The Building of a Book / A Series of Practical Articles Written by Experts in the Various Departments of Book Making and Distributing

by Unknown

Shortly afterward a single-cylinder press was constructed upon the same principle, the forerunner of what is now known as the single large or drum cylinder press.

Within the next few years, Applegath and Cowper greatly simplified the presses in the Times and in Bensley's office by removing many of the gear wheels. They also invented the first inking-table, a flat, iron plate attached to the type-bed which enabled the rollers to distribute the ink more evenly than before. They placed rollers at an angle across the ink-table and introduced the revolving roller and the scraping blade in the ink-fountain.

More important, however, were Napier's inventions about 1824, of "grippers" which seized the sheet of paper at its front edge and drew it from the feed board, while the cylinder was in motion, and of a method of alternately depressing and raising the impression cylinders on the forward and backward stroke of the type-bed, making it unnecessary to have a part of the cylinders of smaller diameter than the rest to allow the type to pass under it as the bed returned. This made it possible to use cylinders of a smaller diameter. These improvements were first embodied in a perfecting press made for Hansard, a London printer.

Although a number of presses were already being operated by steam power, Hansard, in his description of the Napier bed and platen press (the "Nay-Peer," he called it) finds a peculiar advantage in that "it supersedes the necessity of steam power, as the motion of this machine is gained by two men turning a fly-wheel which acts as the impelling power."

I have described the development of the printing press up to this state with considerable detail, because it discloses the main principles of the book press of the present day. During the first quarter of the last century, the manufacture of cylinder presses was confined to England, not only because London was then the leading centre of civilization, but because nowhere else could be found the mechanical facilities for constructing the large metal frames and parts. Koenig left London for his native land in 1817, dejected by the treatment he had received at the hands of Bensley, both in financial matters and in the attempts to disparage his achievements. He was followed two years later by his friend Bauer, and together they founded the firm of Koenig & Bauer at Oberzell, where it still thrives as one of the largest factories in Germany.

It was not long, however, before the United States took the lead in the number of presses manufactured as well as in their improvement, and the present high state of efficiency of American presses makes them models which are copied in all other countries. These improvements and the perfections of details often presented problems which were more difficult to solve than those of the earlier inventors, and thousands of patents have been granted to Americans for new and ingenious devices.

The firm of R. Hoe & Co., which as early as 1822 was already engaged in the manufacture of hand-presses in New York, commenced about 1832 to manufacture flat-bed cylinder presses, beginning with the single large or drum cylinder press which was followed soon afterward by the single small cylinder and the double small cylinder press, the flat-bed perfecting press, the stop-cylinder press, the two-revolution press, and the rotary book press. They also made and are still making large newspaper and color presses which are used all over the civilized world, but of these we will not treat here.

As stated at the beginning of this article the chief object in press making has always been to lessen the cost of printing, but after increased speed had been attained, there came a demand for a press that would produce the finest quality of printing without sacrificing the quantity produced.

To meet this no press has ever surpassed the stop cylinder. It has been made in several different sizes, the largest having a type-bed 45 × 65 inches. Resting upon and attached to a heavy iron foundation are two iron side frames which are securely braced together by an upper iron frame, called the "rib." This upper frame contains four tracks faced with hard steel, on which run a series of friction rollers, supporting the iron type-bed. Attached to the front of the type-bed is an iron plate, called the ink-table, its surface level with the surface of the type-form as it lies upon the bed.

At the front of the press is the ink-fountain and a number of steel and composition rollers, called the "distributing rollers." The ink is delivered a little at a time from the fountain to the revolving distributing rollers, and from them to the ink-table which moves under the rollers with the motion of the type-bed. By this means the ink is distributed upon the entire surface of the ink-table in a thin, even film. From the ink-table the ink is taken by a set of six rollers, called the "form rollers." Resting on the form rollers and moving in contact with them are additional rollers which help to distribute the ink still finer before it reaches the type.