The development of printing machinery has already been described to a considerable extent in two of the preceding volumes of this series (No. 6, Platen Printing Presses, and No. 7, Cylinder Printing Machines). It may be worth while, however, to review briefly in this place the main points of progress in this direction. As we already know, American printers originally and for many years imported all their presses as well as their type. This condition, however, could not be permanent. As early as 1775 good presses were being made at Philadelphia and Hartford. These presses were of the Blaeu or “Dutch” type. They were wooden machines with stone beds and had undergone practically no change for a couple of centuries. The best known builder of these old presses in America was Adam Ramage, who came from Scotland to Philadelphia in 1790. Ramage was not only a good workman, but of an inventive turn of mind, and introduced several improvements, notably the substitution of an iron bed for the stone one. The iron press was invented by Lord Stanhope, in England, about the year 1800 and was the beginning of the improvements in printing machinery which were to go so far in the course of a century. Mr. Henry L. Bullen is authority for the statement that no Stanhope press was ever brought to America. The reason lies probably in the fact that an American invented an iron press at about the same time. This was George Clymer, of Philadelphia, who after much experimenting produced the Columbian Press, an iron machine which came into general use in England as well as in the United States about 1816. It was a complicated machine, but in spite of its complexity was very durable and beautiful as well as powerful. It was worked on the ordinary hand-lever principle, but the leverage system gave a fine chance for the pressman’s skill. It had wonderful possibilities in the production of the most perfect work when in the hands of a skillful workman. It won and long kept well-deserved favor. It was introduced into England in 1807, and in 1817 Clymer himself followed it to England, where he spent the remainder of his life. In spite of the capacity of the Columbian press for the production of artistically perfect work there was a great and increasing demand for presses of a different type. The demand was for a simpler press and also for one that would mechanically turn out larger quantities of work than were possible under the old leverage system. The first demand was met by the invention of Peter Smith, of New York, who built a press somewhat on the lines of the Columbian, which was very heavy, carried larger forms, and used shorter levers, and by Samuel Reid, who, in 1824, invented the simple but excellent Washington hand press, which is still in common use.