Part 2

The “Miehle” Press is a modified form of this movement; the crank pin or roller is attached to the side of the bed wheel, and at the ends of the uniform movement it is enclosed within the walls of a vertical guideway formed at each end of the rack supporting frame, and passes through the length of this guide as it performs its function of reversing the bed.

An improvement in this class of bed motions has lately been made and patented by Hoe & Co. In this machine the crank pin, which controls the reversal of the motion of the type bed, moves in a rectilinear instead of a circular pathway. As the motion of the crank is thus directly in line with the travel of the bed, it is possible to lock the journal box, enclosing the pin, securely to the bed, while the bed is being controlled by the action of the crank, and thereby avoids the friction and consequent wear of parts that occur when the crank pin moves in a circular line. The movement of the crank is obtained from the rotatory motion of the bed wheel, and has the same varying velocities as would be derived from a crank traveling in a circular pathway. It, therefore, checks the momentum of the bed with ease, brings the bed to rest, and returns it with an accelerating motion while under positive control. The wearing of parts is thus reduced to the minimum, insuring an accuracy of register and exactness of motion hitherto unattainable. A press with a bed measuring 48 × 65 inches runs without jar or vibration at a speed of 1,800 impressions an hour.

The press of the present day from which the finest letterpress and woodcut work is turned off is known as the “Stop Cylinder.” This was devised and patented by a Frenchman named Dutartre, in 1852, and introduced into this country about 1853 by Hoe & Co., who have since patented many improvements upon it. It was a surprise to many printers to find that this machine could do work which heretofore it had been supposed the hand press only was capable of performing.

[Illustration: STOP CYLINDER LITHOGRAPHIC PRESS]

The Stop Cylinder Press may be described as follows: The type is secured upon a traveling iron bed, which moves back and forth upon friction rollers of steel, the bed being driven by a simple crank motion, stopping and starting it without noise or jar. All the running portions of this bed are made of fine steel as hard as it can be worked. The cylinder is stopped by a cam motion pending the backward travel of the bed, and during the interval of rest the sheet is fed down against the guides and the grippers closed upon it before the cylinder starts, thus insuring the utmost accuracy of register. After the impression, the sheet is transferred to a skeleton cylinder, also containing grippers, which receives, and delivers it, over fine cords, upon the sheet flier, which in turn deposits it upon the table. The distribution of the ink is effected partly by a vibrating, polished, steel cylinder, and partly upon a flat table at the end of the traveling bed, the number of form-inking rollers varying from four to six. This is without doubt the most perfect flat bed cylinder printing machine that has ever been devised. It is made in various sizes. The average output of one of these presses with a bed 36 × 54 inches is from 1,000 to 1,500 impressions per hour.

The demand being constantly for machines taking on larger sized forms, there has been lately constructed and patented by R. Hoe & Co. an entirely new Stop Cylinder Press, having a bed 45 × 62 inches, and which can be run at a speed of 1,700 impressions an hour. The main points of difference between the Stop Cylinder Press for type forms and the Lithographic Press is in the form of the bed only, the other portions, including the driving apparatus, being almost identical; therefore the same general description applies to these new machines for both classes of work. A great objection to flat-bed presses of large size has always been the height of the cylinder from the floor, necessitated by the increased dimensions of the driving apparatus under the bed. In these new presses the bed is reciprocated as usual by a crank motion, but made exceptionally strong and compounded. This method of construction not only gives the increased speed but makes the bed of the machine low down, so that it is better under the hand and eye of the operator. The product of the machine is delivered printed side up, by a patented take-off apparatus, which takes the sheets from the impression cylinder by grippers in a reciprocating carriage and deposits them upon a table. No tapes or guides come in contact with the freshly printed ink.

[Illustration: ROTARY ZINCOGRAPHIC OR ALUMINUM PRESS]

Keeping pace with the improved methods and machines employed in typographic printing, and influenced thereby, the lithographic and kindred branches of printing have also made progress, induced mainly, however, by the general striving for more rapid and economical production. This has been accomplished by using larger stones, paper and machines, and by employing rotary machines for some work. The use of curved stones for lithography being impracticable for many reasons, a substitute was found in plates or sheets made of zinc or aluminum, which, when properly prepared, possess properties akin to those in lithographic stones. Being flexible, these sheets are easily stretched over the curved surface of a cylinder. Although the development of this branch of printing is due, chiefly, to the French and Germans, much has been done in this country toward its improvement, and work is produced upon Rotary Zincographic or Aluminum Presses that compares favorably with that produced from stones, and at double the speed. The smaller of these presses, printing only one color at a time, prints on sheets 30 × 44 inches, at a speed up to 2,000 impressions per hour; the larger presses of the same kind print on sheets 44 × 64 inches, at a speed up to 1,700 impressions per hour, although the machines may be run even faster, according to the dexterity of the feeder.

