CHAPTER V
The Development of Printing Presses
The development of printing machinery has already been described to a considerable extent in two of the preceding volumes of this series (No. 6, Platen Printing Presses, and No. 7, Cylinder Printing Machines). It may be worth while, however, to review briefly in this place the main points of progress in this direction. As we already know, American printers originally and for many years imported all their presses as well as their type. This condition, however, could not be permanent. As early as 1775 good presses were being made at Philadelphia and Hartford. These presses were of the Blaeu or “Dutch” type. They were wooden machines with stone beds and had undergone practically no change for a couple of centuries. The best known builder of these old presses in America was Adam Ramage, who came from Scotland to Philadelphia in 1790. Ramage was not only a good workman, but of an inventive turn of mind, and introduced several improvements, notably the substitution of an iron bed for the stone one. The iron press was invented by Lord Stanhope, in England, about the year 1800 and was the beginning of the improvements in printing machinery which were to go so far in the course of a century.
Mr. Henry L. Bullen is authority for the statement that no Stanhope press was ever brought to America. The reason lies probably in the fact that an American invented an iron press at about the same time. This was George Clymer, of Philadelphia, who after much experimenting produced the Columbian Press, an iron machine which came into general use in England as well as in the United States about 1816. It was a complicated machine, but in spite of its complexity was very durable and beautiful as well as powerful. It was worked on the ordinary hand-lever principle, but the leverage system gave a fine chance for the pressman’s skill. It had wonderful possibilities in the production of the most perfect work when in the hands of a skillful workman. It won and long kept well-deserved favor. It was introduced into England in 1807, and in 1817 Clymer himself followed it to England, where he spent the remainder of his life.
In spite of the capacity of the Columbian press for the production of artistically perfect work there was a great and increasing demand for presses of a different type. The demand was for a simpler press and also for one that would mechanically turn out larger quantities of work than were possible under the old leverage system. The first demand was met by the invention of Peter Smith, of New York, who built a press somewhat on the lines of the Columbian, which was very heavy, carried larger forms, and used shorter levers, and by Samuel Reid, who, in 1824, invented the simple but excellent Washington hand press, which is still in common use.
From this point on there are two lines of development which may be followed separately, one the development of the power printing press in which the bed and platen are brought together by a power-driven gear rather than by a hand-moved lever, the other the development of the cylinder press.
The first known attempt to apply power to a printing press was made by William Nicholson, of London, in 1790, in connection with his abortive attempt at the invention of a cylinder press, to which reference will be made later.
The first American attempt to use power was made by Nathan Hale, father of the famous Edward Everett Hale, who took possession of the Boston Advertiser in 1814.
Daniel Treadwell, of Boston, invented and built for Hale the first power press used in America. It was a very large platen with a wooden frame. The presses of Isaac Adams (1830) and Otis Tufts (1834) also had originally wooden frames, but later were built with iron frames. Very few Treadwell presses were ever used. At first they were driven by horsepower, later by steam. The early power presses were worked by horses, by men known as crank-men, and even in the case of small machines by dogs. These crude power appliances soon gave way to steam, and within a few years steam has been largely supplanted by the electric drive, with a tendency to a preponderance of individual motor-driven machines. The electric drive, by the way, is an American invention.
In 1830 Samuel Adams, of Boston, built a platen power press, which was long the only power press capable of fine work and exact register. Not long later S. P. Ruggles, of Boston, invented the Diamond, a small, rapid machine for the quick production of cards, envelopes, and other small work, and later, in 1839, the Ruggles rotary, a successful and popular power jobber. In 1856 George P. Gordon began the line of Gordon presses, still made in improved models by the Chandler & Price Company, of Cleveland, and very extensively used. The advantages of the Gordon were simplicity of design, a strong impression, high speed, and lightness of running.
In 1869 Merritt Gally invented the Universal press, using a different mechanical system and producing a perfectly parallel impression. Gally’s invention was later improved by John Thomson, who produced a machine which has been extensively used and is well known as the John Thomson press. In 1875 Gally also invented a heavy press for embossing, cutting, and creasing heavy stock. In 1885 the Colt’s Armory universal press, a very excellent machine especially adapted to heavy work, was placed on the market.
In 1885 Wellington P. Kidder invented a platen press of the Gordon type, with automatic feed and delivery.
In 1890 Albert Harris invented the Harris press, the first really successful high-speed automatic jobber. Two other familiar high-speed presses, the Auto Press and the Kelly, are small high-speed cylinders.
The first known attempt to make a cylinder press was that of William Nicholson, of London, who invented, in 1789, a machine that should apply the paper to the type by means of a cylinder. As we have seen, Nicholson went so far as to invent application of power to his machine, forseeing that power would be necessary for the use of any successful cylinder presses. Nicholson was not a printer, and his idea, although it had attracted attention, did not assume practical shape.
