Triumphs and Wonders of the 19th Century: The True Mirror of a Phenomenal Era / A volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress

by James P. Boyd

Millard Fillmore became the President of the United States in July of 1850, succeeding Zachary Taylor, who died. The Congress had taken a stand on the disturbing question of slavery by the passage of the fugitive slave law, and had made the first step toward freedom for the negroes by the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. It was in this year that New Mexico and Utah were admitted as Territories, the entire population of the United States being only 23,191,876; ten years later the population reached 31,443,321. The people were beginning to realize how important was the printing press in placing them in communication with the statesmen of the country. They were looking to Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Meredith, Everett, Scott, Crittenden, Collamer, Marcy,—then in the fullness of mental vigor,—and they were demanding information of their acts in the cabinet, their speeches in Congress, their views on state rights and slavery.

It was at this time that the Hoe American Printing-press Company startled the world by producing the ten-cylinder press, the speed of which was limited only by the ability of the feeders to supply the sheets. The first one of them to be used in the United States was that upon which the Philadelphia “Public Ledger” was printed. It at once came into general use in Europe and America. Its speed was 20,000 copies an hour.

In this press—still in use in many cities—the form of type is placed on the surface of a horizontal revolving cylinder of about four and a half feet in diameter. The form occupies a segment of only about one fourth of the surface of the cylinder, and the remainder is used as an ink-distributing surface. Around this main cylinder, and parallel with it, are smaller impression-cylinders. The large cylinder being put in motion, the form of types is carried successively to all the impression-cylinders, at each of which a sheet is introduced, and receives the impression of the type as the form passes. One person supplies the sheets of paper to each cylinder. After being printed they are carried out by tapes and laid upon heaps by means of self-acting flyers. The ink is contained in a fountain placed beneath the main cylinder, and is conveyed by means of distributing rollers to the distributing surface on the main cylinder. The surface being lower, or less in diameter than the form of types, passes by the impression-cylinder without touching. For each impression there are two inking rollers, which receive their supply of ink from the distributing surface of the main cylinder; they rise and ink the form as it passes under them, after which they again fall to the distributing surface. Each page of the paper is locked up on a detached segment of the larger cylinder, which constitutes its bed and chases, termed the “turtle.” The column-rules run parallel with the shaft of the cylinder, and consequently are straight, while head, advertising, and dash rules are in the form of segments of a circle. The column-rules are in the form of a wedge, with the thin part directed toward the axis of the cylinder, so as to bind the type securely. These wedge-shaped column-rules are held down to the bed by tongues projecting at intervals along their length, which slide in rebated grooves cut crosswise in the face of the bed. The spaces in the grooves between the rules are accurately fitted with sliding blocks of metal, even with the surface of the bed, the ends of which blocks are cut away underneath to receive a projection on the sides of the tongues of the column-rules. The form of type is locked up in the bed by means of screws at the foot and sides, by which the type is held as securely as in the ordinary manner upon a flat bed.

DOUBLE CYLINDER PRESS.

This press was regarded as the highest degree of perfection, until William A. Bullock, of Philadelphia, put out his web perfecting press. This completely revolutionized the printing business so far as the newspapers were concerned. It came into use in 1861,—just before the breaking out of the war of the rebellion in the United States,—in time to meet the enormous demands made upon the printing press at home and abroad. It had been in operation but a short time when the newspaper owners of Great Britain took hold of it, and for several years no other press was used by the newspapers of large circulation.

How slow and toy-like it seems in comparison with the monsters of the present day! And yet this machine met the demands of a period when it was supposed the circulation of the daily press had reached an altitude never to be surpassed. A newspaper like the New York “Herald,” which had attained a daily circulation of about 75,000, was looked upon as achieving the highest degree of success. In this last year of the nineteenth century the “Journal” and “World” of New York send out at least a million copies of their papers 365 days in the year.

William A. Bullock worked at his web printing press for six years before he had it in shape to pronounce it applicable to the requirements. It was not long after it was in successful operation that one of his limbs caught in the machinery of one of his presses, and death was the result. As the presses first were made, and indeed for many years thereafter, the paper was cut in the press before being printed, and it was a difficult matter properly to control these single sheets until they were delivered, while the presses were without any folding attachment. But these old style Bullock presses did succeed in turning out 6000 eight-page papers an hour, printed on both sides.

In 1873 a great improvement was made in the Bullock presses, which allowed of the papers being printed on the endless roll before the paper was cut.

With the aid of other improvements subsequently made these presses attained to a capacity of 16,000 eight-page papers an hour. But an unexpected limit was found in the impossibility of delivering beyond a certain rate from the fly. Then R. Hoe & Co. (about 1877) invented a contrivance which obviated the difficulty. It consisted of an accumulating cylinder, on which six or eight sheets were laid one above the other and then delivered from the fly at one motion. This increased the capacity of their perfecting press to 18,000 an hour. A folding attachment was then added; next a pasting and cutting attachment. Thus, in 1879 they were able to turn out a press which produced 30,000 perfect eight-page papers an hour—printed, cut, pasted, and folded.