The wonders of the world

by John Loraine Abbott

FRANKLIN’S PRINTING-PRESS.

“A new printing-press, or printing-engine, has recently excited the attention of the typographical world. It is wrought by the power of steam, and, with the aid of three boys, perfects nearly a thousand sheets per hour. A common press, worked by two men, takes off but two hundred and fifty impressions on one side, and requires eight hours to perfect a thousand sheets. Hence, three boys in one hour are enabled, by this new application of the power of steam, to perform the labor of two men for eight hours. Such are the present capabilities of this engine: but as there is no limit to its required powers, and the size of the form is no obstacle to its perfect performance, it is proposed to take impressions on double-demy, in which case three boys will, in one hour, perform the labor of thirty-two men. This engine is now at work at the printing-office of Bensley & Sons, near Fleet street, and another on a similar (but less perfect) construction, has for some time past been employed on a morning newspaper. In its general analogy, this press is not unlike the rolling-press of copper-plate printers. The forms being fixed on the carriage, are drawn under a cylinder, on which the sheet being laid, and the ink distributed by an arrangement of rollers, the impression is taken on one side. The sheet is then conveyed off by bands to a second cylinder, around which it is conveyed on the second form, and the reiteration is produced in perfect register, without the aid of points. All the manual labor is performed by a boy, who lays the sheet of paper on the first cylinder, by one who takes it off from the second cylinder, and by a third, who lays the sheets even on the bank. As a further instance of economy in the materials, we may mention, that the waste steam from the copper is carried in tubes round the entire suit of offices, with a view to warm them.”

Passing on, over various improvements, we come, last of all, to what thus far is the perfection of all printing-machines, viz., Hoe’s eight-cylinder power-press, a view of which is given in the cut on the following page. This immense printing-machine is thirty-three feet long, fourteen feet and eight inches high, and six feet wide. It has one large central cylinder on which the type is secured, and eight smaller cylinders arranged around it, at convenient distances. Eight persons supply the eight small cylinders with the sheets, and at each revolution of the large cylinder, eight impressions are given off, the sheets being delivered in neat order by the machine itself. The limit to the speed is in the ability of the eight persons to supply the sheets. At the rate of twenty-five hundred sheets to each, the press would give off the unparalleled number of twenty thousand printed impressions per hour. The press is thus far used exclusively for newspaper and similar printing. What it may next be applied to, or what will be the next stride in the rapidity and perfection of printing, only the future can reveal.

HOE’S EIGHT-CYLINDER POWER-PRESS.

Before leaving the subject of printing, it may not be uninteresting to mention, that a composing, or type-setting machine, is said to have been recently invented, in Denmark. One who has seen it in operation, says: “It is now in actual operation in the office of the Fœdrelandet. Instead of the usual cases and composing-sticks, and the compositor standing at his work, we see a person sitting before a machine with keys like a piano, which he plays on incessantly, and every touch on the tangent is followed by a click; the letter already in its place in the long mahogany channel prepared for it. The whole is excessively ingenious. In fact it is fairy work. The most wonderful part is that it distributes the already used types at the same time that it sets the new page, and with an exactness perfectly sure. No mistake can ever occur. The compositor, by this machine, does four times as much work as another workman; but as he requires an assistant to line and page the set type, this brings it to twice the amount of type set. The whole is so clean and pleasant, that it will probably soon be a favorite employment for women. The machine occupies a very small space, not more than a large chair, and is beautifully made of hard woods, brass and steel. Its success is now beyond all doubt. The proprietors of the Fœdrelandet are so gratified by the one they now have, that they have ordered another. The price is twenty-four hundred Danish dollars. It will last, apparently, for a century or two without repair. Mr. Sorenson, the inventor, himself a compositor all his life, kindly shows the machine to any visitor. Of course, a compositor can not set with this machine at once; it will take a short time, a few days, for him to become familiar with the details, but he is then a gentleman compared to his old comrades.”

THE INDIA-RUBBER TREE.

India-rubber, called, also, caoutchouc, is produced from several different trees, all of them of the ficus, or fig species. The ficus elasticus is the tree from which it is chiefly obtained. This is a native both of India and of South America; and its general appearance may be seen in the cut below. When the bark is cut or broken, it gives forth a milky liquid, which, being exposed to the air, produces the gum elastic which is so much in use among us. It is now about a hundred years since it was first introduced into Europe. For a long time it was only used to erase the marks of lead-pencils. The natives of South America had, however, long employed it, as we do now, for boots and shoes. They also smear the inside of baskets with it, thus providing a tough and tight lining. In the vicinity of Quito, they make it into a kind of cloth. Its multiplied uses in the United States and Europe, are familiar to every reader. In a volume lately published in New York, entitled “Scenes and Adventures on the Banks of the Amazon,” is found the following account of this singular and most useful tree.

THE INDIA-RUBBER TREE.