In 1835 Sir Rowland Hill had suggested the possibilities of a machine which should print both sides at once from a roll of paper. It is well known that for many years cotton cloths had been printed in this way, the cylinders being engraved and the cloth after printing being reeled up again. The suggestion, however, was accompanied by no practical knowledge as to the details, and, above all, no practical provision for the rapid cutting off and delivery of the paper either before or after it had been printed. It remained for an American, William Bullock, of Philadelphia, to construct, in 1865, the first printing machine to print from a continuous web or roll of paper. His machine consisted of two pairs of cylinders, i. e., two form or plate cylinders and two impression cylinders. The second impression cylinder was made of large size to provide additional tympan surface, to lessen the offset from the first printed side of the paper. The stereotype plates were not made to fill the whole circumference of each of the form cylinders, as the sheets were cut before printing. One difficulty he had to contend with was the cutting off of the sheets with sufficient accuracy and rapidity. This he accomplished by severing them by means of knives in cylinders. The sheets were then carried through the press by tapes and fingers, and delivery sought to be accomplished by means of a series of automatic metal nippers placed upon endless leather belts at such distance apart as to grasp each sheet successively as it came from the last printing cylinders. This machine was put up in several offices and rejected because of its unreliability, especially in the delivery of the papers, but it was finally so far perfected that it came into use to a considerable extent.

Meanwhile the proprietors of the London “Times” inaugurated experiments with the view of making a rotary perfecting press, and finally started the first one in that office about 1868. It was similar in construction to the “Bullock” press so far as the printing apparatus was concerned, excepting that the cylinders were all of one size and placed one above the other. The sheets were severed after printing, brought up by tapes, and carried down to a sheet flier which moved back and forth, and “flirted” the sheets alternately into the hands of two boys seated opposite one another on either side of the sheet flier.

Marinoni, of Paris, also devised a machine on a similar principle, making the impression and the form cylinder of one size, and placed them one above the other. The “Marinoni” machine had separate fly boards for the delivery of the sheets.

In 1871 R. Hoe & Co. also turned their attention to the construction of a rotary perfecting press to print from a roll or continuous web of paper.

As before stated, the greatest difficulties to be encountered were:--

First. The set-off of the first side.

Devices were used to overcome this and the ink-makers were induced to pay special attention to the manufacture of rapid-drying or non-setting-off inks.

Second. The difficulties in obtaining paper in the roll of uniform perfection and strength. The paper-makers were led to make a study of producing large rolls of paper meeting these requirements, and became much more experienced in its manufacture. The “Walter” press in the “Times” office had necessitated a very strong and expensive paper, which could not be afforded by the cheap daily press.

Third. The difficulty of the rapid severing of the sheets after printing.

Fourth. A reliable and accurate delivery of the printed papers.

These last two operations were not accomplished satisfactorily until the appearance of the Hoe machine. In this press the sheets were not entirely severed by the cutters, but simply perforated after the printing. They were then drawn by accelerating tapes, which completely separated them, onto a gathering cylinder so constructed that six perfect papers, or any other desired number, could be gathered one over the other. These, by means of a switch, were at the proper moment turned off onto one sheet flier, which deposited them on the receiving board. This gathering and delivery cylinder, patented by Stephen D. Tucker, a member of the firm of R. Hoe & Co., solved the problem of rapid flat delivery. The first of these machines was placed in the office of “Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper,” in London, and the first one used in the United States in the “Tribune” office in New York. There was no limit to their capacity for printing excepting the ability of the paper to stand the strain of passing through the press, which produced, when put to its speed, 18,000 perfect papers an hour, delivered accurately on one feed-board. The average speed, however, in printing offices was 12,000, although in some offices they were run at about 14,000 per hour.

The “Walter” press, made by the London “Times,” was used by it, and also by the London “Daily News” and by the New York “Times.” Further than that it made no progress and has now gone entirely out of use, the presses of this kind in the London “Times” office having been replaced by machines made by R. Hoe & Co. Meantime their machines were adopted by most of the large newspapers in the United States and Great Britain.

These new methods, of course, entirely superseded the “Hoe Type Revolving Machine,” which had reigned supreme in the newspaper world for over twenty years, and of which one hundred and seventy-five had been made, almost all of which have now disappeared.

Up to the middle of the last century the paper had been made from rags, but as these became unobtainable in sufficient quantity some substitute had to be found. First straw and afterwards wood pulp was successfully employed, and paper made from the latter is now in universal use. Its cheapness (averaging now about three cents per pound) materially aided the newspapers, and stimulated the printing machine manufacturers to renewed efforts in devising presses of still greater speed and efficiency.

It was desirable also that the papers should be delivered folded ready for the carrier or mail. The first apparatus to accomplish this was similar in design to the hand-fed folding machine in common use in printing offices. The sheets, fed separately into these machines, were carried by tapes running upon pulleys under striking blades, which forced them between pairs of folding rollers. After the first fold they were again carried in a similar manner under striking blades, placed at right angles to the first, and again struck down between rollers to receive a second fold. This action was continued until the desired number of folds had been secured. Folders of this description were attached to the fast presses, but none made could be worked at a greater speed than about 8,000 per hour, until in 1875 Stephen D. Tucker patented a rotating folding cylinder which folded papers as fast as they came from the press, or 15,000 in the hour. The striking blade folders were used in the “Bullock” press, in machines made by C. Potter, Jr., & Co. and others. Andrew Campbell, a printing press manufacturer, also constructed a rotary perfecting press, but his devices were not original. Four or five machines were made by him, and these soon went out of use.

The first folders made by Hoe & Co. consisted of the combination of a “gathering cylinder” with a rotary folding cylinder and tapes conveying the printed sheets under horizontal folding blades, somewhat similar to those before described, which thrust them at the proper moment between folding rollers placed at alternate angles, finally delivering them on travelling belts by a small flier. The first of these folding machines were put upon the presses made for the Philadelphia “Times” and operated in the Centennial Exhibition, in 1876.

These folders, however, were only the commencement of a long series of experiments undertaken by the makers in the development of still faster printing and folding mechanisms, and from this time forward the progress made has been phenomenal. With great ingenuity, added to long experience, and by the acquisition and adaptation of every device which should aid them in their efforts, Hoe & Co. succeeded in providing machines of unrivalled designs, efficiency and speed.

About 1876 Messrs. Anthony & Taylor of England (the former one of the owners of a newspaper in Hereford) took out patents for devices by which the webs of paper could be turned over after printing on one side and the opposite or reversed side presented to the printing cylinder. Mr. Hoe, who was in England at the time, appreciating the possible use and development of these patents, became possessed of them for England and the United States.

E. L. Ford, engaged in the publication of a newspaper in New York, patented the uniting of the product of two or more printing mechanisms and thus producing (in restricted form) a multiple number of pages at one time. He was unable, however, to develop his plans to any practical result; but deserves the credit of being the first to patent, if not to conceive, the idea of the association of printed sheets for this purpose.