The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-29 00:00:00

FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 29, 1848:

A NEW PRINTING MACHINE.

Twenty years ago we noticed in these columns a
printing machine designed and constructed for us by Mr.
Augustus Applegath, of Dartford, It was then thought
impossible to improve on the plan, and though our sheet
has long since been doubled, and its sale more than
quadrupled, we have ever since continued to use ma-
chines on the model of 1827. We have now,:hovvever, to
thank the same engineer for an invention of much
greater power, which, with an accidental iuterruption,
has worked the principal part of this journal since the 3d
of October, and, therefore, may be safely introduced to
our readers. But it will be necessary to describe the
machines in use since 1827 before those who are unac•
quainted with printing machinery can understand the
means by which we are now enabled to print the Times
at the rate of nearly 140 impressions a minute. If the
reader will unfold this sheet to its full size, he will ob-
serve that on each side there are four pages, containing
altogether twenty-four columns. In the ordinary steam
press the type prepared for the printing of this immense
surface is securely wedged in one iron frame, which is
laid on a table traversing a species of railroad nine
or ten feet long. As the table moves backwards
anl forwards the type laid upon it passes under
four cylinders, covered with woollen cloth, and placed
crossways over the " railroad." These are called " the
printing cylinders," as it is by their pressure upon the
type in its passage under them that the impression is
produced. The sheets of paper, previously stamped at
Somerset-house, and then damped in this office, are con-
veyed to the four printing cylinders by means of endless
tapes from four flat tables or " laying-on boards." Any
one who has seen how a common thrashing machine is
fed with successive handfuls from the rick will easily
understand how the successive sheets of paper are sup-
plied to the printing-machine, and carried round the
cylinders by the circulating tapes. The cylinders are
so arranged that two act upon the type in its passage to
the right and two in its passage to the left. Other
smaller cylinders, or " rollers," similarly disposed
across the path of the type, supply it with ink. The
sheets, as they pass round the printing cylinders,
are pressed upon the moving type, and receive its
impression. They are then carried by endless tapes
to the hands of persons, two on each side of the
machine, who receive them, and pile them on the
" taking-off boards." The paper thus printed on one
side is conveyed to a second machine, where it is printed
on the other side by a similar operation. The frame, or,
technically speaking," the form" of type, with its iron
bed, and appurtenances for receiving the motion, weighs
altogether three quarters of a ton ; and the machine
is worked at the rate of 5,000 copies an hour, this pon-
derous mass traverses a distance of six feet forty times
in a minute. The most ordinary mechanical knowledge
will at once suggest two limits to the productive power
of this machine—first, the danger of increasing the
speed ; secondly, the difficulty of multiplying the print-
ing cylinders. In days when locomotives weighing
thirty tons, and trains weighing more than a hun-
dred, will travel on a railroad sixty miles an
hour, it might seem that we could venture to move
three quarters of a ton at a greater speed than 80 yards
a minute, or not quite three miles an hour. But, in
this instance, instead of one onward and uniform motion,
there is a check and a recoil at the end of every six feet,
when, if not a collision, there is at lout a heavy con-
cussion, and forty such concussions in a minute are as
much as this delicate machinery will bear. The other
limitation is the small number of cylinders that can be
brought to bear upon the type in its very short passage
each way. Two are all that can be attempted, and in
order to admit even them, they, as well as the inking,
rollers, are made as small and set as close to one ano-
ther as possible. It must be remembered that every
additional inch traversed by the type, given its speed, is
so much loss of time, besides other inconvenience.
In machines upon this principle the only result of
further multiplying the cylinders would be a greater
complication of machinery, with little, if any, in-
crease in the number of impressions. The great im-
provement which has now been effected by Mr. Apple-
gath, and of which this page exhibits a successful
result, is the substitution of an uniform rotatory motion
for the horizontal reciprocating motion of the old ma-
chines. It is the change from a plane to a circular
" table." Instead of being laid on a table traversing a
railroad, the types are now built up as it were, on the
face of a cylinder revolving on a perpendicular axis.
This cylinder is a drum of cast iron, about five feet six
inches in diameter. The "forms," or pages of type, are
made segments of its surface, just as a tower of brick
might be faced with stone, or a column inlaid with
marble. Eight printing cylinders, forty inches in cir-
cumference, are arranged round the drum, and suggest
the idea of an orb and its satellites. Instead of the four
impressions taken by the old machine in its double
journey, eight sheets are now printed in every revolu-
tion. Any one who knows the immense weight of metal
type, and the impossibility of giving it any hold upon
the " form" besides weight and pressure, will at once
perceive the extent of the obstacle overcome by giving
the central drum a vertical position. No art of packing
could make the type adhere to a cylinder revolving
round a horizontal axis and therefore aggravating cen-
trifugal impulse by the intrinsic weight of the metal. In
the vertical disposition there is the same centrifugal im-
pulse, brit it does Hot operate in the direction of gravity,
and therefore is more easily neutralized. It is neutra-
lized chit fly by means of the " column rules," which
make the upright lines dividing the columns of this
page. The " column rules" are usually long strips
of brass, and in this instance they are so screwed to
the sides of the iron frame, or " chase," as to become
_ _

