treadle+platen+machine

1) Polygraphy: treadle driven job printing press

2) Makarov: treadle platen machine

SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing

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Ruggles, a Bostonian, made a cylinder press in 1827 and also a card press, but neither was manufactured. In 1839 he completed his "Engine" press, the first self-inking, treadle-driven jobbing platen press. The machine presses that had been developed from Koenig and Bauer c. 1810 were suitable for large-scale printing but less so for the small miscellaneous work of the jobbing printer. For these needs, the bed and platen press was developed. The bed (carrying the type) and the platen (which pressed the paper onto the inked type) were pivoted and brought together like the jaws of a nutcracker instead of moving on a separate carriage. With automatic inking and treadle operation, the press offered a rapid and simple action for the small printer. In Ruggles's first press of this kind, the bed and platen were still horizontal, the bed being uppermost. If the type became loose, however, it fell onto the platen, so in 1851 Ruggles constructed a new version in which bed and platen were vertical. Later designers modified the form of the press, but it was the Ruggles that opened up a new era for the jobbing printer.

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