MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 33 



impression is not wetted, as in other printing processes ; it is placed 

 on the cylinder as it comes from the paper-maker, but so certain and 

 regular is the pressure, that the impression on this dry paper is equal, 

 if not superior, to that obtained upon damped paper in the ordinary 

 way. There is an index affixed to the machine, to indicate the rate at 

 which it goes, by the number of sheets thrown off. When the con- 

 tinuous sheet, equal to 2.000 copies of a journal, is exhausted, the 

 cylinder is replaced by another, and so on. It is said that as many as 

 15,000 copies of a journal can be printed in an hour by this machine. 

 The cost of one of these machines is $ 5,000. A font of type, being 

 subjected to but little wear, will last many years. Galignani's 

 (Paris) Messenger. 



PRINTING-MACHINE FOR THE BLIND. 



MR. HUGHES, the governor of Henshaw's Asylum for the Blind, has 

 invented an ingenious printing-machine. It consists principally of a 

 circular disk of brass, close to the edge of which is an embossed al- 

 phabet, with the usual figures and points used in punctuation. Inside 

 of this circle is a disk of common letter-press types, corresponding in 

 number with the raised letters of the outer circle. The disk is moved 

 longitudinally by means of a screw, and any letter that may be wanted 

 is brought under a lever placed at right angles with the screw, which 

 keeps the writing in a straight line. The types act upon carbonized 

 paper, under which is placed a sheet of white paper on a piece of 

 pasteboard, and thus the desired impression is conveyed. The ma- 

 chine is only a foot square. London Mining Journal, March 2. 



MACHINE FOR FOLDING NEWSPAPERS AND BOOKS. 



IT was announced some time since that a machine for folding news- 

 papers and other printed matter had been invented in Springfield, 

 Mass. A variety of circumstances have delayed its being brought 

 into use till recently. During the past year, however, one of these 

 machines has been successfully used in the offices of the Boston Trans- 

 cript and Springfield Republican. The principle of the invention will 

 be understood from the following description of one of the folders, as 

 applied to one of Taylor's cylinder power-presses in the Transcript 

 office. The folder is adjusted to the press, and is driven by the same 

 power, and at the same speed. As the sheet emerges from the print- 

 ing cylinder, it is received upon a moving apron, composed of endless 

 bands revolving on rollers placed at either end. On reaching the ex- 

 tremity of this apron, which is nearly double the length of the sheet, 

 the paper is struck in the middle from beneath by a folding knife, or 

 straight edge, upwards, between two revolving cylinders, placed at 

 right angles with the -apron, to make the first fold. From these cylin- 

 ders, the doubled sheet issues upon a second apron, moving at right 

 angles with the first, and upon a higher plane, upon which it is car- 

 ried under a second pair of folding rollers, and the second fold, at right 

 angles with the first, is completed in the same manner ; a third fold is 



