Rotary printing machines

Machines in which the forme of type is placed on the surface of a horizontal revolving cylinder, the impression cylinders being situated around it. Of this description are the Bullock Machine, the Hoe Machine, and the Marinoni Machine, already described, as well as the Walter Press (q.v.). The latest invention in this class of machine is that of Messrs. Duncan & Wilson, of Liverpool, who have just brought out the “Victory” Machine. A description of this says:—

As America had the honour of introducing, or at least popularising the rotary principle, France more recently bore off the palm of mechanical ingenuity. The Hoe machine prints only one side of the paper at once; the Marinoni press prints both sides at one operation; thus by the Marinoni process as many perfect papers are produced per hour as there are half newspapers printed by the Hoe system, or, in other words, there is double speed in the newer method. Though the best yet invented, it must be confessed, however, that the Marinoni press still fails to economise as largely as journalists desire. What was wanted was a self-acting press—one that would feed itself without the intervention of manual labour, and deliver the printed newspaper by the same inexpensive agency. For if one of the present machines is, say, a six-cylinder press, it employs six men to keep up a constant supply of clean paper to be printed. In these days of penny journalism the great desideratum is rapid and cheap production. The first condition to the realisation of this hope seems to be the avoidance of the prevailing necessity of printing the newspaper in separate sheets. What was wanted was a plan whereby the type, or rather the stereotype plates, should be placed on revolving cylinders over which should be passed an endless band or paper, much on the same principle as in calico printing. The great difficulty, however, has been the discovery of some satisfactory process of dividing the paper when printed into the required lengths, so that each piece should form one newspaper. Messrs. Duncan & Wilson, of Liverpool, have been making patient experiments in the hope of contriving a press to print from a continuous band of paper, and after many failures they now appear to have hit upon a method that promises to revolutionise the printing business. It combines two distinct processes, that of printing and folding. A great roll of paper, even a mile in length, is placed over the machine, and is gradually unwound as it passes over the type; it is then divided by a revolving knife into separate pieces, each being a complete newspaper, and these are finally carried into a series of rollers, which fold them ready for delivery to the sub-scribers. In other words, a band of paper in the same state as when it leaves the paper-mill passes through the “Victory” press, and comes out folded newspapers without a human hand having touched it.