In the making of pasteboard, a number of cylinders contribute their webs to form a single sheet of several plies. CHAPTER XIX TYPESETTING AND PRINTING MACHINERY “WHO WON the war?” The question immediately brings forth numerous contenders who claim the honor, respectively, for the aviator, the chemist, the engineer, the mechanic, the farmer, the shipbuilder, etc. As a matter of fact, all these and many others as well were invaluable contributors to the final success, and “there is glory enough for all.” The question, “What branch of technology or what branch of machinery has done most for civilization?” finds a similar division of opinion, with partisans in favor of the steam engine, machine tools, electrical machinery, iron manufacture, paper making, printing, etc. Again, it is clearly evident that all have been most valuable contributors and none may carry off all the honors. However, partisans of the printing press are entitled to place that machine among the foremost because it has certainly been most useful in preserving and disseminating all classes of knowledge and in promoting the progress of civilization. EARLY CHINESE PRINTING It is hardly necessary for us to refer to Johann Gutenberg’s invention in 1436 of separate type for each letter. Many centuries before that the Chinese had made wood engravings of complete pages and printed them on paper. Their method was to prepare an ink copy on a sheet of paper and then transfer the copy by pressing the paper on the wood before the ink was dry, after which they carved away all the surface except those parts which were inked. This gave them a reverse plate from which any number of copies could be printed. The invention of individual type which could be used over and over again for setting new copy was a marked improvement over the Chinese system. DEVELOPMENT OF PRINTING PRESSES The primitive screw press saw little improvement except in minor details down to the end of the eighteenth century. Then steam began to take the place of hand power and the idea was conceived of using a rotary cylinder in place of a flat press. The types were tapered so that they could be fitted about a cylinder. The paper was fed between the type cylinder and a soft impression cylinder faced with leather. The ink was applied to the type by means of a roller which was fed by an inking apparatus. In 1814 two rotary presses were installed in the offices of the London “Times,” making it possible to turn out that newspaper at the marvelous rate of 11,000 impressions per hour. In this country, Richard Marsh Hoe invented a machine in which four, six, eight, or ten impression cylinders operated on a single form of type, thereby increasing the output of the press correspondingly. The first machine, a four-impression cylinder press, was used by the Philadelphia “Ledger” in 1846, and it printed 8,000 papers per hour.