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Printing Machinery.” by EDWARDARNOTT CLOWES

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Printing Machinery.” by EDWARDARNOTT CLOWES 242 CLOWES ON PRINTING PIACHINERY. Winutes of Associate Members-continued. LORENZOGATT. EDWARD HENRY Stud.PAGE, Inst. C.E. GEORGE GREEN. GEORGE HENRY PEACE. WALTER GEORC~EGRIFFITHS. HENRYETIENNE PELLEREAU, Stud. AUGUSTUSHAGHE. Inst. C.E. WALTER HERBERTHUTTON, Stud. Inst. PERCY LENSROOPER, Stud. Inst. C.E. C.E. ARTHURJAYES RUSSELL, Stud. Inst. ERNESTIVE, Stud. Inst. C.E. C.E. HUGH ROWLAND JACKSON. GIORGIOCONSTANTINO SCHINAS, D.Sc. JOHN AMBROSEMCPEERSON. WILLIAMARCHIBALD SCOTT. JOHN WADDINQTONMms. ROBERTSHARPE, HENRYCAPNER MARES. HARRY SNELL. ALFRED MONROYi%rONTANARO. GOTFRED MIDGLEY TAYLOR,Stud. Inst. WILLIAYOXTOBY, Stud. Inst. C.E. C.E. Associate. FREDERIC HUNGERFORD BOWMAN,DSc., F.R.S.E. (Paper No. 2200.) ‘‘ Printing Machinery.” By EDWARDARNOTT CLOWES. THEHAND-PRESS. THEuniversal law of development and progress in nature, withthe survival of the fittest, is strikingly exemplified in the history of Letter-pressPrinting Machinery. The little hand-press of four hundred years ago has developed into the huge power-press of to-dayby successive andsequential stages. In the middle of the fifteenth century, printers possessed an appliance which would print one side of a sheet of foolscap only; at the present time theyhave an apparatus that prints, on both sides, asheet as large as that of The Times newspaper.The former worked at the rate of less than 200 impressions per hour; the latter gives 12,000 perhour. Yet it is possible to trace the gradual evolu- tion of the one from the other. Printing machinery has engaged the attentive study, at least during the present century, of some of the best mechanics and the boldest inventors, eventuating in practical successes of the first importance. In order to estimate aright the conditions of the problem the elements which presented themselves may be recalled. There was the surface to be printed from-one containing designs of letters or pictures in relief. This was to be covered with a pigment, or ink, sufficiently thin to coat even the finest lines of the design, Downloaded by [ University of Southern California] on [17/09/16]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved. Proceedings.] CLOWES ON PRINTING MACHINERY. 243 and sufficiently tenacious to betransferred to paper. There is, thirdly,the apparatus by which theink may be impressedon the paper, that is, the pressor machine. It is a common error to assume that the inventor of typography was the inventor of the letter-press. Whoever he was-and the most recent discovery seems to confirm the claim of Gutenberg-he had a press ready to his hand. The invention of types is altogether external to that under consideration; but the first printer, haring the composite “ forme ’’ of movable types, had to decide upon the best plan of communicating the ink upon their surface to the sheets. Printing, in the wider sense, is older by more than half a century than typography; for the makers of the block-books, so called because pages or portions were cut on blocks, were printers. Some of their printing was done by rubbing the back of the sheet, when laid on the inked block, with a burnisher orfrotton, as wood-engravers now “ prove ” small blocks. But others of these printswere undoubtedly made by a press. The principles and construction of the press employed by Gutenbergare not known. Thereis nopicture in existence of the presses of Gutenberg, Fust, Schoeffer, or their contemporaries, ortheir immediate successors. These men, or one of them, at least, commenced printingabout the year 1450; the earliest representation of apress is dated 1507. There is inthis a simple screw, with a long pin for a lever. The head of the press and the table bear the pressurebetween them. The transverse piece between the screw and the platen, or impressing-surface, was called the “hose,” and its object was to steady the down- ward movement under pressure. Thetype forme is laidon a table,” which is run in and out, under the platen, by means of girths or bands, a drum, and a handle. The principle involved is the use of a flat board or plate moved parallel to itself, and so brought to press on aforme of type laid upon a hard surface parallel to themoving board. There were two practicaldifficulties : in the securing of‘ an equal distribution of the pressure from the central point of stress ; and the preservation of the parallelism of the moving plane with the type forme. The difficulties were such that, as they increasod with thesize of the platen or moving plane, only sheets of the size of about half’ a sheet of demy, that is, 174 by 11 inches, could be printed at one pull ” of the lever ; even upto the beginning of the presentcentury. In printing larger sheets, the forme was moved a little further on, and another pull given. In an illustration contained in a little German book descriptive