By Albert S. Burlingham.
Notwithstanding the fact that no one thing connected with the art of
printing has done more toward the advancement of that art than the
simple inking appliance familiarly and commonly known as "the
printer's roller,"--without which, indeed, the evolution of the power
printing press from the primitive hand machines of the fathers would
not have been possible,--it is an inexplicable truth that historians
and encyclopaedia makers who have made investigation of the origin and
progress of the art seem to have attached so little of importance to
the invention or introduction of the composition roller that only
meagre and casual reference is made to it. Even its predecessor, the
"ink-ball," receives but scant courtesy at the hands of these
chroniclers, for while they enter into the minutest detail (and
properly so) in investigating as to whom the world is indebted for the
idea of movable types and the invention of the printing press, they
have not thought it worth their while to rescue from oblivion the
suggester or adapter or constructor--whatever he may have been--of
the device by which those types were inked to receive the impression
from that press, and without which neither types nor press would have
been of any avail.
It seems to be established beyond doubt, however, that the first
suggestion of a roller to take the place of the ink-balls in applying
ink to type forms was that of William Nicholson, with whom, also, the
idea of the cylinder press originated, in 1790. He recognized the fact
that no power press on the cylinder principle could be of practical
use without an inking apparatus different from the primitive
ink-balls. These were hollowed-out blocks of beech, mounted with a
handle, the cavity stuffed with wool and covered with untanned
sheepskin which had been well trodden until it was soft and pliable.
The early printing presses were made of wood, and two men were
required to work a press--one to make the impressions and one to ink
the forms with the balls. The ink was contained in a receptacle called
the ink-table. It was enclosed on three sides, and was attached firmly
to one post, or cheek, of the press, on which were the racks for
holding the ink-balls when not in use. A beechen implement, resembling
somewhat our potato masher, and called the "brayer," was used to
manipulate the ink as it lay on the table; an iron shovel, known as
the "slicer," being used to portion out from the mass of ink such
quantities as were needed from time to time for the brayer.
It required much strength to manipulate the ink-balls properly, and
thus it was a man's work. Taking up ink with them from the table, the
operator vigorously beat the balls together with a rolling movement,
turning them a little at a time so as to make the ink cover the entire
surface and distribute it perfectly thereon. Then the type-forms were
beaten with them until they were properly inked. The work of printing
off an edition was divided between the two men, one manipulating the
ink-balls for an hour, and then taking his turn at the press, while
for the next hour his fellow-workman attended to the inking.
William Nicholson, seeing at once that the idea of a cylinder press
could never be worked out to practical perfection with such a process
of inking as that, built up an inking roller with manifold layers of
cloth, which he covered with the trodden sheep-pelt surface used in
the ink-balls, the distribution of the ink on the roller to be made by
contact with a revolving cylinder of wood. The idea was there, but
that it would have had the intended result was never known, for
although Nicholson's press contained nearly all the principles on
which the cylinder presses of our day are constructed, it lacked one
vital feature--the attaching of the type-forms to the cylinders--and
was consequently not of any practical use.
The Earl of Stanhope, who, in 1798, invented the first iron frame and
"platen" press, with the improvement of levers in addition to screws
to give the impression, coupled with his object Nicholson's idea of an
inking roller or revolving cylinder. He spent large sums in trying to
find a substance that he could utilize for that purpose. He
investigated with the skins of many animals, domestic and wild, and
tanned and dressed in various ways. Different textures of cloth and
varieties of silk were used, but without success. The seam that was
necessary down the entire length of the roller was one great
impediment to success, and even if that could have been overcome, the
proper softness and pliability of surface for receiving and depositing
the ink evenly and smoothly on the type could not be obtained from any
of the processes experimented with; and Stanhope's improvement in
printing presses was still subject to the inconvenience of the ancient
ink-balls.
In 1807 a printer named Maxwell made a sheepskin roller which he
introduced into Philadelphia. It failed of success, and the printers
returned to the ink-balls. This Maxwell roller was reintroduced by
Fanshaw, a New York printer, in 1815, but the printers of that city
rejected it.
The inventors in England were still busily engaged in trying to solve
the problem of the cylinder press that Nicholson had more than
suggested in 1790, and the one great obstacle to success was the
absence of a proper substance for supplying the need of an inking
roller, the difficulty of the type and cylinder having been overcome
by the invention of the "turtle" form. In 1813 a man whose name one
historian gives as B. Foster, another as T. B. Foster, and to whom
another refers as "Forster, an ingenious printer, employed by S.
Hamilton, at Weymouth, England," one day visited the Staffordshire
pottery. In a coloring process in use there Forster, or Foster,
noticed a peculiar composition that covered the surface of the
potter's "dabber." It was moist, pliable, and elastic. The historians
do not say so, but we may well imagine that this "ingenious printer,"
seeing in that composition what he believed to be the long-sought
substance that would do away with the sheep pelt as an inking device,
with all that implied to the progress of the art of printing, must
have awaited with feelings of acute anxiety the answer of the potter
to his query as to what that composition was.
And what was it? "Glue and treacle,"--two of the simplest of articles,
and the easiest to obtain. The printer experimented with them, and
although he was the first to put to practical use in the art of
printing the thing that revolutionized it and advanced it to its
present state of wonderful perfection, yet so far as the printed
chronicle of him goes, we do not know what his Christian name was, or
whether his surname was Foster or Forster; and one chronicler states
that it was in 1813, and another that it was in 1815, that he
discovered roller composition to his fellow-printers.
