A Short History of The Printing Press, by Robert Hoe

The first folders made by Hoe & Co. consisted of the combination of a “gathering cylinder” with a rotary folding cylinder and tapes conveying the printed sheets under horizontal folding blades, somewhat similar to those before described, which thrust them at the proper moment between folding rollers placed at alternate angles, finally delivering them on travelling belts by a small flier. The first of these folding machines were put upon the presses made for the Philadelphia “Times” and operated in the Centennial Exhibition, in 1876.

These folders, however, were only the commencement of a long series of experiments undertaken by the makers in the development of still faster printing and folding mechanisms, and from this time forward the progress made has been phenomenal. With great ingenuity, added to long experience, and by the acquisition and adaptation of every device which should aid them in their efforts, Hoe & Co. succeeded in providing machines of unrivalled designs, efficiency and speed.

About 1876 Messrs. Anthony & Taylor of England (the former one of the owners of a newspaper in Hereford) took out patents for devices by which the webs of paper could be turned over after printing on one side and the opposite or reversed side presented to the printing cylinder. Mr. Hoe, who was in England at the time, appreciating the possible use and development of these patents, became possessed of them for England and the United States.

E. L. Ford, engaged in the publication of a newspaper in New York, patented the uniting of the product of two or more printing mechanisms and thus producing (in restricted form) a multiple number of pages at one time. He was unable, however, to develop his plans to any practical result; but deserves the credit of being the first to patent, if not to conceive, the idea of the association of printed sheets for this purpose.

In the various experiments of Hoe & Co. bearing upon the manipulation of webs of paper some of their devices appeared to encroach upon patents secured by Luther C. Crowell, inventor, of Boston, who had made an ingenious machine for forming paper bags. These patents were immediately secured by purchase and the experimental work proceeded with the view of adapting some of them to the requirements of the printing press. After many efforts, and the failure and destruction of several machines which had been constructed at great expense, the Hoe “Double Supplement” machine was produced, the first one being purchased by James Gordon Bennett of the New York “Herald” and put to work in his office. The result of these efforts has been, for a third time, a complete revolution of the methods of fast newspaper printing. The most remarkable features of this machine are: Its extreme simplicity, considering the varied work it performs, and its great speed, accuracy and efficiency. It turns out either four, six, eight, ten or twelve page papers at 24,000 per hour, and sixteen page papers at 12,000 per hour; the odd pages being in every case accurately inserted and pasted in, and the papers cut at top and delivered folded. This machine is constructed in two parts, the cylinders in one portion being twice the length of those in the other; the short cylinders being used for the supplements of the paper when it is desired to print more than eight pages. The plates being secured on the cylinders, the paper enters from the two rolls into the two portions of the machine, through each of which it is carried between the two pairs of type and impression cylinders, and printed on both sides, after which the two broad ribbons or “webs” pass over turning bars and other devices, by which they are laid evenly one over the other, and pasted together. The webs of paper then pass down upon a triangular “former,” which folds them along the center margin. They are then taken over a cylinder, from which they receive the final fold, a revolving blade within this cylinder projecting and thrusting the paper between folding rollers, while at the same moment a knife in the same cylinder severs the sheet, and a rapidly revolving mechanism, resembling in its motion the fingers of a hand, causes their accurate disposal upon traveling belts, which convey them on for final removal. From this rather summary description it will be apparent that the principle of retaining the paper in the web, or unsevered form, up to the final fold and delivery, and performing all the operations without retarding the onward run of the paper, effectually prevents chokes or stoppages through any miscarriage of sheets severed before the folding. Several hundred of these machines have been made and put in operation by the United States; and in offices of the large newspapers in Great Britain and other countries.

Previous to the introduction of the “Double Supplement” press, however, Hoe & Co. had made what is known as the “Double Perfecting” machine. The success of this press, which embraces substantially the printing and folding devices embodied in the “Double Supplement” machine, was the connecting link between the ordinary “single” or two-page-wide press and the “Double Supplement” machine.

