from the rotatory motion of the bed wheel, and has the same
varying velocities as would be derived from a crank traveling in a
circular pathway. It, therefore, checks the momentum of the bed with
ease, brings the bed to rest, and returns it with an accelerating
motion while under positive control. The wearing of parts is thus
reduced to the minimum, insuring an accuracy of register and
exactness of motion hitherto unattainable. A press with a bed
measuring 48 × 65 inches runs without jar or vibration at a speed of
1,800 impressions an hour.
The press of the present day from which the finest letterpress and
woodcut work is turned off is known as the “Stop Cylinder.” This
was devised and patented by a Frenchman named Dutartre, in 1852,
and introduced into this country about 1853 by Hoe & Co., who have
since patented many improvements upon it. It was a surprise to many
printers to find that this machine could do work which heretofore it
had been supposed the hand press only was capable of performing.
[Illustration: STOP CYLINDER LITHOGRAPHIC PRESS]
The Stop Cylinder Press may be described as follows: The type is
secured upon a traveling iron bed, which moves back and forth upon
friction rollers of steel, the bed being driven by a simple crank
motion, stopping and starting it without noise or jar. All the
running portions of this bed are made of fine steel as hard as it
can be worked. The cylinder is stopped by a cam motion pending the
backward travel of the bed, and during the interval of rest the sheet
is fed down against the guides and the grippers closed upon it before
the cylinder starts, thus insuring the utmost accuracy of register.
After the impression, the sheet is transferred to a skeleton
cylinder, also containing grippers, which receives, and delivers it,
over fine cords, upon the sheet flier, which in turn deposits it
upon the table. The distribution of the ink is effected partly by a
vibrating, polished, steel cylinder, and partly upon a flat table
at the end of the traveling bed, the number of form-inking rollers
varying from four to six. This is without doubt the most perfect flat
bed cylinder printing machine that has ever been devised. It is
made in various sizes. The average output of one of these presses
with a bed 36 × 54 inches is from 1,000 to 1,500 impressions per hour.
The demand being constantly for machines taking on larger sized
forms, there has been lately constructed and patented by R. Hoe & Co.
an entirely new Stop Cylinder Press, having a bed 45 × 62 inches, and
which can be run at a speed of 1,700 impressions an hour. The main
points of difference between the Stop Cylinder Press for type forms
and the Lithographic Press is in the form of the bed only, the other
portions, including the driving apparatus, being almost identical;
therefore the same general description applies to these new machines
for both classes of work. A great objection to flat-bed presses of
large size has always been the height of the cylinder from the floor,
necessitated by the increased dimensions of the driving apparatus
under the bed. In these new presses the bed is reciprocated as usual
by a crank motion, but made exceptionally strong and compounded. This
method of construction not only gives the increased speed but makes
the bed of the machine low down, so that it is better under the hand
and eye of the operator. The product of the machine is delivered
printed side up, by a patented take-off apparatus, which takes the
sheets from the impression cylinder by grippers in a reciprocating
carriage and deposits them upon a table. No tapes or guides come in
contact with the freshly printed ink.
[Illustration: ROTARY ZINCOGRAPHIC OR ALUMINUM PRESS]
Keeping pace with the improved methods and machines employed in
typographic printing, and influenced thereby, the lithographic and
kindred branches of printing have also made progress, induced mainly,
however, by the general striving for more rapid and economical
production. This has been accomplished by using larger stones, paper
and machines, and by employing rotary machines for some work. The
use of curved stones for lithography being impracticable for many
reasons, a substitute was found in plates or sheets made of zinc
or aluminum, which, when properly prepared, possess properties akin
to those in lithographic stones. Being flexible, these sheets are
easily stretched over the curved surface of a cylinder. Although
the development of this branch of printing is due, chiefly, to
the French and Germans, much has been done in this country toward
its improvement, and work is produced upon Rotary Zincographic or
Aluminum Presses that compares favorably with that produced from
stones, and at double the speed. The smaller of these presses,
printing only one color at a time, prints on sheets 30 × 44 inches,
at a speed up to 2,000 impressions per hour; the larger presses of
the same kind print on sheets 44 × 64 inches, at a speed up to 1,700
impressions per hour, although the machines may be run even faster,
according to the dexterity of the feeder.
[Illustration: TWO-COLOR ROTARY ZINCOGRAPHIC OR ALUMINUM PRESS]
Two-Color Rotary Presses are in successful operation in different
parts of this country. In these machines there are two plate
cylinders and one impression cylinder, each of the plate cylinders
having its own inking and dampening appliances. The sheet of paper,
after being fed to the grippers of the impression cylinder, receives
one printing from the first plate cylinder, and a second printing,
in a different color, from the second plate cylinder, and is then
released from the grippers and delivered in the usual manner by
the sheet flier. The size of the sheets printed is 44 × 64 inches,
and running at a speed of 1,700 revolutions per hour, the number
of printings is 3,400, or double that obtained from the one-color
machine of the same size.
