The Platen Jobber - Mid. 19th Century to Mid. 20th

A jobber is a press that prints less than a full sheet.  The term described work such as billheads, stationary, handbills and personal stationary.     In the days of the common press, work was optimally combined in order to fill up the larger sheet.  Production would be slow and inefficient for smaller work.  In 1818 David Treadwell of Boston began building experimental presses that used treadle power.  Another Bostonian, Stephen P. Ruggles by 1830 began working on a the concept of a small jobber press and in 1851 had essentially resolved most of the problems with earlier version and introduced his Card and Billhead press.  Advances in this period that made the platen jobber possible include, the rotating ink disk and ink rollers for fast and even automatic ink distribution.  Additionally, advances in mechanics that allowed the hinged press to close the bed against the platen in parallel for good impressions, and in the vertical position to eliminate problems with type loosening and falling into the mechanism. 

Gordon New Style Jobber

One of Stephen P. Ruggles Patents

After many fingers were lost in quick closing presses, a method of using roller bearings to follow an eccentric path within the main cam allowed for a "dwell", a moment in the revolution of the press when open that the platen pauses its movement allowing for the operator to safely feed the press.     

Even though the pioneering work of Treadwell and Ruggles developed and adapted many of the critical concepts that would become the platen jobber, it was George Phineas Gordon, a New York printer whose "Franklin Gordon" in 1856 became the dominant form that with few improvements would be produced for over 100 years. (For more information see Moran, 1973)