The next improvement in fast presses was the construction of the machine known as the “Quadruple” Newspaper Press. This was a step in advance of anything heretofore attempted. The first one was constructed in 1887 and placed in the office of the New York “World.” The same principles were embraced in this as in the “Double Supplement,” but developed to a greater extent. The supplement portion of the press was increased in width. By means of ingenious arrangements and manipulation of the webs of paper this press was made to produce eight-page papers at a running speed of 48,000 per hour; also 24,000 per hour of either ten, twelve, fourteen or sixteen page papers; all delivered with great exactness and perfection; cut at the top, pasted and folded ready for the carrier or the mails.

Another form of the Double Supplement and Quadruple machines, embodying substantially the same principles, is what has been termed the “straight-line” press. In this form of construction the cylinders are arranged in horizontal rows, or tiers, one above the other, there being two pairs of cylinders in each tier, with the folding and delivery apparatus at the end of the machine. Some of these presses, made under the patent of Joseph L. Firm, and which belong to R. Hoe & Co., have been constructed.

It was thought that the limit of printing capacity in one machine had been reached in this new invention, but in 1889 the same firm undertook the task of constructing a machine for Mr. Bennett of the “New York Herald,” which would even eclipse the “Quadruple” machine, which had, together with the “Double Supplement” press, superseded almost all others in the large offices of the United States, as well as in Great Britain and Australia. The press made for the “New York Herald” and known as the “Sextuple” machine, occupied about eighteen months in construction. It is composed of about sixteen thousand pieces. The general arrangement differs entirely from that of the “Quadruple” machine. The form and impression cylinders are all placed parallel, instead of any being at right angles as in the “Quadruple” and “Double Supplement” Presses. To give an idea of this machine, we cannot do better than to quote the description of it in the “New York Herald” of May 10th, 1891.

“The new Hoe press which is being set up in the ‘Herald,’ Building is nothing less than a miracle of mechanism. To say that it is the only one of the kind ever built and that it throws all previous inventions into the background are facts which the following figures abundantly prove.

“Its consumption of white paper is so astounding that even the imagination grows tired and sits down to catch its breath. It is fed from three rolls, each being more than five feet wide. When it settles down to show its best work it will use up in one hour nearly twenty-six miles of this paper, or to make the matter more significant, it will use up about fifty-two miles of paper the ordinary width of the ‘Herald’ every sixty minutes.

“Our readers will be startled to learn that it can print and fold ninety thousand four-page ‘Heralds’ in an hour. This is, to the mind, which is not versed in the problem of rapid printing, a feat which makes Aladdin’s lamp an old woman’s fable. Ninety thousand per hour means fifteen hundred copies per minute, or twenty-five copies for every second of time ticked by the clock in Trinity’s steeple.

“It is, of course, the last and best result of modern invention—the highest attainment of genius at the present time.

“This new press will print, cut, paste, fold, count and deliver 72,000 eight-page ‘Heralds’ in one hour, which is equivalent to 1,200 a minute and 20 a second.

“It will print, cut, paste, fold, count and deliver complete 48,000 ten or twelve-page ‘Heralds’ in one hour, which is equivalent to 800 a minute and a fraction over 13 a second.

“It will print, cut, paste, fold, count and deliver complete 36,000 sixteen-page ‘Heralds’ an hour, which is at the rate of 600 a minute or 10 a second.

“It will print, cut, paste, fold, count and deliver complete 24,000 fourteen, twenty or twenty-four page ‘Heralds’ an hour, which is at the rate of 400 a minute, or very nearly seven a second.

“This is lightning work with a vengeance and yet it is possible that there may be some who read this who will live to call it slow. That will probably be when they have found out all about how to put a harness on electricity. No one can predict when inventive genius will reach its limit in the printing press. But for the present this new press marks high water mark.

“Before this press was built the fastest presses in the world were Hoe’s ‘Quadruple’ Presses, of which the ‘Herald’ has two. These presses turn out 48,000 four, six or eight-page papers an hour, 24,000 ten, twelve, fourteen or sixteen-page papers an hour, and 12,000 twenty or twenty-four-page papers an hour, all cut, pasted and folded.

