PRESS, in the mechanical arts, is a machine made of iron or wood, and serving to squeeze or compress any body.

The ordinary presses consist of six members, or pieces, viz. two flat smooth planks, between which the things to be pressed are laid; two screws, or worms, fastened to the lower plank, and passing through two holes in the upper; and two nuts, in the form of an S, serving to drive the upper plank, that is moveable against the lower, which is stable, and without motion.

Presses used for expressing liquors, are of various kinds; some of them being, in most respects, the same with the common presses, excepting that the under plank is perforated with a great number of holes to let the juice expressed run through into a tub, or receiver, underneath.

Press used by Joiners, to keep close the pieces they have glued, such as panels of wainscot, is very simple. It consists of four members, viz. two screws, and two pieces of wood, four or five inches square, and two or three feet in length, the holes of which at the two ends serve for nuts to the screws.

Press used by Inlayers resembles the joiner’s press, except that the pieces of wood are thicker, and only one of them is moveable; the other, which is in the form of a tres-sel, being sustained by two legs or pillars, joined to it at each end. This press serves for sawing and cleaving the pieces of wood required in marquetry or inlaid work.

Founder’s Press, is a strong square frame, consisting of four pieces of wood, firmly joined together with tenons and otherwise. This press is of various sizes, according to the sizes of the moulds. Two of them are required to each mould, at the two extremities of which they arc placed; so that, by driving wooden wedges between the mould and the sides of the presses, the two parts of the mould in which the metal is to be run may be pressed close together.

Printing-Press. See Printing. Rolling-Press, is a machine used for taking off prints from copper-plates. It is much less complex than that of the letter-press printers.

Binder’s Cutting-Press, is a machine used equally by book-binders, stationers, and pasteboard-makers, and con sists of two large pieces of wood, in the form of cheeks, 1 connected by two strong wooden screws, which, being turned by an iron bar, draw together, or set asunder, the cheeks, as much as is necessary for putting in the books or paper to be cut. The cheeks are placed lengthwise on a wooden stand, in the form of a chest, into which the cuttings fall. Beside the cheeks are two pieces of wood, of the same length with the screws, and which serve to direct the cheeks, and prevent their opening unequally. Upon the cheeks moves the plough, to which the cutting-knife is fastened by a screw; and this knife has its key to dismount it, when it requires to be sharpened.

The plough consists of several parts, and amongst the rest a w;boden screw or worm, which, catching within the nuts of the two feet that sustain it on the cheeks, brings the knife to the book or paper, that is fastened in the press between two boards. This screw, which is pretty long, has two directories, which resemble those of the screws of the press. To make the plough slide square and even upon the cheeks, so that the knife may make an equal paring, the foot of the plough where the knife is not fixed, slides in a kind of groove, fastened along one of the cheeks. Lastly, the knife is a piece of steel, six or seven inches in length, flat, thin, and sharp, terminating at one end in a point, like that of a sword, and at the other in a square form, which serves to fasten it to the plough.

Press, in the woollen manufactory, is a large wooden machine, serving to press cloths, serges, rateens, &c·, thereby to render them smooth and even, and impart to them a gloss.

This machine consists of several members, the principal whereof are the cheeks, the nut, and the worm or screw, accompanied with its bar, which serves to turn it round, and make it descend perpendicularly upon the middle of a thick wooden plank, under which the stuffs to be pressed are placed.