170 



PRINTING PRESSES. 



Printing accord ; and in order to admit of this, a portion of 



P f _ esse - the roller B is removed ; and three pairs of additional 



"" v ~" rollers MMM are added for the bed to roll upon with 



more facility, each pair of rollers being fixed upon a 



separate axis, with necks working in brasses. 



The blankets NN are secured to the cast-iron bed at 

 one end, by the blanket holder (3, and the stretcher P 

 is affixed to the end of them, from which cords QQ 

 pass over the pullies RR, and have weights, one of 

 which is shown at S, hung to them. By this means the 

 blankets are kept stretched and relieved from the 

 roller, and prevented from matting or becoming dirty 

 in use. The roller B is kept up when the bed is re- 

 leased by the following contrivance. TT are two 

 wooden blocks, lying at the bottom of the chases in 

 the press frame, at each end of these blocks is fitted a 

 screw nut, into which are screwed two screws, having 

 flat cylindrical heads WW, with notches or teeth cut 

 around them, and which project beyond the sides of 

 the press-frame, so as to be easily turned either way, 

 as required. Upon these heads the brasses XX are 

 rests, in which the necks of the axis of the roller B 

 turn, and the roller can thereby be supported at the 

 required height, as above mentioned. 



Fig. 16, Fig. 1 6. represents a cylindrical steel or copper- 



plate printing press. AA, &c. is the cast-iron frame of 

 the press ; B the main cylinder for holding the plates, 

 which has a solid cast-iron cylindrical surface or rim, 

 upon which the plates are firmly secured by means of 

 screws fastened through holes made in the surface of 

 the cylinder, from the inside of it, and entering into 

 screw holes made partly through the plates. The 

 main cylinder is mounted on an axis with necks, each 

 end of it turning in brasses fixed upon the tops of the 

 two main upright standards of the press frame. C is 

 the small cast-iron pressing cylinder, having necks 

 upon its axis turning in sliding brasses, which can be 

 adjusted so as to press with more or less force against 

 the main cylinder B, by the screws, one of which is 

 shown at D. EE is the endless web or blanket pass- 

 ing over and carried forwards by the pressing cylinder 

 C, and over the web cylinder F; the necks of axis of 

 which cylinder turn in brasses, fitted into sliding car- 

 riages, with adjusting screws, one of which is shown 

 at G, for stretching the web. 



Upon the extended axis of the pressing cylinder C, 

 is fixed the drum or rigger H, which is driven by a 

 band II, receiving its motion from the moving power. 

 The plates JJ, &c. are inked by the roller K, running 

 into contact with them, in succession as the main cy- 

 linder revolves, and which roller is inked from distri- 

 buting rollers L and M, the latter of which receives the 

 ink in the usual manner of machine typographic printing 

 p^e ses, from a trough and director, and which there- 

 fore need not be here shown. The ink is more uni- 

 formly distributed over the plates by a hand-roller, 

 used by a workman. Another director N is supported 

 by baskets at each end of it, to the main standards of 

 the frame, one of which is shown at O, in the usual 

 manner of calico printing, and therefore need not be 

 here shown. This last mentioned director N scrapes 

 or takes off the larger portion of the ink lying upon 

 the surfaces of the plates, the remainder being removed 

 by several persons wiping it off in succession, and fi- 

 nally cleaning their surfaces, much in the same way as 

 in copperplate printing. The paper properly moist- 

 ened, may be either laid on the revolving web or, 

 blanket EE, in sheets, and be taken away when print- 

 ed, or may be in the form of one or more long sheets, 



which may be previously wound upon the reel Pj the Printing 

 neck on the axis of which turns in semicircular gaps Machinery. 

 or notches made in the top of standards affixed upon s ^r*^ 

 the frame of the machine, one of which is shown at Q, 

 and passes beneath the directing roller R, until it 

 reaches the press, after passing through which, and 

 becoming printed, it finally passes over the roller S, 

 to be taken away. The courses of the endless web or 

 blanket EE, &c. and of the long sheets of paper, are 

 indicated by the arrows, which are shown accompany- 

 ing them in their progress. The standards which 

 support the necks of the rollers KLM and R, are omit- 

 ted in the drawing, but must of course be employed. 



PRINTING MACHINERY. The first attempts to 

 construct printing machinery, consisted in the appli- 

 cation of the force of horses, or steam, to the common 

 printing press; and working models of a press of this 

 kind were actually constructed. They possessed no 

 advantage, however, as they only substituted the power 

 of a horse for that of a man, without performing any 

 additional work. 



Mr. William Nicholson was the person who took the Nicholson's 

 first real step in this invention. In April 1790, he ob- machine, 

 tained a patent for < a machine, or instrument, for 

 printing on paper, linen, cotton, woollen, and other 

 articles, in a more neat, cheap, and accurate manner 

 than is effected by the machines now in use." In this 

 machine the types were so formed, with stems smaller 

 at one end than the other, that, when composed, they 

 formed a cylindrical surface in place of a plane one. The 

 types were inked by a stuffed cylinder covered with 

 soft skin, the uniform distribution of the ink being pro- 

 duced by smaller rollers. The paper was then made to 

 pass between the cylinder of types and another plain 

 roller, to receive the impression. This machine was 

 found to answer tolerably well for the printing of ca- 

 lico goods, paper-hangings, &c. when the surface of 

 the roller was engraved out of a solid block ; but with 

 moveable types it did not succeed. 



This invention, however, had the effect of directing 

 other minds to the same subject. In 1813, Messrs. 

 Bacon and Donkin took out a patent for a printing 

 machine, which was publicly exhibited at Cambridge, 

 and which' was actually used for printing Bibles and 

 prayer-books in that university. 



Messrs. Bacon and Donkin's Printing Machine. 



A perspective view of this machine is given in Plate Messrs. 

 CCCCLXVIII. Fig. 12, where A is a square prism, on Bacon and 

 the four surfaces of which the types are firmly fixed in Donkin's 

 galleys. The pivots at the end of the axes of this P rinti .^ 

 prism are sustained in the frame BB, and it is made to ^ATE^ 

 revolve by wheels D, E, F, G, driven by the handle C ccci.xvjn 

 H, and regulated by the fly-wheel Z. A second roller Fig. 12, 

 I z, called the plattin, is placed immediately beneath 

 the prism A, and serves to give the proper pressure 

 upon the paper. The surface consists of four seg- 

 ments of cylinders, which apply themselves to the four 

 faces of the prism, which are attached to the different 

 sides of the central axis by means of screws. The ink 

 is applied to the surface of the types by means of a 

 cylinder KK, placed above the prism, and composed 

 of a soft elastic substance. In order that the inking cy-. 

 linder may rise and fall, and thus accommodate itself 

 to the motion of the types, its spindle is fitted in pieces 

 L, L, which move upon an axis n, in order to give 

 play to the cylinder while suiting itself to the motion 

 of the types. The ink cylinder KK receives its ink 

 from the distributing roller MM, and this again from 