[Illustration: TWO-COLOR ROTARY ZINCOGRAPHIC OR ALUMINUM PRESS]

Two-Color Rotary Presses are in successful operation in different parts of this country. In these machines there are two plate cylinders and one impression cylinder, each of the plate cylinders having its own inking and dampening appliances. The sheet of paper, after being fed to the grippers of the impression cylinder, receives one printing from the first plate cylinder, and a second printing, in a different color, from the second plate cylinder, and is then released from the grippers and delivered in the usual manner by the sheet flier. The size of the sheets printed is 44 × 64 inches, and running at a speed of 1,700 revolutions per hour, the number of printings is 3,400, or double that obtained from the one-color machine of the same size.

We now return to a further consideration of the newspaper press. The “Single Small Cylinder” and “Double Small Cylinder” machines heretofore described as primarily the invention of Napier, and perfected by Hoe & Co. and made by them, came into general use in the United States. In construction and for the quantity and quality of work produced they excelled any made in England; the output of one of the “Single Cylinder” presses reaching 2,000 impressions per hour, or about as fast as the feeder could lay down the sheets. When still greater speed was required the “Double Cylinder” press was used, the travel of the bed being of such length that the form of type passed backward and forward under both cylinders. Two feeders accordingly put in the sheets; the maximum speed obtained being about 2,000 from each cylinder, or 4,000 from the two cylinders per hour, printed on one side. It was evident, both in England and America, that something faster must be devised. The growing demand for papers containing the latest news necessitated increasing effort on the part of the machine-makers. The presses of Dryden & Ford, Middleton, and others in England failed to meet the requirements there, as did the “Single” and “Double” Cylinders in America.

[Illustration: FOUR CYLINDER ROTARY TYPE-REVOLVING PRESS]

[Illustration: TEN CYLINDER ROTARY TYPE-REVOLVING PRESS]

In 1845 and 1846 the firm of R. Hoe & Co. in New York were busily engaged upon plans and inventions for presses which should meet the increased requirements of the newspapers in America. The result was the construction of a press known as the “Hoe Type Revolving Machine,” embodying patents taken out by Richard M. Hoe. The first one of these machines was placed in the “Ledger” office in Philadelphia, in 1846. The basis of these inventions consisted in an apparatus for securely fastening the forms of type on a central cylinder placed in a _horizontal_ position. This was accomplished by the construction of cast-iron beds, one for each page of the newspaper. The column rules were made “V” shaped; i. e., tapering toward the feet of the type. It was found that, with proper arrangement for locking up or securing the type upon these beds, it could be held firmly in position, the surface form a true circle, and the cylinder revolved at any speed required without danger of the type falling out. Around this central cylinder from four to ten impression cylinders, according to the output required, were grouped. The sheets were fed in by boys, and taken from the feed board by automatic grippers, or fingers, operated by cams in the impression cylinders, and which conveyed them around against the revolving form of the central cylinder. Here again a great advantage was gained by the use of the patented sheet flier, consisting of a row of long wooden fingers fastened to the shaft, and operated by a cam and springs; the sheet after printing being conducted out underneath each feed board by means of tapes to the sheet fliers, which laid them in piles on tables; the number of fliers and tables corresponding to the number of impression cylinders. The inking was accomplished by the use of composition rollers placed between each of the impression cylinders; the fountain being below, underneath the main type cylinder. The portion of the surface of this type cylinder, not occupied by the type itself, was utilized as a distributing table, its surface being lower than that of the type, and the inking rollers rising and falling alternately to place the ink on the type and receive a new supply from the distributing surface. The first of these presses had only four impression cylinders, necessitating four boys to feed the sheets. The running speed obtained was about 2,000 sheets to each feeder per hour, thus giving, with what was called a “Four Feeder” or “Four Cylinder” machine, a running capacity of about 8,000 papers, per hour, printed upon one side. As the demands of the newspapers increased, more impression cylinders were added, until these machines were made with as many as ten grouped around the central cylinder, giving an aggregate speed of about 20,000 papers per hour printed upon one side. A revolution in newspaper printing took place. Journals which before had been limited in their circulation by their inability to furnish the papers rapidly increased their issues, and many new ones were started. The new presses were adopted not only throughout the United States, but also in Great Britain. The first one put up abroad was erected in 1848, in the office of “La Patrie” in Paris, but the downfall of the Republic and the re-imposition of a stamp duty, soon put an end to all enterprise in French newspaper publishing. The English, always slow to adopt improvements, did not appreciate the value of these presses until the year 1856, when Edward Lloyd of “Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper” in London, having seen the one in the office of “La Patrie,” ordered a “Six-Cylinder” machine. This was erected in his office in Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, London, in the following year. It was no sooner in operation and seen by the other newspaper proprietors than orders were received from the London “Times” for two “Ten-Cylinder” presses, to replace the Applegath machine they were then using. The order for these machines was a gratifying tribute to American ingenuity, for the “Times” in December, 1848, in an article on the starting of the Applegath vertical cylinder press, stated that “No art of packing could make the type adhere to a cylinder revolving around a horizontal axis and thereby aggravating centrifugal impulse by the intrinsic weight of the metal.” Eventually orders from almost all of the leading newspapers in Great Britain and Ireland were received.

