ABSTRACT

II The under-developed state of the industry was certainly not due to an inability

to devise new techniques. While it is true that it had so far proved impossible to mechanize composing, which was one of the two major processes in printing, on the presswork side the technical breakthrough had been made as early as 1811 by Frederick Koenig, when he invented the steam-driven cylinder-printing machine, which superseded the hand operated platen press.1 During the next forty years this basic design was improved upon, mainly by Applegarth and Cowpcr, two engineers employed by The Times, and by Richard Hoe, a printing machinery manufacturer of New York. In the eighteen-fifties a cylinder press, called the Wharfedale, more convenient for the commercial trade, was developed, and this became so popular that a variety of models was eventually produced, each designed for a particular class of work.