“This new press has a well-nigh insatiable appetite for white paper. To satisfy it, it is fed from three rolls at the same time, one roll being attached at either end of the press and the third suspended near the center. It is the only press that has ever been able to accomplish that feat. Each roll is sixty-three inches wide, or twice the width of the ‘Herald.’ When doing its best this press will consume 25⅞ miles of sixty-three-inch-wide paper—equivalent to 51¾ miles of paper the width of the ‘Herald’—in one hour, and eject it at the two deliveries in the shape of ‘Heralds,’ each copy containing an epitome of the news of the world for the preceding twenty-four hours, and each copy cut, pasted and folded ready for delivery to the ‘Herald’ readers. It is a sight worth seeing to see it done. Certainly we know of nothing else which affords such a striking example of the triumph of mechanical genius.

“A man turns a lever, shafts and cylinders begin to revolve, the whirring noise settles into a steady roar, you see three streams of white paper pouring into the machine from the three huge rolls, and you pass around to the other side—it is literally snowing newspapers at each of the two delivery outlets. So fast does one paper follow the other that you catch only a momentary glitter from the deft steel fingers that seize the papers and cast them out.

“The machine weighs about fifty-eight tons. It is massive and strong, with the strength of a thousand giants. And yet though its arms are of steel and its motions are all as rapid as lightning, its touch is as tender as that of a woman when she carries her babe. How else does the machine avoid tearing the paper? It tears very readily, as you often ascertain accidentally when turning over the leaves. Truly wonderful it is, and mysterious to anybody but an expert, how this huge machine can make newspapers at the rate of twenty-five a second without rending the paper all to shreds.

“It has six plate cylinders, each cylinder carrying eight stereotype plates, which represent eight pages of the ‘Herald,’ and six impression cylinders. These cylinders, when the press is working at full speed make 200 revolutions a minute. The period of contact between the paper and the plate cylinders is therefore inconceivably brief, and how in that fractional space of time a perfect impression is made, even to the reproduction of such fine lines as are shown in these illustrations, is one of those things which, to the man who is not ‘up’ in mechanics, must forever remain a mystery. But that it does it you know, because you have the evidence of your own eyes.

“A double folder forms part of this machine. A single folder would not be equal to the task imposed upon it. As it is, this double folder has to exercise such celerity to keep up with the streams of printed paper that descend upon it that its operations are too quick for the eye to follow.

“The press has two delivery outlets. At each the papers are automatically counted in piles of fifty. No matter how rapidly the papers come out, there is never a mistake in the count. It is as sure as fate. By an ingenious contrivance—if I should attempt to describe it more definitely most people would be none the wiser—each fiftieth paper is shoved out an inch beyond the others that have been dropped onto the receiving tapes, thus serving as a sort of tally mark.

“Truly it is a marvelous machine—this Sextuple press. Nowhere will you find a more perfect adaption of means to ends; nowhere in any branch of industry a piece of mechanism which offers a finer example of what human skill and ingenuity is capable of. And it is free from that reproach which is sometimes brought against the greatest triumph of inventive genius in other departments of human activity—that they make mere automatons out of human beings.

“The printing press is synonymous with progress, with the diffusion of knowledge and the spread of ideas. Without the great improvements that have been made in it within the memory of many men now living the modern newspaper, the best friend of liberty, and the greatest foe of tyranny, would be an impossibility. It has more than kept pace with the advancement in other departments of industry. In 1829 the Washington Hand Press was introduced and regarded as quite a mechanical triumph. At its best it printed 250 impressions an hour on one side, or 125 complete newspapers of insignificant dimensions. Now, a little over sixty years later, a machine is brought out which, when the number of papers alone is compared, does 150 times as much work in the same time, and which, if the comparison is extended to the actual amount of printing done, does over 2,000 times as much work.”

