Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/193



Up to the close of the period the use of steam, however, was still in the experimental state. Hand-power from "crank men," who turned a large wheel, was sufficient to print the papers even of the daily journals. Frederick Koenig, a Saxon, assisted by Thomas Bensley, a London printer, succeeded in printing from a revolving cylinder in 1812. To have a cylinder roll over a type-bed was bound to be faster than to press an iron platen against it. Robert Hoe, who had started to make printing- presses in New York in 1805, saw the advantage of the changes and began the construction of cylinder presses. In the earlier models that part of the cylinder not used in making the impres- sion was "trimmed down" to allow the type to pass back and forth without touching it. The daily papers used the hand- turned, large-cylinder presses to print their editions. The old- fashioned hand variety still sufficed for provincial newspapers of small circulation.

POSTAL REGULATIONS OF PERIOD

Until the war increased the operating expenses of the Postal Department, newspapers circulated under the provisions of the first Federal Postal Act of 1793. Complaints about poor service were frequent in appearance, but nothing was done except to increase the postal routes. To increase the postage was the last thing the newspapers wanted, yet the first change made just such provisions.

From February 1, 1815, to March 31, 1816, postage on news- papers was increased fifty per cent to raise revenue on account of war expenses. In April of this year (1816), in spite of the re- duction on letter postage, it was continued with the exception that postage would be reduced to one cent on papers delivered in the same State in which they were printed even though car- ried more than one hundred miles. By an act of 1825 newspapers were required to pay one quarter of the annual postage in ad- vance.

A bill for the abolition of postage on newspapers was intro- duced in 1832. The committee on Public Offices to which it was referred reported adversely on May 19, 1832. In its report it said: