Among the marvels of machinery of the present day there are none more
complicated and bewildering in appearance than that by which the news of
the world is sent adrift within the daily newspaper and none more
marvelously effective in its operation. If we go back to the days when
the seeds of the modern press were planted, we find them in the
hand-printing done by the Chinese with their engraved blocks, and with
the simple press used by Gutenberg about 1450, when he printed the first
book from movable types.
His press consisted of two upright timbers held together by cross pieces
at top and bottom. The flat bed on which the types rested was held up by
other cross timbers, while through another passed a wooden screw, by the
aid of which the wooden “platen” was forced down upon the types. The
“form” of type was inked by a ball of leather stuffed with wool, the
printer then spread the paper over it, laying a piece of blanket upon
the paper to soften the impression, after which the screw forced the
platen down on the paper and this on the type. This press was not
original, since similar cheese and linen presses were then in use.
[Illustration: THE BLAEW PRESS, 1620]
For 150 years this crude method of printing continued in operation, the
first known improvement being made by an Amsterdam printer about 1620,
he adding a few parts to render the work more effective. Such was the
simple press still employed when Benjamin Franklin began his work as a
printer a century later. In 1798 the Earl of Stanhope had a cast-iron
frame made to replace the wooden one and added levers to give more power
to the pressman. Woodcuts were then being printed and needed a stronger
press.
We must go on with the old Gutenberg method and its tardy improvements,
for another century, or until about 1816, when George Clymer, a printer
of Philadelphia, did away with the screw and employed a long and heavy
cast-iron lever, by the aid of which the platen was forced down upon the
type, the operation being assisted by accompanying devices.
As will be seen, the growth of improvements had until then been very
slow. From this time forward it became far more rapid, some useful
addition to the press being made at frequent intervals. The “Washington”
press, used at this time by R. H. Hoe & Co., of New York, embodied these
improvements, and became one of the best hand-printing presses so far
made. The first steam-power press was introduced by Daniel Treadwell, of
Boston, in 1822, the bed and platen, or its successor, the cylinder,
being used in these and in the improved forms that followed until after
the middle of the century.
[Illustration: STANHOPE PRESS, 1798]
The idea of replacing the platen by a cylinder was not a new one. It was
employed in printing copper-plate engravings in the fifteenth century, a
stationary wooden roller being employed, beneath which the bed, with its
form and paper, was moved backward and forward, a sheet being printed at
each movement. With this idea began a new era in the evolution of the
printing press. A vast number of patents have since been issued for
printing machines in which the cylinder is connected with the bed and
later for the operation of two cylinders together, one holding the form
of type and the other making the impression. But all these were for
improvements, the underlying principle remaining the same. The
conception of a press of this character in which the paper was to be fed
into the press in an endless roll or “web” goes back to the beginning of
the nineteenth century, though it was not made available until a later
date.
[Illustration: CLYMER’S COLUMBIAN PRESS, 1816]
Meanwhile, however, patent after patent for the improvement of the
cylinder press were taken out and the art of printing improved rapidly,
the firm of Hoe & Co. being one of the most active engaged in this
business, the United States continuing in advance of Europe in the
development of the art. The single small cylinder and double small
cylinder introduced by this firm proved highly efficient, the output of
the former reaching 2,000 impressions per hour, while the double type,
used where more rapid work was needed, yielded 4,000 per hour.
[Illustration: PETER SMITH HAND PRESS, 1822]
But the demands of the newspaper world steadily grew and in 1846 a press
known as the Hoe Type Revolving Machine was completed and placed in the
office of the _Public Ledger_, of Philadelphia. By increasing the number
of cylinders the product was rapidly added to, each cylinder printing on
one side 2,000 sheets per hour.
In 1835 Sir Rowland Hill suggested that a machine might be made that
would print both sides of the sheet from a roll of paper in one
operation. A similar double process had been performed for many years in
the printing of cotton cloth. This remained, however, a mere suggestion
until many years later, and the one-side printing continued. But, by
adding to the number of cylinders, a speed of 20,000 papers thus printed
was in time reached.
[Illustration: TREADWELL’S WOODEN-FRAME BED AND PLATEN POWER PRESS,
1822]
To prevent the possible fall of types from a horizontal cylinder, the
vertical cylinder was introduced by the London _Times_, but this danger
was overcome in the Hoe presses, and by the subsequent invention of
casting stereotype plates in a curve the final stage of perfection in
design was reached. In 1865 William Bullock, of Philadelphia,
constructed the first printing press capable of printing from a web or
continuous roll of paper, knives being added to cut the sheets, which
were then carried through the press by tapes or fingers and delivered by
the aid of metal nippers. There were difficulties in this series of
operations, but these were overcome in the later Hoe press, in which the
sheets were merely perforated by the cutter, and were afterward fully
separated by the pull of accelerating tapes.
The old-time rag-paper had disappeared for newspaper work, being
superseded by wood-pulp paper, the cheapness of which added to the
desire to produce presses of greater speed and efficiency. It was also
desirable that papers should be delivered folded for the carrier, and
this led to the invention of folding machines, one of the earliest of
which, produced in 1875, folded 15,000 per hour.