About 1871 a machine called the “Prestonian” was made by Foster, a machinist of Preston, England, and two or three were set to work, but did not enjoy any great degree of favor. They embodied a combination of the “Hoe Type Revolving Machine” with the “endless sheet perfecting press.” The form of type for one side of the paper was placed upon one cylinder, with impression cylinders around it, in the manner of the Hoe press, and the form for the other side on another cylinder, and the paper passed from one set of impression cylinders to the other. The principal objection to this machine was its lack of speed. The same principle, however, had been developed years before in the “type revolving perfecting” presses (made by Hoe & Co.) which have two sets of type forms on separate large cylinders, the sheets being fed in by hand and conveyed from one impression cylinder to the other and against the forms by means of fingers or grippers. The sheets were then delivered on a sheet flier. These presses were especially designed for printing books, of which large numbers were required, such as text books and spelling books. The contents of a whole book could be placed on these cylinders and printed and delivered at one impression. One of these machines constructed in 1852 (fifty years ago) is still in operation at Messrs. D. Appleton & Co.’s printing office in Brooklyn, as active and efficient as ever.

In 1881 Hoe & Co. turned their attention to the making of a machine which should print FROM ONE FORM OF TYPE at a greater speed than had ever yet been attained. The result was the “Rotary Type Endless-sheet Perfecting Press.” The principle of this machine was in a measure that of their “Type-Revolving” press. The forms of type for both sides of the paper were placed on a central cylinder, which was surrounded by impression cylinders and inking rollers.

There, were, however, no feeders and no grippers. The roll of paper was placed at the end of the press, passed around the impression cylinders arranged at one side of the form cylinder, and then turned upside down at the lower part of the machine, thence being carried upwards. The opposite or unprinted side was presented in turn between each impression cylinder and the forms. If four impression cylinders were placed around the central cylinder then at each revolution of the latter four perfect papers were printed. If eight impression cylinders were placed around the central cylinder then eight perfect papers were printed at one revolution of the main or form cylinder. The speed attained by this machine with four impression cylinders was about 12,000 per hour, and from machines with eight impression cylinders 24,000 copies per hour were printed. This press was especially adapted for afternoon papers when the time or expense necessarily involved in stereotyping could not be afforded. The majority of the machines made were provided with four impression cylinders only. In the machines with eight impression cylinders two rolls were used, one at either end of the machine, the paper from each roll passing under the two first impression cylinders on either side, each web then being turned over, and paper passed between the two remaining cylinders on either side to print the opposite sides of the sheets.

In this machine a folding apparatus was placed at each end to receive the product of the rolls, but in the machine with four impression cylinders only one folder was placed, at the end of the machine opposite that at which the paper entered.

The experience gained in the construction of these fast newspaper machines, and the accumulation of patented devices entering into them, which were numbered by the score, had their influence in the improvements which were made upon presses for the printing of weekly newspapers, periodicals and magazines.

In 1888 was introduced a patented Hoe machine called the “Three-page-wide Press.” It has a capacity of printing, perfecting and delivering two-page papers, with one fold, at the rate of 60,000 per hour; four-page papers, with two folds, at 24,000 per hour, six-page papers at 24,000 per hour; eight-page papers, folded twice, or to carrier size, at 12,000 per hour, and twelve-page papers, folded in the same manner as the eight-page, at the same speed, viz., 12,000 per hour; all the supplement sheets being inset and pasted if desired.

The outside pages may receive the first or the last impression at will, thus enabling large cuts and other similar work to be printed without offset.

Grippers and horizontal folding knives and all tapes but short leaders are done away with in the delivery and folding mechanisms, the movements being all rotary.

The press occupies but a small space on the floor, being 6 feet 1 inch high, 8 feet wide and 15 feet 5 inches long over all.