powerful tension ties ; and being made with a wedge-
like section, that is, thicker towards the outer surface of
the type, they keep it in its place, like the key-stone of
an arch, or the stone ribs of a rubble vault. Without
the aid of drawings it is difficult to convey an idea of a
machine so different from those on the horizontal
principle. On entering a large room the first thing that
strikes the eye is a circular gallery about 25 feet in
diameter, and 6 feet from the ground, surmounting
eight large and complicated fabrics radiating from a
central tower or drum. Each of these fabrics is the
feeding apparatus attached to one of the eight printing
cylinders. On the gallery are seen eight men at so
many " laying-on tables," feeding the machine, by
carefully pushing successive sheets into its eight mouths,
each man at about the rate of one sheet in four seconds.
Directly under those eight men are eight others on
the ground, employed in taking off and piling the printed
sheets thrown out by the machine. The eye soon detects
the four forms or chases of type fixed on the face of the
drum, and accommodated to its shape, and vainly at-
tempts to follow numerous sheets of paper in rapid and
inexplicable motion. The printing cylinders surround-
ing the central drum, and in occasional contact with it,
bear about the same visible proportion to it as the pillars
of the Temple of Tivoli to the circular wall within.
The framing which supports the central drum also car-
ries the bearings of the eight printing cylinders, which
all revolve in perfect correspondence. The type only
covers a small portion of the circumference of the drum,
and in the interval there is a large inking table fixed,
like the type, on its circular face. This table communi-
cates the ink to upright inking rollers, placed between
the several printing cylinders, the rollers, in their turn,
communicating the ink to the type. So far the arrange-
ment is perfectly easy, the machine being, in fact, com-
posed of the parts in ordinary use, only made circular
and placed in a vertical instead of a horizontal position.
The great problem for the inventor was the right mode
of " feeding, or supplying the sheets of paper to the
printing cylinders in their new position. The reader
will easily understand by spreading out this sheet the
difficulty of changing it in less than four seconds from a
horizontal to a perpendicular position, and back again;
and through still more changes of direction. No alter-
ation has been made in the manner of "laying on" the
paper, which is carried from a plane table in the usual
way, downwards between two sets of endless tapes
in rapid motion. But when the sheet has
travelled down to a certain point, it is sud-
denly stopped by thin pieces of wood placed
edgeways, and brought in contact with the paper
on both side at once ; it is at the same moment
released from the tapes, and, being now at rest, is held
in a vertical position between the thin pieces of wood, or
" stoppers;" these stoppers are then withdrawn, and the
sheet hangs for a moment suspended between two small
pulleys called finger rollers; a set of vertical rollers (be-
tween the stoppers), revolving rapidly, are immediately
brought into contact with the sheet, and impel it hori-
zontally between two new sets of endless tapes, which
convey it round the printing cylinders. It there meets
the type, receives the impression, and is led out under
the feeding-gallery into the hands of the " taker-off,"
who draws it down and lays it on a table before him.
It now only remains to explain how an even and clear
impression is obtained from a segmental surface of
type. The printing or impression cylinders are forty
inches in circumference, and each cylinder always
touches the type at the same corresponding points,
the surfaces moving with equal velocity. The blanket
or cloth round the printing cylinders is un-
derlaid or packed out with slips of paper ; and by this
simple means, and the use of a typo cylinder of large
diameter, an impression is obtained, to use the words of
the patent, " not discernible from that given by a flat
form of type." The rate at which this machine has
hitherto been worked is about 1,000 kevolutions per
hour, or 8,000 impressions. This rate will be gradually
increased until we ascertain how far it may be urged
without injury to the impressions and danger to the
delicate and complicated fabric. The horizontal ma-
chines, with four cylinders, have been driven up to 6,000;
and it is probable that this machine with eight cylin-
ders will be ultimately worked to 12,000 copies an hour.
—Times.

COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS' SCHOOLS.—Yesterday
morning the quarterly court of the supporters of the
above schools, was held at the London Tavern, Bishops-
gate-street, the Lord Mayor in the chair, for the pur-
pose of receiving the year's report and electing addi-
tional inmates. The report stated that when the last
annual statement was presented there were 35 children
in the institution. On the 28th of June following the
numbers were increased to 50; and that day (yester-
day) the number would be further extended to 60—
comprising 19 girls and 41 boys. An educational com-
mittee had been appointed, and during the year had
watched over the studies of the children. Donations of
50 guineas had been received from Sir Robert Burnett
and Co., Messrs. Boyle and Sons, and Spence, Bagally,
and Co. The total receipts of tho year had been
6,3371. 19s. 5d., while those of 1847 had amounted to
only 3,6251. ls. After the unanimous adoption of tl.e
report, Mr. Evans, pursuant to previous notice, brought
forward a motion to allow a child standing the highest
amongst the unsuccessful candidates at any subsequent
election, to procure admission to the institution on pay-
ment of the sum of 251. The motion having been se-
conded, several governors objected that the proposed
plan would interfere materially with the freedom of elec •
tion. The motion was then withdrawn, after which,
thanks were voted to the chairman, and the meeting
separated.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.
DIRECT LONDON AND EXETER.

A me/ ting of shareholders was held yesterday at the
George and Vulture Tavern to consider what course
should be adopted in the present state of the company's
affairs. Mr. Fowler was voted to the chair. It was
stated that the company was projected in May, 1845,
and in the September of that year applications had been
made for 400,000 shares from bankers and other respec-
table parties ; that only 58,000 shares were allotted, of
which the deposit was paid on 23,495, producing
32,3051. ; of this sum 5,8001. was expended in rigging
the market. Solicitors were employed by the provi-
sional committee. In October, 1845, to proceed with
an application to Parliament for a Bill, being aware
that it would require a deposito of 150,0001. to com-
ply with the standing orders of Parliament. The com-
mittee reserved 62,000 shares for themselves, and
put advertisements in the papers stating that all
the shares had been allotted ; the panic came, and
the prospect of realizing premiums ou the reserved
hares vanished. A meeting was held on the 13th
of December, 1845, at which the provisional committee
produced a statement of accounts made out by the com-
mittee of management, showing a balance of 4921. re-
maining in hand. This statement had since breu de-
clared by the accountant and bookkeeper to the com-
pany to be wholly untrue, the company's ledger at the
time showing a balance of 18,479/., less 6,2501., which
was handed over to the solicitor a few hours before the
meeting in three cheques of 500/., 1,750 L, and 4,0001.,
and consequently leaving a balance of about 10,0001.
after all just claims were satisfied. A. number of cheques
were drawn on the morning of the meeting for the pay-
ment of various accounts due by the company, which
were afterwards burned by the committee, and of course
never paid to the parties in whose favour they were
drawn.

A long discussion ensued on the best mode of proceed-
ing, when it was agreed to authorise Messrs. Bromley
nod Aldridge to take proceedings against the managing
committee of the cumpany, for the purpose of obtaining
an account of the money received by them, and of ob.
taming the distribution of any surplus amongst the
shareholders, and that a subscription not exceeding 6d.
per share be made to defray expenses.
After a vote of thanks to the Chairman the meeting
separated.

ARMY CLOTHING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sra,—The Liverpool Financial Reform Association
has transmitted to me its tracts, desirous, I suppose,
to fix my attention on the statements relative to the
army; and truly I find something very worthy of
attention in the following paragraph, introduced after
an assertion that the colonels of regiments supply
bad clothing to obtain greater profits.
4th Tract, page 52—" It is also necessary to remark
that the clothes provided by the colonel are only a part
of what the soldier wears. All linen, flannel, hosiery,
shoes, forage .aps, stocks, brushes, combs, and small
articles, besides at least one cloth overall for Dragoons,
and, occasionally, trousers for infantry, are provide d by
the quartermaster and his chief, the clothing colonel, and
paid for out of the soldier's pay by daily stoppages. The
profits accruing from these regimental clothes•shops
afford an inducement to the heads of that department of
the service to be continually devising changes in the
style of dress, of underclothing, of boots, of shoes, and
the other necessaries, so that the men are obliged to
purchase new articles and submit to stoppages in pay-
ment of them, while the articles set aside and declared
to Le unreeimental are yet in good condition—in many
cases not half worn."

