The news of these later inventions reached New York in due time, and in 1832 Robert Hoe, who had been some time established in the manufacture of printing presses, sent a young man, Sereno Newton (whom he afterwards took in partnership with him), to England to investigate the subject and see what improvements were worthy of adoption. The result was the construction of the machines known as the “Single Small Cylinder” and “Double Small Cylinder,” also the large Cylinder “Perfecting” Press, which have continued, with many alterations and improvements, to be manufactured up to the present time.

Hoe & Co. had previously made the first flat bed and cylinder press ever used in the United States. It was the pattern known as the “Single Large Cylinder,” the whole circumference of the cylinder being equivalent to the entire travel of the bed forwards and backwards, the cylinder making one revolution for each impression in printing, without stopping. Only a portion of the cylinder was employed to take the impression, the remainder of its circumference being turned down small enough to allow the type on the bed to pass back under it without touching. Hundreds of these machines were made and are now in use, and they are still made at the present day, with patented sheet fliers and other devices and improvements in the methods of manufacture. Other similar presses were made later by the press-makers A. B. Taylor, A. Campbell, C. B. Cottrell, and C. Potter, Jr.

The patented sheet flier before referred to, and which was used on the “Adams” bed and platen press, was greatly improved by Hoe & Co. and placed upon all their cylinder presses.

Before proceeding further with an account of the faster newspaper presses, it may be well to complete the history of machines employed up to this time for book, job and woodcut printing. For this purpose the “Single Large Cylinder,” already described, was first used. In England there were the “Napier” presses, the “Wharfdale” and many others, all involving the same general principle, and capable of turning out more or less satisfactory work, in proportion to the perfection of their construction and the skill of those operating them. Most of the English machines, however, show defects in mechanical construction. In fact, the supremacy of the American printing press is maintained in a large measure by the simplicity, accuracy and perfection of its mechanism. Foreign presses, made by the cheap labor of Europe, have been repeatedly brought to this country and introduced into printing offices. They have never, however, lasted long, most of them having perished in the using or been found unprofitable.

There have been various modifications of the principle underlying the Napier movement for flat-bed presses, i. e., having the driving wheel engage the rack at all times, reversing the movement by turning about the ends of the rack and driving the bed alternately in opposite directions.

As early as 1847 Hoe & Co. patented an entirely new bed driving mechanism. To a hanger fixed on the lower side of the bed were attached two racks facing each other, but not in the same vertical plane, and separated by a distance equal to the diameter of the driving wheel, which was on a horizontal shaft and movable sideways so as to engage in either one or other of the racks. By this means, a uniform movement was obtained in each direction.

The reversal of the bed was accomplished by a roller at either end of the bed entering a recess in a disc on the driving shaft, which in a half revolution brought the bed to a stop and started it in the opposite direction.

This involved a new principle; a crank action operating directly upon the bed from a shaft having a fixed centre, and within recent years modifications of this patent have been successfully employed to drive the type bed at a high velocity and reverse it without shock or vibration.

The “Miehle” Press is a modified form of this movement; the crank pin or roller is attached to the side of the bed wheel, and at the ends of the uniform movement it is enclosed within the walls of a vertical guideway formed at each end of the rack supporting frame, and passes through the length of this guide as it performs its function of reversing the bed.

An improvement in this class of bed motions has lately been made and patented by Hoe & Co. In this machine the crank pin, which controls the reversal of the motion of the type bed, moves in a rectilinear instead of a circular pathway. As the motion of the crank is thus directly in line with the travel of the bed, it is possible to lock the journal box, enclosing the pin, securely to the bed, while the bed is being controlled by the action of the crank, and thereby avoids the friction and consequent wear of parts that occur when the crank pin moves in a circular line. The movement of the crank is obtained from the rotatory motion of the bed wheel, and has the same varying velocities as would be derived from a crank traveling in a circular pathway. It, therefore, checks the momentum of the bed with ease, brings the bed to rest, and returns it with an accelerating motion while under positive control. The wearing of parts is thus reduced to the minimum, insuring an accuracy of register and exactness of motion hitherto unattainable. A press with a bed measuring 48 × 65 inches runs without jar or vibration at a speed of 1,800 impressions an hour.

The press of the present day from which the finest letterpress and woodcut work is turned off is known as the “Stop Cylinder.” This was devised and patented by a Frenchman named Dutartre, in 1852, and introduced into this country about 1853 by Hoe & Co., who have since patented many improvements upon it. It was a surprise to many printers to find that this machine could do work which heretofore it had been supposed the hand press only was capable of performing.

The Stop Cylinder Press may be described as follows: The type is secured upon a traveling iron bed, which moves back and forth upon friction rollers of steel, the bed being driven by a simple crank motion, stopping and starting it without noise or jar. All the running portions of this bed are made of fine steel as hard as it can be worked. The cylinder is stopped by a cam motion pending the backward travel of the bed, and during the interval of rest the sheet is fed down against the guides and the grippers closed upon it before the cylinder starts, thus insuring the utmost accuracy of register. After the impression, the sheet is transferred to a skeleton cylinder, also containing grippers, which receives, and delivers it, over fine cords, upon the sheet flier, which in turn deposits it upon the table. The distribution of the ink is effected partly by a vibrating, polished, steel cylinder, and partly upon a flat table at the end of the traveling bed, the number of form-inking rollers varying from four to six. This is without doubt the most perfect flat bed cylinder printing machine that has ever been devised. It is made in various sizes. The average output of one of these presses with a bed 36 × 54 inches is from 1,000 to 1,500 impressions per hour.

The demand being constantly for machines taking on larger sized forms, there has been lately constructed and patented by R. Hoe & Co. an entirely new Stop Cylinder Press, having a bed 45 × 62 inches, and which can be run at a speed of 1,700 impressions an hour. The main points of difference between the Stop Cylinder Press for type forms and the Lithographic Press is in the form of the bed only, the other portions, including the driving apparatus, being almost identical; therefore the same general description applies to these new machines for both classes of work. A great objection to flat-bed presses of large size has always been the height of the cylinder from the floor, necessitated by the increased dimensions of the driving apparatus under the bed. In these new presses the bed is reciprocated as usual by a crank motion, but made exceptionally strong and compounded. This method of construction not only gives the increased speed but makes the bed of the machine low down, so that it is better under the hand and eye of the operator. The product of the machine is delivered printed side up, by a patented take-off apparatus, which takes the sheets from the impression cylinder by grippers in a reciprocating carriage and deposits them upon a table. No tapes or guides come in contact with the freshly printed ink.

Keeping pace with the improved methods and machines employed in typographic printing, and influenced thereby, the lithographic and kindred branches of printing have also made progress, induced mainly, however, by the general striving for more rapid and economical production. This has been accomplished by using larger stones, paper and machines, and by employing rotary machines for some work. The use of curved stones for lithography being impracticable for many reasons, a substitute was found in plates or sheets made of zinc or aluminum, which, when properly prepared, possess properties akin to those in lithographic stones. Being flexible, these sheets are easily stretched over the curved surface of a cylinder. Although the development of this branch of printing is due, chiefly, to the French and Germans, much has been done in this country toward its improvement, and work is produced upon Rotary Zincographic or Aluminum Presses that compares favorably with that produced from stones, and at double the speed. The smaller of these presses, printing only one color at a time, prints on sheets 30 × 44 inches, at a speed up to 2,000 impressions per hour; the larger presses of the same kind print on sheets 44 × 64 inches, at a speed up to 1,700 impressions per hour, although the machines may be run even faster, according to the dexterity of the feeder.