In the meantime various experiments had demonstrated the possibility of casting stereotype plates on a curve. The process was brought to perfection by the use of flexible paper matrices, upon which the metal was cast in curved moulds to any circle desired, and these plates were placed upon the Hoe “Type Revolving Machine” upon beds adapted to receive them instead of the type forms. The newspaper publishers were thus enabled to duplicate the forms, and run several machines at the same time with a view of turning out the papers with greater rapidity. In some large offices, such as the New York “Herald,” London “Daily Telegraph,” and the London “Standard,” as many as five of these machines were in constant operation. About this time the stamp duty in England of one penny upon each sheet of printed matter was repealed. This in itself aided materially in the development of the newspaper press.

[Illustration: APPLEGATH’S TYPE-REVOLVING PRESS]

After the return of Koenig to Germany, an Englishman named Applegath, in connection with a machinist named Cowper, made various improvements, mostly in the way of simplifying Koenig’s presses. After many experiments, they in 1848 constructed for the London “Times” an elaborate machine, entirely upon the cylindrical principle. All of the cylinders of this machine instead of being horizontal, as in presses heretofore used, were vertical. The type was placed upon a large upright central cylinder, but the circumference instead of presenting a complete circle represented as many flat surfaces as there were columns in the newspaper, the forms thus being polygonal. Around this central or form cylinder were placed eight smaller vertical cylinders for taking the impression, inking rollers being introduced to ink the type as it passed alternately from one of these impression cylinders to another. The sheets were fed down by hand from eight flat horizontal feed-boards through tapes; then grasped by another set of tapes and passed sideways between the impression cylinder and the type cylinder, thus obtaining sheets printed upon one side. The impression cylinder delivered them, still in a vertical position, into the hands of boys, one stationed at each cylinder to receive them. The results obtained from this machine were in a measure satisfactory, as the number of papers printed per hour upon one side, from one form of type, was materially increased; not, however, in proportion to the number of impression cylinders placed around it, as the press at its best could produce but 8,000 impressions per hour, on one side of the sheets. Having devised no means to lock up the type other than in flat columns, the polygonal form was a necessity, and the irregularities in it were made up by underlaying the blankets on the impression cylinders to take up these inequalities. Although this press, used in the London “Times” office, was the only one of the kind ever made, its size and importance warrant some record and description of it. This machine was taken out to make way for Hoe Type Revolving Presses.

In 1835 Sir Rowland Hill had suggested the possibilities of a machine which should print both sides at once from a roll of paper. It is well known that for many years cotton cloths had been printed in this way, the cylinders being engraved and the cloth after printing being reeled up again. The suggestion, however, was accompanied by no practical knowledge as to the details, and, above all, no practical provision for the rapid cutting off and delivery of the paper either before or after it had been printed. It remained for an American, William Bullock, of Philadelphia, to construct, in 1865, the first printing machine to print from a continuous web or roll of paper. His machine consisted of two pairs of cylinders, i. e., two form or plate cylinders and two impression cylinders. The second impression cylinder was made of large size to provide additional tympan surface, to lessen the offset from the first printed side of the paper. The stereotype plates were not made to fill the whole circumference of each of the form cylinders, as the sheets were cut before printing. One difficulty he had to contend with was the cutting off of the sheets with sufficient accuracy and rapidity. This he accomplished by severing them by means of knives in cylinders. The sheets were then carried through the press by tapes and fingers, and delivery sought to be accomplished by means of a series of automatic metal nippers placed upon endless leather belts at such distance apart as to grasp each sheet successively as it came from the last printing cylinders. This machine was put up in several offices and rejected because of its unreliability, especially in the delivery of the papers, but it was finally so far perfected that it came into use to a considerable extent.