We have in the foregoing pages told the main story of the evolution of
the printing press from the crude machine used by Gutenberg in 1450 to
the rapid cylinder press of four centuries later. There is little more
to be said. Later changes were largely in the matter of increase of
activity, by duplication and superduplication of presses until sextuple
and octuple presses were produced, and by adding to the rapidity and
perfection of their operation, and the extraordinary ingenuity and
quickness with which the printed sheets were folded and made ready for
the convenience of the reader. Sir Rowland Hill’s dream of a press which
would print both sides of the paper at one operation in due time became
a realized fact, while vast improvements in the matter of inking the
forms, and even the addition of colored ink by which printing in color
could be done, were among the new devices.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON HAND PRESS, 1827]
What we have further to say is a question of progress in rapidity of
action rather than of invention. The 20,000 papers printed per hour,
above stated, has since been seen passed to a degree that seems fairly
miraculous. The quadruple press of 1887 turned out eight-page papers at
a running speed of 18,000 per hour, these being cut, pasted and folded
ready for the carrier or the mails. Four years later came the sextuple
press (the single press six times duplicated) with an output of 72,000
eight-page papers per hour, and in a few years more the octuple press,
its output 96,000 eight-page papers per hour. Larger papers were of
course smaller, but its capacity for a twenty-page paper was 24,000 per
hour.
[Illustration: ISAAC ADAMS’ BED AND PLATEN PRESS, 1830]
[Illustration: SINGLE LARGE CYLINDER PRESS, 1832-1900]
[Illustration: SINGLE SMALL CYLINDER PRESS, 1835-1900]
[Illustration: DOUBLE CYLINDER PRESS, 1835-1900
These presses were built up to 1900 and this picture shows the latest
design brought out about 1882.]
[Illustration: DOUBLE OCTUPLE NEWSPAPER WEB PERFECTING PRESS, 1903]
[Illustration: ELECTRIC-HEATED PNEUMATIC MATRIX-DRYING MACHINE, 1911]
As may well be conjectured, the twentieth century has had its share in
this career of progress, the perfected press of 1916 being credited with
the astounding output of 216,000 eight-page papers in an hour, all
folded, cut and counted in lots. Where part of the pages are printed in
three colors this press has still a running speed of 72,000 per hour.
This machine is composed of 27,100 separate pieces, it being 47 feet
long, 8 feet wide and 13 feet high, while such a mighty complication of
whirling wheels and oscillating parts nowhere else exists.
A word more and we are done. To feed such giant presses the old hand
method of setting and distributing type has grown much too slow. The
linotype machine has added greatly to the rapidity of this centuries-old
process. To this has been added the later monotype, of similar rapidity,
while type distributing has become in large measure obsolete, the types,
once used, going to the melting pot instead of to the fingers of the
distributors.
* * * * *
What do We Mean by the “Flying Dutchman”?
The Flying Dutchman is a phantom ship said to be seen in stormy weather
off the Cape of Good Hope, and thought to forbode ill luck. One form of
the legend has it that the ship is doomed never to enter a port on
account of a horrible murder committed on board; another, that the
captain, a Dutchman, swore a profane oath that he would weather the Cape
though he should beat there till the last day. He was taken at his word,
and there he still beats, but never succeeds in rounding the point. He
sometimes hails vessels and requests them to take letters home from him.
The legend is supposed to have originated in the sight of some ship
reflected from the clouds. It has been made the ground-work of one or
two novels and an opera by Wagner.
Why does a Duck’s Back Shed Water?
Nature has provided the duck with a protection against water just as she
has so wisely protected all animals against such elements as they have
to live in.
The feathers on a duck are very heavy and close together, and at the
bottom of each feather is a little oil gland that supplies a certain
amount of oil to each feather. This oil sheds the water from the back of
a duck as soon as it strikes the feathers.
Canvasback ducks are considered the finest of the water-fowls for the
table. The canvasback duck is so called from the appearance of the
feathers on the back. They arrive in the United States from the north
about the middle of October, sometimes assembling in immense numbers.
The waters of Chesapeake Bay are a favorite locality for them. Here the
wild celery, their favorite food, is abundant, and they escape the
unpleasant fishy flavor of the fish-eating ducks.
Why doesn’t the Sky ever Fall Down?
The sky never falls down because there is nothing to fall. What we see
and call the sky is the reflection of the sun’s rays on the belt of air
that surrounds the earth. That beautiful blue dome that we sometimes
hear spoken of as the roof of the earth is just the reflected light of
the sun on the air.
The atmosphere of the earth consists of a mass of gas extending to a
height which has been variously estimated at from forty-five to several
hundred miles, possibly five hundred, and bearing on every part of the
earth’s surface with a pressure of about fifteen pounds per square inch.
How are Sand-Dunes Formed?
