In the late 18th
and early 19th century, the affluent English middle class desired
more access to information. This brought about the growing need for newspapers.
But the conventional wooden printing presses at that time were not able to meet
the growing need.
This gave Charles
Mahon, 3rd Earl Stanhope the idea to create the cast-iron press, which
features combination of levers that can withstand the pressures of repeated
printing. This is known as the Stanhope
Press first introduced in 1800. The press is able to create powerful and
cleaner impressions ideal for larger formats. It was used to print The Times newspaper in the 19th
century. The Gunnersbury
Park Museum has the earliest surviving example of the cast-iron press.
Aside from the Stanhope
Press, the Columbian
Press is another type of iron hand press. It was create in 1816 by George Clymer of
Philadelphia. It can print a whole newspaper page in just one pull. It is
sometimes referred to as the Eagle press because of the bald eagle that sits on
top of the lever as a counterweight.
It could really be said that the demand for knowledge and its dissemination caused the birth of a lot of printing methods. But the break from the discovery of the printing press in the 15th century to the methods of the 18th century is quite unbelievable. I never it took that long in order for people to meet the demands during those times.
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