A little wonder, every day

Stanhope and the iron-framed printing press

Збережений чавунний прес Стенгоупа, виготовлений близько 1830 року, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea; не початковий екземпляр близько 1800 / Surviving Stanhope iron press made around 1830, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea; not the original circa-1800 example. Credit: The wub; CC BY-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=129707570

Оригінальна історична гравюра преса Стенгоупа з Penny Magazine 1833; друкована ілюстрація, не фотографія / Original historical engraving of a Stanhope press in Penny Magazine, 1833; an illustration, not a photograph.

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Збережений чавунний прес Стенгоупа, виготовлений близько 1830 року, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea; не початковий екземпляр близько 1800 / Surviving Stanhope iron press made around 1830, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea; not the original circa-1800 example. Credit: The wub; CC BY-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=129707570

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Around 1800 in England, Charles Stanhope developed a printing press with a cast-iron frame and lever mechanism, known as the Stanhope press. It is often described as the first all-iron press, but that concerns the main structure, rather than the absence of every wooden part in every example. Metal components and movable type had been used in printing long before then. Claiming that iron first appeared in presses only in the nineteenth century is therefore too categorical.