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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 1

Introduction of Hard Packing (American Bookmaker.)

page 82

Introduction of Hard Packing (American Bookmaker.)

John W. Oliver, who began the printers' art in Baltimore in 1826, and who, in conjunction with his brother, conducted one of the most extensive printing establishments in New York for years, is still, in his cheery old age, carrying on the business at Yonkers. To him is due the introduction of the cylinder-press in job-work. Forty years ago, all work, with some trifling exceptions, was done wet. A customer who came for a ream of billheads had to wait for at least two days. The paper was carefully wet down and allowed to remain till morning; then it was turned, to break the back of the sheets, and remained till towards evening, when the printing was executed. The sheets were then to be dried, which, as they were thick, required considerable time, and were then put into the standing-press. After this had all been done, the job was ready for delivery, but although the indentation of the paper had been taken out by the standing-press, the gloss of the surface was lost. The moistening had effectually destroyed that. All other job-work was done in the same way, the impressions being pulled upon a Smith or Washington press, or perhaps on a Ramage. When the cylinder or Napier press had been in use for a few years, it occurred to Mr Oliver that a smaller-sized press might be available for jobs, and if so the paper could be worked dry. This would make the paper appear much more showy, and, with a quick-drying ink, would diminish by from two to three days the time necessary for the execution of an ordinary order. On this project being laid before Colonel Richard M. Hoe, he gave it his assent, and caused a post-folio cylinder to be made expressly for the purpose. One printer before had essayed to use a small-sized press, but was not successful with it, probably owing to his using the same overlay system that he had found to be useful in wet work. In Mr Oliver's hands, however, it turned out well. The thick blankets were discarded, nothing being used except a few sheets of paper, or a thin overlay of rubber, and he speedily added other presses of the same kind. Most of the trade, however, while acknowledging the seeming superiority of the new process, declared that it could not last in the long-run, as it was very hard on type. This was about 1844, but it gained favor so rapidly that about 1852 almost every office was partly supplied with cylinder presses. Among those who doubted that the new method would work was George Bruce, the eminent typefounder. Three or four years after printing of this kind had begun, he took occasion, on his seventieth birthday, to call upon Mr Oliver and acknowledge how much he had been mistaken. « You were right and I was wrong, » he declared.