Pressing

“ When a work contains a great [pg 48] number of plates, which are directed to be placed at the end, they are sewn on the bands by overcasting, which operation will shortly be treated of in full.
The book, being now ready for pressing, is taken in sections, according to the work and the judgment of the workman, and placed between pressing-boards the size of the volume, one on the other, and conveyed to the standing-press, which is pulled down as tight as possible by the press-pin, or fly-wheel, according to the nature of the standing-press ”

“ Pressing is usually learned in cleaning and pressing shops. It takes about eight weeks for a green hand to become a good seam presser. To become a final presser on skirts and dresses requires from six months to a year, and on jackets and cloaks from two to three years. ”

“ The superior pressure, and the circumstance of one side of the paper passing under the polished surface of one of the pressing rollers, contribute to that smoothness which in hand-made papers can only be obtained by repeated parting and pressing ”

“ Whether the thinness be caused by poor pressing or calendering, it can easily be detected in a roll of paper, as the thin streak makes a soft spot in the roll which can quickly be located by tapping the roll all the way78 across. A muffled rather than a ringing sound discloses soft places. ”

“ The pulsations of the arteries along my fingers pressing across hers, told her what was passing within me: she looked down—a silence of some moments followed. ”

“ Praise be unto the press, not the black press but the red; let us extol and magnify the press, the red press of Noah, from which cometh inspiration. Ye pressmen of the Rhineland and the Rhine, join in with all ye who tread out the glad tidings on isle Madeira or Mitylene.—Who giveth redness of eyes by making men long to tarry at the fine print?—Praise be unto the press, the rosy press of Noah, which giveth rosiness of hearts, by making men long to tarry at the rosy wine.—Who hath babblings and contentions? Who, without cause, inflicteth wounds? ”

“ From the home-made wooden Press, with worn and indifferent type, and with scarcely a sufficiency of those to set up a seven-by-nine sheet, may now be seen the beautiful Power Press, propelled by steam, with type of the most exquisite shape and finish. More is now accomplished in minutes, than used to be performed in hours! ”

“ THE CHAP THAT SWINGS THE AXE Sing a song of paper; first the tall, straight
spruce,
Torn from off the mountains for the roaring
presses’ use.
—A shrieking laceration by the “barker” and
the saw;
A slow, grim maceration in the grinder’s grum-
bling maw;
A dizzy dash through calenders and over whir-
ring rolls,
—And the press can smut the paper so to save
or damn your souls;
The press has got the paper, it can give you lies
or facts
—That vexes not the fellow up in Maine who
swings the axe.
Chock!
Chock!
Chock! ”

“ It is essential to good work that the book be absolutely true in the press, and that the head mark and the top of the board which has been pulled down, be on a level with the top surface of the jaw of the press. ”

“ The printing-press — said to be the greatest benefactor of mankind— is equally employed by the tyrant and the philanthropist, the wise and the foolish, the religious fanatic and the coolest thinker, the honest, conscientious scholar and the shameless quack: the Press will serve, as it has ever done, the direst as well as the noblest purposes. ”

“ At one end of the press is a great roll of paper as big as a hogshead and a mile or more long. This immense roll of paper is unwinding very fast, and going in at one end of the machine; while at the other end, faster than you can count, are coming out finished papers—the papers printed on both sides, cut up, folded, and counted, without the touch of a hand—a perfect marvel and miracle of human ingenuity. The sight is a sight to remember for a lifetime. ”

“ The press; which, like the animal heart, receives eventually all that the veins convey to it, and flings forth everything in modified form through lungs and arteries. Tireless and untired in its action, never ceasing, never resting, for as well might a man think to live when his heart had ceased to beat, as a printing office exist when the throbbings of its press were no longer felt; and as well could a man be supposed to live without breath as a printing-office of the nineteenth century without its lungs, the steam engine, or its breath of life, the subtle fluid by which it is moved. ”

“ Truly it is a marvelous machine—this sextuple press. Nowhere you will find a more perfect adaptation of means to ends, nowhere in any branch of industry a piece of mechanism which offers a finer example of what human skill and ingenuity is capable of. ”

“ So Uncle Ben continued his talk about magazine making. He explained the workings of different kinds of printing presses, how some print directly from the type “made ready” on a flat bed, the paper being fed into the press in flat sheets, and how some of the big presses print from curved plates that fit around a big roller, the paper running into the press continuously from an immense big roll as wide as the press. He told about the wonderful folding and stitching machines, and many other interesting things. ”

“ This humorous ancient was not unlike the modern newspaper man. The hideous noise of the press, its conscience-annulling haste, its sense of power and almost uncontradictable certainty, [A] are [43] what he employs to warn his soul, his reason, not to look over his shoulder while he is at work. The fact is that the whole ingenious mechanism of a newspaper is so automatically conjointed and revolves so rapidly that by sheer fury and speed of movement it takes on a kind of synthetic life of its own. ”

“ That the printing press was an invention of merit will be perceived at a glance when it is compared with the screw press which is supposed to have served as the basis of construction.394 That a proper method of doing presswork was devised in the infancy of the art may be inferred, not only from the permanency of the primitive form of press, all the important features of which are still preserved in the modern hand-press, but from the meritorious presswork of the first books. ”

“ The whole aspect of the humbler press has changed within these few years. Unquestionably the people have changed. Visit, if you can, the interior of that marvellous human machine, the General Post-Office, on a Friday evening, from half-past five to six o'clock. Look with awe upon the tons of newspapers that are crowding in to be distributed through the habitable globe. Think silently how potent a power is this for good or for evil. ”