In opposition to this statement I offer the following
facts, and call upon the public to say what the honour
of that association can be which thus, knowing the
truth, publishes the false ; or, what its title to guide
and instruct the nation, it in ignorance, arising from
want of due inquiry, it scruples not to vilify and
insult officers having the honourable claim of long and
arduous services to the respect of the people.
First, as to the injurious assumption that colonels
profit by furnishing bad clothing to their regiments,
The clothing of the army is settled by the Queen's
Government. The colonels have only to furnish it
according to the royal warrant and established pattern.
It has been the same from time immemorial. It is,
as to texture and value, superior to the clothing of any
continental army, and to protect the soldier from
unfair practices in the supply the following checks
have been provided :
_ _

A permanent board of general officers, sitting in
London, receive samples of every article, and, if
according to the Royal warrant, those samples are
sealed and transmitted to the regiments as a test
for the examination of the clothing for the year ;
but not until the clothing has been again checked
by the examination of the inspecting officers of
army clothing, a different body from the inspecting
board of generals. When that clothing arrives the
Lieutenant-Colonel orders a board of regimental
officers, assisted by the master tailor and shoemaker,
to examine if the articles agree with the sealed pat-
terns; if not, the whole, or part, as the case may be,
is thrown back on the Colonel's hands, and he must
provide better articles, and settle as he can with the •
clothiers.
The interest and pride of the Lieutenant-Colonel
and board of regimental officers are evidently in-
volved in this examination—with the soldiers as
officers having a just feeling for the rights of the
men ; with the Horse Guards and the public, as
presenting a contented, well-dressed corps, or the
contrary. But, the check does not stop there. The
general officer commanding is bound, at his half-
yearly inspection, to ascertain whether the Queen's
regulations have been obeyed; whether the soldiers
have any complaints to make ; and he transmits
formal reports of these things to the Commander-in-
Chief. Nor is this duty lightly performed. Nothing
is more frank and just than the intercourse on such
occasions between the General and the soldiers. The
officers are ordered to retire, the General remains
alone with the men ; he invites, he encourages them
to state their just grievances, if' hey have any. Nay,
if they only think they have cause of dissatisfac-
tion, his duty is to listen patiently, and show their
errors, if there be error.
So much for profit derived from bad clothing.
Let me now examine the paragraph quoted from page
62, Tract 4.
That paragraph assumes that Colonels of regiments,
officers who have passed their youth in honourable
service, do, in their old age, abandon all sense of
justice and decency, to eke out their allowances with
miserable frauds on the soldiers by whose valour they
have been raised to the situations they thus disgrace.
Is there even seeming grounds for such a revolting
insolence of falsehood ? Let the following statement
of facts answer :-
1. The extra articles of clothing, termed in mili-
tary parlance "necessaries," are not provided by " the
Quartermaster and his chief, the clothing Colonel."
They are not provided by the Colonel at all. They
are obtained, under the control of the Captain, by
the pay-sergeant and the men themselves; and the
Queen's regulations strictly command that the best
and cheapest articles shall be provided. If the
Quartermaster's stores are resorted to it is because
the articles for the soldier are strictly regi-
mental in fashion, and, being purchased wholesale,
are better and cheaper, the price being fixed from
time to time by the Lieutenant-Colonel, assisted by
a board of officers; in any case the Colonel has no
partnership in, or control over, the sales or purchases ;
his operations are confined to the general clothing
established by the Queen's warrant. So entirely un-
constrained are the soldiers, that good men, and
generally married men, are allowed, and even en-
couraged, to purchase for themselves, and when the
pay-sergeant is employed to buy (at the retail shops)
for the company, one or more soldiers, shoemakers,
tailors, or other handicraft men, go with him to over-
look and advise him as to the bargains !
2. The royal regulations admit only of a specified
number and fashion of necessaries for a soldier. The
Colonel, who is never with the regiment, knows
nothing of this supply, nothing of the cost, nothing
of the arrangements as to form, fashion, change, or
duration. Such matters belong to the interior eco-
nomy of regiments, and, subject to the regulations,
are under the control of the Lieutenant-Colonel and
the Captains.
But there may be abuses ; look at the checks,-
1. A Captain orders a soldier to take a new pair of
trousers,—but within the regulations ; he cannot
travel out of them as to form or number. The sol-
dier demurs, appeals to the commanding officer, who
decides against him ; the man ,san still appeal to the
inspecting General, or he may have a court-martial
on the case, though that, in a doubtful matter, would
be hazardous; but he is not debarred ,by any fear
from complaining by letter to the Commander-in-
Chief.
Is this official protection all he has to rely upon?
No; there is for the Lieutenant-Colonel a personal
motive to do justice to the'soldier. All complaints
made to the inspecting General must be reported to
the Horse Guards, and many of them would se-
riously affect his reputation and prospects. It is the
same for the Captain, who has also a pecuniary inte-
rest to contract rather than to augment the sol-
dier's expenses..; Foul dealing cannot be hidden. Each
soldier has a little book of his accounts, signed by
the Captain ; the inspecting-General compares this
with the Captain's books, signed by the soldier,
and a reference to the regimental defaulters'-
book would show whether the man was well or ill-
behaved ; if the former, it would give weight to his
complaint. Again, the inspecting-General, if he finds
the aggregate debt of a company of 100 men to ex-
ceed 101., must make a special report of the fact, and
if no satisfactory explanation be furnished the Lieu-
tenant-Colonel and Captain would incur the Com-
mander-in-Chief's displeasure.
The Captain's pecuniary interest is powerfully in
favour of the soldier. If a man dies, or deserts, his
accounts are immediately made up, and the credit
balance transmitted to the Secretary-at- War for the
heirs, or failing of heirs, for the public Treasury.
But if there be a debt balancethe Captain loses it,
and the expense of the man's funeral also, and there
an end. He must, therefore, be at once both stupid
and dishonourable to cheat the soldiers, and take
money out of his own pocket to put it in that of his
Colonel, a man whom he has probably never seen,
may never see, and from whom he can scarcely hope
any benefit.
Such, Sir, is the system established for the protec-
tion of the soldier, who has also the guarantee, no
slight one in the British army, of his officer's honour
as a gentleman. Will those persons who have so
wantonly and so recklessly assailed that system and
that honour make public their system towards the
poor labouring men, women, and children, from
whose ceaseless toil they derive their own riches ?
Will they publish a true detailed account of their
truck system? Will they state what care, what
money, what help, what protection, they bestow on
their sick labouring people when profits are falling ?
W. NAPIER,
Major-General, Col. of the 2Tthßegt.

