In 1822, Daniel Treadwell of Boston applied power to a machine built on the "bed and platen" principle. The original machine of this type was improved upon by Adams, of Boston, and for many years this class of machine was used for printing fine books and woodcuts.
The, next notable development of a printing machine was one worked by treadle and adaptable for the printing of small jobbing work such as cards, handbills, etc. The first machine of this character was made by S. P. Ruggles, of Boston, Mass., in 1830, and was known as the Ruggles card press. Just over a quarter of a century later (1856) George P. Gordon, an American, built a press which proved to be the forerunner of what are now known as light platen machines. This was constructed with the type bed in a vertical position, was named "the Franklin," and rapidly became in general use throughout the world.
Improvements on platen machines became necessary by the introduction of half-tone and colour printing. In 1869 Merritt Gaily, of Rochester, N.Y., invented a new type of platen machine known as the Universal press which proved the pattern for heavy platen machines for colour printing. About 1850 a London printer named Main introduced a new type of flat-bed printing machine. Instead of a continuous rotary motion, as in the Koenig machine, the cylinder "rocked," making about three quarters of a revolu tion and then reversing, at the same time rising to allow the return of the bed. This machine was generally known as a "tumbler" and was the forerunner of what is now known in Great Britain as the Wharfedale stop-cylinder machine which was invented about 1860 by William Dawson and David Payne of Otley.
The modern type of flat-bed printing machine is known as the two-revolution press. It is so called because the cylinder, the rotary movement of which is continuous, makes two revolutions for every sheet printed. The second revolution occurs as the cylinder rises to permit the return of the bed carrying the forme. (This movement was a feature of the Napier machine built about 1830.) The most widely used form of this type of machine, and the one which has made it so popular, was invented in 1883 by Robert Miehle, a practical pressman, and the first machine was installed in America in 1888. "The Miehle," as it
is generally termed, has revolutionized the manufacture of print ing machinery. It is to be found in most printing offices, pro ducing not only commercial but the finest coloured work; ma chines of this type are made for every class of work, and are known as single-colour, two-colour and perfecting machines, respectively.
In 1878 Ottmar Mergenthaler a German immigrant to America in 1872, constructed a "type impression" machine and in 1885 took out patents for a slug casting machine, the fore runner of the Linotype. In the following year, 1886, this machine was actually used in the United States, but was not introduced into Great Britain until 1890. The typograph, another slug casting machine, was the invention of John Raphael Rogers, who was a consulting engineer with the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. The first machine was built in Cleveland, but, as the U. S. courts found that Rogers infringed certain patents owned by the Mergen thaler Company, the use of the machine was prevented in the United States. Ultimately, the Mergenthaler Company purchased the U.S. rights of the typograph company. In 1890 this machine was being built in Canada and, on the expiration of the linotype agreement, its manufacture was commenced in Detroit, Mich. In 1893 the manufacture of the typograph was undertaken in Germany, the first typograph built in that country being put on the market in 1896. Germany is now the headquarters for the manufacture of this type of machine where it has achieved a remarkable success.