In 1889 Hoe & Co. constructed a patented perfecting machine in which the plates, or forms, for both sides are placed upon one cylinder, one side of the form of matter being placed upon one end, or half of the cylinder, and the other side upon the opposite portion of the cylinder. One impression cylinder only is used, and the inking apparatus is greatly extended. This machine is remarkable for the great variety of work it will do. At a high rate of speed, sheets of eight, sixteen, twenty-four and so on up to ninety-six or one hundred and twenty-eight pages may be printed and delivered folded in either 12mo, 8vo, 4to or folio sizes, ready for the binder. The press does the work of ten flat-bed cylinder presses and ten hand-feed folding machines. The paper is supplied to the machine from the roll, and after printing passes over the “former” into the folding machine, where the folding and cutting cylinders produce the required number of pages in the form desired. Curved electrotypes are now made successfully and this press was the first to bring the printing of the average book and catalogue within the range of web press work. While in general principles this machine is similar to the large newspaper perfecting presses, though very much smaller in bulk, it has increased facilities for distribution, and finer adjustments throughout. The plates admit of underlays and overlays the same as on a flat-bed press. There are no tapes, the folding being done on rollers and small cylinders without smutting the printing. In the folding apparatus there are knives which cut the sheet into the right size for folding, after which they are automatically delivered counted in lots of fifty each. The speed on a thirty-two page form is about 16,000 copies per hour. This style of machine is probably destined to revolutionize book and pamphlet printing, as it combines the finest construction and facility of operation with the greatest speed.

In 1886 a further advance was made toward perfection in the rotary system of printing as adapted to doing fine work, in the construction for Theodore L. De Vinne, the printer of the “Century” Magazine, by Hoe & Co., of a perfecting press to do the plain forms of that periodical. The machine was described in the magazine, in an article written by Mr. De Vinne, here quoted from:

“At the end of a long row of machinery stands the web press—a massive and complicated construction, especially built by Hoe & Co. for printing, cutting and folding the plain and advertising pages of the ‘Century.’ Web presses for newspapers are common enough, but this press has distinction as the first, and for three years the only, web press used in this country, for good book work. At one end of the machine is a great roll of paper more than two miles long when unwound, and weighing about 750 pounds. As the paper unwinds it passes first over a jet of steam which slightly dampens and softens its hard surface and fits it for receiving impressions, without leaving it wet or sodden. It passes under a plate cylinder, on which are thirty-two curved plates, inked by seven large rollers, which print thirty-two pages on one side. Then it passes around a reversing cylinder which presents the other side of the paper to another plate cylinder, on which are thirty-two plates which print exactly on the back the proper pages for the thirty-two previously printed. This is done quickly—in less than two seconds—but with exactness. But the web of paper is still uncut. To do this it is drawn upward under a small cylinder containing a concealed knife, which cuts the printed web in strips two leaves wide and four leaves long. As soon as cut the sheets are thrown forward on endless belts of tape. An ingenious but undetectable mechanism gives to every alternate sheet a quicker movement, so that it falls exactly over its predecessor, making two lapped strips of paper. Busy little adjusters now come in play, placing these lapped sheets of paper accurately up to a head and a side guide. Without an instant of delay down comes a strong creasing blade over the long center of the sheet, and pushes it out of sight. Pulleys at once seize the creased sheet and press it flat, in which shape it is hurried forward to meet three circular knives on one shaft, which cut it across in four equal pieces. Disappearing for an instant from view, it comes out on the other side of the upper end of the tail of the press in the form of four folded sections of eight pages each. Immediately after, at the lower end of the tail of the press, out come four entirely different sections of eight pages each. This duplicate delivery shows the product of the press to be at every revolution of the cylinder sixty-four pages, neatly printed, truly cut, and accurately registered and folded, ready for the binder. Two boys are kept fully employed in seizing the folded sections and putting them in box trucks, by which they are rolled out to the elevator, and on these sent to the bindery. This web press is not so fast as the web press of daily newspapers, but it performs more operations and does more accurate work. It is not a large machine, nor is it noisy, nor does it seem to be moving fast, but the paper goes through the cylinders at the rate of nearly two hundred feet a minute. It does ten times as much work as the noisier and more bustling presses by its side.”

