Iron Hand Presses

By the end of the eighteenth century, the old two-pull wooden press with iron screws could scarcely answer the needs of printers, either in Europe or in the United States. The answer came in the form of iron presses, and in new systems of leverage. The first attempts to improve presses involved replacing or supplementing the screw with iron levers. This increased power so well that the platen could be doubled in size, for a one-pull press. But there was now too much power for the wooden frame to contain, so that, too, had to be built of iron. The earliest iron presses (such as the English Stanhope) had over-massive frames. Later frames were lighter.

The first American iron-framed hand press was the Columbian, which George Clymer introduced around 1813. Clymer failed to find much of a market in the United States, and after a few years took his press to England where it was great success. No American-built Columbians are known to survive. But others took up what Clymer had begun, and soon a dozen Americans were building their own iron presses.

The iron hand press was the common working press in American shops from the 1820s until the mid-century. Thereafter it began to give way to larger machines, but was used well into the twentieth century, even in large printing offices, as a quick proofing press.

Presses are listed alphabetically, by common name.