In 1830 Samuel Adams, of Boston, built a platen power press, which was long the only power press capable of fine work and exact register. Not long later S. P. Ruggles, of Boston, invented the Diamond, a small, rapid machine for the quick production of cards, envelopes, and other small work, and later, in 1839, the Ruggles rotary, a successful and popular power jobber. In 1856 George P. Gordon began the line of Gordon presses, still made in improved models by the Chandler & Price Company, of Cleveland, and very extensively used. The advantages of the Gordon were simplicity of design, a strong impression, high speed, and lightness of running.
In 1869 Merritt Gally invented the Universal press, using a different mechanical system and producing a perfectly parallel impression. Gally’s invention was later improved by John Thomson, who produced a machine which has been extensively used and is well known as the John Thomson press. In 1875 Gally also invented a heavy press for embossing, cutting, and creasing heavy stock. In 1885 the Colt’s Armory universal press, a very excellent machine especially adapted to heavy work, was placed on the market.
In 1885 Wellington P. Kidder invented a platen press of the Gordon type, with automatic feed and delivery.
In 1890 Albert Harris invented the Harris press, the first really successful high-speed automatic jobber. Two other familiar high-speed presses, the Auto Press and the Kelly, are small high-speed cylinders.
The first known attempt to make a cylinder press was that of William Nicholson, of London, who invented, in 1789, a machine that should apply the paper to the type by means of a cylinder. As we have seen, Nicholson went so far as to invent application of power to his machine, forseeing that power would be necessary for the use of any successful cylinder presses. Nicholson was not a printer, and his idea, although it had attracted attention, did not assume practical shape.
Ten years, or so, later Dr. Kinsley, a Connecticut man, developed Nicholson’s idea and produced a cylinder press, which is described at considerable length by Isaiah Thomas in his History of Printing. Thomas seems to have been a good deal interested in the machine, although he appears to have regarded it as promising rather than successful. He says that it saved labor and did good work. He was sufficiently interested to print a picture of it although his book is not otherwise illustrated. In a general way it was not unlike a modern cylinder proof press. It printed on one side only and was not so arranged as to secure perfect register if an impression was desired on the other side.
Several other attempts were made at the invention of cylinder presses, which attracted considerable attention, but which were not commercially successful. The first real success was made by Fredrick König, a native of Saxony, who, in 1814, invented a cylinder press which was immediately put into use in the press room of the London Times. König’s invention, like most first inventions in a new field, was susceptible of improvement, especially in the direction of simplicity. These improvements, however, were soon made, and the cylinder press started on its career of wonderful development. The first cylinder press used in America was a Napier brought out from England in 1825, and set up in the office of the National Intelligencer in Washington.
The development of the cylinder press in America is largely connected with the name of Hoe. Robert Hoe, a Leicestershire farmer’s son, was born in 1784, and in due time was apprenticed to a carpenter. In 1803 he came to New York, where he worked at his trade. After a time he became associated in business with his brother-in-law, Matthew Smith, Jr. Smith was a carpenter and a printer’s joiner (that is to say, a maker of press frames and other wood work used by printers) and a brother of Peter Smith, the press inventor, who has already been mentioned. Through this association the firm got into the business of building presses, first of wood and later of iron.
Both the Smiths died in 1823 and Hoe inherited the business, which he carried on in the name of Robert Hoe & Company. Hoe was always enterprising and his attention was quickly drawn to the Napier press, which had been set up in Washington in 1825. As usual, this machine was not patented in this country and Hoe proceeded to imitate it, with such changes as occurred to him, and put on the market, in 1827 and 1828, the first flat bed and cylinder press made in the United States.
Robert Hoe retired on account of failing health in 1832, but he left the business in the capable hands of Richard M. Hoe and Matthew Smith, the son of Matthew, Jr., Robert Hoe’s original partner. The concern went on building and improving presses and in 1842 they patented a new bed-driving motion of which the well-known Meihle press of today is a development.