PRINTING AND MAKING OF BOOKS 



against a flat bed of type. The improvements had been 

 largely in the mechanism for applying this pressure. 



THE CYLINDER PRESS INVENTED 



Early in the century an Englishman, William Nichol- 

 son, conceived the idea of a press which, instead of 

 having a flat platen or a flat bed, should have one, or 

 possibly both, of these in the form of a cylinder, so 

 that the paper, instead of being laid upon the forms 

 and pressed, should be fed between cylinders, just as 

 any material is fed to a rolling-machine. But Nichol- 

 son, although he took out patents for his press, merely 

 made drawings and plans without constructing a 

 machine ; so that his attempts, although perfectly prac- 

 tical as proved by later events, bore no fruit and he is 

 not legitimately entitled to the credit of introducing 

 the "cylinder press." 



The practical solution of the problem must be credited 

 to the Saxon, Friedrich Koenig. With the assistance of 

 a London printer by the name of Bensley, he devised a 

 cylinder machine in 1812-1813, and printed several 

 books upon it. In this machine "the form of type was 

 placed on a flat bed, the cylinder above it having a 

 threefold motion, or stopping three times; the first 

 third of the turn received the sheet upon one of the 

 tympans and secured it by the brisket ; the second gave 

 the impression and allowed the sheet to be removed by 

 hand, while the third returned the tympan empty to re- 

 ceive another sheet." This machine worked well, and 

 was followed later bv several other machines by the same 



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