Platen Jobbers

The platen jobber was the first truly American contribution to printing technology. It was devised for a specific segment of the printing trade: neighborhood printers dealing in posters, local notices, tickets, newsletters, letterheads, and other short-run job work. These printers needed rather simple machines that were quick to set up. The presses should be cheap self-inkers, taking up little floor space. Speed of printing was not as important.

The American platen jobber derives from presses made by Stephen P. Ruggles of Boston in the 1840s, in which platen and bed were hinged below their lower edges to close on each other clamshell fashion. With variations and improvements, that basic form became known universally as the “platen jobber.” The presses of George P. Gordon, starting from the 1850s, set a standard for the genre, and as Gordon’s various patents expired, many entrepreneurs began to produce their own versions of his Franklin Jobbers.

With more than a hundred different models on the market, ranging from the cheap and shoddy to the finely engineered, the platen jobber reached its peak near the end of the nineteenth century. It held its place in printing offices until well after 1950, when offset lithography moved into the jobbing trade.

Platen jobbing presses are listed alphabetically, by common name.