340 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL TEEADWELL. 



The construction of this press may be understood from tlie accompanying fig- 

 ures, which were drawn, with the exception of Fig. 4,* from two presses made 

 at different times, with a different arrangement of some of the parts. The 

 original drawings, filed in the Patent Office with the specification of the patent, 

 were there burnt in 1835 or 1836. In both figures, a represents the frame, c, 

 Fig. 4, the main shaft, coupled below the floor to the moving power, o o, Figs. 4 

 and 5, is the platen ; y, the bed with the form of type ; k is the toggle-joint, fixed 

 to the beam, a, above, and the platen, o, below, by which the platen is moved in 

 making the impression ; m, a plank on which the bed runs when drawn from under 

 the platen, d, Fig. 4, is a cam on the shaft, c, seen at /, Fig. 5, which, when revolv- 

 ing, acts through the slide bar, h (the bar is fitted with a friction roller), on the 

 toggle-joint, k, which it straightens, and thus presses the platen upon the types. 

 The platen is counterbalanced and drawn upward, and kept pressed against the 

 toggle-joint by a lever and weight above the top beam connected with the platen 

 by a rod represented by the dotted line. The bed or carriage, y, on which are the 

 stone and types, is moved back and forth under the platen on railways resting on 

 the plank, m, by the following described machinery, p, Figs. 4 and 5, is a shaft or 

 verge with a gudgeon at each end running in suitable boxes ; upon this are two 

 mitre cog-wheels, q q, of eight inches in diameter and eight inches apart ; these gear, 

 one into the upper limb, and one into the lower limb of the vertical wheel, r, of the 

 same diameter. The two cog-wheels turn freely on the verge, but are kept from 

 moving up and down by collars. The vertical wheel drives the upper cog-wheel in 

 one direction, and the lower one in the opposite direction. The shaft of the vertical 

 wheel, Fig. 4, has upon its other end a vertical wheel, i, which is driven by a crown 

 wheel, g. The portion of the verge between the two cog-wheels q and r, Fig. 4, 

 has upon it a chuck or clutch, which is two inches less than the space between 



the two wheels ; this clutch can move freely up and clown on the verge, but is so 



* Figure 4 is made from the specification, without reference to any drawing. The pressman is supposed to stand 

 on the south side of the press looking to the north, having the east end of the press to his right hand, and the west 

 eud to the left. The terms east, west, north, and south are used to designate the aspect of the parts, or directions 

 in which they are placed in regard to the centre of the whole, which is a vertical line drawn through the centre of the 

 platen. As the distances of the various parts from the frame of the press are given, and also their dimensions, 

 it has been possible to reproduce the drawing in its essential parts. 



In a letter to Mr. William Van Harden, of New York, who at one time intended to publish a History of 

 Printing in America, Mr. Treadwell says: " You will see that the specification is drawn up in a very unusual 

 manner, bearing no reference to any drawing, although a good drawing was made and filed with it in the Patent- 

 Office, where it was burnt in 1833 or 183G. The specification was made in this way, I may say in caprice, to show 

 that I could make a description that would answer the requirements of the law by the use of words alone, without 

 any aid from a picture representation. 7 ' In another letter to the same: "In whatever you write, remember that 

 when I made this press I was a mechanic. The press was not the invention of a professor: 7 