Ten years, or so, later Dr. Kinsley, a Connecticut man, developed Nicholson’s idea and produced a cylinder press, which is described at considerable length by Isaiah Thomas in his History of Printing. Thomas seems to have been a good deal interested in the machine, although he appears to have regarded it as promising rather than successful. He says that it saved labor and did good work. He was sufficiently interested to print a picture of it although his book is not otherwise illustrated. In a general way it was not unlike a modern cylinder proof press. It printed on one side only and was not so arranged as to secure perfect register if an impression was desired on the other side.
Several other attempts were made at the invention of cylinder presses, which attracted considerable attention, but which were not commercially successful. The first real success was made by Fredrick König, a native of Saxony, who, in 1814, invented a cylinder press which was immediately put into use in the press room of the London Times. König’s invention, like most first inventions in a new field, was susceptible of improvement, especially in the direction of simplicity. These improvements, however, were soon made, and the cylinder press started on its career of wonderful development. The first cylinder press used in America was a Napier brought out from England in 1825, and set up in the office of the National Intelligencer in Washington.
The development of the cylinder press in America is largely connected with the name of Hoe. Robert Hoe, a Leicestershire farmer’s son, was born in 1784, and in due time was apprenticed to a carpenter. In 1803 he came to New York, where he worked at his trade. After a time he became associated in business with his brother-in-law, Matthew Smith, Jr. Smith was a carpenter and a printer’s joiner (that is to say, a maker of press frames and other wood work used by printers) and a brother of Peter Smith, the press inventor, who has already been mentioned. Through this association the firm got into the business of building presses, first of wood and later of iron.
Both the Smiths died in 1823 and Hoe inherited the business, which he carried on in the name of Robert Hoe & Company. Hoe was always enterprising and his attention was quickly drawn to the Napier press, which had been set up in Washington in 1825. As usual, this machine was not patented in this country and Hoe proceeded to imitate it, with such changes as occurred to him, and put on the market, in 1827 and 1828, the first flat bed and cylinder press made in the United States.
Robert Hoe retired on account of failing health in 1832, but he left the business in the capable hands of Richard M. Hoe and Matthew Smith, the son of Matthew, Jr., Robert Hoe’s original partner. The concern went on building and improving presses and in 1842 they patented a new bed-driving motion of which the well-known Meihle press of today is a development.
In 1845 Hoe & Company brought out the Hoe type-revolving machine. This was the first press distinctively for large newspaper circulations, which they afterward developed to so wonderful a degree, and which henceforth was their leading line of production. In this machine the type forms were imposed on turtles and fastened on a central cylinder, against which revolved as many impression cylinders, from two to ten, as were required. This machine put American printing machinery in the first rank. In 1858 the Hoe firm bought out the Isaac Adams patents and business.
About this time two other important inventions were made, both of which were later utilized by the Hoes. In 1853 Pratt built for the Brooklyn Daily Advertiser the first perfecting press, or press printing both sides of the paper without removing the sheet. In 1860 William Bullock began to experiment on a rotary self-feeding or web printing press, and finally succeeded in achieving success in 1865. The Bullock machine was self-feeding, but cut the sheets from a web before printing.
In 1847 Hoe & Company began work on a rotary printing press to print from the web without first cutting it into sheets. This involved all the essential parts which had been discovered and gathered them into one machine. The experiment was successful, resulting in the production of the wonderful multiple press, which may be seen today in the press room of any great newspaper.
The invention of the Hoe press, the development of the autoplate, a machine invented in 1900 by Henry A. Wise Wood, of New York, whereby the process of stereotyping is made in a practical way subsidiary to newspaper printing, and the invention of wood pulp paper have made possible the modern newspaper.
We have thus very hastily traced the process of development in types and presses in the United States. Much might be said, if space permitted and the purpose of this series required it, of the invention of other presses, appliances, and methods, and of the improvements which are constantly being made in the tools and materials used in printing and the allied industries. These matters, however, are of only secondary historic interest. So much as the apprentice needs to know about them he will learn in the course of his work, as he comes in contact with them and learns their use. Perhaps the purpose of this book has been sufficiently accomplished in showing the milestones along the historical development of the two great tools of the printer, his type and his press.
The list which follows is a brief statement of the most important contributions of American inventors to the art of printing:
- Web rotary presses.
- Automatic stereotyping machines.
- Printing machinery under electrical control.
- Two-revolution cylinder presses.
- Sheet feed rotary presses.
- Multicolor presses.
- Rotary direct and rotary offset presses for lithographic work.
This, of course, includes only the inventions which are fundamental and original. Improvements of some fundamental invention, made elsewhere or earlier, are not included, although in this connection it is worth while to mention one important thing which owes to America almost everything except its original invention. This is process printing, both in black and white and in colors. Process printing was not an American invention. It is safe to say that it would be only a scientific experiment if it had not been made practical by American inventions, such as coated paper, first made for half-tone work by the Cumberland Mills Company for Mr. De Vinne, ruling machines for half-tone work, which were first made by Max Levy, of Philadelphia, about 1880, and three-color process plates, which were first made by Frederick Ives, of Philadelphia, in 1881.