Common Press
The history of the printing press starts with the wooden hand press and the system of movable type invented by Johannas Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany around 1450. Gutenberg’s invention was improved upon over the years, but essentially the same system used up the through the beginning of the 19th century.
Prior to Gutenberg’s press, books were laboriously copied by hand and were the property of the political and religious elite. A single book that a scribe would have have labored over over a month could now be printed at the rate of 500 per week on the new press. Speed of production led to the reduced cost of books putting them for the first time in the hands of the masses. Within 50 years of Gutenberg’s invention, millions of books had been produced.
The Franklin Press, Smithsonian Institution
English Box Hose Common Press, 18th Century
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
Hoe Washington Hand Press, Mid. 19th Century
The Iron Hand Press
The industrial revolution, with advances in the production of machines, and techniques and advances in metal manufactory, led to the inevitable redesign of wooden press in cast and machined iron. Developed early in the 19th century, the iron hand press essentially shared the same design of the wooden hand-press, but in the new material of iron, the press was capable of greater leverage, precision and speed. Inventors and machinist would not be happy in just copying the form of the wooden hand press. Soon other machines for printing were invented that greatly outpaced the advantages of the iron hand press making the ultimate improvement of Gutenberg's invention obsolete within half a century. .
The Platen Jobber
In the mid-19th century, George Phineas Gordon developed, patented and marketed the first successful platen jobber. Probably the single most important advancement in the history of the printing press since Gutenberg, the platen jobber represented a total redesign of the printing press utilizing new mechanical principals made possible by the industrial revolution. Gone was great screw and bar that provided leverage to create an impression, and to replace it a great iron hinge pressing paper to ink. In the platen jobber, a foot treadle operates a crank shaft that is a attached to well balanced flywheel, once in motion, the press is capable of great impression.
Gordon New Style Platen Jobber