Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century

by Robert Routledge

Fig. 150.—Inking Roller.

The first important step towards the possibility of a printing machine was made, when for these inking balls was substituted a cylindrical roller, mounted on handles, Fig. [150]. The body of the roller is of wood, but it is thickly coated with a composition which unites the qualities of elasticity, softness, and readiness to take up the ink and distribute it evenly over the types. The materials used for this composition are chiefly glue and treacle, and sometimes also tar, isinglass, or other substances. Glycerine and various other materials have also been proposed as suitable ingredients for these composition rollers, but it is doubtful whether the original compound is not as efficacious as any yet tried. The composition is not unlike india-rubber in its appearance and some of its properties. Fig. [150] represents equally the mode in which the roller is applied to the type in hand presses, and that in which it is charged with ink, by being moved backwards and forwards over a smooth table upon which the ink has been spread.

From the time of the first appearance of printing presses in Europe down to almost the beginning of the present century, a period of 350 years, no improvement in the construction appears to have been attempted. They were simply wooden presses with screws, on exactly the same plan as the cheese-presses of the period. Earl Stanhope first, in 1798, made a press entirely of iron, and he provided it with an excellent combination of levers, so that the “platen,” or flat plate which overlies the paper and receives the pressure, is forced down with great power just when the paper comes in contact with the types. Such presses are capable of turning out about 250 impressions per hour, and it should be noted that the very finest book printing is still done by presses upon this principle. One reason is that in such cases, where it is desired to print with the greatest clearness and depth of colour, the ink employed is much thicker, or stiffer, and requires more thorough distribution and application to the type than a machine can effect. Stanhope’s press was not of a kind to meet the desire for rapid production, to which the increasing importance of newspapers gave rise. The first practical success in this direction was achieved by König, who, in 1814, set up for Mr. Walter, the proprietor of the “Times,” two machines, by which that newspaper was printed at the rate of 1,100 impressions per hour, the machinery being driven by steam power.

The “Times” of the 28th November, 1814, in the following words made its readers acquainted with the fact that they had in their hands for the first time a newspaper printed by steam power:

“Our journal of this day presents to the public the practical result of the greatest improvement connected with printing since the discovery of the art itself. The reader of this paragraph now holds in his hand one of many thousand impressions of ‘The Times’ newspaper, which were taken off by a mechanical apparatus. A system of machinery almost organic has been devised and arranged, which, while it relieves the human frame of its most laborious efforts in printing, far exceeds all human powers in rapidity and dispatch. That the magnitude of the invention may be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall inform the public that after the letters are placed by the compositors, and enclosed in what is called the ‘form,’ little more remains for man to do than to attend upon and watch this unconscious agent in its operations. The machine is then merely supplied with paper, itself places the form, inks it, adjusts the paper to the form newly inked, stamps the sheet, and gives it forth to the hands of the attendant, at the same time withdrawing the form for a fresh coat of ink, which itself again distributes, to meet the ensuing sheet now advancing for impression, and the whole of these complicated acts is performed with such a velocity and simultaneousness of movement that no less than 1,100 sheets are impressed in one hour. That the completion of an invention of this kind, not the effect of chance, but the result of mechanical combinations, methodically arranged in the mind of the artist, should be attended with many obstructions and much delay may be readily admitted. Our share in this event has, indeed, only been the application of the discovery, under an agreement with the patentees, to our own particular business; yet few can conceive, even with this limited interest, the various disappointments and deep anxiety to which we have for a long course of time been subjected. Of the person who made the discovery we have little to add. Sir Christopher Wren’s noblest monument is to be found in the building which he erected: so is the best tribute of praise which we are capable of offering to the inventor of the printing machine comprised in the preceding description, which we have feebly sketched, of the powers and utility of his invention. It must suffice to say further, that he is a Saxon by birth, that his name is König, and that the invention has been executed under the direction of his friend and countryman, Bauer.”

Fig. 151.—Diagram of Cowper and Applegath’s Single Machine.

Each of the machines erected by König for the “Times” printed only one side of the sheet, so that when they had been half printed by one machine, they had then to be passed through the other, in order to be “perfected,” as it is technically termed. These machines were greatly improved by Messrs. Applegath and Cowper, who contrived also a modification by which the sheets could be perfected in one and the same machine. As the principle of these machines has been followed, with more or less diversity of detail, in most of the printing machines at present in use, it is very desirable to lay that principle clearly before the reader. The diagram, Fig. [151], will make the action of Applegath and Cowper’s single-printing machine easily understood. The type is set up on a flat form, A B, which occupies part of the horizontal table, C D, the rest of which, A C, is the inking table. E is a large cylinder, covered with woollen cloth, which forms the “blanket.” The paper passes round this cylinder, and it is pressed against the form. The small black circles, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, represent the rollers for distributing the ink. f is called the ductor roller. This roller, which revolves slowly, is made of metal, and parallel to it is a plate of metal, having a perfectly straight edge, nearly, but not quite, touching the cylinder, and at the other side, as well as at the extremities, bent upwards, so as to form a kind of trough, to contain the ink, as a reservoir. The slow rotation of the ductor conveys the ink to the next roller, which is covered with composition, and being made to move backwards and forwards between the ductor roller and the table at certain intervals, it is termed the vibrating roller. The ink having thus reached the inking-table, is spread evenly thereon by the distributing rollers, h, k, and it is taken up from the inking table, as the latter passes under, by the inking rollers, l, m, n. The table, C D, as a whole is constantly moving right and left in a horizontal direction, so that the form passes alternately under the impression cylinder, E, and the inking rollers, l, m, n. The axles of the inking and distributing rollers are made long and slender, and instead of turning in fixed bearings, they rest in slots or notches, in order that, as the form passes below them, they may be raised, so that they rest on the inking slab, and on the types, only by their own weight. They are placed not quite at right angles to the direction of the table, but a little diagonally. The sliding motion caused by this, helps very much in the uniform spreading of the ink. By these arrangements the form is evenly smeared with ink, since each inking roller passes over it twice before it returns to meet the paper under E.

Fig. 152.—Diagram of Applegath and Cowper’s Perfecting Machine.