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THE UNITED STATES. The history of printing in America, with a biography of printers, and an account of newspapers ... |  |
Printing Presses.
The printing presses made use of in the English colonies,
before the revolution, were, generally, imported from
England, but some were manufactured in the country.
Christopher Sower, Jr., had his printing presses made
under his own inspection, in Germantown, as early as
1750.
After 1775, good presses were made in many of the
capital towns in the United States, particularly in Philadelphia,
and in Hartford, Connecticut. Some of these
presses underwent several partial alterations in their
was made from the common English printing press.[29] A
few were contrived to perform the operation of printing in
a different manner from that press, but these were not
found to be useful.
Some years since, Dr. Kinsley, of Connecticut, who possessed
great mechanical ingenuity, produced, among other
inventions, a model of a cylindrical letter press. It was a
subject of much conversation among printers, but was never
brought into use. The invention, however, did not originate
with Kinsley.[30]
Cylindrical letter presses were invented
in 1789, by William Nicholson, of London, who
obtained a patent for them in 1790. Kinsley's model
was from Nicholson's plan, with some variation. Nicholson
perpendicularly; his method was not calculated for neat
printing. Nicholson's presses were used, and, it is said,
made excellent work.[31]
This remark seems hardly just In respect to the presses of Adam
Ramage, unless intended to apply to presses made previous to the revolution.
It is true that from Moxon's time in 1683, the English had made no
change in the screw of the common book press, which was uniformly two
and a quarter inches in diameter, with a descent of two and a half inches in
a revolution. The diameter was even smaller in job presses, but the same
fall was always maintained, by which the platen was made to rise and
fall five-eighths of an inch in a quarter of a revolution; a space deemed
necessary for the free passage of the form and frisket under the platen.
Mr. Ramage enlarged the diameter of the screw to three inches, and where
much power was required to three and a half inches, and at the same time
reduced the fall in a revolution to two inches, which very nearly doubled
the impressing power, but decreased the rapidity of the action. It was an
improvement made necessary by the finer hair lines the type founders
introduced, requiring increased power in the press, and the reduction in
the descent of the screw to one-half an inch was met by a more careful
finish of the frisket and its hinges, which were made to slide freely under
the platen in a space of half an inch. Mr. Ramage came from Scotland
and settled in Philadelphia. He made his presses of Honduras mahogany,
with ample substance and a good finish, which gave them a better appearance
than foreign made presses, and they were less liable to warp. Importation
had in consequence almost entirely ceased as early as 1800.
His great improvement on the screw and working parts connected therewith
were made seven years later. He died in 1850, at a great age. See
further, Printers' Circular, Philadelphia, 1868, p. 108.—M.
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THE UNITED STATES. The history of printing in America, with a biography of printers, and an account of newspapers ... | |