Koenig and Bauer went to Germany where they later perfected a machine having a bed that rested on and was reciprocated by a four wheeled truck and crank. They and their suc cessors were the principal makers of printing presses in Germany for 80 years.
The pioneers in introducing cylinder models into the United States were R Hoe and Com pany, who had been for some time manufactur mg bed-and-platen presses. Robert Hoe sent Serena Newton (later to be a partner in the house) to England in 1832 to study the new inventions and devise improvements. The Hoe single small cylinder, double small cylinder and large cylinder perfecting press were designed and built, and with added improvements are being manufactured by them to-day. Hoe and Company patented mechanism to drive the bed in 1847. Two racks facing each other on dif ferent planes and separated by the diameter of the driving wheel were attached to a hanger fastened on the lower side of the bed. The driving wheel was on a horizontal shaft and moveable sideways, so as to engage first one then the other, of the racks. A roller at either end entering a recess in a disc on the driving shaft in a half revolution brought the bed to a stop and started it in the opposite direction. This was a new principle; a crank action oper ating directly upon the bed from a shaft having a fixed centre.
As the demand for printing presses grew other makes came into the field. Andrew Campbell designed, perfected and built, about 1865, a single cylinder newspaper and poster press, which became known as the Campbell country press, and which secured the widest sale of any press of that character in its time. By means of a very large gear and reversal mechanism keyed solidly on one end of a drum he locked together the bed and cylin der so that register was perfect. The rollers and other mechanism were extremely simple, and he was thus able to sell the presses at a low price. An improved form of this press, styled the complete press, was employed by the early color printers, as McLaughlin Brothers, of New York. Another great suc cess of the Campbell Company was their book and job press, which enjoyed a large sale from 1875 to 1890. This had a small cylinder, called a two-revolution, because it revolved once while the bed was making the return stroke. It em ployed improved features of ink distribution and sheet delivery. A. B. Taylor and Company
were among the early makers of cylinder and double cylinder presses in New York, closely following the lines of the Hoe machines. Cot trell and Babcock began building cylinder presses about 1870, their most notable early production being the stop cylinder, which was popular for a dozen years. Because the cylin der came to a dead stop in taking the sheet, a perfect register was secured, and the other details of the machine being well worked out, it came into use by the best printers. The Hoes also built a stop cylinder to meet the competi tion. In time Cottrell and Babcock separated, and Babcock brought out the Optimus ma chine, which was one of the first to deliver its sheet without chance of smutting, printed side up. C. Potter, Jr., also built many cylin der presses, of rather light construction, which sold mostly to country newspaper and job of fices. Whitlock followed with a very light and inexpensive cylinder machine, utilizing the Henry bed motion. Walter Scott, who learned printing press building with the Hoes, was one of the most fertile inventors of printing ma chinery, and established press works in Plain field, N. J., about 1875. He took out more pat ents than any other inventor in this field, and developed a long line of useful machinery. About 1880 the half-tone illustration had made such headway, and the demand for superior printing became so imperative, that the dry paper printing on a hard surface came into universal use, and the cylinder presses of the day were all too weak to meet the demands made upon them. All went to building heavier machines, but the Huber and Miehle press builders were among the first to recognize this need, and secured most of the market for fine printing. Automatic paper-feeding machinery has increased the demand for this class of presses. The Miehle, being the faster press of the two, forged ahead, and finally absorbed the Huber Company. It has been widely sold all over the world. The Hoes virtually abandoned the two-revolution fine jobbing press field, but Babcock, Scott, Cottrell and Whitlock built heavier, and remained in the market. Potter quit, and later Campbell, while the Cottrells gradually went into a different class of machinery.