New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-04-10
WONDERS OF THE PRESS.
III.
THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN FAST PRINT
- INC

ipt its edition on both sides at the amazing l"'o
1f9o 600. or even 81, 000 copies an hour we adueu
,bata still more remarkable machine had recently |
-, rloced in our press-room, which seemed to be
.bo elimination of the long series OF American I'M
movements in the process Of fast printing Fon
,on,, Years the gradual substitution Of rotary
Gov "reciprocating" motion in one part OF the press
f,or another increased the rapdty OF prOductloh'
although the machine constantly became moro
oomnlex in construction, larger In SIZE anu
nora costly in operation. Then, by carrying |
tbe rotary principle little further the inventor
GAS suddenly enabled to reduce the dimensions an"
sxpense OF the fast printng-press almost u 'n'
moderate proportions that prevmled forty years ago.
20 simplify the machinery, to abolish as II by
,Ueep of the hand whole labyrinth OF wheels anu
nes and pondcrous cylinders, to dispense Win Tue
Ibor of \ regiment of men, and at the same time 10
oorrv the speed to a point which printers twenty
,.aors ago never dreamed Of The only reclprocat-
inc motion that remained in the machine was 'nI
travelling to-andfrO of the delivery n.y. me ma"
,I,a,o,,oroonr consisted in combining with TINS
small folding mechanism OF mover deSis"
which pnts ont Of use room full OF machinery
and performs the work OF twelve NEIL nv
entire process is absolutely automatic roli VI
aonor bolf n ton in weight, and four and nan
miles long and in width just double the lehstn Vi
one of THE TRIBUNE's pages, is hung on horl-
10 npshed into the machine, lever starts the reVo-
lutions and as the roll uuwinds complete copies OF
TIVE tribune neatly folded and ready for inc md'''
issue in two streams at the end Of the machhe no
hand touching them from the time the hali-'oh roh
is swung into its place till the boys gather up Tue
folded papers and deliver them to purchasers OF
turn them over to the mail clerks
THE pERFEcIING AND FOLDING PRESS.
Hoesnew Perfectng and Folding Press is still more
compact than the apparatus described IN our secoiu
article It is about feet high, feet WIDE ana ~
feet long INCLUDING the folding attachmenV'
Int IFS most important parts stand even
lower than these figures seem TO IMPLY
the prncipal portion of the press being about breast
high to a man, so that its Workings easily under
the attendants eve The type and Impression cyl
inders are arranged in pairs very nearly as III the
ordinary perectng press, with the important excep-
tion that there are double sets OF steeotypc-pNleS
the whole TRIBUNE being cast IN duplicate Inc |
,ou Of p9ncr is hung near one end of the machine,
and. as the web unwinds it first makes NAH turn |
around roller of polished wood, which removes all |
wrinkles and crcases caused by the wettng process,
and then masses between the first pair of type and
impression cylinders The type cylinder contains
the plates of eight pages instead of four and they
are arranged in a peculiar manor I"ees
A.5. . and Z are placed side by side in row
around one end of the cylinder, the columns running
lenpthwise or parallel with the axis of revolution,
and around the other end placed duplicate plates
of the same pages the heads all pointing the same
yay The paper now, after receiving the impression |
of these pages is carried to the second type cyn-
dor 70 which are attached in the same way du- |
plicate plates of the other four pages and here
the process of printing is completed by the impress
sion Of pages 8, G, and on the reverse SIDE The
second impression cylinder, which revOlycs against
these pages is covered with blanket to absorb the
or transfer of ink from the freshly printed
first side and in order to distribute this transfer
over a wide surface the cylinder Is made
of large size. Issuing from between these revolving
pieces of mechanism, the web of paper now contains
a double row Of TRBUNEs placed end to end and
the next process is TO cut the sheets apart. Two
cuts thus required-a transverse cut to separate
the pages from the roll, and a longitudinal cut to
divide the duplicate halves of the portions
thus clipped of. The first process is to
make the transverse cut. For this purpose
the web is conducted to a third pair
of cylinders, one of which is furnished
with cutting-blade running its whole length paral-
lei with the axis and playing into corresponding
groove in the other and the web passes tits dly-
ded into half sheets the width of two pages at each
revolution of the cylinder Not wholly divided, how
ever; the continuity Of the web needs to be pre-
served for fraction of second longer, and two or
three points of attachment are consequently
left between the portions until they are fairly
started on series of tapes which leads to the
COLLECTING cylinder" Here the speed of travel is
slightly increased and we see the successive half
sheets breaking away from their companions and
hurrying on. And comes into play the most
curious device in the whole apparatus Let us sup
pose the velocity of the machine to be reduced so
that we trace the Of each separated clip
ping from the web it proceeds its journey. The
first piece to reach the collecting cylinder contains
eight pages of THE TRIBUNE, indeed, but not the |
eight which make up complete paper; on the upper
surface are printed, side by side, and occupying |
half the breadth Of the Web pages and
6; end to end with them. taking up the other half
Of the BREADTH is duplicate impression of the
two pages. On the other side are pages 4 and
8, likewise, of course, in duplicate Now when
this section of the web arrives at the collector it is
whirled entirely around with the cylinder and makes
just revolution while the next sheet cut from
the web is travelling along to overtake it. This
second piece contains duplicate impressions of
hefOur missing pages l and on the upper surface.
and z on the reverse, and the movement is so
nicely timed that as the forward edge of the first
sheet comes mp around the cylinder it exactly meets
the forward edge of the newly arrived second
sheet at the top of the collector, whence
they 90 on together, one everything the
other, and the two halves Of the paper
thus falling into their proper position. But
reaching the point where the first sheet, at the
previous revolution, had begun to wrap itself
around the cylinder, there is a change of route
series OF brass points, called switches" which
play up and down between the tapes lust over the
top of the cylinder rising at one revolution and fall
ing the next lift up the advancing pair of sheets
and lead them Oft to a Get of tapes which
carry them forward. Meanwhile the same process
Is repeated in regular alienation with the sheets