The Restored Printing Press
This
century old iron handpress was cast and machined in Chicago. These presses
were never used to print books or newspapers. Their job was to pull "proofs".
A hundred years ago photographs had to be carefully rephotographed using giant cameras fitted with precisely scribed glass plates. A very high contrast negative was created in which the grays of the original photograph were converted to tiny dots of different sizes.
The negative was used to acid etch a metal plate that would put ink onto paper. As a final check in quality control, a test impression of the plate, a proof, was made on presses like these or on newer cylinder presses.
Although handpresses evolved from wine presses during the time of Gutenberg, this design, a "Washington", dates to the 1840's.
Here the type and a modern engraving of the Bernays engine is locked up in a chase with furniture and quoins, and ready for inking.
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