MASTER BAILERS' PENSION SOCIETY.-141 St night
a numerously attended meeting of master bakers, con-
nected with the city of London, was held at the White
Haiti Tavern, in Bishopsgate-street, for the purpose of
electing three pensioners, not under the age of sixty
years, upon the funds of the institution, from which de-
serving parties are allowed, if males, Bs. per week ; and
if females, ss. per week. There were 44 candidates,
and the names of the successful ones, with the number
of votes polled by each of them, was ,as follows, as de-
clared by the Chairman, Mr. Burnett, shortly before
1 nine o'clock, viz. :—Elizsbeth Wheeler, 1,051 votes ;
James Gray, 683 ; and John Fencock, 1,007. The
amount paid by this society to pensioners is about 700/.
per annum, the whole of which is obtained, by dona-
tions and voluntary subscriptions. The poll having
been declared, thanks were voted to the chairman, and
the meeting separated a short time after nine o'clock.
TRH EARLY CLOSING MOVEMENT IN SHOE EDITCII.
—The oilmen and tallow.cbandlers carrying on business
in the main line of street, from Kingsland-gate to
Bishopsgate-street, have, without exception, signed a
declaration to the effect that they consider the late hours
to which retail business is protracted to be altogether
unnecessary, and highly injurious to the health of those
so engaged. They have, therefore, agreed, that on and
' after Monday next, the lsganuary, they will close their
respective shops at nine o'clock, instead of ten, as at pre-
Sent (Saturdays excepted).