The success of this perfecting press induced the makers to devise a machine on the rotary principle adapted for the finest kind of illustrations—in short, to make a press which should do work as fine as it was possible to do on the hand press or the stop cylinder. The result was the setting up, in 1890, at the De Vinne Press, of a machine known as the “Rotary Art” press. This machine is described in the “Century” of November, 1890, as follows:—“Sixty-four plates of the ‘Century’ truly bent to the proper curve, are firmly fastened on one cylinder sixty inches long, and about thirty inches in diameter; sixteen inking rollers, supplied with ink from two fountains, successfully ink these sixty-four plates with a delicacy and yet with a fullness of color never before attained. The shafts of the impression cylinder and the plate cylinders, 4½ inches in diameter, do not give or spring under the strongest impression. Although rigid in every part, in the hands of an expert pressman it can be made responsive to the slightest overlay. This machine is fed by four feeders from single sheets in the usual manner, and does the work of four stop cylinders in superior style. The gain in performance is not as great as the gain in quality of presswork, but quality was considered more than speed. The performance of the machine could have been more than doubled by adding to it other cylinders which would print on both sides of the paper; but careful experiment has proved that the finest woodcuts cannot be properly printed with this rapidity. To get the best results the ink on one side of the paper must be dry before it is printed on the other side.”

Among the most interesting modern printing machines are those constructed by Hoe & Co. at their London works, after drawings and patterns sent from New York, for weekly English journals, such as “Tit-Bits,” “Sunday Stories,” and similar periodicals. These machines embody to a certain extent the principles of the “Double Supplement” press before referred to. Double sets of plates are placed upon the main machine, which is capable of taking on an aggregate of twenty-four pages; and by using narrower rolls the number of pages of the body of the journal may be reduced to sixteen or twenty, so that the publisher may have the option of printing his paper either sixteen, twenty or twenty-four pages. In addition to this it prints a cover on a different colored paper, and all at the rate of 24,000 copies per hour; the whole product, including the cover, being cut on the edges and pasted together at the back. The supplement or cover of the press portion, however, instead of having two pairs of cylinders, as in the “Double Supplement” machine, consists of one form cylinder and one impression cylinder. This portion of the machine prints the cover, which is fed from a narrower roll, and, as before stated, of an entirely different color or quality of paper from the body of the journal. The form for one side of the cover is placed on one end of the form cylinder, and that for the other side on the other end of the cylinder. This ingenious combination results in the printing of one cover to every copy of the journal issued and no more.

The demand for printed matter seems to increase with the ability to furnish it, and much attention is now being directed to the subject of color printing on the rotary system. From present appearances, and from the enterprise displayed by the publisher, the artist and the press maker, it would seem as though the day is not far distant when this subject alone would furnish matter for a new chapter in the history of the printing press.

It is very difficult to give in a short article even a summary of the various kinds of machines to print newspapers of various sizes, in black as well as in colors, weekly periodicals, magazines, books, pamphlets, in short every class of printing, in connection with folding, which have been evolved and perfected up to the present time. The work still goes on, one step in advance leading to another, until now a printer can obtain a great variety of machines to print from the roll or fed from separate sheets, and which, especially in the production of large numbers, economize both time and labor. Nor is this constant advance in mechanical construction confined to the machines themselves or the manipulation of the paper. It extends to the manufacture of the paper and the inks, although the manufacturers of the latter have not advanced in the same proportion as the paper-maker, who every year produces finer paper in the roll and in greater quantities than ever before.

The latest and most elaborate newspaper machine is the Octuple Perfecting Press with Folders, which prints from four rolls, each four pages wide, and gives (from the four deliveries) a running speed per hour of: 96,000 4, 6 or 8-page papers; 72,000 10-page papers; 60,000 12-page papers; 48,000 14 or 16-page papers; 42,000 18-page papers; 36,000 20-page papers; 24,000 24-page papers.

This machine has been further developed into the Improved Combination Octuple (or Double Quadruple) and Color Machine, lately patented by R. Hoe & Co., which, in addition to giving the above mentioned output when printing in black only, will also produce papers in colors at the rate per hour of: 96,000 4-pages; 48,000 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 or 16 pages; 24,000 18, 20, 24 or 28 pages.