We now return to a further consideration of the newspaper press.
The “Single Small Cylinder” and “Double Small Cylinder” machines
heretofore described as primarily the invention of Napier, and
perfected by Hoe & Co. and made by them, came into general use in the
United States. In construction and for the quantity and quality of
work produced they excelled any made in England; the output of one
of the “Single Cylinder” presses reaching 2,000 impressions per hour,
or about as fast as the feeder could lay down the sheets. When still
greater speed was required the “Double Cylinder” press was used, the
travel of the bed being of such length that the form of type passed
backward and forward under both cylinders. Two feeders accordingly
put in the sheets; the maximum speed obtained being about 2,000 from
each cylinder, or 4,000 from the two cylinders per hour, printed on
one side. It was evident, both in England and America, that something
faster must be devised. The growing demand for papers containing
the latest news necessitated increasing effort on the part of the
machine-makers. The presses of Dryden & Ford, Middleton, and others
in England failed to meet the requirements there, as did the “Single”
and “Double” Cylinders in America.
[Illustration: FOUR CYLINDER ROTARY TYPE-REVOLVING PRESS]
[Illustration: TEN CYLINDER ROTARY TYPE-REVOLVING PRESS]
In 1845 and 1846 the firm of R. Hoe & Co. in New York were busily
engaged upon plans and inventions for presses which should meet the
increased requirements of the newspapers in America. The result
was the construction of a press known as the “Hoe Type Revolving
Machine,” embodying patents taken out by Richard M. Hoe. The
first one of these machines was placed in the “Ledger” office in
Philadelphia, in 1846. The basis of these inventions consisted in
an apparatus for securely fastening the forms of type on a central
cylinder placed in a _horizontal_ position. This was accomplished
by the construction of cast-iron beds, one for each page of the
newspaper. The column rules were made “V” shaped; i. e., tapering
toward the feet of the type. It was found that, with proper
arrangement for locking up or securing the type upon these beds, it
could be held firmly in position, the surface form a true circle,
and the cylinder revolved at any speed required without danger of
the type falling out. Around this central cylinder from four to
ten impression cylinders, according to the output required, were
grouped. The sheets were fed in by boys, and taken from the feed
board by automatic grippers, or fingers, operated by cams in the
impression cylinders, and which conveyed them around against the
revolving form of the central cylinder. Here again a great advantage
was gained by the use of the patented sheet flier, consisting of
a row of long wooden fingers fastened to the shaft, and operated
by a cam and springs; the sheet after printing being conducted out
underneath each feed board by means of tapes to the sheet fliers,
which laid them in piles on tables; the number of fliers and tables
corresponding to the number of impression cylinders. The inking was
accomplished by the use of composition rollers placed between each of
the impression cylinders; the fountain being below, underneath the
main type cylinder. The portion of the surface of this type cylinder,
not occupied by the type itself, was utilized as a distributing
table, its surface being lower than that of the type, and the inking
rollers rising and falling alternately to place the ink on the type
and receive a new supply from the distributing surface. The first of
these presses had only four impression cylinders, necessitating four
boys to feed the sheets. The running speed obtained was about 2,000
sheets to each feeder per hour, thus giving, with what was called
a “Four Feeder” or “Four Cylinder” machine, a running capacity of
about 8,000 papers, per hour, printed upon one side. As the demands
of the newspapers increased, more impression cylinders were added,
until these machines were made with as many as ten grouped around
the central cylinder, giving an aggregate speed of about 20,000
papers per hour printed upon one side. A revolution in newspaper
printing took place. Journals which before had been limited in
their circulation by their inability to furnish the papers rapidly
increased their issues, and many new ones were started. The new
presses were adopted not only throughout the United States, but also
in Great Britain. The first one put up abroad was erected in 1848, in
the office of “La Patrie” in Paris, but the downfall of the Republic
and the re-imposition of a stamp duty, soon put an end to all
enterprise in French newspaper publishing. The English, always slow
to adopt improvements, did not appreciate the value of these presses
until the year 1856, when Edward Lloyd of “Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper”
in London, having seen the one in the office of “La Patrie,” ordered
a “Six-Cylinder” machine. This was erected in his office in Salisbury
Square, Fleet Street, London, in the following year. It was no sooner
in operation and seen by the other newspaper proprietors than orders
were received from the London “Times” for two “Ten-Cylinder” presses,
to replace the Applegath machine they were then using. The order
for these machines was a gratifying tribute to American ingenuity,
for the “Times” in December, 1848, in an article on the starting
of the Applegath vertical cylinder press, stated that “No art of
packing could make the type adhere to a cylinder revolving around a
horizontal axis and thereby aggravating centrifugal impulse by the
intrinsic weight of the metal.” Eventually orders from almost all of
the leading newspapers in Great Britain and Ireland were received.
