Connecticut western news., 1913-07-10
AS OATMAN REMEMBERS IT
Reminder of The News Mechanical
 Power a Generation Ago.


 Power Generation Ago.
 The Berkshire Typothetae held its June meeting in Canaan, Ct., at the Garfield
 House. A most practical address on bus mess management was given by Edward German of Buffalo, an expert in organ lzation and cost systems. Editor c. w. Parsons of The News had charge of the arrangements. It was voted to hold the next meeting July 19 at Pontoosuc lake and invite the ladies.
 l W. J. Oatman of Pittsfeld, the veteran printer, was asked to tell the story of an anclent press which he once ran in Can. aan. It was Guernsey, which none of | those present had ever heard of before and at first thought was a joke until MT. | Oatman proved his point. This was a queer press made in the time Of the civil war or before by Gordon Mckay of Pittsfield. It would print two pages of an column paper. It had a peculiar motion, as instead of reversing on it's track the forms ran out then dropped | five or six inches and ran back under the l cylinder of the press, then rose to the l former level, the most unique operation ever operation ever heard of in a print Ing press. The press was taken on a wagon and drawn to wherever it found a job. These presses found & mission immediately after the close of the war in printing class paper in the South for colCred peoples societies. The particular press run by MT. Oatman had been used on the Lee Chronicle by W. H. Hill and went with that papers effects to the Cleaner office, from which place it went out into New York state and in the 70s to Canaan. ..a
 MT. Oatman was called to Canaan to settle up an estate. MT. Pease, the owner of the paper having died. As he went toward the office of The News he heard noise like threshing machine. A few steps more and he saw a white horse working treadmill from which belt ran to second story, where the Guern- sey press with it's combination of perpen- dicular and horizontal motions was get ting off It's edition with the aid of the horse. The uproar of the press and the "threshing machine" was something to wake the dead. MT. Parsons, pres ent editor of The News, then boy in the store underneath. remembers the running of the Guernsey press, he can never forget 1t, and says it used to shake the building so that they were afraid the press would come through the floor. What finally became of the press no one knows. It certainly was worthy of a place in a museum of antiques and curios of the printing trade. Lee, Mass. Cleaner.
 Considering the fact that 35 years have elapsed since J. l.. Pease, the first editor and owner of The News. died, Mr. Oatman's off-hand reminiscence might not be expected to follow the straight drawn line of accuracy in every partic- ular. Yet It is an interesting reminder of the days when publication day" was an event to be dreaded by the mechani- ical force-which, in those days, was likewise the brain-room force. That old Guernsey press was dubbed "the man. killer," and the present writer retains a permanent souvenir of it's rapacious na- ture and it's vicious temper, in the shape of flattened and mutilated thumb. But time and distance have mellowed any predjudice that may have existed, and dis pelled any grudge that may have been nursed against the old thing. and we hasten to correct, in one single particular the impression which Mir. Oatman's rem iniscence may have created, and to give the devil his due, so far as possible, in that one particular. E
 The motion of the press, as described by Mir. Oatman, would fully deserve the Cleaners characterization" the most unique operation ever heard of in a printing press"-if it were true. But MT. Oatmans descriptive power is more vivid than his memory, in this particular. The forms were always on the same level, and never dropped five or six inches and ran back under the cylinder, then rose to the former level" How ever, the process was practically as cum. bersome. and fully as noisy. After the forms had carried the paper under the cylinder for the impression, the cylinder would stop, jump up half.inch with @ slam bang, being forced up by heavy coil springs, and reverse its motion as forms went back, settling down to its former level when the forms reached the extreme end of their route on the bed. And the slam banging of the heavy cylinder springing up and down, togeth- CT with the crashing of the heavy bed against it's "stops" at end of the tracks, produced commotion that caused the neighborhood to dread press day as sin cerely as the office force. However, the confusion was intermittent and meyer long sustained, for the vicious old thing would never print more than six papers before it would fall to pieces. and have to be put together again, to continue the operation.
 The press was turned over by Col.