The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-04-16 00:00:00

NEW PRINTING MACHINE.

Mr. J. Kitchen, of the Newcastle Journal, has in-
vented a printing press, which bide fair to revolutionize
this department of the arts. It bears no analogy, even in
appearance, to any machine for the purpose hitherto
known. The form can be fixed in its place in a single
moment, and will, when adjusted, remain stationary un-
til the work is finished. Complete facilities are given
for regulating the power, and the quantity of ink, and
for overlaying or obtaining register. The same machine
will be equally applicable for the smallest job or the
largest sheet ; it will be perfectly under controul, and
only require one man during the process of printing; or
where great speed is required, and the work is heavy, a
man and afly-boy, whilst it can be sold for the same price as
the common press. Mr. Kitchen is now engaged in the ap-
plication to his invention of a clock-work movement, so
that the machine may keep a register of its own work,
and thus act as a check upon waste of paper and idleness
in the absence of the employer or overseer.
The inventor, when practically engaged in the busi-
ness several years ago, was struck with the anomaly,
that whilst printing was the medium of extending the
boundary of knowledge, and communicating to the pub-
lic every experiment in science or mechanics, "THE
PRESS" itself has remained precisely the same, in princi-
ple, to that employed when the art was first introduced,
into this kingdom. Lord Stanhope made the machine of
metal instead of wood, and conferred upon it greater
power, with several minor alterations. This gave an
impulse to improvement, and presses are now made
greatly superior to Lord Stanhope's, but none of them
deserve the name of new inventions. The slow lumber-
ing process of frisket and tympan ; the table with alter-
nate motion, and the dirty and inconvenient appendage
of an inking table, detached from the press, are still scru-
pulously preserved, all of which were employed for the
same purposes in the time of Caxton.
Mr. Kitchen's first effort was directed to the construc-
tion of a press on the old principle, just described, with
the advantages of a self-inking apparatus, and obtaining
increased pressure by the- application of hydraulic power.
In the first object he succeeded ; but, after a long series
of experiments, found that the requisite speed could not
be obtained by hydraulics, and turned his attention to
some other 'plan.
Since these experiments were commenced, the splen-
did foreign invention of the steam-press has been intro-
duced into this country ; but it is at once go.complicafed,
cumbersome, and costly, that it can only be purchased by
large capitalists, and employed in extensive offices. The
same remarks will apply to the several modifications of
it, to work without steam.

The following is a copy of Mr. Kitchen's recent petiti-
tion to Parliament on the subject, presented by Matthew
Bell, Esq., member for South Northumberland :

To the Most Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and

Ireland in Parliament assembled
The humble Petition of John Kitchen, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
SHEWETH,—That your.petitioner has invented and constructed
a Printing Press, which, from the comparatively small cost at
which it can be manufactured, its rapidity and effectiveness
when in operation, as well as the immense saving of labour
over those now in use, would, if generally adopted, materially
cheapen andlacilitate the dissemination of knowledge.
Anxious to obtain for his invention his Majesty's Royal
Letters Patent, your petitioner has sought for information in
various books and documents, from which he learns that, in
many disputed cases, patentees have struggled unsuccessfully
in Courts of Justice against invasions of their rights. He has
further made himself acquainted with the cost of taking out
patents for England and Wales, and for Scotland, and Ireland;
and your petitioner humbly represents that, after these exami-
nations and enquiries, he is impressed with a belief that not
only are the present laws vague, ill-defined, and liable to eva-
sion, but that the enormous sums of money required for feeS,
and for other charges, are equivalent to a stern and unrelenting
denial of protection to the poor man, whatever may be his skitl
in science or,fnechanics, however great the merits of his dis-
covery, or laborious and expensive the process by which it has
been worked out to perfection.
Your petitioner has been induced to lay before your honour-
able House the facts stated herein, from having learnt that a
bill has been introduced into your honourable House to amend
the laws relating to Patents for Inventions.;—which bill,, your
petitioner prays your honourable House would be pleased to
pass into a law, or make such other alterations in the existing
laws, as, in the wisdom of your honourable House may, seem
best calculated to afford your petitioner, and all others similarly
circumstanced, adequate protection without frightful sinking of
capital, which, in his case, has hitheito deprived the public of
the benefit of his invention, and would, if persevered Iry stun
out from your petitioner all hope of return of the money„or of
any remuneration for the timeand labour expended iu the,coni-,
pletion and simplification of his machine.