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

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,lhowever, to
thank the same engineer for an invention of much
greater power, which, with an accidental interruption,
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 Tunes
ractat(liker ratewll oufn nf
oeladr
this
sl•lsOhsheet
impressions
ttotful
la s minute.jz, hhe will
It the
the
reader will unfold this sheet to its full siz, 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
as l forwards the type laid upon it passes under
tour 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 •f 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, weigns
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 nut a collision, there is at least 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 email 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, bnt it does not operate in the direction of gravity,
and therefore is more easily neutralized. It is neutra-
lized chiefly 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 oidco c,r sae 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 forma 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 tho 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. Tho 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 type 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 revolutions 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 the year had been
6,337/. 19s. 5d., while those of 1847 had amounted to
only 3,6251. ls. After the unanimous adoption of the
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.