CHAP, ix.] VARIOUS APPLICATIONS OF STEAM. 493 



the " Hoe ten-feeder " requires some eighteen people to feed it 

 with paper and attend to it while at work, and even then can only 

 produce some *7,000 or 8,000 copies an hour of perfect newspapers, 

 because it only prints one side at a time. But the Walter Press, 

 attended by a man and two boys, none of whom are severely worked, 

 runs off with ease complete newspapers at the rate of 12,500 an 

 hour. 1 



The foundation of printing by steam lies in the power of multi- 

 plying metal counterparts of the type "formes" by stereotyping. 

 Type itself could never be made to fit on to a Walter machine with 

 the requisite facility ; but if a solid cast of the type can be obtained of 

 the proper shape and cleanness, that difficulty is at an end the first 

 important step is gained. It is a twofold difficulty. In the first 

 place, the page of type from which the impression is taken on a 

 Walter Press must be bent in a semi-circular form and made to fit 

 on to a large roller. In the second place, without a means of 

 multiplying the metal type formes from which the paper is printed, 

 even a speed of 12,000 or 13,000 copies an hour would in these days 

 stand a newspaper in small stead. It would take the best part of a 

 night to throw off an impression, and the Times does not go to press 

 with its inner sheet till some time past four o'clock in the morning. 

 Stereotyping is, therefore, absolutely essential, and the process as 

 practised for the Walter Press is beautifully simple. The subject 

 matter is, of course, first set up by hand, and columns are made into 

 pages, and placed in a strong metal frame upon a metal table perfectly 

 flat, and tightened up so as to form an immovable mass. When 

 that is satisfactorily accomplished it is conveyed to the stereotyping 

 room, where some layers of damp paper are laid upon it, and it is 

 then driven twice through a machine having powerful rollers, which 

 squeeze the paper down on the face of the type. It is next placed 

 with its damp paper still on it below a heavy screw-press, the 

 sole or lower plate of which is a steam-heated metal chamber. This 

 dries the paper rapidly, and at the same time the pressure put upon 

 it prevents any inequality. In a short time the frame or page of 

 type is drawn out from below this press and the dried paper peeled 

 off its surface, when it forms a perfect matrix or counterpart of the 



1 For this account of the Walter Press the Editor is indebted to an article in 

 Macmillan's Magazine. 