R. Hoe & Co. have now in process of construction four mammoth printing machines, which will give a greater product and a greater variety of products than any machines that have hitherto been devised. They are Double Sextuple Presses and so called, but in reality are much more than this, inasmuch as they combine the ability to do printing in colors as well as in black. This machine is composed, so to speak, of two separate, complete printing mechanisms, each fed from three four-page-wide rolls of paper; the apparatus for the gathering and folding of these webs of paper after printing being in the centre between the two sections of the machine. The “formers” and folders (placed back to back) enable a manipulation or gathering of the webs which could not be readily obtained in any other way. All these devices and methods have been patented by Hoe & Co. The following is a summary description of these new machines and what they will accomplish. The two sections may be used separately if desired, as independent machines.

Each of the two portions of the machine is composed of six pairs of cylinders, arranged, with their axles parallel, in three tiers of two pairs each and printing on both sides (or perfecting) three webs of paper from separate rolls, each four pages wide. One of the sections is also arranged so that all six sets of cylinders will print upon a single web in colors and black, this web being associated with the three webs from the other portion to form a colored cover for the products, when required.

The rolls of paper are placed at the end of the machine—three at each end—and the two folders for each portion are placed back to back midway in the length of the machine. The runs of all the webs are therefore approximately the same and as short as it is possible to have them—a matter of much importance in the running of multiple webs.

Altogether there are twelve plate cylinders in the machine, each carrying eight plates the size of a newspaper page. Either stereotype or electrotype plates may be used. To receive the latter, which are much thinner than stereotype plates, special base or jacket plates are secured to the cylinders. The ink is applied to the plates by four form rollers, after having been thoroughly distributed by vibrating rollers and cylinders.

The full capacity of the machine, when printing all black, on six rolls, is 96,000 twelve-page papers per hour, and other numbers of pages at proportionate speeds, namely, four, six, eight and ten-page papers, at the same speed as twelve-page; fourteen and sixteen-page papers at 72,000 per hour; eighteen, twenty, twenty-two and twenty-four page papers at 48,000 per hour. The three webs from each portion of the machine are led to the top of the folders, where they are divided along their centre line into webs two pages wide, and then run down each of the four “formers,” by which they are folded along their centre. They are then led through cylinders which cut them into page lengths and give them a fold across the page to half-page size. In this way twenty-four page papers may be obtained at the rate of 48,000 copies per hour, by collecting two twelve-page sections on the cylinder just before the half-page fold is made. Another method of running twenty-four page papers is to associate the six webs, from both portions of the machine, and run them over one pair of “formers,” thus folding all six webs together, or insetting them, in the first fold.

Lesser number of pages may be obtained by making various combinations, the number of which is almost limitless. Angle bars are placed in the machine for transferring half-width webs of paper from one side of the press to the other, facilitating these combinations.

The maximum product of the machine when running as a color press is 48,000 sixteen-page papers per hour, with the two outside pages printed in four colors and black; the other pages in black only. If, however, it is not desired to have so many colors on the outside pages, it is possible to obtain twenty-page papers, at the rate of 48,000 per hour, with the two outside pages in two colors and black; all the other pages in black only. Papers with any number of pages from four to sixteen, with four colors and black on the outside pages, the other pages in black only, can be obtained at a speed of 48,000 per hour. By running the full product of the color section of the machine into one folder and associating therewith webs of paper from the other section of the machine, papers with any number of pages from eight to twenty-four, with the two outside pages and two of the inside pages printed in four colors and black, the other pages in black only, can be produced at a speed of 24,000 per hour.

The dimensions of this machine are as follows: Length, 35 feet; height, 17 feet; width, 9 feet; the weight, about 225,000 pounds; and the number of parts of which it is composed, approximately 50,000.

