The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-03-02
The First Newspaper Printed by Steam

The goth Of November, 1914, forms an import
ant date in the history of printing, and cOnse.
quently in that of civilization. 1t was the day
on which newspaper was the first time printed
by steam instead Of manual power,
The common printing press, though much inn
proved during the second half of the last CEN
tury, could seldom strike off more than two
three hundred impressions per hour, with one
man TO ink the types and one to work the press.
In 1880 Mr.. W. Nicholson obtained letters
patent ior machine similar in many respects
10 those which have been adopted in later years;
but it does not appear that he brought his in
vention into practice.
Steam power, it was known, would effect
movements OF almost every imaginable kind;
bu. 1T was the enterprise OF the proprietor OF the
London Times that enabled inventors TO sur
mount the difficulties OF applying such power to
printing presses.
1t was the second Mr.. John Walter (the son of
the first and father of the present proprietor),
whose management of the Times began in 1903,
who gave so immense an impetus to rapid print
ing. 1t took many hours to strike off the 5000 or
1000 copies of which the daily issues OF the Times
then consisted; and Mr.. Walter was dissatisfied
with the slow process g.
In 1904 Thomas Martyr, compositor in his
employment, produced model OF a selt-acting
machine for working the press and Walter
supplied him with money to continue his
genlous labors. The pressmen were, however,
so bitterly hostile to any such innovation, that
Martyr was placed almost In fear of his life,
and as Walter did not at that time possess a
very large capital, the scheme fell to the
ground.
John Walter however, was not the man to be
beaten by difficulties; he bore in mind Martyrs
invention, and bided his time. He encouraged
inventions from all quarters, and as his pecu-
mary means increased he became able to pay
them well for their services. In 1914 he con-
sented that Kouig's patent for a printing
machine should be tried-not in the actual
printing Office of the Times, but in adjoining
premises, tor fear of the hostility of the pressmen
KONG, and his assistant Bauer worked
quietly in these premises for many months
| gradually periecting the machinery.
The proceedings on the momentous goth of
November were highly characteristic of Mr..
| Walter The night on which the curious machine
was brought INTO use in its new abode was one
| OF Great anxiety and even alarm.
The suspicious pressmen had threatened de.
struction to any one whose inventions might
| suspend their employment. 1t was about six
| O'Clock in the morning when Mr.. Walter went
| into the press room, and astOnished its occu-
pants by telling them that the Times was already
| printed by steam; that if they attempted any
| violence there was force ready to suppress it;
but that if they were peaceable their wages
| should be continued to every one of them till
| similar employment could be procured; he then
| gave them copies OF that mornings Times
| The Times, in its issue of November 20, uses
| the following language, though 1t does not go
into detail (Which is to be regretted), but still
/ gives enough to show that the first printing by
steam was, as now, automatic:- ~
| "The reader of this mornings Times holds in
| his hands one Of the many thousand impressions
Of the Times newspaper, which were taken OF
| last night by mechanical apparatus. system
| Of machinery almost organic, has been devised
and arranged, which, while It relieves the human
frame OF ITS mos, laborious efforts far exceeds al
| human power IN rapldity and despatch.
| After placing the form upon the press, little
more remains for man to do than watch the
unconscious motions and keep 1t supplied with
| paper.
'Itselt places the form, inks it, adjusts thu
| paper TO the new ly linked type stamps the sheet
| and gives it forth to the hands OF the attendant
at the same time ithdrawing the form for
fresh coat Of ink which itself distributes t.
meet the ensuing sheet now advancing for i'm
preston; and the whole of these complicated
motions are performed with such velocity o
movement that no less than HOO sheets are i'm
pressed in an hour"
This was the capacity of the first steam print
ing-press; but since that time Improvements
have been continually made, and now we have
the ten cylnoer press OF Hoe, which supplies tn
million with printed matter almost before tn
| news Is born