The press is a curious and complex machine : it consists oftwo upright beams, called cheeks ; they are generally about six feet one inch long, eight inches and a half broad, and five inches thick, with a tenon at each end. The tenon at the up per end of the cheek is cut across the breadth, and enters the cap within half an inch of the top. The cap is a piece of solid timber, three feet long, eleven inches wide, and four inches thick. The lower tenon of the cheek enters the feet, which is a square• wooden frame made Very thick and strong. The head, which is moveable, is sustained by two iron bolts that pass through the cap. The spindle is an upright piece of iron, pointed with steel, having a male screw, which goes into the female one in the head about four inches. This spindle is so contrived, that when the pressman pulls a lever, which is attached to it, the pointed end of it works in a steel pan or cup, supplied with oil, which is fixed to an iron plate, let into the top of a broad thick piece of mahogany, with a perfectly plane surface, called the platten. This platten is made to rise and hill as the pressman pulls or lets go the lever or bar. When the plat ten falls, it presses upon a blanket, by which the, paper is covered when it lies upon the form, from which the impres sion is intended to be taken. The form is laid upon a broad flat stone, or thick marble slab, which is let into a wooden frame, called the. coffin, and which is made to move backwards or forwards, by (lie turning of a wince, or rounce. At the end of the coffin are three frames, two of which are called tympans, and the re tanning one a frisket.
The tympans arc square, and are made of three slips of very thin wood, and at the top a piece of iron, still thinner ; that called the outer tympan is fastened with binges to the coffin ; they are both co Vered with parchment, and between the fwo are placed blankets, which are ne cessary to take Off the impression of the letters upon the The frisket is a square frame of thin iron, fastened with hinges to the tympan ; it is covered with paper, cut in the necessary places, that the sheet, which is put between the fris ket and the outer tympan, may receive the ink, and that nothing may hurt the margins. To regulate the margins, a sheet of paper is fastened upon this tym pan, which is called the tympan sheet, and which ought to be changed whenever it becomes wet with the paper to be printed upon. On each side is fixed an iron point, which makes two holes in the sheet, which is to be placed on the same points when the impression is to be made on the other side. In preparing the press for working, or, as it is called by press men, making ready a term, great care and attention is requisite, that the printed sheets may be in proper register, i. e. that the lines on one side may exactly fall up on the backs of the other. That the im pression may be equable, the parchment which covers the outer tympan is wetted till it is very soft; the blankets are then put in, and secured from slipping by the outer tympan. When the form is made ready, and every thing is prepared for working, one man beats the letters with the ink balls, another places a sheet of paper on the tympan sheet, turns down the frisket upon it, to keep the paper clean and prevent its slipping, then bring ing the tympan upon thelbrm, and turn ing the rounce, by which the carriage, holding the coffin, stone, and form, is moved, he brings the form, with the stone, &c. under the platten ; pulls with
the bar, by which the platten presses the blankets and paper close upon the letter, Whereby half the form is printed, then easing the bar, he draws the form still forward, giVes a second pull, and letting go the bar, turns hack' the carriage, &c:, raises the Aympans and frisket, takes out the printed sheet, and lays on a fresh one ; and this is repeated till he has ta ken off the impression upon the full num ber of sheets of which the edition is to consist. One side of every sheet being thus printed, the form for the other side is laid on the press; and worked off in the same manner.
Mr. Stover very justly remarks, "that this, the common press, is constructed on the true principles of mechanism." It does not, however, he allows, produce an adequate impression from heavy works in small letter, without great labour and at tention. It was therefore a great ac quisition to gain an accession of power, with, at the same time, a diminution of labour.
This valuable acquisition in the art of printing owes its invention to that enlight ened and patriotic statesman, the present Earl Stanhope. The iron press, invented by this nobleman, is capable of ten times the force of the common press, with, per haps, a tenth of the labour. In working upon this press, nothing is left. to the judgment of the pressman but the beat ing.
To describe the construction of the Stanhope press would not only much ex ceed our limits, but would require a con siderable number of plates, as its internal construction cannot be sufficiently deli neated by any general view of it. It is, however, a most compact and curious ma chine, and is an invention altogether wor thy of the genius of the nobleman who first constructed it. A very minute ac count of the nature and construction of every part of this press is given in Mr. Stower's Grammar.
The Stanhopian principle has been ap plied in the construction of the common press, but we understand not with that success which was at first expected. The presses, however, so formed, and first made by Mr. Baker, are superior to the common press, and produce a more clear and strong impression, especially from light forms; though the sharpness, as well as smoothness of impression, produced by the Stanhope press, from forms of pearl and nonpareil letter, is not to be expect ed from the common presses constructed on the Stanhopian principle. See EN. and C&L1CO PRINTING.
In an article of this nature, it would ar gue a want of taste or discernment to omit the mention of Mr, M'Creery's very ele gant and beautiful poem, entitled " The Press," published as a specimen of typo graphy. It is indeed a beautiful work, and does great credit both to the genius of the author as a poet, and to his care and talents as a printer. It is published by Messrs. Cadell and Davies, in the Strand.