The Invention of Industrial Printing Presses
Early in the Industrial Revolution, the basic mechanics of a hand-operated Gutenberg printing press were still unchanged despite the use of new materials which improved its efficiency.
By the year 1800, Lord Stanhope had built a printing press
made from cast iron. This reduced the hand-operated force required to operate
the press by 90%. It also doubled the size of the printed area and increased
its capacity to 480 pages per hour--more than double that of older presses.
Though manual presses were already in use, the idea of steam
power for running machinery was conceived. To improve the printing flatbed
itself, the idea of using a rotary motion of cylinders was thought about. These
ideas were implemented successfully by German printer Friedrich Koenig in a
series of designs devised between 1802 and 1818.
In 1810, Koenig patented a new steam printing press. Designed
"much like a hand press connected to a steam engine," the first model
was produced with the help of German engineer Andreas Friedrich Bauer.
Koenig and Bauer sold their first two printing machines to
The Times in London in 1814. These devices were able to produce 1,100
impressions per hour. The first edition was printed on November 28, 1814. They
even went on to improve their models so that they could print on both sides of
a sheet at once.
Richard M. Hoe of the United States invented the
steam-powered rotary printing press in 1843, a time when mass printing was
becoming increasingly common. This invention allowed millions of copies of a
page in a single day. It was coupled with the transition to continuous feed
rolled paper, which allowed presses to run at an even faster rate.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, printing presses improved substantially in efficiency. A model created by Platan Printing Press was able to perform 2,500 to 3,000 impressions per hour. These same style presses are still used today.
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