Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Volume 89, PT. 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 Excerpt: ...imagined, was extremely heavy. Up to this time rotary machines had printed on one side of the sheet only; and it was felt at the Times office, that until the printing-press was simplified, so as to be available for printing on both sides, by one operation, a roll of paper which would require no "laying-on," the most important results derivable from stereotyping pages had not been secured. The difficulty was to provide a press which should not only print from the reel, cut and deliver sheets separately, but which should also distribute the ink satisfactorily under the new conditions; which should have the most ample provision possible against " set-off"; which should have rollers that would not give trouble by softening or melting; and which should damp the paper before printing it. The Times now required to be printed by four huge machines, each demanding combined action of from fourteen to sixteen hands to work it. In 1840 a rotary web-printing-machine was at work in New York. A patent in England was taken out by the inventor, Mr. J. A. Wilkinson, in 1859; a working model was shown at the International Exhibition of 1862. According to the patent, the types were to be set up in a curved composing stick, and were secured on the cylinder by "movable clamped segments." The paper was supplied as a roll or web, and damped in the machine before being printed. This patent seems to have borne fruit in the machine subsequently known as the "Bullock" and the "Walter Press," the former of which was patented in 1863 by Mr. William Bullock, of Philadelphia, U.S.A. His first machine was completed in 1865. On his death, in 1868, the patents passed into the hands of a company, who improved the machine. In 1869 it was introd...