Great Fortunes, and How They Were MadeMcCabe, James Dabney
History
Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made
McCabe, James Dabney
United States -- Biography
Mr. Hoe, now fifty-eight years of age, is still as vigorous and active
as many a younger man. Besides being one of the most prominent and
distinguished inventors and manufacturers in the country, he is justly
esteemed for his many virtues and his commanding business talents. He is
still the active head of the house which he has carried to such a
brilliant success, and is the possessor of an ample fortune, which his
genius and industry have secured to him. He is courteous and obliging to
all, and very liberal to those whose needs commend them to his
benevolence.
The ten-cylinder press costs fifty thousand dollars, and is regarded as
cheap at that immense sum. It is one of the most interesting inventions
ever made. Those who have seen it working in the subterranean
press-rooms of the journals of the great metropolis will not soon forget
the wonderful sight. The ear is deafened with the incessant clashing of
the machinery; the printed sheets issue from the sides of the huge
engine in an unceasing stream; the eye is bewildered with the mass of
lines and bands; and it seems hard to realize that one single mind could
ever have adjusted all the various parts to work harmoniously.
The following is a description of the ten-cylinder steam printing-press
now used in the office of the New York _World_. It is one of the best
specimens of its kind to be seen in the great city:
The dimensions of the press are as follows: Entire length, 40 feet;
width, 15 feet; height, 16 feet. The large horizontal cylinder in the
center is about 4-1/2 feet in diameter, and on it are placed the "forms" of
type for the four pages of one side of the paper. Each of these
constitutes a segment of a circle, and the whole four occupy a segment
of only about one-fourth of the surface of the cylinder, the other
three-fourths being used as an ink-distributing surface. Around this
main cylinder, and parallel with it, are ten smaller impression
cylinders, according to the number of which a press is termed a four,
six, or ten-cylinder press. The large cylinder being set in revolution,
the form of types is carried successively to all the impression
cylinders, at each of which a sheet is introduced and receives the
impression of the types as the form passes. Thus as many sheets are
printed at each revolution of the main cylinder as there are impression
cylinders around it. One person is required at each impression cylinder
to supply the sheets of paper, which are taken at the proper moment by
fingers or grippers, and after being printed are conveyed out by tapes
and laid in heaps by means of self-acting flyers, thereby dispensing
with the hands required in ordinary machines to receive and pile the
sheets. The grippers hold the sheet securely, so that the thinnest
newspaper can be printed without waste.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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