The collateral evidence, however, is to the effect that it was in
1813. Forster (admitting that to have been his name), proved the
availability of glue and molasses as an inking surface, not by using
it in the form of a roller, but by coating a canvas with it, and using
the canvas thus prepared in place of the sheep pelt on inking balls.
From this the press inventors got the idea of coating a wooden
cylinder with the composition. Applegath & Cowper, inventors of the
Applegath cylinder press, were the first to adapt it in roller form,
and for a time held a patent on the use of it; but the courts of
England decided that there could be no patent on the composition, and
substitutes for the manufacture of rollers having been devised which
were no infringement on Applegath & Cowper's moulds, the compound came
into open use, and Koenig, who had so improved and perfected
Nicholson's ideas and plans for a power cylinder press, was able, in
1814, by the adaptation of the glue and molasses roller, to print the
first edition of a newspaper that was ever run from a cylinder
press--the historic edition of _The London Times_. The problem of the
inking apparatus solved, there was no longer any limit to the exercise
of inventive genius in the advancement of the printing art; and it
is, therefore, to the printer's roller, more than to any one thing,
that that art owes its wonderful preeminence to-day.
There is no record in any of the histories of printing, or in
encyclopaedias, of who it was that introduced the composition roller
into use in this country, or any reference to the date when it came
into service. De Vinne, in his "Typographia," published in 1876, says
that ink-balls were in use here "fifty years ago," or in 1826; but it
must have been only in isolated and out-of-the-way rural printing
offices, for it can hardly be supposed that Yankee "go-aheadativeness"
would have failed to recognize at once the importance of the
discovery, or have long delayed its general adoption, although the
hand press, with many improvements, remained the universal printing
machine in the United States until 1822, when the Treadwell power
press gave the first impulse to more rapid printing. The Treadwell was
not a cylinder press, but its invention would have been of no
consequence without the composition roller. It is certain, however,
that more than sixty years ago the melting pot and roller mould had
become an important adjunct to every rural printing office, and the
making of a new roller was an event in the routine of the
establishment. The orthodox mixture for the composition in the
printing office where the writer of this was the "devil" forty-seven
years ago was "a pint of sugar-house molasses to every pound of the
best glue, with a tablespoonful of tar to every three pints and three
pounds." And that was the customary composition of that day among
country printers.
There is a tradition among printers and roller-makers that the first
roller turned out in this country was moulded in a stove pipe; but
whether it was or not, and no matter who the first roller-maker might
have been, it is a fact that the advance in the art of roller-making
has had to be rapid in order to keep pace with the vast improvements
in the cylinder press which the first composition called into use, and
the old-fashioned glue and molasses rollers would be now of no more
service to them than would the primitive ink-balls which the roller
replaced. A comparison between the mode of making a roller in the
early days of the business and the methods in use to-day will be of
interest.
In the old days the composition was cooked in a caldron over a coal
fire, with water between two jackets to make the steam that forced the
melting. The cast-iron moulds were placed near a stove to give them
the necessary warmth of inner surface, a warm mould being required to
give a good "face" to the roller in the casting. While cooking, the
composition was constantly stirred with a stick to assist in the
proper assimilation of the ingredients. After it had reached the
proper stage, it was strained from the melting kettle into pouring
kettles, similar to ordinary milk pails. The composition was poured
from the top. Naturally, this let into the moulds, with the
composition, the air bubbles and froth that were always present, which
caused imperfections in the rollers. After pouring, it was necessary
to let the moulds stand all night, so the composition might become
sufficiently cool to permit the "drawing" of the rollers. This was
effected by placing a stick against the iron journal at one end of the
roller core and pushing until the roller was forced out of the mould.
But the roller factory of to-day is quite a different affair. Instead
of separate moulds standing about a stove to get ready for the
pouring, there are moulds in nests, or cylinders, resembling a Gatling
gun, or a tubular boiler. There will perhaps be twenty roller moulds
in a nest. The cylinders are balanced in the centre on journals, thus
enabling the workman to place them at any angle desired, for purposes
of oiling the moulds and loading them with the roller cores. The
cylinders have hot and cold water contact, by which they may be
surrounded by either at will. To warm the moulds the cylinder is put
in an upright position, and hot water circulated about it the required
length of time.
The composition--which is something more than the old-time glue and
molasses--is prepared for pouring by melting in a double-jacketed
steam kettle, the stirring being done by a mixer run by steam power.
When ready, the composition is drawn off from the bottom of the
cooking kettles into pouring kettles which have air-tight hoods. To
these a hose is attached, the other end of the hose being connected
with a tank which is charged with air by a pump. The hose being then
attached to the cylinder, the air is introduced from the tank into the
pouring kettle, forcing the composition upward into the cylinder, and
all air from the moulds. This insures a perfect roller.
When the composition has reached the top of the roller stocks, the
valve at the bottom of the cylinder is closed, and the process is
continued to the next cylinder ready for pouring. The cooling of the
cylinders is effected by turning the cold water current around them,
and a nest of moulds may be filled and emptied four or five times a
day. After the cooling, the bottom plate of the cylinder is removed;
the rollers drop out, are trimmed, and are ready for the shipping box.