In the meantime various experiments had demonstrated the possibility
of casting stereotype plates on a curve. The process was brought to
perfection by the use of flexible paper matrices, upon which the
metal was cast in curved moulds to any circle desired, and these
plates were placed upon the Hoe “Type Revolving Machine” upon beds
adapted to receive them instead of the type forms. The newspaper
publishers were thus enabled to duplicate the forms, and run several
machines at the same time with a view of turning out the papers
with greater rapidity. In some large offices, such as the New York
“Herald,” London “Daily Telegraph,” and the London “Standard,” as
many as five of these machines were in constant operation. About
this time the stamp duty in England of one penny upon each sheet of
printed matter was repealed. This in itself aided materially in the
development of the newspaper press.
[Illustration: APPLEGATH’S TYPE-REVOLVING PRESS]
After the return of Koenig to Germany, an Englishman named
Applegath, in connection with a machinist named Cowper, made
various improvements, mostly in the way of simplifying Koenig’s
presses. After many experiments, they in 1848 constructed for the
London “Times” an elaborate machine, entirely upon the cylindrical
principle. All of the cylinders of this machine instead of being
horizontal, as in presses heretofore used, were vertical. The
type was placed upon a large upright central cylinder, but the
circumference instead of presenting a complete circle represented
as many flat surfaces as there were columns in the newspaper, the
forms thus being polygonal. Around this central or form cylinder were
placed eight smaller vertical cylinders for taking the impression,
inking rollers being introduced to ink the type as it passed
alternately from one of these impression cylinders to another. The
sheets were fed down by hand from eight flat horizontal feed-boards
through tapes; then grasped by another set of tapes and passed
sideways between the impression cylinder and the type cylinder, thus
obtaining sheets printed upon one side. The impression cylinder
delivered them, still in a vertical position, into the hands of boys,
one stationed at each cylinder to receive them. The results obtained
from this machine were in a measure satisfactory, as the number of
papers printed per hour upon one side, from one form of type, was
materially increased; not, however, in proportion to the number of
impression cylinders placed around it, as the press at its best could
produce but 8,000 impressions per hour, on one side of the sheets.
Having devised no means to lock up the type other than in flat
columns, the polygonal form was a necessity, and the irregularities
in it were made up by underlaying the blankets on the impression
cylinders to take up these inequalities. Although this press, used in
the London “Times” office, was the only one of the kind ever made,
its size and importance warrant some record and description of it.
This machine was taken out to make way for Hoe Type Revolving
Presses.
In 1835 Sir Rowland Hill had suggested the possibilities of a machine
which should print both sides at once from a roll of paper. It is
well known that for many years cotton cloths had been printed in
this way, the cylinders being engraved and the cloth after printing
being reeled up again. The suggestion, however, was accompanied by no
practical knowledge as to the details, and, above all, no practical
provision for the rapid cutting off and delivery of the paper either
before or after it had been printed. It remained for an American,
William Bullock, of Philadelphia, to construct, in 1865, the first
printing machine to print from a continuous web or roll of paper.
His machine consisted of two pairs of cylinders, i. e., two form or
plate cylinders and two impression cylinders. The second impression
cylinder was made of large size to provide additional tympan surface,
to lessen the offset from the first printed side of the paper. The
stereotype plates were not made to fill the whole circumference of
each of the form cylinders, as the sheets were cut before printing.
One difficulty he had to contend with was the cutting off of the
sheets with sufficient accuracy and rapidity. This he accomplished by
severing them by means of knives in cylinders. The sheets were then
carried through the press by tapes and fingers, and delivery sought
to be accomplished by means of a series of automatic metal nippers
placed upon endless leather belts at such distance apart as to grasp
each sheet successively as it came from the last printing cylinders.
This machine was put up in several offices and rejected because of
its unreliability, especially in the delivery of the papers, but it
was finally so far perfected that it came into use to a considerable
extent.
[Illustration: BULLOCK PRESS]
Meanwhile the proprietors of the London “Times” inaugurated
experiments with the view of making a rotary perfecting press, and
finally started the first one in that office about 1868. It was
similar in construction to the “Bullock” press so far as the printing
apparatus was concerned, excepting that the cylinders were all of one
size and placed one above the other. The sheets were severed after
printing, brought up by tapes, and carried down to a sheet flier
which moved back and forth, and “flirted” the sheets alternately into
the hands of two boys seated opposite one another on either side of
the sheet flier.
[Illustration: LONDON TIMES ROTARY MACHINE]
Marinoni, of Paris, also devised a machine on a similar principle,
making the impression and the form cylinder of one size, and placed
them one above the other. The “Marinoni” machine had separate fly
boards for the delivery of the sheets.
In 1871 R. Hoe & Co. also turned their attention to the construction
of a rotary perfecting press to print from a roll or continuous web
of paper.