The application of steam, or any mechanical power, to printing in
America was only begun. It had been introduced by Robert Hoe in
the very years when Morse was struggling to perfect the
telegraph. Before that time newspapers were printed in the United
States, on presses operated as Franklin's press had been
operated, by hand. The New York Sun, the pioneer of cheap modern
newspapers, was printed by hand in 1833, and four hundred
impressions an hour was the highest speed of one press. There had
been, it is true, some improvements over Franklin's printing
press. The Columbian press of George Clymer of Philadelphia,
invented in 1816, was a step forward. The Washington press,
patented in 1829 by Samuel Rust of New York, was another step
forward. Then had come Robert Hoe's double-cylinder, steamdriven
printing press. But a swifter machine was wanted. And so in 1845
Richard March Hoe, a son of Robert Hoe, invented the revolving or
rotary press, on the principle of which larger and larger
machines have been built--machines so complex and wonderful that
they baffle description; which take in reels of white paper and
turn out great newspapers complete, folded and counted, at the
rate of a hundred thousand copies an hour. American printing
machines are in use today the world over.
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