Printing on an 1880's Prouty Newspaper Press aka The Grasshopper Press
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- We mostly use this 1880's Prouty Power Flat Bed Newspaper Press for demonstrations, but we inked it up for a rare look at what the press can really do! This press was nicknamed "Grasshopper" because the cylinder, traveling the length of the bed, is activated by two slotted bars which swing back and forth resembling the legs of a grasshopper. The press is extremely light-weight, considering the size sheet it can handle. Seven, eight, and nine column presses invented by Enoch Prouty were manufactured in the eighteen-eighties by the Wisconsin firm of D.G. Walker & Company, who continued this style press, with modifications, into the early twentieth century. Enoch Prouty was a Baptist minister desirous of printing a temperance paper and, not being able to afford any presses available, he designed his own. Prouty had his press manufactured and, because of its modest price, light weight, and ready source of power (hand), it was adopted by country printers. The cylinder picks up the sheet from the feed-board similarly to the action of a modern proof press. The throw-off is in the bed which descends before the return of the cylinder. Impression is effected by wheels locked underneath the bearers. This newspaper press came from a dilapidated print shop in Calico, Ark.
This is so satisfying to watch! I’m actually more amazed by this than digital printing
I love it ....!!!
Awesome
You can stop after you get your 15,000 papers printed then start over tomorrow.
Printing press
Cool
Quite slow - how on earth did they print enough newspapers in time for each day?
make the same shit every day and you star becoming faster at it
These weren’t really designed for daily printing - there were faster, steam-powered presses for that. This one was designed to be lighter and better at smaller runs for rural publishing, mostly. But - they’re being gentle with it. They can print around 1000-1500 copies per hour, with a skilled two-man team. For a small circulation community paper - it wasn’t so bad. For an overnight run for a morning paper, with a single press, you could run about 10,000 pages, or about 2500 4-page papers, From a single press, and scale up from there. The Purdy was a godsend for rural papers in its day. What it lacked in speed - it made up for in ease of use and ability to be transported and maintained. And Purdy sold it cheap.
The printing seems like the easy part compared to setting up the type. Every single letter had to be placed individually by hand, didn't it? Yeesh!
My one true weakness.
In the roll back phase, doesnt the roller have a mechanism to lift it off the letterblocks?? Because I see ink impressions on the roller but it doesnt seem to stain the back side of printed sheets???!?
Yes, if you listen carefully you can hear the inking mechanism drop to prevent inking on the cylinder.
An educated guess: Perhaps the impressions you see on the cylinder were made during make-ready. Then the cylinder would have been cleaned off before the production run began, leaving the image you see, but not wet ink. I know that cylinder presses used to print commercial work would have make-ready images like that.
❤