PRINTING. 



697 



Many other ingenious forms of the printing press 

 have been invented, among which may be more 

 especially mentioned the very celebrated printing 1 

 press of Mr Tredwell of North America. This press 

 was patented in England, by the inventor, in 1820, 

 but has never come into general use here, although 

 it is very common and highly approved of by the 

 printers of the United States. This press acts by 

 levers, but they are so disposed that the power is 

 applied by the foot of the workman to a treadle, 

 leaving both of his hands free. In this press, as in 

 that of Mr Ruthven, the table is fixed, but the 

 frisket is made double, so that both sides of the 

 sheet may be printed without shifting, which is a 

 great advantage in half sheet work. The contriv- 

 ance of this press does great credit to the origin- 

 ality and mechanical ingenuity of its inventor. The 

 great objection to its use in this country seems to 

 be, that it occupies a very great deal of room in 

 the printing office. 



The great labour required to work the hand 

 press even in its most improved form, as also 

 the slowness of the process, rendered it desirable 

 that some more expeditious and easy method of 

 taking impressions from types should be obtained; 

 and we are now about to draw the reader's atten- 

 tion to the progress and present state of the at- 

 tempts that have been made to supersede the hand 

 press, by the application of machinery. 



So early as the year 1790, Mr Nicholson, editor 

 of the wtll known journal that goes by his name, 

 took out letters patent for printing by machinery. 

 His plan consisted in forming the types with a 

 tapering body or stalk, in order that they might 

 be placed on the surface of a cylinder, and kept 

 compact like the voicoirs of an arch. These 

 types being, placed on the surface of a cylinder, he 

 distributed the ink by means of stuffed rollers or 

 brushes. His printing machine never became 

 available in practice, yet he deserves the credit of 

 being the first who suggested the application of 

 cylinders and inking rollers. About ten years subse- 

 quent to this period, one Konig, a printer in Saxony, 

 turned his attention to the improvement of the 

 printing press, with a view chiefly to accelerate its 

 operation. By numerous experimental trials, and 

 with the assistance of another German, named 

 Bauer, he at last produced a machine for printing, 

 which, with modifications and improvements, stands, 

 both with respect to ingenuity of mechanism and 

 importance of application, in the first rank of the 

 monuments of human intelligence. Being unsuc- 

 cessful in all his applications to the printers and 

 capitalists of his native country, for assistance to 

 bring his scheme into operation, he came to London 

 in 1804. There he was, for a considerable tiaie, 

 received with equal coldness, until he met with Mr 

 Bensley, who had the sagacity to perceive and the 

 boldness to adapt the views of the ingenious Saxon. 

 Mr Bensley and his copartner Mr Taylor (a print- 

 ing company in which the celebrated Woodfall had 

 till a short time previous held a share) made nume- 

 rous attempts to bring the machine into operation, 

 and ultimately succeeded in completing a model, the 

 action of which so satisfied Mr Walters, proprietor 

 of the Times newspaper, that an agreement was 

 entered into to erect two machines to print that 

 journal. These machines were accordingly erected; 

 but so secret was the matter kept, that the public 

 knew nothing concerning it until, on the 28th of 

 November, 1814, the reader of the Times was in- 

 formed, that he held in his hand a paper printed by 

 machinery, moved by the power of steam. This is 

 commonly supposed to be the first specimen of 

 printing executed by steam machinery, but a ma- 



chine was set to work in April, 181 1, and 3000 sheets 

 of signature H of the Annual Register for 1810 

 were printed by it. This was undoubtedly the first 

 work printed by machinery. The machine we are 

 now speaking of was only capable of printing the 

 sheet on one side, and the distribution of ink was 

 unequal, the inking rollers being covered with 

 leather instead of the composition of glue and 

 treacle, formerly alluded to. These imperfections 

 were repaired, and improved machines were offered 

 for sale by Messrs Bensley and Co. in 1817. This 

 machine performed its work very well, and although 

 it has given place to machines of a more simple con- 

 struction, in the minute detail, yet the leading prin- 

 ciples are followed in the construction of the ma- 

 chines of modern date. 



In Fig. 3. plate L.XXVII. we have given a view 

 of what is called Berkley's machine. It is moved by 

 a steam engine, the power being communicated by 

 a belt y y, passing round the pulley X. The ma- 

 chine requires the attendance of two boys, one to 

 deliver the sheets to be printed and the other to 

 receive them after the impression. The principal 

 parts are shown in the figure, but on account of the 

 smallness of the drawing some of the minute details 

 are omitted. The sheets of blank paper are laid 

 upon the table A, and from thence taken by the boy 

 at the end of the machine, and placed upon the 

 table B. This table has a number of linen tapes 

 passing over its surface, so as to lead the sheet laid 

 on them into the machine. These tapes are in fact 

 an endless web, similar in principle to that described 

 in our article Cotton Manufacture, as belonging to 

 the spreading machine. These tapes are kept con- 

 tinually moving in one direction by the revolution 

 of the rollers C and D. By the motion of this 

 system of tapes the blank sheet is led forward, and 

 delivered over the roller e t to be seized by two 

 systems of endless tapes, which are kept tight by 

 being passed over a series of rollers. These endless 

 tapes are adjusted so as to lie upon the sheet on 

 those parts only that are not to be acted on by 

 the types, or in other words, the tapes touch only 

 the margins and the divisions of the pages, in order 

 that they may hold the paper during the whole of 

 its progress through the machine. The use of these 

 two systems of tapes is to keep the sheet in its pro- 

 per position during the process, and thus to insure 

 an accurate register, or the exact placing back to 

 back of the pages on both sides of the sheet. The 

 most prominent parts of the machine are two large 

 cylinders F and G, and two intermediate smaller 

 cylinders H and I, round which the systems of tapes 

 which we have spoken of above pass, and carry with 

 them the sheets of paper to be printed. These four 

 cylinders revolve upon axes supported by the frame 

 work of the machine. The use of the intermediate 

 cylinders H and I is to effect the turning of the 

 sheet, so that after an impression has been given on 

 one side by the main cylinder F, the other side may 

 receive an impression by passing round the main 

 cylinder G. The whole contrivance is at once 

 simple and ingenious, and deserves the reader's at- 

 tention. 



One of the' systems of tapes passes round the 

 upper surface of the roller <?, and the sheet passing 

 over them is carried round the under surface of the 

 main cylinder F, the tapes keeping the sheet tight 

 upon the cylinder. When the sheet arrives to the 

 bottom of the cylinder, it comes into contact with 

 the form of types lying upon the carriage, which is 

 seen placed horizontally below, and which will be 

 more particularly spoken of hereafter. The sheet 

 having thus received an impression, is carried by the 

 system of tapes revolving with the cylinder F up- 