R2 Downloaded by [ University of Southern California] on [17/09/16]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved. 244 CLOWES ON PRINTINGt MACHINERY. [Minutes of of various trades, of the date 1568, two workmen are engaged: one is inking theforme by means of leather “ balls” ; the other is laying a sheet on the tympan. Above the tympan there is a frame called the ‘‘ frisket,” covered with paper, which is cut away in those places that would else cover the type. What remains keeps the sheet from being soiled by those parts of the forme which, although unavoidably inked, are not intended to print. An interesting pictureof a mediavilprinting-office at Niirnberg, 1733, shows not only the pressmen, but the type-setters or com- positors, and the correctors or readers, at work at their several occupations. The kind of press here illustrated was, with very slight modifications, in general use for about three hundred years. The firstimprovement of whichthere is anyaccount was ’ made in Amsterdam about the middle of the seventeenth century. This was the Blaew Press,” the platen of which was more rigid than the previous one; and a contrivance was added by which the platen raised itself automatically when the bar was returned to its place. Whenthe advantages of the Blaew press came to be acknowledged,the press was adopted everywhere, and continued in general use up to the beginning of the current century. There is an old press of this construction in the Patent Museum, South Kensington. The first really great improverof the printing-press was Charles Mahon, third Earl of Stanhope. He abandoned the nearly straight barby which the screw of the oldwooden presswas turned, andadopted a system of linksand levers, by means of which the approach and withdrawal of the platen were accelerated, and themaximum of leverage, andconsequently of pressure,was obtainedwhen the forme and theplaten came into contact. Above all, the press was made entirely of iron.Previous presses had been constructed of wood; excepting the screw, the bed (which was usually of stone), and some less important parts. They werethus very cumbrous, and could not resistheavy strains. Inthe new press, Stanhopewas enabled to use a platen of double the ordinary size. The Stanhope Press consisted of a heavy cast-iron frame in one piece, screwed to a wooden cross as a base. It was furnished with rails,along which the type-carriagewas run underthe platen by means of a rounce and bands. The descent of the platen was caused by a screw worked by a peculiar combination of levers, 80 arranged as to actwith progressively increasing leverage until the platen reached the types. The range of the handle was regulated by a movable stop ; and consequently also the pressure Downloaded by [ University of Southern California] on [17/09/16]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved. Proceedings. J CLOWES ON PRINTING MACHINERY. 245 exerted on the types. With this press about two hundred impres- sions could be taken per hour. This presswas never patented, and press-makers largely availed themselves of the freedom to imitate it granted by the patriotic earl. In theRut,hven Press of 1813, theStanhope levers acted directly upon the margin of the platen, and not at the centreas had been the case previously. Theheavy and moving parts were placed asnear the base as possible, with a view to stability. Provision was made for a ready and accurate parallel adjustment of theplaten with the type. The type- surface, instead of beingplaced upon a running carriage, as before, was placed upon a stationary platform, provided with the FIG.1. usual apparatus to receive the sheets and convey them to their proper position on the face of the types. Thus the Ruthven Press may be regarded as the original typeof the “platen machine.” In 1817, Clymer, an American,patented the“Columbian” Press. He discarded the screw, which was the central feature of previous presses, and derived the cc power-multiplying principle from the component parts being so arranged that by the moving power of the handle they were brought from various angles of inclination,which they formed when the press was at rest, to parallels and right-angles, when it was in motion.” TWOlevers were connected by a rod with the handle, in itself a lever. The Downloaded by [ University of Southern California] on [17/09/16]. Copyright © ICE Publishing, all rights reserved. 246 CLOWES ON PRINTING BXACHINERY. [Ninutes of platen was hung to a bolt sliding between vertical guides. The platenwas counterbalanced by a leverhaving an adjustable weight-shaped like an ea.gle, the American emblem, raising it automatically.There was a neatand ingenious provision of a stop-screw in the handle, by means of which the length of the rod of the lever could be adjusted, and its pressure or ‘‘ the pull,” so varied that either the slightest or the greatest pressure could beobtained, according tothe requirements of the forme.
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