George E. Clymer
Encyclopedia
George E. Clymer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
was an American
statesman, mechanic and inventor. In 1813 he invented the Columbian Printing Press
. This was an iron, lever-operated replacement for the wooden screw presses
based on Gutenberg's design.
Clymer began making wooden presses of the Gutenberg model around 1790. He switched to exclusively making the Columbian Press in 1816. His improvement still printed a page at a time but could be operated with less effort and more certain results. A similar press was invented around the same time by Lord Stanhope
in England, and was called the Stanhope Press. Another model developed in America was known as the Washington Press. Clymer found a limited market for his press in the U.S., so in 1818 he moved to England to compete directly with the Stanhope Press.
A few years before the invention of the Stanhope and the Columbian, Friedrich Koenig
of Germany invented a steam-powered continuous press using rollers. This was much larger than other presses, and could produce much higher volumes. Koenig made his first sale to The Times
, which could afford the press and take advantage of its high-volume output. The Columbian, Stanhope, and Washington presses enabled smaller printers to remain somewhat competitive, and all continued to be manufactured until late in the century. Eventually the rotary press and offset lithography
made obsolete all of these presses.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
statesman, mechanic and inventor. In 1813 he invented the Columbian Printing Press
Columbian Printing Press
The Columbian press was invented by George E. Clymer, probably in 1813, inspired in some measure by the earlier Stanhope press. It was designed to allow a whole newspaper page to be printed in a single pull. The press worked by a lever system, similar to that of the Stanhope press and quite...
. This was an iron, lever-operated replacement for the wooden screw presses
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
based on Gutenberg's design.
Clymer began making wooden presses of the Gutenberg model around 1790. He switched to exclusively making the Columbian Press in 1816. His improvement still printed a page at a time but could be operated with less effort and more certain results. A similar press was invented around the same time by Lord Stanhope
Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope
Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope aka Charles Mahon, 3rd Earl Stanhope FRS was a British statesman and scientist. He was the father of the great traveller and Arabist Lady Hester Stanhope and brother-in-law of William Pitt the Younger. He is sometimes confused with an exact contemporary of his,...
in England, and was called the Stanhope Press. Another model developed in America was known as the Washington Press. Clymer found a limited market for his press in the U.S., so in 1818 he moved to England to compete directly with the Stanhope Press.
A few years before the invention of the Stanhope and the Columbian, Friedrich Koenig
Friedrich Koenig
Friedrich Gottlob Koenig was a German inventor best-known for his high-speed printing press, which he built together with watchmaker Andreas Friedrich Bauer....
of Germany invented a steam-powered continuous press using rollers. This was much larger than other presses, and could produce much higher volumes. Koenig made his first sale to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, which could afford the press and take advantage of its high-volume output. The Columbian, Stanhope, and Washington presses enabled smaller printers to remain somewhat competitive, and all continued to be manufactured until late in the century. Eventually the rotary press and offset lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
made obsolete all of these presses.
Examples
Surviving examples of the Columbian Press can be found in many museums:- William Clowes Ltd.William Clowes Ltd.William Clowes Ltd. is a British printing company founded in London in 1803 by William Clowes. It grew from a small, one press firm to one of the world's largest printing companies in the mid-19th century. The company merged with Caxton Press, operated by William Moore in Beccles, Suffolk in the...
Printing Museum, BecclesBecclesBeccles is a market town and civil parish in the Waveney District of the English county of Suffolk. The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 Blythburgh and A12 road, northeast of London as the crow flies, southeast of Norwich, and north northeast of the county town of...
, SuffolkSuffolkSuffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England - Werkstattmuseum für Druckkunst (Workshop Museum for the Art of Printing), LeipzigLeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Germany - Milton KeynesMilton KeynesMilton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
Museum Printshop, England - Amberley Working MuseumAmberley Working MuseumAmberley Museum & Heritage Centre is a museum at Amberley, near Arundel in West Sussex, England.The museum was founded in 1979 by the Southern Industrial History Centre Trust and has previously been known as the Amberley Working Museum, Amberley Chalk Pits Museum or plain Amberley Museum.The museum...
, Amberley, West SussexAmberley, West SussexAmberley is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England.Amberley is situated at the foot of the South Downs. Its neighbours are Storrington, West Chiltington and Arundel. The village is noted for its many thatched cottages...
, England - Cambridge Museum of Technology, CambridgeCambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England - National Print Museum of IrelandNational Print Museum of IrelandThe collects, documents, preserves, exhibits, interprets and makes accessible the material evidence of printing craft and fosters associated skills of the craft in Ireland. Opened in 1996, the National Print Museum is a place for printers, historians, students and the general public to see and...
- Foyer of The Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
, SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... - The Eagle Press at Crich Tramway Village, Crich, Matlock, Derbyshire, England
- Ulster Folk and Transport MuseumUlster Folk and Transport MuseumThe Ulster Folk and Transport Museum is situated in Cultra, Northern Ireland, about east of the city of Belfast. It comprises two separate museums, the Folk Museum and the Transport Museum...
, Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...