This machine was taken out to make way for Hoe Type Revolving Presses. 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. [Illustration: BULLOCK PRESS] 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. [Illustration: LONDON TIMES ROTARY MACHINE] 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:--