MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREAD WELL. 330 



The press was completed in May. A description of it, and of the advantages 

 expected from its use, was printed and distributed among the London printers, 

 together with a circular under date of May 20, 1820, as follows: "A printing-pres 



on a new and simple construction, in which the form is stationary and the impres- 

 sion is given by a treadle, is now in operation for the inspection of the trade at 

 No. 80 Long Acre. As the press is not only cheaper, but works with less labor and 

 more expedition, than the presses in general use, the inventor has a confident expec- 

 tation that it will meet the approbation of the trade. He takes the liberty of inviting 

 you to witness its operation." Two or three presses were built and put in opera- 



- 



tion, but, notwithstanding some unquestioned advantages, as above stated, the press 

 did not find the favor that was expected. Mr. Hansard, whose description we ha v. 

 given, bears testimony to its originality, and also to the fact that it requires but one 

 man. Further, that some of the movements required on the common hand-press 

 are dispensed with, and by means of the springs and counterbalance others are 

 rendered easier and more rapid. The probability is. that the objection among the 

 workmen was principally in that unwillingness, if not inability, of most mechanics 

 to change the work to which they had been accustomed from their apprenticeship 



for that which requires some new practice in order to Income expert. Pr 



adle and a fixed table are now in g 



for the printing of 



small forms, cards, and other light work. 



Mr. Tread well, finding that his prospect of success did not warrant a further stay, 

 returned to Boston in September, 1820. 



The attention of printers at that time was directed almost exclusively toward- 

 steam printing. On Monday, the 28th of November, 1814, the London Times had 

 already announced to the reader that he held in his hand a paper printed by 

 steam. Mr. Treadwell writes in the Autobiography : 



"After an examination of the steam cylinder pr< s while in England, I concluded that a 

 better steam or 'power press' for book-work might be constructed by using the platen instead 

 of the cylinder for the impression. All the English machines gave the impression by cylinders, 

 which, while they are capable of executing work more rapidly, do not ^rive so fair and clear a 

 page as can be produced by the flat surface of the platen. Soon after my return 1 began the 

 construction of a machine to print by ' Power.' It was completed in about a year, being the 

 first press by which a sheet of paper was printed on this continent by other than human power. 

 All the operations except supplying and removing the sheets were automatic, derived from a 

 rotatory shaft worked by a horse. The pre-, worked regularly as to time, making its nine fir 

 ten impressions between fifty -eight and sixty-two seconds. Although constructed in 1 21, it 

 was not patented till 1826, which added by so much to the fourteen years' monopoly." 



