Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/473

PRINTING. made great improvements on the large iron press of Pierres, adding many clever devices of his own for the lightening of labor. In 1806 Koenig, of Saxony, went to London with the model of an improved platen press, which he failed to introduce. His associates were more successful in reviving a patent issued to William Nicholson, of London, in 1790 for printing on a flat surface with cylindrical pressure. The new method was fairly tested upon a book form in 1811 and the new machine began to do the regular edition of the London Times in 1814. Soon after this all 30 daily newspapers had cylinder presses, for their greater speed and economy were advantages not to be neglected, but book work of all kinds continued to be done on platen presses of new construction. The Columbian Press, invented by George Clymer, of Philadelphia (1816); the Adams Power Press, made in 1830, by Isaac Adams, of Boston; the Washington Press, of Rust, of New York, in 1827, were for many years the favorites.

The last two mentioned are yet in daily use in many printing houses of the United States. Cylinder printing machines, the first made, although indispensable to early newspapers, were damaging to type, and for that reason were rejected after fair trial by all book–printers. The old publishing house of Harper & Brothers used hand presses only in 1835, but soon after introduced the Adams power press. A prominent firm of law-book publishers in New York had all their work done on hand presses as late as 1849. The preference for hand-press work has been more marked in Great Britain. The fine books of Pickering and Whitingham and more recently those of William Morris and his disciples were printed on a hand press. The hand press was found too slow and the cylinder press too cumbrous and costly for the small forms of commercial printing required before 1850. To supply this demand many small and inexpensive platen printing presses were devised for cards and circulars. In 1840 S. P. Ruggles, of Boston, invented a platen machine that printed a sheet of letter size at the speed of 1000 an hour, power being furnished by the foot of the pressman moving a treadle and attached crank. In 1850 George P. Gordon, of New York, patented a form of small platen press, in which the platen vibrated to the bed of type, and printed small sheets with great speed and accuracy.

This Gordon press, with some modifications and under various names, is still preferred in all printing countries for small jobs. Cylinderpresses, impressing types upon a flat bed with a reciprocating movement, are made of many different constructions: (1) The drum cylinder, that makes one revolution and one impression to the forward and backward movement of the bed of type, is still in use for small job work; (2) the two-revolution cylinder, that rotates at greater speed, and gives impression at every other rotation, is much used for book work; (3) the stop-cylinder, that stops its rotation after each impression, has been preferred for its accurate register and superior printing of engraved illustrations; (4) the double cylinder, that produces two prints from the same form