European presses occasionally make their way into this 

 country from time to time, but the experiment is usually 

 a costly one, as almost invariably they prove to be in- 

 ferior to the home product. 



It should not be understood that the cylinder type of 

 press was unknown in America before Napier's inven- 

 tion. On the contrary the Hoe company had one on the 

 market. But by combining European ideas with those 

 already known, a cylinder press was soon produced, 

 modified types of which are still in use, particularly in 

 the book and pamphlet printing establishments. The 

 development of the great rotary newspaper perfecting 

 presses, that "do everything but talk," is another story 

 that will be considered in a moment. 



The cylinder press in use at the present time for the 

 finest kind of letterpress work is really an American 

 improvement upon a French invention. This is the 

 "stop cylinder" invented by Dutartre in 1852, and 

 introduced into this country a year later by Hoe & 

 Company, who very shortly improved upon it, adding 

 to these improvements year by year until the result is 

 the marvelous machine of the present time. The stop- 

 cylinder press has been recently described as follows: 



"The type is secured upon a traveling iron bed, which 

 moves back and forth upon friction rollers of steel, the 

 bed being driven by a simple crank motion, stopping 

 or starting it without noise or jar. All the running por- 

 tions of this bed are made of fine steel as hard as it can 

 be worked. The cylinder is stopped by a cam motion 

 pending the backward travel of the bed, and during the 

 interval of rest the sheet is fed down against the guides 