Sand-dunes are composed of drift sand thrown up by the waves of the sea,
and blown, when dry, to some distance inland, until it is stopped by
large stones, tree roots or other obstacles. It gradually accumulates
around these, until the heaps become very large, often forming dunes or
sand-hills.
What do We Mean by an “Eclipse”?
Any good dictionary will tell us that an eclipse is an interception or
obscuration of the light of the sun, moon or other heavenly body by the
intervention of another and non-luminous heavenly body. Stars and
planets may suffer eclipse, but the principal eclipses are those of the
sun and the moon.
An eclipse of the moon is an obscuration of the light of the moon
occasioned by the interposition of the earth between the sun and the
moon; consequently all eclipses of the moon happen at full moon; for it
is only when the moon is on that side of the earth which is turned away
from the sun, and directly opposite, that it can come within the earth’s
shadow. Further, the moon must at that time be in the same plane as the
earth’s shadow; that is, the plane of the ecliptic in which the latter
always moves. But as the moon’s orbit makes an angle of more than five
degrees with the plane of the ecliptic, it frequently happens that
though the moon is in opposition it does not come within the shadow of
the earth.
[Illustration: DIAGRAMS ILLUSTRATING THE THEORY OF ECLIPSES.]
The theory of lunar eclipses will be understood from Fig. 1, where _S_
represents the sun, _E_ the earth, and _M_ the moon. If the sun were a
point of light there would be a sharply outlined shadow or umbra only,
but since the luminous surface is so large, there is always a region in
which the light of the sun is only partially cut off by the earth, which
region is known as the penumbra (_P P_). Hence during a lunar eclipse
the moon first enters the penumbra, then is totally eclipsed by the
umbra, then emerges through the penumbra again.
An eclipse of the sun is an occultation of the whole or part of the face
of the sun occasioned by an interposition of the moon between the earth
and the sun; thus all eclipses of the sun happen at the time of new
moon.
Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the principle of a solar eclipse. The dark
or central part of the moon’s shadow, where the sun’s rays are wholly
intercepted, is here the umbra, and the light part, where only a part of
them are intercepted, is the penumbra; and it is evident that if a
spectator be situated on that part of the earth where the umbra falls
there will be a total eclipse of the sun at that place; in the penumbra
there will be a partial eclipse, and beyond the penumbra there will be
no eclipse.
As the earth is not always at the same distance from the moon, and as
the moon is a comparatively small body, if an eclipse should happen
when the earth is so far from the moon that the moon’s shadow falls
short of the earth, a spectator situated on the earth in a direct line
between the centers of the sun and moon would see a ring of light around
the dark body of the moon; such an eclipse is called annular, as shown
in Fig. 3; when this happens there can be no total eclipse anywhere,
because the moon’s umbra does not reach the earth.
An eclipse can never be annular longer than twelve minutes twenty-four
seconds, nor total longer than seven minutes fifty-eight seconds; nor
can the entire duration of an eclipse of the sun ever exceed two hours.
An eclipse of the sun begins on the western side of his disc and ends on
the eastern; and an eclipse of the moon begins on the eastern side of
her disc and ends on the western.
The average number of eclipses in a year is four, two of the sun and two
of the moon; and as the sun and moon are as long below the horizon of
any particular place as they are above it, the average number of visible
eclipses in a year is two, one of the sun and one of the moon.
What are Dreams?
The dictionary tells us that a dream is a train of vagrant ideas which
present themselves to the mind while we are asleep.
We know that the principal feature, when we are dreaming, is the absence
of our control over the current of thought, so that the principal of
suggestion has an unlimited sway. There is usually a complete want of
coherency in the images that appear in dreams, but when we are dreaming
this does not seem to cause any surprise.
Occasionally, however, intellectual efforts are made during sleep which
would be difficult to surpass when awake.
It is said that Condillac often brought to a conclusion in his dreams,
reasonings on which he had been employed during the day; and that
Franklin believed that he had been often instructed in his dreams
concerning the issue of events which at that time occupied his mind.
Coleridge composed from two to three hundred lines during a dream; the
beautiful fragment of “Kubla Khan,” which was all he had committed to
paper when he awoke, remaining as a specimen of that dream poem.
The best thought points to the fact that dreams depend on natural
causes. They generally take their rise and character from internal
bodily impressions or from something in the preceding state of body or
mind. They are, therefore, retrospective and resultant, instead of being
prospective or prophetic. The latter opinion has, however, prevailed in
all ages and among all nations, and hence the common practice of
divination or prophesying by dreams, that is, interpreting them as
indications of coming events.
What Makes Our Teeth Chatter?
When one is cold there is apt to be a spasm of shivering over which the
brain does not seem to have any control. The spasm causes the muscles of
the jaw to contract very quickly and as soon as they are contracted,
they let the jaw fall again of its own weight. This occurring many times
in rapid succession is what causes the teeth to chatter.
There are two kinds of spasms, “clonic” and “tonic.” In the former, the
muscles contract and relax alternately in very quick succession,
producing an appearance of agitation. In the latter, the muscles
contract in a steady and uniform manner, and remain contracted for a
comparatively long time.