The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-04 00:00:00

"TIMES",,PRINTING MACELVR.

As the construction of the first steam newspaper machine
was due to the enterprise of the late Mr. Walter, of the
Times, so (says Macmillan's Magazine), the construction of
this last and most improved machine is due, in like
manner to the enterprise of his son. The new " Walter
Machine " is not, like Cowper and Applegarth's, alba
Hoe's, the improvement of an existing arrangement,
but an almost entirely original invention. Its
principal merits are its simplicity, its accurate
workmanship, its compactness, its speed, and its economy.
While each of the ten-feeder Hoe machines occupies
a largo and lofty room, and requires eighteen men to
feed and work it, the new Walter machine occupies a space
of only about fourteen feet by five, or less than any news-
paper machine yet introduced, and requires only three lads
to take away, with half the attention of an overseer, who
easily superintends two of the machines while at work.
The Hoe machine turns out 7,000 impressions printed on
both sides in the hour; but the Walter machine turns
out 11,000 impressions completed in the same
time. The new invention does not in the
least resemble any existing printing machine,
unless it be the calendering machine, which
has pos,ibly furnished the type of it. At the printing
cad it looks like a collection of small cylinders or rollers.
The paper, mounted en a huge reel as it comes from the
paper mill, goes in at one end in an endless web of 3,300
yards in length, seems to fly through amongst the cylin-
ders,and issues forth at the other end in two descending tor-
rents of sheets, accurately cut into lengths, and printed
on both sides. The rapidity with which it works
may be inferred from the fact that the printing cylin-
ders (round which the stereotyped plates are fixed), while
making their impressions on the paper, travel at the sur-
prising speed of 200 revolutions a minute. As the sheet
passes inwards, it is first damped on one side by being
carried rapidly over a cylinder which revolves in a trough
of cold water ; it then passes on to the first pair of
printing and impression cylinders, where it is printed
on one side ; it is next reversed and sent through the
second pair, where it is printed on the other side;
then it passes on to the cutting cylinders, which
(livid() the web of now printed paper into the
proper lengths. The sheets are rapidly conducted by
tapes into a swing frame which, as it vibrates, delivers
them alternately on either side, in two apparently con-
tinuous streams of sheets, which are rapidly thrown
forward from the frame by a rocker, and deposited on
tables at which the lads sit to receive them. The
machine is almost entirely self-acting, from the pumping
up of the ink into the ink-box cut of the cistern
below stairs, to the registering of the numbers as they
are printed, in the manager's room above. Such, in a few
words, is the last great invention made in connection with
newspaper printing—which reflects no little credit on the
enterprise of Mr. Walter and the inventive skill of the
gentlemen of the Times' staff—for it has been entirely de-
signed and manufactured on the premises—to whom he has
entrusted its execution.