The last three or four years have also witnessed an immense advance in the art of color printing. The magazine without an elaborate color cover, or perhaps colored illustrations, is now an exception, whereas it was the reverse not long ago. After satisfactory experiments it was ascertained by the writer that, with the inks properly prepared, and suitable plates to print from, colors could be printed almost simultaneously upon the paper, without mingling; in short that the supposed necessity, in much of the work done, of drying the sheets after the impression of each color on the paper, was not necessary for the production of a good quality of printing. Further experiments also proved the mechanical possibility of obtaining most accurate register in printing from a roll and that the number of impressions, or colors, could be increased to advantage. These various experiments resulted in the construction by Hoe & Co. of color presses which were almost simultaneously installed by the proprietors of the New York “Herald” and the New York “World,” who commenced the publication of colored supplements, upon a system which has been adopted by the papers in most of the large cities, and which they have never discontinued. The practicability of printing in colors has been so fully demonstrated that color attachments are being added to very many of the large newspaper presses throughout the country.

The most extensive of the color presses, and the largest printing machine ever constructed, is the color press made by Hoe & Co. for the New York “Journal” and now used in printing portions of the Sunday editions of that paper, although others of approximate proportions and capacity have been made for the New York “World,” the New York “Herald,” the Chicago “Tribune,” the Boston “Post” and other newspapers. This machine gives as many as eleven separate impressions, or colors, on a single copy of the paper; that is, it will print in six colors on one side of the sheet and five on the other, or it may be arranged to print three colors on one side and six on the other, giving a speed of about 16,000 eight-page papers an hour, or at every revolution of the cylinders the equivalent of two perfect eight-page papers printed in colors. Four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, twenty, twenty-four, twenty-eight or thirty-two-page papers may be printed on this machine, as required, from one, two or three double-width (or four-page-wide) rolls of paper. It will also produce magazine forms (with pages half the size of those of the regular issue of the paper) at from 16,000 to 24,000 an hour, either 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 40 or 48 pages, delivered folded, cut, and automatically wire-stitched, with all the pages printed in colors or half-tones.

Such a development of the art of printing, especially in colors, in which accurate register is not only necessary, but must be maintained, would have seemed incredible a few years ago, but this is now a daily occurrence and many newspaper offices produce colored supplements in the same manner and with the same results, having additions placed upon their quadruple, sextuple and other presses for the purpose.

Nor has this development of colors been confined entirely to the demands of the newspaper world. It is gradually finding its way into the weekly periodical and the monthly magazines. It had been considered impossible to print half-tone illustrations on both sides of the sheet at one operation and deliver them flat, without smutting. Not only has this difficulty been overcome, but in the latest presses, such as used by Collier’s Weekly, the finest half-tone work is done on a perfecting press printing on a roll of paper. The periodical is printed in multiple pages, as required, and delivered from the machine folded, cut apart and pasted, ready for the binder. It is not desirable, of course, when using fine inks, to make immediate delivery from the press; therefore the papers, after having been perfected, folded and pasted, are left to stand for some hours before they are distributed to the readers. Satisfactory methods of doing this have also been devised. The capacity for printing fine half-tone illustrations on a rotary press having thus been demonstrated the next step is evidently the production of colored half-tones, and the time is undoubtedly near at hand when the monthly magazine as well as the weekly periodical will appear, instead of in black half-tones, now so popular, with these same illustrations printed in the most delicate manner in colors and all delivered in perfection from rotary presses, folded in entirety, or in signatures, ready for the binder.

It must now be evident to every experienced observer that the time has arrived when printing upon the rotary system will in a large measure supersede that now done upon flat-bed cylinder presses, although the latter will always be retained for some kinds of work. Satisfactory methods will be devised for attaching upon the cylinders electrotype or stereotype plates of varying sizes. In addition to this, new and improved methods are constantly being brought forward for the transferring of type forms, photographs and illustrations of every description, upon prepared sheets of metal, which receive the ink and give impressions either from a raised surface, as in the ordinary letter-press printing, or in the manner of lithographic printing. These and other new methods of making plates will undoubtedly lead in the future to great economy, as well as to important improvements in the process of printing.