The operation of the hand press when type, press, ink and paper had been prepared neces sitated these 11 processes: The form was inked by hand; the paper was fitted to its place on the tympan; the frisket was folded over it to hold it; the tympan was folded down over the form; the bed was run under the platen by turning the crank; the platen was forced down by the workman's power applied to the lever; released, it was raised up • by the springs; the bed was rolled out by a reverse motion of the crank; the tympan was raised; the frisket opened, and the printed sheet removed. Mod ern invention has sought to reduce all these to a single automatic process operated by mechani cal power. Necessity divided the course of in vention into three lines; the small job press and the large book and newspaper press soon widely diverging in type and construction to secure fine printing in one and the greatest speed in the other.
development of the bed-and-platen power press for fine book work and illustrations reached its highest state in the Adams press, invented and patented by Isaac Adams, of Boston, in 1830 and 1836, and improved in many ways by It Hoe and Com pany since that firm acquired his business and patents in 1858. Over 1,000 have been manu factured, and a few were reported to be yet in operation in Boston in 1918. Adams, after a few experiments with a timber frame, built his presses of iron and fixed the platen im movably in the frame. The form was placed on an iron bed beneath, and this bed was raised against the fixed platen and lowered by a sys tem of cams straightening a toggle-joint. The ink fountain was placed at one end of the press, and the ink rollers in a movable frisket-frame passed over the face of the type and back while the bed was down. The sheets of paper were fed to grippers on the frisket which carried them over the form, and after the impression was taken the sheets passed forward on tapes to a sheet-flier, which delivered them to the fly-bogrd. The speed of the larger sizes of the Adams press is about 600 sheets an hour.
The most successful press designed for small job work substituted for the hand lever and crank a rotary power wheel which could be driven by a treadle by the foot of the oper ator, or by belt and shafting. The bed was set in a perpendicular frame, and the form was clamped to it. To the bed frame near the bot tom was jointed the frame that held the platen. This opened to an angle of about 4-5 degrees. A crank rod fastened to the wheel brought the platen up to the type form and back at every revolution. On the 'platen by adjustable pins or quads the position of the paper was exactly fixed. Two thin steel rods automatically folded over the margin of the paper as the platen rose. Above the bed of the press, and at a slight angle, was set a' steel inking-disc, about the size of the bed, that slowly revolved, while at every revolution of the driving wheel a pair of ink rollers descended from the inking-disc over the form as the platen fell away, and back to the inking-disc as the platen rose to the dorm again. This automatic inking was even and uniform. This press prints cards, letter-heads, handbills. and the like. The labor needed is that of a boy or girl to feed and take off the sheets one by one. Many varieties are made, with varying excellence of detail. The Gordon press here illustrated is typiCal and has been widely used The capacity is about 1,000 sheets an hour. The Gordon press was followed by a host of imitators. The first real improvement was the use of a cylinder instead of a disc for ink distribution, which came in the Globe ma chine. This idea was more fully developed in Gally's universal press, and later in Thomp son's Colt's armory press, which is also char acterized by great strength and rigidity. The
Gordon disc type of press was highly devel oped by Golding of Boston, in a scientifically constructed and rapid machine. The old-style Gordon was reduced in cost of manufacture and has been made in enormous quantities by Chandler and Price, and sold all over the globe.
Cylinder The basic principle of the cylinder press — a flat type form passed under an impression cylinder — is as old as Gutenburg's time, when from crude machines of this type copper-plate engravings were struck off; but no practical development of it was made until the beginning of the 19th cen tury. So many patents have been issued since then for various devices to secure excellence or economy of operation that it is possible to note only the most 'striking and most success ful. The first printer to work out a practical cylinder press was Frederick Konig, a Saxon by birth, who removed to England in 1806. He associated with him James Bensley, a London printer, and a machinist, a fellow-countryman, Andrew Bauer. The product of their labors was a press which they put in operation in London in 1812. The form of type was placed on a flat bed, which was carried under an im pression cylinder that had a three-fold action. On the first third the sheet was fed at the top upon the tympan and gripped, on the second part of the revolution the sheet received the impression and was removed by hand; and on the third the empty tympan came up to re ceive another sheet. The most efficient device which they invented to roll the bed holding the type form to and fro was this : A long shaft turned by gearing from the outside of the frame earned a pinion on its inner end ; the shaft.haft in its length a universal joint that allowed los an up and down motion of the pinion as it revolved. Underneath and fas tened to the bed was a rack, or row of teeth, with a crescent-shaped segment of metal and pies, or studs, at each end. To the outer end of the shaft was attached the wheel connect ing with impression cylinder; this wheel, when set in motion revolved the pinion and moved the bed by ni mns of the teeth in the rack. the bed reached the end of its appointed course, the pinion turned around over one of the pins or studs against the segment in the rack and immediately re-engaged the teeth on the opposite side and carried the bed back again to the other end, where the reciprocating mo tion was repeated. Kiinig followed this in 1814 by a continuously revolving cylinder, which was slightly reduced in diameter along that part of the periphery not used for the impression so as to allow the bed to return under it freely after the impression. He made also a two-cylinder press of this pattern, and two of these presses were set up in the London Times office in that year. Their capacity was 800 impres sions an hour. This same year he devised 1 two-cylinder press — the first perfecting press — by which a sheet was printed on both sides at one continuous operation. The forms were placed one at each end, and the sheet after being printed on one side under one cylinder was by tapes carried over a registering roller to the second cylinder for printing on the re verse side. This machine Applegarth and Cow per, by improvement, made very efficient. Every year showed patents on improvements, but the next of great value was that of Napier in 1828 and 1830. He discarded the tapes for the conveyance of the sheets and substituted agrippers° or Ifingers° to clasp the sheets to the cylinder for the impression, and for deliv ering them after printing. He also made the impression cylinders of small size to make two or more revolutions to each sheet printed, and devised the toggle for raising the cylinder to allow the form to run back without touching.