The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1849-04-17
EDITORS CORRESPONDENCE.
Correspondence Of the Union.

this city Having long read Of these gentlemen as al me
head of their business in this couny, was filled with GU
riosiy examine their works and accordingly few
days since went over them caelaIy inspecting every
Ihng of interest coming under my eye. Some time ago
they had downtown factory, in Gold street, which was
burnt down last fall. This their repairing shop
where they kept huge force of hands doing what called
'job-work -tnkering up such pieces OF mechanism as
may be sent TO thsm 10 be repaired Their wel-known
works. however, in Sheriff street Here they employ
hundred hands in making printing presses and saws
from the rough pig iron and plate STEEL their buildings OF
four stories covering half square of ground.
The first room entered devoted to planning the heavy
castron and wroughtron frames and bed plates of power
presses Tor all purposes Steel bits fastened in powerful
chinery are made to traverse along the heavy bars bolts,
blocks or frames OF cast on shaving off the metal TO the
qured width and depth though IL much wood,
under the plane of the house-carpenter The castron
pieces, being thus "dressed" required dimensions,
come directly from the foundry OF tho establishment,
where all the castiron parts OF their work moulded
and cast from the pig iron, and the wrought hammered
iron pieces, made TO undergo this planning operation
previously roush-worked in their smith shops in the same
building In apartment they do nothing but drill holes
in the huge pieces OF on by machinery OF and in
still another, the cogwheels ground The
cutting oil the recesses in the wheels is beautiful
alton, the grinders being Of hardened steel Emery
ased eat out the to be cut away 1t being fed in be
tween the steel and the iron, the principle which
corn is fed to the ordinary bursone mill The cast or
wrought iron being soltcs OF the three surfaces tee,
emery and on) brought together under the operation OF
the powerful machines for cutting the it is eaten or
scratched out, it were. In this way found them
gouging cog foot long, and three four
niche Deep from tho solid iron Your readers from this
fact will obtain idea of the immense power OF the
chinery requisite for the purpose.
To me, their most interesting apartment was termed
the fitting shop In this, the bed plates OF their various
presses Ia dozen kinds for printing hydrostac and by
dauc binders presses Nc) the frames, and the smaller
parts of the different machines which undergo mere ma
npuation bring them the required shapes and sizes,
collected to be put together. Here may be- SEEM in
every of orwardness their work. from their lightning
down their newly invented proof press consisting OF
but with bed plate underneath in which TO lock the
form OF a column, which huge blanketed iron roller,
weighing from 10 to 5O lbs Is made to olbelng kept In
place by anches extending the rails of the case,
which nearly level with the face of the type This is
the simplest form of printing ever weighing in
all 100 200 lbs and being very compact
and difficult to njure, well capable of throwing of
many impressions in given time as possibly be got
from hand press it strikes being just the thing
for the pointing office of army where copies of general
orders military bulletins &c, required. They make
the Smith press, the Washington and indeed all other de-
s;rptions Of hand-pres well almost all kinds of
| power-presses now in
In his inspect any part-bar, bolt, wheel
puion rack plate finished of either of their machines.
Here before remarked they put them together, and
the Napier double and SINGLE and more wonderful than
ALL their newly invented lightning presses which, costing
from thirteen thousand dollars EACH strike OFT 10000
copies of newspaper hourly. The lightning press
invented by of the brothers Of the frmthe mechanical
genius OF the shnent-who is in Europe putting
OF those machines Tor
ing daily editions OF above twenty thousand The growing
of papers here, in Boston, and Philade
pha rendered it next TO impossible to work Oft their morn
ing papers the ordinary Napier, printing three
sheets within the hour witoat going early to
press as unable publish the by the midnight
mails So obviae this officially, Col Hoe set his brain
work, and produced this machine The principle
upon which works may be understood by all by the io
lowing description OF its appearance in operation to
There is horizontal cylinder a feet in diameter
shaft with proper bearngssay one-quarer of its outer
surface (ccumerence) forms the bed OF the press, made
true" the types the being cylindrical dis
tribuing table, The diameter of the cylinder is of
something smaller than that OF the form OF types. that the
distributing portion under the impression tables
without touching. The ink is distributed taken up from
the necessary rollers geared below the cylinder Each
page OF the form locked upon detached segment Of the
large cylinder, called by the printers "ture Qrom the
resemblance of form arranged to the shell of turtle
which constitutes the bed and chase.
The large cylinder being put motion, the form car
ed up in succession four impressions ylia
dee arranged around it at proper distances Thus the
impression is given four Sheets introduced
by each impression cylinder The fly and feed boards of
two OF the impression cylinders similar to those Of
ordinary doubecy Napier press. On the other
the sheet is fed in below and thrown out above Iron
fingers other presses, used TO draw in the sheets
and ink rollers work between each Of the impression
cylinders These worked each by cam. and pass
over the FORM and thus fall again the distributing
surface where supplied with ink The heads, advertising
and dash rules in the form of segmens of circle,
while the column rules being parallel TO the SHAFT OF the
cylinder, straight The column rules wedge
ped thicker their than the inner surface,
bind together the type in the FORM These wedge
shaped column rules provided with tongues fitting
into rebated grooves croswi,e in the face of the bed
which hold them down to the bod keeping all snug not
withsta nding the immense centrifugal force of the
chinery when rapidly driven With the four imps
cyndor, sand copies printed in hour; and
the firm propose make them with eight-inch cylinders
If more sixteen thousand impre ssons required
within the hour
The Sun Of th, city works daily edition of full IS 900
on one of these machines about 81 hours doing quite
fair looking work with the double Napier formerly used
This press requires machinst superintend its work.
four hands fsed and four boys to receive the sheets
printed Those to Paris provided with the
chancal hy boy" doing with the necessity for the
labor latter The increase of the daily edition OF the
London Times has caused the invention of a somewhat
similar IA press that establishment 1t is the work of
M who invented for that per the first power
press known In the Times machine, tho cylinder stands
vertically and hands and superintendent are
quired instead oeight, here four with tho
| ical y-boys.
But an s.raying from my subject In another part Of
the establishment is their pattern department, where
wooden patterns made for all their castings, &c Here
they have saws planning machine auger &c, driven
by the 3)horse Of the works Their pat
warehouse contains the originals (paerns) of every
part of every description Of machines they have construct
pick either of his thousand, of patterns called for even
though has been handled for years everything be.
ing registered and arranged in order here.
The department also of grea, interest," for every
where in the country Hoes be bought They
he ple NOT Gpis