As early as 1871 Silas P. Knight, of Harper & Brothers, invented the wet black-leading process. It was successful, but, as sometimes happens, attracted no particular attention. Its merits in comparison with other methods do not appear to have been appreciated and the discovery was forgotten for more than a quarter of a century. In 1908 Frank H. Learman, of Buffalo, invented a wet black-leading machine which was adopted by the industry and improved by later patents. The wet process is now considered the best. Perhaps the greatest single step forward in the development of the electrotype was the substitution of the dynamo for Smee’s battery, a change accomplished by Leslie, of New York, in 1872.
R. Hoe & Company, of New York, were greatly interested in electrotyping machinery and were leaders in encouraging its development and in putting it on the market.
CHAPTER V
The Development of Printing Presses
The development of printing machinery has already been described to a considerable extent in two of the preceding volumes of this series (No. 6, Platen Printing Presses, and No. 7, Cylinder Printing Machines). It may be worth while, however, to review briefly in this place the main points of progress in this direction. As we already know, American printers originally and for many years imported all their presses as well as their type. This condition, however, could not be permanent. As early as 1775 good presses were being made at Philadelphia and Hartford. These presses were of the Blaeu or “Dutch” type. They were wooden machines with stone beds and had undergone practically no change for a couple of centuries. The best known builder of these old presses in America was Adam Ramage, who came from Scotland to Philadelphia in 1790. Ramage was not only a good workman, but of an inventive turn of mind, and introduced several improvements, notably the substitution of an iron bed for the stone one. The iron press was invented by Lord Stanhope, in England, about the year 1800 and was the beginning of the improvements in printing machinery which were to go so far in the course of a century.
Mr. Henry L. Bullen is authority for the statement that no Stanhope press was ever brought to America. The reason lies probably in the fact that an American invented an iron press at about the same time. This was George Clymer, of Philadelphia, who after much experimenting produced the Columbian Press, an iron machine which came into general use in England as well as in the United States about 1816. It was a complicated machine, but in spite of its complexity was very durable and beautiful as well as powerful. It was worked on the ordinary hand-lever principle, but the leverage system gave a fine chance for the pressman’s skill. It had wonderful possibilities in the production of the most perfect work when in the hands of a skillful workman. It won and long kept well-deserved favor. It was introduced into England in 1807, and in 1817 Clymer himself followed it to England, where he spent the remainder of his life.
In spite of the capacity of the Columbian press for the production of artistically perfect work there was a great and increasing demand for presses of a different type. The demand was for a simpler press and also for one that would mechanically turn out larger quantities of work than were possible under the old leverage system. The first demand was met by the invention of Peter Smith, of New York, who built a press somewhat on the lines of the Columbian, which was very heavy, carried larger forms, and used shorter levers, and by Samuel Reid, who, in 1824, invented the simple but excellent Washington hand press, which is still in common use.
From this point on there are two lines of development which may be followed separately, one the development of the power printing press in which the bed and platen are brought together by a power-driven gear rather than by a hand-moved lever, the other the development of the cylinder press.
The first known attempt to apply power to a printing press was made by William Nicholson, of London, in 1790, in connection with his abortive attempt at the invention of a cylinder press, to which reference will be made later.
The first American attempt to use power was made by Nathan Hale, father of the famous Edward Everett Hale, who took possession of the Boston Advertiser in 1814.
Daniel Treadwell, of Boston, invented and built for Hale the first power press used in America. It was a very large platen with a wooden frame. The presses of Isaac Adams (1830) and Otis Tufts (1834) also had originally wooden frames, but later were built with iron frames. Very few Treadwell presses were ever used. At first they were driven by horsepower, later by steam. The early power presses were worked by horses, by men known as crank-men, and even in the case of small machines by dogs. These crude power appliances soon gave way to steam, and within a few years steam has been largely supplanted by the electric drive, with a tendency to a preponderance of individual motor-driven machines. The electric drive, by the way, is an American invention.