Washington printing press

It was a dirty, littered-up place, and had ink marks, and handbills with pictures of horses and runaway slaves on them, all over the walls. The duke shed his coat and said he was all right now. Twain knew whereof he wrote. Like wooden presses, the iron press used movable type set in a frame, along with pre-cut graphic images such as woodblocks. The iron hand press offered improvements over the four-centuries-old wooden press, although it never completely replaced it. Made of cast iron, it was of course sturdier, less susceptible to damage, and easier to clean of, say, ink stains than its wooden counterpart.

His very ornate Columbia Press, covered with symbols of Americana, did not take off stateside. Moving to England Clymer found a much more receptive market. Lord Stanhope had invented the very first iron press in , so the British were familiar with the concept. Within a few decades his press and a number of others modeled on it were common across Europe.

Improvements included steam power and a rotary printing surface. Colby passed the business—with patent rights—back to the Hoe Company, which thereafter manufactured the press alongside its own Smith press, building the toggles of the latter into the upright frame of the Washington. At the expiration of the patents, other American companies began producing their own versions of the Washington.

Ostrander-Seymour, a Chicago company in business from until at least the late 60s, manufactured equipment for printers, such as cameras, photo-engraving equipment, as well as the press pictured. Briar Press Washington. Briar Press , Core contributor.