“ Meantime, I believe I have written, and may venture to recollect with little attention, better pieces, both in rhyme and blank verse; thinking, sir, that my pen is capable of altering what may be found deficient,—not, surely, that I ever care anything for the press, but to entertain a friend so well myself, sometimes with a view reflected from gloom, from the dawn, or from the angry plains of wars; for my delight is in the epic system. ”

“ But, I may be tresspassing upon time which can be more profitably employed—or if not, I may already have arrogated to myself the utterance of suggestions more forcibly and appropriately made by more wise and venerable persons; I will therefore farther detain you only by offering the following sentiment.
The Press: A lever whose impressive power, if pulled by the united hands of the craft, will put a period to vice, and leave a fairer impression upon the face of our nation, and give the pages of as history in future, a brighter lustre than all other influences combined. ”

“ When all is ready, paper and stereotyped pages in place, and all adjustments carefully attended to, the almost thinking machine starts at the pressman's touch, and with well nigh incredible speed prints, places sheet within sheet, pastes the parts together, cuts, folds and counts out the completed papers with an accuracy and constancy beyond the power of human eye and hand. ”

“ I am inclined to believe, therefore, that the pivot-press may be used with excellent effect in many instances, especially from its simplicity and ease of construction, when a sudden need arises for the accommodation of a new accession of books. I may further draw attention to a special merit—its singular lightness even when full of volumes. A child can work it with ease, unlike the sliding-press, which, when quite full, may tax the strength of a powerful man. ”

“ One pressman and an assistant easily printed the Herald, and another daily paper as well, in those days, upon one small handpress; now forty men find constant employment in attending the engines and the six latest improved perfecting-presses required to issue the editions on time. ”

“ Men are yet living who have printed books by the method shown in the cut—pulling down the bar when one-half of the form was under the platen—releasing the pressure—running the other half of the bed under the platen—and finishing the presswork of the other half of the sheet by a second pull. ↑ There should have been a gradual improvement in the construction of the press, as there was in the making of the types, but there was no decided change for two centuries. ”

“ A finishing press is a small press, having two sides of solid wood with wooden screws at each end, the cheeks should be of width enough to allow the sides of a book to be finished comfortably when the boards are extended, the book itself being held by the press which is screwed up tightly. The press should, however, be light enough to enable the finisher to easily turn it round, as it frequently must be, while finishing a book. ”

“ We have the Press, but not in direct contact with the coloured people, and devoted to their special interests, except the one to which we have already referred—to establish a Press upon a more solid basis is the object of my friend and brother, Wm. ”

“ Within the vast vat in its dripping gray jacket;
And the press is set going with clatter and racket.
The great screw descends, as the long levers play,
And the curd, like some crushed living creature, gives way ”

“ For, be it remembered, that in contrasting the results of this invention, with the productions of former periods, we are, in fact, arraying in our train, the mighty arm of the press against the feeble efforts of an unwieldy style, or the tedious and uncertain process of the slow-paced pen, which prior to an acquaintance with the art of printing, were the only means mankind possessed for spreading the influence and advantages of learning amongst their fellow-creatures. ”

“ That will probably be when they have found out all about how to put a harness on electricity. No one can predict when inventive genius will reach its limits in the printing press. Before this press was built, the fastest presses in the world were Hoe’s quadruple presses, which will turn out 48,000 four-, six-, or eight-page papers an hour, 24,000 ten-, twelve-, fourteen-, or sixteen-page papers an hour, and 12,000 twenty- or twenty-four page papers an hour, all cut, pasted, and folded.
The sextuple press has a well-nigh insatiable appetite for white paper. ”

“ The presswork of early prints is coarse and harsh, and could have been done with simple mechanism, with rude applications of the screw or of the lever, that could have been devised by any intelligent workman. ”

“ You have a printing press which does not belong to you, and of which you are bound to give an account, as you know yourself. I have received instructions to request you to give it up to-morrow at seven o’clock in the evening to Liputin. ”

“ It proves to be quite an interesting demonstration for the instructor to wash the press clean, and come through the process in three minutes with hands scarcely soiled. There grows up somewhat of a rivalry among the groups or individuals to see which can wash the press in the shortest time and with the least muss. ”

“ Old Printers can still call to mind that period of our history when a stalwart Pressman, on his way to work, ran considerable risk in the streets of London of being seized by another kind of pressmen, viz., the Press-gang, and forced nolens volens into the service of the King. ”

“ The fallacy of the proverb, that "those who run may read," being established, modern science set about the adoption of a medium, available to those sons of the century who are always on the run. Hence, the grand secret of ILLUSTRATION.—Hence the new art of printing!
The pictorial printing-press is now your only wear! Every thing is communicated by delineation. We are not told, but shown how the world is wagging. The magazines sketch us a lively article, the newspapers vignette us, step by step, a royal tour. ”

“ And smear'd each letter with her bitterest gall;
The press, whose ready gripe the charge receives,
Stamps it successive on ten thousand leaves,
Which pil'd in heaps impatient seem to lie,
They only wait the dawn of day to fly. ”

“ THE number of correspondents which increases every day upon me, shews that my paper is at least distinguished from the common productions of the press. It is no less a proof of eminence to have many enemies than many friends, and I look upon every letter, whether it contains encomiums or reproaches, as an equal attestation of rising credit. ”

“ Rogers, “but the fibre isn’t tough enough to stand the strain of the presses. You know, a newspaper press has to print many thousands of copies an hour; it runs at high speed. The paper is on a huge roll, and it unwinds like a ribbon into the press. It has to be tough enough so that it won’t break as it is being unwound. ”

“ It is, however, constantly kept alive by what is termed the "yellow press," which delights in picturing the ancestor of one family as a pedler and an itinerant trader, and the head of another family as a vegetable vender, and so on, literally venting its spleen upon them. ”