PRINTING, PROGRESS OF, IN RECENT YEARS. 



569 



vice consists of 2 wiping rollers covered with 

 plush having a long silk nap, traveling in opposite 

 directions at twice the surlaee speed of the cylin- 

 der. These rollers are kept thoroughly lubricated, 

 and are automatically brought into contact with 

 the tympan of the second impression-cylinder, 

 twice before each impression, rendering it free 

 from contaminating matter. This machine is 

 adapted to a high grade of work. Another iluber 

 press has two cylinders, each tor printing a dif- 

 ferent color. The method of carrying the sheet 

 from one color-cylinder to the other insures abso- 

 lute register, and the speed is 10,000 sheets a day, 

 or about the same as a one-color machine. It is 

 in demand for labels, fancy posters, and similar 

 work. 



The Whitlock cylinder printing-presses were 

 originally based upon what was known as the 

 Henry bed movement, but as the two-revolution 

 class of machines was improved, they were built 

 with a crank movement, modified by elliptical 

 gears, thus securing an ideal motion. The flyless 

 delivery and modern minor devices have placed 

 these machines in the front rank. 



The Babcock Printing-Press Company have 

 built cylinder presses for many years at New Lon- 

 don, Conn. Their most important machine at this 

 time is the Optimus, a two-revolution cylinder, 

 which contains many improvements that are radi- 

 cal departures from old ideas. The innovations 

 are chiefly the inventions of George P. Fenner, of 

 New London, Conn. The sheet is delivered 

 printed side up and stops on its journey after 

 it leaves the cylinder, and is exposed to the view 

 of the feeder, while the next sheet is being printed 

 and taken up, so that it can be fully inspected 

 both as to ink and register. The press is especially 

 convenient for making ready. It has a still grip- 

 per, whose motion exactly coincides with that of 

 the cylinder at all speeds a most important mat- 

 ter in its relation to the register and Uniformity 

 of margin. It has an improved air-cushion, an 

 adjustable piston, a special reversing mechanism, 

 and an impression trip, which can be operated in- 

 stantly and effectually. There is also a cylinder- 

 lifting mechanism, which dispenses with the 

 heavy counterbalancing used in some other 

 presses. 



The Cox Duplex newspaper press is made in 

 Battle Creek, Mich., and was developed for the 

 purpose of providing a moderately fast web ma- 

 chine to print from type, as desired by many daily 

 newspapers with 3,000 to 10,000 circulation. The 

 type-beds are placed one above the other, and are 

 stationary, while the cylinders roll back and forth 

 upon them, and the web of paper, which winds in 

 and out between the cylinders, type, and rollers, 

 is drawn forward the width of one newspaper at 

 each reversal of the cylinders. As two impres- 

 sions are made during the travel of the cylinders 

 in each direction, the result is a quadrupling of 

 the work that can be done on a single cylinder 

 press, and hand-feeding is dispensed with. 



The Kidder Company, of Boston, have built 

 many styles of web feeding-machines for special 

 work, and there are other press-builders in the 

 United States who 'have built good machines 

 more or less similar to those that have been de- 

 scribed above, which have been selected as typical 

 of certain classes. One special design of press 

 that forms a class by itself is the Harris Auto- 

 matic Press, of Niles, Ohio. This is a rotary 

 job-press, designed for doing the work of the 

 small platen-machines at a much greater speed. 

 It has tiny cylinders and is mounted on a ped- 

 estal. For envelopes and cards there is an auto- 

 matic feed, so that these can be printed at six 



or eight times the speed po-^ible v.it'i hand-feed- 

 ing on a platen-jobber. Him y wheels i'|iiire to 

 be hand-fed on the Harris press, but < ; i n [. put 

 through at three times the -]><<>[ i,\ the oidnnny 

 job-press. The printing smi;i<<- u-r<| |. ; rin\cil 

 electrotype plate, but the method i ,n,.j, i|,,,t 

 type can be adapted to direct u.->e to some extent. 



Automatic Paper-Feeding Machines. I ntil 

 about 1875 no other way ol lex-ding the j.;i.|.-r m!.o 

 printing-machines had been devised UIHM by tin: 

 tedious method of placing the sheets in po-itmn 

 one at a. time by hand; but the introduction of 

 rotary presses supplying the paper from a roll 

 turned the attention of inventors to the problem 

 of feeding single sheets automatically. One of the 

 first successful machines of this class was the 

 Economic paper-feeder sold by E. C. Fuller & Co., 

 of New York. This was introduced to feed book- 

 binders' ruling-machines, and was generally 

 adopted for that purpose. As ruling-machine* 

 commonly use only papers of good quality, and 

 not very large sheets, the problem was not so 

 serious as was the feeding of sheets to cylinder 

 presses that take on all qualities and sizes of 

 sheets. After an expenditure of a very large 

 amount of money, however, the machines were 

 perfected so that they could be applied to cylinder 

 presses with economy, and these feeders are in 

 use in many large book-printing houses and in 

 magazine-publishing plants, as well as private 

 offices. 



The Dexter Folder Company, of Pearl River, 

 N. Y., also went into the manufacture of feed- 

 ing-machines, and T. C. Dexter took out a large 

 number of patents, which cover the improvements 

 embodied in their machines. The Dexter feeders 

 use purely mechanical devices, avoiding electrical 

 attachments. One of the great difficulties in 

 securing exact operation from this class of ma- 

 chines has been the tendency of the sheets to stick 

 together. In the Dexter feeder, if more than one 

 sheet is advanced from the pile, a mechanical 

 sheet-calipering attachment discovers the fact, 

 and sets in play mechanism for stopping the 

 printing-machine so that the attendant can rem- 

 edy the difficulty before any damage results. The 

 squaring of the sheet as it approaches the guides 

 of the printing-press is accomplished automatical- 

 ly, even if the sheet is not placed squarely in the 

 pile from which the paper is being fed. 



Several other automatic paper-feeding machines 

 are before the public, or in a condition to be 

 placed on the market shortly. 



In the bookbinding branch of the printing in- 

 dustry a variety of machinery has been intro- 

 duced, the most recent and important of which 

 is Sheridan's case-making machine, which makes 

 what are technically called book-cases that is, 

 covers for books automatically at the rate of 

 22 a minute. The boards for the sides and the 

 cloth are supplied automatically, and the ma- 

 chine puts all together with greater precision 

 than it can be done by hand, besides saving cloth 

 and glue. The case-maker is such a labor-saver 

 that within a very short time it has found its way 

 jnto all the larger cities of the world. 



Aluxninographic Printing. In 1898 it was 

 demonstrated that lithographic printing could be 

 done commercially on rotary presses by the use 

 of aluminum plates instead of the lithographic 

 stone. About 1880 a great deal of money was 

 expended by press-manufacturers in the effort to 

 introduce such machines for printing from zinc 

 plates, but zinc proved a failure. When aluminum 

 was produced cheaply it was thought of as per- 

 haps a proper metal, and after experiments by 

 various persons, who claim the credit for the dis- 