[Illustration: BULLOCK PRESS]

Meanwhile the proprietors of the London “Times” inaugurated experiments with the view of making a rotary perfecting press, and finally started the first one in that office about 1868. It was similar in construction to the “Bullock” press so far as the printing apparatus was concerned, excepting that the cylinders were all of one size and placed one above the other. The sheets were severed after printing, brought up by tapes, and carried down to a sheet flier which moved back and forth, and “flirted” the sheets alternately into the hands of two boys seated opposite one another on either side of the sheet flier.

[Illustration: LONDON TIMES ROTARY MACHINE]

Marinoni, of Paris, also devised a machine on a similar principle, making the impression and the form cylinder of one size, and placed them one above the other. The “Marinoni” machine had separate fly boards for the delivery of the sheets.

In 1871 R. Hoe & Co. also turned their attention to the construction of a rotary perfecting press to print from a roll or continuous web of paper.

As before stated, the greatest difficulties to be encountered were:--

First. The set-off of the first side.

Devices were used to overcome this and the ink-makers were induced to pay special attention to the manufacture of rapid-drying or non-setting-off inks.

Second. The difficulties in obtaining paper in the roll of uniform perfection and strength. The paper-makers were led to make a study of producing large rolls of paper meeting these requirements, and became much more experienced in its manufacture. The “Walter” press in the “Times” office had necessitated a very strong and expensive paper, which could not be afforded by the cheap daily press.

Third. The difficulty of the rapid severing of the sheets after printing.

Fourth. A reliable and accurate delivery of the printed papers.

These last two operations were not accomplished satisfactorily until the appearance of the Hoe machine. In this press the sheets were not entirely severed by the cutters, but simply perforated after the printing. They were then drawn by accelerating tapes, which completely separated them, onto a gathering cylinder so constructed that six perfect papers, or any other desired number, could be gathered one over the other. These, by means of a switch, were at the proper moment turned off onto one sheet flier, which deposited them on the receiving board. This gathering and delivery cylinder, patented by Stephen D. Tucker, a member of the firm of R. Hoe & Co., solved the problem of rapid flat delivery. The first of these machines was placed in the office of “Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper,” in London, and the first one used in the United States in the “Tribune” office in New York. There was no limit to their capacity for printing excepting the ability of the paper to stand the strain of passing through the press, which produced, when put to its speed, 18,000 perfect papers an hour, delivered accurately on one feed-board. The average speed, however, in printing offices was 12,000, although in some offices they were run at about 14,000 per hour.

The “Walter” press, made by the London “Times,” was used by it, and also by the London “Daily News” and by the New York “Times.” Further than that it made no progress and has now gone entirely out of use, the presses of this kind in the London “Times” office having been replaced by machines made by R. Hoe & Co. Meantime their machines were adopted by most of the large newspapers in the United States and Great Britain.

These new methods, of course, entirely superseded the “Hoe Type Revolving Machine,” which had reigned supreme in the newspaper world for over twenty years, and of which one hundred and seventy-five had been made, almost all of which have now disappeared.

Up to the middle of the last century the paper had been made from rags, but as these became unobtainable in sufficient quantity some substitute had to be found. First straw and afterwards wood pulp was successfully employed, and paper made from the latter is now in universal use. Its cheapness (averaging now about three cents per pound) materially aided the newspapers, and stimulated the printing machine manufacturers to renewed efforts in devising presses of still greater speed and efficiency.

It was desirable also that the papers should be delivered folded ready for the carrier or mail. The first apparatus to accomplish this was similar in design to the hand-fed folding machine in common use in printing offices. The sheets, fed separately into these machines, were carried by tapes running upon pulleys under striking blades, which forced them between pairs of folding rollers. After the first fold they were again carried in a similar manner under striking blades, placed at right angles to the first, and again struck down between rollers to receive a second fold. This action was continued until the desired number of folds had been secured. Folders of this description were attached to the fast presses, but none made could be worked at a greater speed than about 8,000 per hour, until in 1875 Stephen D. Tucker patented a rotating folding cylinder which folded papers as fast as they came from the press, or 15,000 in the hour. The striking blade folders were used in the “Bullock” press, in machines made by C. Potter, Jr., & Co. and others. Andrew Campbell, a printing press manufacturer, also constructed a rotary perfecting press, but his devices were not original. Four or five machines were made by him, and these soon went out of use.

[Illustration: FIRST HOE WEB PRESS]

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.